The weaponising of COVID-19 : contamination prevention and the use of spit hoods in UK policing

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a radically changed world for everyone, but its effects on police officers has been particularly acute. Officers have been subject to increased cough and spit attacks as offenders have sought to weaponise the coronavirus, and forces have responded by encouraging officers to use enhanced methods of contamination prevention. The controversial argument of whether using ‘spit hoods’ is a necessary tool in policing has been resurrected, although evidence of their ineffectiveness in the fight against COVID-19 has been brought to light more recently. Drawing on interview data obtained from 18 police officers in 11 UK forces over the summer of 2020, this article draws on interview narratives discussing contamination prevention, policing the pandemic, and the use of spit hoods

Changing the Game: A Sociological Perspective on Police Reform

This chapter examines the sociological roots of the current problems in contemporary policing. Employing Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus, capital, and doxa the chapter begins by highlighting the cultural mechanisms that maintain and reproduce ineffective policing practices. In an example from Wilmington, Delaware in the United States, the authors show how the ‘game’ on the field of policing focusses primarily on law enforcement outputs. This game shapes the worldview and dispositions of officers (habitus). Police officers are recognised and rewarded (capital) for acting in ways that align with the game’s logic. This process creates the condition doxa, in which the socially constructed and changeable field of policing is mistaken for natural way it should be. This chapter also considers why perspectives on police reform diverge and what this means for the future of policing in an age of reform