Volunteer Street Patrols: responsibilised and motivated volunteering in community safety

Abstract Purpose- This paper aims to contribute towards our knowledge and understanding of volunteers who work within community safety and pluralised policing. Through the increased responsibilisation of communities and individuals, volunteers are taking to the streets to help others who are in need and support the community safety infrastructure. The example of volunteer street patrols is used to explore the actions of volunteers, the motivations of individuals that participate in a street patrol and what this means for the local delivery of community safety. Design/methodology/approach- This research is drawn from ethnographic research, consisting of 170 hours of participant observation on the streets of a northern UK city - Manchester, supported with 24 semi-structured interviews with volunteers who participate in a street patrol and those that work alongside them. Findings- Using a three paradigms perspective for volunteer motivations, the themes: altruism, civil connection and volunteering for leisure are applied to explore volunteer motivations. Through their actions, volunteers in the street patrol are motivated volunteers who can offer an additional and important resource within the local community safety and pluralised policing infrastructure. Originality - The findings highlight volunteer street patrols offer a caring and supportive function to people in need on the street. They are argued as responsibilised with an increased awareness of social problems, they are motivated individuals who wish to create and maintain safety and have a role to play within the policing of the night-time economy

Volunteer street patrols: an ethnographic study of three Manchester volunteer street patrols and their role in community safety and the policing family

The aim of this ethnographic research is to explore the actions, contribution, motivations and relationships of volunteer street patrols in the urban environment. The study followed three independent and diverse volunteer street patrol groups, located in the city of Manchester, UK, during their routine weekend evening patrols around the city. The research is set in a time when policing and the criminal justice system is under pressure following an extended period of austerity and cuts. As such, the voluntary sector has an ever-increasing role to play in supporting and substituting the state. The volunteers in this research are considered from the perspective of responsibilised citizenry, where the continual processes of empowerment and participation feature in their motivations to help others. The research uses participant observation over a twelve-month period to explore the actions of the volunteers whilst on patrol in the city. Semi-structured interviews complement the observations and provide rich information on what motivates volunteers to participate. Their relationships with each other and with the local police, ambulance service and other stakeholders in the city are considered. They provide an insight into the stories, opinions and experiences of the volunteers. The findings demonstrate how the presence of volunteers allows them to act as a guardian on the city’s streets, reducing opportunities for anti-social behaviour, harm and vulnerability. The actions of volunteers centre around reassurance, care, well-being and support. Their motivations show a collective efficacy and continual willingness to act to address the city’s problems, which the volunteers have an increased awareness of and a strong desire to address. While their independence remains key, accountability and legitimacy in their relationships with others form a local governance structure that must be maintained, managed and developed

Seeing behind the curtain: Reverse Mentoring within the Higher Education landscape

The following article presents the findings of a Reverse Mentoring evaluation project conducted at a modern university in northwest England, which has a high proportion of students from non-traditional educational backgrounds. Using a reverse mentoring framework, the traditional mentor–mentee relationship was flipped with students serving as senior partners and their tutors as junior partners. The purpose of this study was to investigate how staff–student relations could be strengthened by gaining a better understanding of one another’s perspectives. The concept of institutional habitus provided a theoretical framework within which to examine disparities in mentor–mentee cultural understanding. Using a mixed approach to data collection, composite narratives were constructed. They revealed subtle cultural mismatches between the positions of mentor and mentee. The study speculates that by gaining a better understanding and appreciation of students’ habitus, more inclusive teaching practises can be developed to ensure the inclusion of all students

CD8+ T cells specific for an immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid epitope display high naive precursor frequency and TCR promiscuity

To better understand primary and recall T cell responses during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), it is important to examine unmanipulated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific T cells. By using peptide-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tetramers for direct ex vivo analysis, we characterized CD8+ T cells specific for SARS-CoV-2 epitopes in COVID-19 patients and unexposed individuals. Unlike CD8+ T cells directed toward subdominant epitopes (B7/N257, A2/S269, and A24/S1,208) CD8+ T cells specific for the immunodominant B7/N105 epitope were detected at high frequencies in pre-pandemic samples and at increased frequencies during acute COVID-19 and convalescence. SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells in pre-pandemic samples from children, adults, and elderly individuals predominantly displayed a naive phenotype, indicating a lack of previous cross-reactive exposures. T cell receptor (TCR) analyses revealed diverse TCRαβ repertoires and promiscuous αβ-TCR pairing within B7/N105+CD8+ T cells. Our study demonstrates high naive precursor frequency and TCRαβ diversity within immunodominant B7/N105-specific CD8+ T cells and provides insight into SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell origins and subsequent responses

The high-resolution map of Oxia Planum, Mars; the landing site of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission

This 1:30,000 scale geological map describes Oxia Planum, Mars, the landing site for the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission. The map represents our current understanding of bedrock units and their relationships prior to Rosalind Franklin’s exploration of this location. The map details 15 bedrock units organised into 6 groups and 7 textural and surficial units. The bedrock units were identified using visible and near-infrared remote sensing datasets. The objectives of this map are (i) to identify where the most astrobiologically relevant rocks are likely to be found, (ii) to show where hypotheses about their geological context (within Oxia Planum and in the wider geological history of Mars) can be tested, (iii) to inform both the long-term (hundreds of metres to ∼1 km) and the short-term (tens of metres) activity planning for rover exploration, and (iv) to allow the samples analysed by the rover to be interpreted within their regional geological context

Exploring the Contribution and Relationship to Policing and Community Safety of Volunteer Street Patrols

The pluralized policing landscape now widely involves volunteers and the voluntary sector. Volunteer street patrols (VSPs) are individuals who walk the streets of cities and towns at night. Their actions include helping those in need through acts of care, compassion, and prevention. Numerous implications exist for the volunteers who participate in this form of voluntary action, including the level to which volunteers contribute and intervene, the functions they perform within contemporary policing, and the challenges of developing and maintaining relationships with the police and other emergency services. This article argues that VSPs offer a unique and welcomed source of support to the police, providing functions the police are unable to perform. The relationship provides validity, accountability, and opportunity for the volunteers. Over reliance, increased responsibilization and challenges for volunteers delivering policing services highlight tensions in the relationship, which in turn create opportunities to develop meaningful partnerships