Does leaving your car in a disabled parking space without proper accreditation make you statistically more likely to be wanted by the police in relation to a more serious offence? According to University of Huddersfield criminology researchers Professor Kevin Pease and Dr Jason Roach, the answer is yes. A new book published by the pair on the subject of ‘self-selection policing’ offers theoretical and empirical substance to the idea that conducting routine background checks on individuals who commit minor infringements is often an effective way of helping law enforcement identify and locate individuals wanted in relation to more serious crimes.
‘Those who do big bad things also to little bad things’
In an early study into the potential of self-selection policing, Professor Pease carried out research into cars in the Huddersfield area that were illicitly parked in disabled bays, even when other spaces were available. Strikingly, Professor Pease found that as many as 25 per cent of those who committed this minor infringement were in fact people of interest to police in relation of other offences. Later pieces of research conducted by Professor Pease and his colleague Dr Roach have identified several other significant correlations between minor driving offences – for example, those who drive while disqualified – and more serious criminality.
Intuitive policing
For Dr Roach, it’s the fact that law enforcement officers themselves have embraced the implementation of self-selection policing tools that is strongest testament to the theory’s merits. ‘They have found it to be highly intuitive and those who have been on the job for a while say “Oh, we already do that, we just didn’t know what it was!”’. Self-Selection Policing: Theories, Research and Practice by Jason Roach and Ken Pease is now available through Palgrave Macmillan.
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