Defining core police tasks: The neglect of the symbolic dimension?∗

Abstract

Taking the recent British Home Office Review of Police Core and Ancillary Tasks as its point of departure, the article addresses the failure of official perspectives on policing to address adequately the wider symbolic significance of police institutions and practices. The different ways in which policing can influence wider cultural understandings within both security discourses and non‐security discourses are analysed. In the light of these insights, the recent emergence of a set of contested interpretations of the link between policing and general societal security is investigated and its long‐term implications considered, and the contribution of the Home Office Review to this trend is assessed.