The institutional foundations and interactional dimensions of police volunteerism

Abstract Police volunteerism is a growing international practice. I comment on the accumulating research literature on the topic and consider the contributions made by articles appearing in the special issue of Policing. One important aspect that has been relatively less explored in the literature is the analysis of police volunteerism as a form of social action. That is, it occurs in the larger context of a society’s social institutions and is generated through group interactions. I explore the implications of this critical social scientific approach in two ways. First, I describe how major social institutions are foundational to and have a reciprocal relationship with police volunteerism. Second, I discuss how two situations of police discretionary deviance (corruption and use of excessive force) raise questions about the group interactional roles of volunteers. More research following the above lines is needed.