Abstract - dealing with conflict situations: looking for good practices in police work

The study "dealing with conflict situations" studied the way in which police officers dealt with 3 different types of potentially conflictual situations: interactions with mentally disturbed individuals, interactions with groups of youths and interactions in entertainment districts. On the basis of expertmeetings and field observations and interviews (467 observation hours in 10 Dutch police forces involving 119 officers).

The research shows the existence of a number of practices that helped prevent escalation of potentially conflictuous situations and could in that sense be characterised as "good". However, these practices were not used consistently: on the whole, officers acted with little planning and with little communication between them about how to deal with the situation, even when they had little experience cooperating with their partner. Incidents are often dealt with in ad-hoc fashion, and limited use is made of available information. In the aftermath, officers communicate very little with one another about the approach adopted in specific situations or in conflictuous situations in general. Officers do have opinions about what constitutes "godd practice", but rarely communicate about this with one another. The research indicates that it is possible to formulate "good practices" for a number of frequently recurring "typical" conflictuous situations.

O.M.J. Adang, N. Kop, H. Ferwerda, J. Heijnemans, W. Olde Nordkamp, P. de Paauw & C. van Woerkom (2006) Omgaan met conflictsituaties. Op zoek naar goede werk-wijzen bij de politie. Politieacademie/ Bureau Beke. Program-ma Politie en Wetenschap, Politiewetenschap nr. 30. »