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Is centralisation the right way to go? The case of internal security policy reforms in Switzerland in the light of community policing

Is centralisation the right way to go? The case of internal security policy reforms in... Looking from the angle of the allocation of tasks between cantons and municipalities in Switzerland, this article analyses how security reforms tend to concentrate police institutions at the cantonal level and eliminate local police in order to improve efficiency. As the shift to centralisation is being implemented through consensus-building, cities claim to be special cases and succeed in conserving their local police. The analysis focuses on two cantonal reforms through qualitative data. The results show that institutional changes have led to three main arrangements after reform: the centralisation of police (the municipalities buy the services of the cantonal police); regionalisation (several municipalities implement their policing activities together); and decentralisation (the city conserves its local police). In regard to which arrangement produces the best impact, an evaluation of the perception of actors (citizens and police) shows that the police’s work and the feeling of security are better in a decentralised setting.Points for practitionersPolitical issues are at the centre of reforms that aim for a new distribution of responsibilities between levels of public authorities in the Swiss security sector. They can strongly influence the new arrangements introduced by reform. Even if cantonal decision-makers have solid arguments to centralise a task, the power of municipalities is stronger. This leads to an asymmetric federalism, where cities can maintain their police and municipalities have to buy cantonal police services. As the decentralised option is better evaluated by citizens and the police, centralisation reforms are difficult to implement where there is a tradition of local police. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Review of Administrative Sciences: An International Journal of Comparative Public Administration SAGE

Is centralisation the right way to go? The case of internal security policy reforms in Switzerland in the light of community policing

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References (43)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2016
ISSN
0020-8523
eISSN
1461-7226
DOI
10.1177/0020852315581806
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Looking from the angle of the allocation of tasks between cantons and municipalities in Switzerland, this article analyses how security reforms tend to concentrate police institutions at the cantonal level and eliminate local police in order to improve efficiency. As the shift to centralisation is being implemented through consensus-building, cities claim to be special cases and succeed in conserving their local police. The analysis focuses on two cantonal reforms through qualitative data. The results show that institutional changes have led to three main arrangements after reform: the centralisation of police (the municipalities buy the services of the cantonal police); regionalisation (several municipalities implement their policing activities together); and decentralisation (the city conserves its local police). In regard to which arrangement produces the best impact, an evaluation of the perception of actors (citizens and police) shows that the police’s work and the feeling of security are better in a decentralised setting.Points for practitionersPolitical issues are at the centre of reforms that aim for a new distribution of responsibilities between levels of public authorities in the Swiss security sector. They can strongly influence the new arrangements introduced by reform. Even if cantonal decision-makers have solid arguments to centralise a task, the power of municipalities is stronger. This leads to an asymmetric federalism, where cities can maintain their police and municipalities have to buy cantonal police services. As the decentralised option is better evaluated by citizens and the police, centralisation reforms are difficult to implement where there is a tradition of local police.

Journal

International Review of Administrative Sciences: An International Journal of Comparative Public Administration – SAGE

Published: Jun 1, 2016

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