Reinventing Tradition?

Focusing upon the trajectory of emergence of reassurance policing, this article seeks to interrogate the symbolic and material dimensions of contemporary policing reform programmes. It considers how a need for something labelled ‘Reassurance Policing’ was identified and the various social forces that coalesced to bring it into being. Exploring the contested meanings of reassurance policing, the article details how it has come to be defined as a strategy composed of three constitutive components: high visibility patrols performed by officers who are known to the local public; the targeting of ‘signal crimes’ and ‘signal disorders’; and informal social control performed by communities. The article concludes by postulating what the emergence of the reassurance policing perspective indicates about the future of policing reform.