Editorial

It is a pleasure to welcome our readers to the first issue of the Nordic Journal of Studies on Policing in 2017. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our prospective authors for their great interest in publishing their work with us. The many interesting – and diverse – manuscripts we have received in the last years are proof of the multifaceted nature of -Nordic police research. We, the editors, believe that a broad empirical, theoretical and analytical approach to the subject of policing is a sign of quality. This belief is clearly reflected in the current issue, which contains articles on a plethora of subjects: the reliability of risk assessment tools, trust in the police, police education, and officers’ views on the use of pepper spray.

Klara Svalin has investigated interrater reliability among assessors using two risk assessment instruments utilized by the Swedish police. She finds high reliability regarding some issues, while the assessment of victim vulnerability in one of the instruments suffers from a low degree of interrater reliability.

Based on Norwegian survey data, the article by Gunnar Thomassen demonstrates the correlation between police-initiated and citizen-initiated police-citizen contact and trust in the police. Of special interest is the correlation between police-initiated contacts and citizens’ experience of procedural justice and the correlation between citizen-initiated contacts and beliefs about police efficiency.

Two articles take on issues of police education:

Myllylä, Hakala og Myllelä find that teachers in the Finnish police academy see RDI activities as both important and integral to their teaching practice. The authors find some differences in the assessment between teachers with a civilian background and those previously trained as police officers, but RDI is nevertheless seen as important to the education of new police officers.

Brian Bergman has studied Field Training Officers who supervise police recruits in their last part of field training. He points to some confusion among FTOs about their role, and the informants point to the difficulties they experience when trying to reconcile their role as guide and mentor with their role as assessors of competence. It seems that the role of FTO encourages the officers to not only reassess their role vis-à-vis their trainees, but also their role as officers in general.

In the last article, Pedersen, Nielsen, Kammersgaard, Østergaard Hald and Kim Møller apply a qualitative perspective to the question of police use of pepper spray: how do the police themselves see the spray? In what situations is it a useful tool, and when should it not be deployed? And how do officers justify the use of a tool that is very painful for those subjected to it? The paper offers a new insight into the intricacies of police use of force.

I hope our readers will appreciate the different papers in this issue. The next issue, due in the Fall of 2017, will be dedicated to the subject of police reforms, and we are looking forward to present you another handful of interesting articles.