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The placing of religion in policing and policing studies

This article draws attention to the growing significance of religion in the policy and practice of British policing – a development that has largely escaped academic notice. The authors suggest these developments are significant and worthy of careful scholarly attention, drawing on the disciplines and expertise of both criminology and theology and religious studies, to the mutual enrichment of both. Through such cross-disciplinary engagement a richer picture is possible in which the significance of religion in a number of areas of policing policy and practice may be both recognised and seen to be interrelated. One immediate consequence is suggested: a different context of interpretation for police engagement with faith communities for the purposes of counterterrorism – the one area of policing where religion emerges as a theme in scholarly study. At the same time, it is suggested that engaging with policing might provide fertile grounding for vibrant discussions of the nature of the secular and of the place of religion in public life that enjoy significant currency in theology and religious studies and the social sciences, especially in Britain, the USA and Scandinavia. The authors draw on their own research on police engagement with faith communities in two metropolitan police service boroughs.