Policing as a public good: Reconstituting the connections between policingand the state

The gradual de-coupling of police and state is an increasingly well-documen ted phenomenon. Against this backdrop, we set out in this article to reform ulate and defend a positive (rather than pejorative) connection between pol icing and the state. We begin by reconstructing four candidate means by whi ch the state-policing nexus might plausibly be established-the monopoly of legitimate coercion, the delivery of civic governance, the guarantee of col lective provision and the symbolism of state and nation; and in so doing as sess both their sociological viability under conditions of fragmentation an d pluralization, and their normative adequacy to the task of producing demo cratic, equitable and effective policing. We then outline our preferred mod e of reconfiguring the linkage between policing and the state; one that rec ognizes the irreducibly social nature of what policing offers to guarantee- namely, security, and seeks on that basis to recombine elements of the abov e four 'positions' into a 'thick', communal conception of policing as a pub lic good.