Social Work meets Police

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Relationship Between Social Work and
Police as a Topic in Social Work Education

Sabine Etl
FH St. Pölten

03/13/13 International Week 2010 Seite 1

A trip down memory lane …
 First cooperation between police officers and social workers at the
beginning of the 20th century in the USA
 Target group: children, youths and women
 Female social welfare workers supported the police and were ancestors of female
criminal police
When Alice Stebbins Wells was hired by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1910, she became a media
sensation. Newspapers of the era clamored to interview and photograph the social worker.
Wells quickly became known as "Policewoman Number One" because of the interviews and also from the
badge she was issued. Initially, Wells was given a patrolman's badge. A police officer had free trolley car
privileges in 1910, but when Wells tried boarding, the conductor accused her of misusing her husband's
identity. The LAPD remedied the situation by issuing Wells "Policewoman's Badge Number One."

Wells toured the nation starting in 1915, promoting the hiring of women police officers. She also founded
the International Association of Policewomen. In 1934, she was appointed the historian of the Los Angeles
Police Department. By the time she had retired in 1940, Wells had been a policewoman for 30 years.

Wells died in August, 1957. Ten policewomen in full dress uniform served as Honor Guard. She is buried
in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Source: http://www.sameshield.com/history/sshistory16.html
Alice Stebbins Wells
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International Week 2010 2

Common Aspects (1/2)
 On higher socio-political level
 Both are organsisations for enforcement of social and political norms, e.g.
democracy or protection of minority rights
 Both are instances for „social control“
 Both are dealing with „social problems“
 On lower socio-political level
 Both are highly influenced by the political situation
 Both are therefor susceptible for fulfilling political issues
 Working Conditions
 Both are influenced by competing interests of social, individual and political manner
often combined with low inadequate payment
 Difficult working conditions with regard to shift work, e.g. rotating shift schedule and
night work
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Common Aspects (2/2)
 Overlap of fields of work and target groups
 Similar target groups: people from vulnerable social groups and in
marginal social contexts, people with psycho-social problems, e.g.
delinquents, addicts, homeless, victims of violence
 Often working besides each other or after one another
 Increasing overlap due to enforcement of preventive concepts especially
in the field of youth work

 Confrontation with violence and impacts of violence

 Danger of burnout

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Separating Aspects (1/2)
 Dealing with problems from different points of view
 Different work orders
 Social work: social interventions, advocating, Empowerment, reducing discrimination
and disadvantage
 Police: maintainance of order, security; danger prevention; law enforcement
 Different methods
 Social work : holistic view; discretion; freedom to choose; partiality
 Police : principle of the mandatory prosecution of offenses; detecting problems,
without being able to work on

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Separating Aspects (2/2)
 Methods
 Social Work: longlasting; work on relationship
 Police: problems have to be solved quickly, very broad range of situations

 Cultural aspects
 communication (reflexion)
 Mental hygiene

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Fields of overlap (1/2)
 Police
 High amount of police activities regards problems of disorder and not crime
 therefore police work often gets engaged in crisis intervention and social counselling
 because there is a lack of social institutions
 Lack of 24/7 availability of social institutions
 Enforcement of preventive measures
 Change of image from repressive to helping
 Social Work
 Enforcement of preventive measures (mobile youth work, street work, diversion)
 Common understanding: prevention is not a one man show

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Fields of overlap (2/2)
 Example - Contact in the area of youth work
 On the side of Social Work: street work, mobile youth work with juveniles in public
space, work with homeless, work with delinquents, work with drug addicts, work with
politically motivated youth scenes, work with male and female youth prostitutes, work
with run-aways, work with football fans…
 On the side of Police Work: law enforcement and danger prevention (e.g. finding
suspects, identity verification, questioning of witnesses, arresting), youth crime
prevention programmes at schools (prevention police officer / youth cop)
 But: Police has to act according to the principle of mandatory prosecution of
offenses, which may not fit with prevention work principles?

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Conflicts and Tensions (1/2)
 Social Work complaints
 Disrespectful attitude towards them – put on the same level as their clients
 Rude conversation with clients
 Feeling powerless towards police behaviour
 Exclusion of clients from a place – influences social work dramatically
 Police complaints
 Lack of willingness for cooperation
 Complicity with clients
 General communication problems
 Speaking a different language
 Limited hours of business in social institutions (no 24/7 availability)
 Nobody there if needed

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Conflicts and Tensions (2/2)
 Avoidance of contact
 Sometimes due to ambivalences regarding the own professional role
 Prejudices
 Social workers are just the same as their clients
 Social workers have no clue and don‘t care about the law
 Police officers are racists
 Police officers think they all are super-sheriffs
 Minor knowledge about other profession
 Professional concepts
 Professional way of thinking and working

Resulting in false impressions
on the other profession
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What is needed
 To initiate meetings between social work and police students
 To develop competence for dialogue
 Know-how transfer in a professional environment
 Objectives
 Defining the tasks of social work and police work
 Knowing about the specific options of both professions
 No further blurring of borders
 Developing cooperations on the basis of transparent responsibilities
 Defining police work and social work as opponents is no constructive
approach and should not be prolonged
 In both professions there are aspects of discipline and „social working“

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Reasons for implementing the topic in social work education

 To build a basement for successful cooperation in the field of practise
 Awareness raising und knowhow transfer
 Developing a more differentiated view about each other
 Motivation for starting an interprofessional dialogue

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How it was done
 Lectures since 2000 in St. Pölten and Vienna

 Getting to know the police from the inside
 Joining police officers in their all-day work
 Knowhow transfer from experts (police lawyers, officers from different
departements)
 Workshops with police students
 Research lectures in the field of police and social work
 Planing and realising a jointly developed training on handling dangerous
situations at work
 Joint seminars for police officers and social workers
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The Beginning: Students accompany Police Officers

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The Beginning: Even a cartoon is drawn

Famous Police Cartoonist
Michael Hendrich exclusively
draws for the lecture

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Research Projects are launched

 Research Workshop „The good, the
bad and the ugly“ at FH Studiengang
Sozialarbeit, Vienna
 Research Workshop „Go West –
Fußballfankulturen in Wien“ at FH
Studiengang Sozialarbeit, Vienna
 Research Workshop „Schnittstellen
zwischen Sozialarbeit und Polizei“ at
FH St. Pölten

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Workshop at FH Campus Wien (2006/2007)

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Workshop at Ybbs an der Donau (2007)

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Social work and police students meet in Ybbs

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Introductory session

Police Lecturer
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Subgroup „Motivation for choosing the profession“

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Subgroup „Gender Aspects“

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Subgroup „Mental Stress Situations“

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Subgroup „Differences in Curricula“

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Subgroup „Prejudice“

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Lunch and other breaks

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Wrap-Up and get-together at a local pub

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Workshop at Marokkaner-Kaserne in Vienna (2006)

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More than just a job

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Asylum Seekers, Migrants and Xenophobia

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Female Police Officers

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Where Police and Social Work meets

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Work with drug addicts

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Violence in the family

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Supervision at the police

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Wrap-Up … but no pub, this time

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Lecture „Handling Dangerous Situations at Work“
 Joint concept from police officers (WEGA) and social work (S. Etl)
 Objectives
 To develop awareness for dangerous situations
 To develop strategies for deescalation
 To become competent in getting professional help

foto

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Relationship Between Social Work and
Police as a Topic in Social Work Education

Sabine Etl
FH St. Pölten
lbetl@fhstp.ac.at

03/13/13 International Week 2010 Seite 39

Social Work meets Police

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