Aden, H., Bosch, A., Fährmann, J. and Thurn, R. (2022), “Police stops in Germany – between legal rules and informal practices”, Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 116-131. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-03-2021-0016

Published on 06/07/2022
Author:

Purpose

This paper analyzes micro-political strategies that police officers use during police stops, mostly based on their professional or personal life experience. Police stops take place in an asymmetric power relationship. Actions of police officers during a stop are backed by strong legal powers, and citizens typically do not negotiate how the stop should be carried out.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with German patrol officers.

Findings

The authors demonstrate that micro-political strategies relying on the officers’ personal experience, rather than on strategies developed by the police agency based on empirical evidence, are highly problematic. Depending upon the acting officer, micro-political strategies can vary considerably according to the individual officer’s experience and attitudes. This leads to a risk of discrimination in police stops and of potential infringements on the citizens’ fundamental rights.

Research limitations/implications

See the paper’s methodology section on the limitations of the empirical approach.

Practical implications

The paper suggests improvements for the practice of police stops.

Originality/value

The article provides new empirical insights in the practice of police stops in Germany and situates the findings in a broader international debate on police stops and shortcomings of the legal rules that govern the police stops.

Saudelli, I., De Kimpe, S. and Christiaens, J. (2022), "Police stops, suspicion and the influence of police department cultures: a look into the Belgian context", Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 98-115. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-02-2021-0008

Read previous

Hendy, R. (2022), "Suspicious minds and suspicioning: constructing suspicion during policework", Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 132-146. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-12-2020-0056

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