11 The term *Landkreis* is often translated instead as 'district,' including in most official translations, but the term 'county' is preferred here as it more accurately portrays the broader political and cultural relevance of the designation; *Landkreise* are the intermediate form of administrative responsibility between states (*Bundersländer*) and municipalities (*Orte*) in the Federal Republic of Germany. A significant amount of government services and administration take place at this level, and, while police are organized into agencies at the level of the *Bundesland* (e.g. *Polizei Brandenburg*) the decentralization and division of policing tends to utilize the existing jurisdiction boundaries of the Landkreis. As in the US, in more urbanized areas municipalities themselves tend to be more relevant in governance, and larger cities—four in Brandenburg—are often given a status equivalent to Landkreis, meaning that Landkreise tend to be both more often rural in nature, as the largest urban areas are excluded, and more relevant to the governance of rural or sparsely populated areas, where local municipalities are less able to provide full services. Some examples of this could be found in Falkenmark as efforts were made to expand the number of locations where residents could apply for certain types of documents (notably firearm permits), with administrators pointing out that, with the only one office in the county capital, residents could potentially have to travel up to an hour to reach the office and may require multiple visits and longer waits: administrative reform efforts and restructuring have apparently gone 'back and forth' between idealizing stronger centralization within the county and more decentralization to aid in providing easier access to citizens in more rural areas.

12 Though the Revierpolizei are often referred to here as being a special or dedicated unit, in official police jargon they are simply a task within the Schutzpolizei while special units (*Spezialeinheiten*) refer exclusively to units operating at a level above the county including SWAT teams (SEK), mobile response teams (MEK) and various technical specialists. In everyday use, however, the Revierpolizei were set apart from 'normal' patrol units as well as from administrative units, and tended to be spoken of in similar terms whether in an office where they constituted the majority or in the *Inspektion* where they were vastly outnumbered by patrol officers and various additional units.

officers in total, making it one of the smaller county-level units. The local community officers of the Revierpolizei operate out of both the Inspektion as well as out of the *Polizeirevier,* smaller district officers with several functions, and community offices (officially referred to as '*Sprechzimmer*', i.e. meeting room[s], but colloquially simply called, for example, 'my office.') Typical for Brandenburg appears to be about 10 to 20 Revierpolizei offices per county (including the Inspektion itself, Polizeireviers, and community offices), with the 14 counties (as well as the 4 independent cities) ranging in population from around 80,000 to around 200,000. Approximately 550 officers work in the Revierpolizei throughout Brandenburg. While there is some variation—especially between urban and rural areas—a Revierpolizei officer will often be responsible for around 4,500 residents, generally covering a larger area including many villages or small towns: the rural officers who were accompanied tended to be responsible for much larger than average areas with populations close to 6,000.13 The largest jurisdiction covered by a single officer had a population just slightly over 6,000, and had reportedly earlier been home to two Revierpolizei officers. Even during fieldwork, this was one of the areas where officers were most likely to ask for support or assistance from 'neighboring' officers.

Revierpolizei officers had ranks and status that put them within the middle of three civil service levels (*gehobener Dienst*, in between *mittlerer Dienst* and *höherer Dienst*14) The form of training and how it corresponds to modern ranks, however, was less important as the majority of officers had begun their career in the East German Volkspolizei—to the extent that training was brought up at all

13 In contrast, Ohder and Schöne (2018) report approximately 200 community-contact officers in the state of Thuringia, with a population only about 10% lower than Brandenburg. Other German states tend to allocate one officer per 7,500 to 15,000 population (with urban areas fitting on the higher end), and the relatively high proportion of community-oriented officers in Brandenburg could be representative of either a higher emphasis on utilizing these officers practically or simply a function of having fewer high-density areas where one officer is responsible for upwards of 10,000 inhabitants.

14 The lowest level in the hierarchy, *mittlerer Dienst*, includes a training program considered to be vocational training (*Ausbildung*), while *gehobener Dienst* is considered equivalent to university study, and *höherer Dienst* is essentially a graduate level study for officers who have already risen through the ranks. The term *mittlerer Dienst* is indicative that it is above a theoretical lowest level, *einfacher Dienst,* but this civil service level is not used by police anywhere in Germany, applying primarily to certain customs officers, court security personnel, bailiffs and prison guards, as well as to other non-justice agencies. Several German states have already abolished the *mittlerer Dienst*, meaning that all police officers are given the equivalent of three years' university education, though specialized for police work, and begin active service with the rank of *Polizeikommisar*.

in these cases, officers tended to emphasize the military aspects.15 Several officers had begun with the police post-unification, typically in 1993 or 1994, some of whom had already been comparatively old (over 30 or 35) and stated that the police had been "desperate" for new recruits at the time. The general older age of most Revierpolizei officers was reflective of the overall organization, with a reported average age of officers over 45: some patrol officers were essentially 'fresh from the academy,' but Revierpolizei officers, as with detectives and administrators, were typically drawn from the ranks of already working officers, and some had prior experience in various other units or duties. Even in cases where new officers were taking over for retiring officers, the new officer tended to be an experienced veteran: while no set rules for applicability were ever expressed, the ideal of work seemed to suggest that officers needed to gain a significant familiarity both with police work and with the local region before even being considered for the Revierpolizei, and, conversely, younger officers—most likely working in patrol or crowd-control units—who lacked existing knowledge of the region were not expected to be interested in comparatively "boring" Revierpolizei work.

The ranks held by Revierpolizei officers spanned the entire range of the *gehobener Dienst*, from *Polizeikommisar* (PK) to *Erste Polizeihauptkommisar,* (EPHK) more likely indicating a station leader; there did not appear to be a certain and indivisible connection between rank and function in all cases, with rank appearing to serve more as a sign of seniority and 'cooperation with the bureaucracy'16 more than being associated with a specific function in the way that is typically seen in the US. (King 2003) The position of rank among the Revierpolizei was likely different than might otherwise be the case, as officers tended to value the independent and self-determinative aspects of their work over the institutional trappings, and rarely worked within organized squads, whereas patrol units were led by a *Dienstgruppenleiter* (DGL) and individual officers might see themselves more in competition for promotion or desired assignments.

15 Information about training and research primarily came from (mostly unplanned) contact with current and former heads of police academies both in planning the research project and over the course of the research, but had little overlap with direct in-the-field experiences apart from helpful suggestions for background or contextualizing literature. These contacts did further illuminate the comparative openness of German policing agencies towards research (especially, though not exclusively, internally commissioned research) compared to my prior experiences in the US and that which can be inferred from the literature. (cf. Sparrow 2016) 16 One experienced officer, outside of the Revierpolizei, often expressed pride at the fact that after over 20 years of service he was 'still' a PK, Polizeikommissar, having apparently been demoted more than once for unstated reasons but viewing his position as a symbol of independence or indifference towards an abstract bureaucracy.

German police officers, unlike their English-speaking counterparts, are generally addressed with *Herr* or *Frau* (i.e. Mr. or Mrs. / Ms.) rather than "Officer," "Sergeant", "Constable," etc., this is the case even with higher-level administrators; for example, the chief, with the rank of *Polizeioberrat*, was never referred to by rank, and at most was described informally or in the local media as "der Polizeichef" (lit: the police boss.) In terms of participant-observation, rank played almost no role, and was mostly practical as a way to quickly identify new individuals based only on prior knowledge or stores—but far less useful or practical than printed names.17

The Revierpolizei was essentially a continuation (or modernization) of the earlier Abschnittsbevollmächtiger (ABV), though that title and function was abolished after reunification and the Revierpolizei was only established in 1993. The mandate and tasks of the Revierpolizei are relatively broad, essentially invoking competing senses of the term *community policing*: policing in a way that engages, involves, and responds to the community, and simply routine performing work in a jurisdiction that corresponds to a local community. The tasks enumerated during the establishment of the role include:

17 The three levels of police service are designated by differing numbers of blue, silver, and gold stars—my prior experience with German police had only been in a state where the lowest level was not used, and for some time I had difficulties distinguishing between blue and silver despite the significant difference in authority or responsibility and typically in age as well. The fact that this made no noticeably significant difference, and that at no point did officers bring up the ranking system as a major topic, suggested that the meanings of rank are either (or both) taken for granted at such a basic level that even the idea of explaining it to outsiders never arises, or that the significance of additional and more immediate factors such as position or duty—are more relevant. It should be noted that rank was not recorded systematically in field notes and was primarily documented through official sources or email signatures—the info110 (2010) article on the Revierpolizei makes it clear that some officers bear ranks from the *mittlerer Dienst* such as *Polizeihauptmeister*.

8. Conducting consultation hours for citizens ("Vorschrift für den Wachdienst des Landes Brandenburg [PDV 350 BB]" cited in Info110 [2010], own translation)

This list of tasks essentially makes Revierpolizei officers into something like a classic image of a beat cop or small town office in the UK or US, with functions ranging from community engagement to pure traffic enforcement: it should be noted, that traffic enforcement was rarely observed, which was attributed to the fact that traffic enforcement is typically handled by a separately administered unit, though in a few cases the accompanied officer coordinated with the officers from the *Verkehrspolizei* (traffic police) or else just stopped to discuss something in particular or make small talk. Officers otherwise engage in patrol work (though it was less often discussed using the same term for 'normal' policing, *Streifen fahren*), investigate violations and crimes, and engage in public relations work and maintaining contact with community organizations.

Revierpolizei officer are divided into *Stadt-RePos* and *Land-RePos*, that is, city officers and country (in the sense of 'countryside') officers. City officers are responsible for specific districts within a city, though in practice they often partner up to work events or for certain incidents or issues, and have an easier time taking over or sharing responsibilities. City officers also spend more time on foot patrol, since they generally have beats where it is possible to cover most of the area in a reasonable amount of time. Country officers in contrast have sole jurisdiction over a larger administrative area and so more often (though not necessarily always) work alone. Their specific beat may take a variety of administrative forms18 but

18 The primary relevant distinctions are independent, county-level, cities (which were not included in this study), cities, townships (dt: *Amt / Ämter*, an administrative unit only used in three German states) which contain multiple, generally village-sized, towns, and towns (Gemeinde, lit. parish), which generally contained many smaller villages which are considered to be a part of the town (*Ortsteil*.) The major distinction is between city and town or township, but even minor differences that appear cosmetic may affect police cooperation with local government. Townships, for example, have a director, while their constituent communities have their own mayors and local government and often include smaller villages as Ortsteile. Towns separate from townships (Amtsfreie Gemeinden) have a mayor and possibly various *Ortsvorsteher*, essentially representatives or local leaders for a village—often, at least in the areas visited, an unpaid voluntary ("ehrenamtlich") position. While not inconsistent with the use of the term in the US or UK, for example, this means that a Revierpolizei officer can work in one jurisdiction with approximately 5,000 residents and a single mayor, or in a similar sized and populated area represented by a director but with 6 different mayors for municipalities ranging from 100 to 2,000 residents. In practice, the local knowledge required for community policing remains just as accessible (or elusive) and the use of terminology in local government remains most problematic for outside field researchers.

will usually include over a dozen municipalities, often including a large number of villages with very low populations—in some cases officers were responsible for villages they referred to as 'ghost towns,' where only three or four houses were still standing and which were only used as summer homes or vacation rentals.

Contact information for officers was available online through the Polizei Brandenburg, including the full name and a picture of the officer(s), telephone and email, address of the office, and the dates and times for open consultation hours.19 Officers considered it more useful, however, to have their information publicly and physically posted within their respective communities—apparently on their own initiative. Municipalities themselves often included specific contact information about their respective Revierpolizei officer directly on their websites—though about 1/3 of municipalities did not, and several others essentially required a dedicated search for the term "Revierpolizei" to locate the site, rather than providing a direct link from the front page. Some of these sites included the officer's mobile phone number along their office number, and some additionally provided contextualization essentially making the point that it is acceptable to contact the officer directly, describing them, for example, as "your contact partner for any disturbances of the peace, property crime, questions of safety, and many more things." The physical postings—put up in various locations determined by the officer, at a minimum in local government offices but often including schools as well—similarly varied in detail and style, with some essentially a print-out of the police webpage and others more 'personalized.'

Officers themselves estimate that they spend about 70 to 80% of their time in "Außendienst," that is, outside of the office. Time in the office is divided between

19 A casual look into community-oriented officers in other German states shows, at least superficially, the difference in intent and emphasis: while the websites for Brandenburg seemingly emphasize the approachability of officers, most states simply provide a list of last names for officers responsible and a phone number for the station itself, rather than the officer personally, without a picture of email address. The state of Hessen provides an interesting example when one searches for "Schutzmann vor Ort" and a given municipality or city district: apart from last name and gender, no information is provided about the officer, but a significant amount of information in text and figures is provided for the jurisdiction, such as the population (more often in the tens of thousands for each officer rather than the 5,000 typical for Revierpolizei beats) and a detailed description of the demographic and cultural makeup of the area, sometimes including the number of bars, nightclubs, game halls and schools and a list of highways passing through the area. Hessen and most 'old' states only provide individual websites for the Polizeirevier (in this case with a position and function closer to the Polizeiinspektion in Brandenburg, i.e. a nominally independently-operating station responsible for the majority of police serviced within its jurisdiction) which includes a list, but little additional information, about local community *Polizeiposten*.

completing standard paperwork—reports of various types related to ongoing or resolved incident and 'activity reports' created as official proof of police work having been performed—meeting with residents or 'concerned citizens' and various internal meetings and obligatory activities—during fieldwork these included sessions such as firearms qualification (an all-day event taking place in another jurisdiction) and firearms checks (in which a team from outside the jurisdiction was sent and officers could only begin 'real work' once their service weapon was either certified or replaced.) Outside of the office, officers visited a wide range of locations and settings—essentially every category of 'social space' imaginable for the community was represented in some way, though not all were represented in the same way.

The offices of the local Ordnungsamt were a key location for the city officers in particular as a place to catch up on local happenings, exchange information, drink coffee, gossip, coordinate schedules, and make decisions into official reality. Country officers often found a similar form of 'allied territory' in more informal locations, such as cafes and restaurants where they could come into contact with both 'regulars' (who were considered alternatingly and sometimes simultaneously "good sources of information" and "talkers who can be safely ignored,") as well as local officials and mavens with access to key social networks, such as through volunteer fire departments or local sports teams. Other commonly visited sites included courts, the professional fire department, important cultural locations or areas that might draw in tourists (these included several renovated castles or mansions operating as hotels, museums, or restaurants as well as a marina, campgrounds, and a larger culture center with various offerings and a large stage for outdoor concerts), and the offices of local government (whether mayor, director, or another office entirely.) These sites were generally 'managed' in the sense that on-site personnel were responsible and could generally be found there, and it was with these key personnel that police officers generally remained in contact, though these visits—to the courts in particular—were often opportunities to randomly or semi-randomly run into other acquaintances and known individuals. Schools were visited often, though generally in the form of conducting specific programs, workshops, or presentations rather than in the more spontaneous manner of most other locations; some officers were more likely than others to visit the school offices simply to ask if anything is going on or to follow up on minor issues. Private companies and work locations—often including construction sites—were also often included in 'rounds,' many seemed to be longer-term follow-ups to previous, possibly recurring, incidents, but others seemed to be more along the lines of a check-in—in this capacity it is worth considering that officers are expected to make themselves publicly visible and present, but (with many exceptions) worked day-time shifts at a time when a significant portion of the local populace would be at work, and so efforts were made to visit residents at work, particularly when the location might be considered a potential site for minor crime or mischief such as vandalism.

Other commonly visited locations were more public in nature, lacking in other obvious forms of management or 'guardianship.' These included infrastructural points such as train stations, public parks or similar areas including riverside paths, soccer fields, shopping centers or shopping streets, the areas around schools, abandoned or condemned buildings where teenagers might be known to hang out, and, depending on the time of year, entrances to trails through the woods where hunters park and congregate. In these locations the police tended to patrol on foot or simply observe the location in passing, occasionally greeting or talking with others present but, unlike in more managed locations, rarely seeking out specific individuals.

#### **3.5.2 Town and Country: Rural Regions of Brandenburg**

The study site of Falkenmark is simultaneously an administrative county (*Landkreis*) as well as a corresponding police jurisdiction (*Polizeiinspektion.*) At about 2000 square kilometers, the county is approximately ¾ the size of Rhode Island (the smallest US state by area), three times the area of New York City, and oneand-a-half times the size of London. With a population around 100,000, however, and a resulting population density between 35 and 40 individuals per square kilometer, the county demonstrates significant variation from the nationwide average of 240 individuals per square kilometer, closer to the US state of Missouri and well below the density of any county in England and most of non-Highland Scotland. In contemporary Germany, this distinction is highly significant, though it should be noted that Brandenburg overall is sparsely populated (85 inhabitants / km2) suggesting that the state-wide organization of police is likely to take this population distribution into consideration, rather than see it as an outlier. The distribution of the population is seen as a particular challenge for policing generally and for community-oriented initiatives in particular, as police need to potentially travel long distances, quickly for emergency response, but the infrastructure and population density is not conducive to a high level of decentralization, and local communities are often small enough that organization is primarily informal with little significant opportunity for effect formal partnerships with police organizations. (cf. Feltes 2014)

Crime was certainly not non-existent, though serious violent crime in particular was rare. In 2013 and 2014 less than ten "crimes against life," which include murder but also various crimes of recklessness or negligence, were reported, with a clearance rate of 100%. Reported crimes in Falkenmark were relatively average for Brandenburg overall considering the smaller population. Direct comparisons of crime rates are, however, not useful, as much of the recorded crimes were minor incidents which, in the US, would be considered misdemeanors.20 Recorded crimes were predominantly minor theft, with categories that could include shoplifting or minor theft: officers often presented a 'typical theft' as 'gasoline theft' or taking something from a yard, shed, garage, etc. The most typical types of thefts reported to officers and investigated during fieldwork were predominantly from businesses or construction sites, but the types of crimes reported to Revierpolizei officers are not necessarily representative of crime or conflict overall. A wide swath of crime types were either recorded or investigated by officers during fieldwork, with a much smaller number occurring during observations, with situations ranging from minor thefts, vandalism and destruction of property, assault or attempts at bodily harm (including against police officers), death threats, internet or electronic crime, and (attempted) suicide—while not technically a crime in Germany, the latter is usually treated as a police matter and one incident in which an individual was simply *believed* to have indicated suicidal intent resulted in essentially an entire shift dedicated to talking with acquaintances and searching along rivers and through woods. Consistent with media portrayals, crime was popularly (specifically outside of the police) attributed to be primarily related to foreigners—typically from Poland but officers more often suggested it was typically local in nature, with foreigners responsible for less than 10% of total crime. Crime statistics for Brandenburg overall suggest that over half of reported offenders live in the same municipality as their reported crime, though some officers suggested that some offenders do specifically travel to different jurisdictions—a different county or state—assuming the police won't bother to follow up, but it was usually followed up with

20 For example, in 2013 there were 197,228 crimes (*Straftaten*) recorded in Brandenburg, of which 97 were "crimes against life," and 23 of those were murder. (Land Brandenburg 2014) The US state of New Jersey, which, with a population of 9 million, is over 3.5 times the size of Brandenburg, recorded 192,971 crimes in 2013; of these, 404 were murders. (FBI 2014) While approximately 25,000 of the crimes in New Jersey were violent, only about 4,000 in Brandenburg were. Even allowing for a higher rate of violent vs. property crimes in New Jersey compared to Brandenburg, it is clear that a high proportion of reported crime in the area would be considered misdemeanors, reduced or pled out, or simply not prosecuted in the US context.

an explanation that this was less common than assumed, and that the generally effective cooperation between agencies made this "not worth the effort."

Falkenmark contains only three municipalities designated as cities, one slightly larger than the other two though all still relatively small by city standards: all three have experienced significant decline in population, trends which have only slightly reversed in recent years. These cities also serve as the physical site of the Polizeiinspektion and the two Polizeireviere, the 'base of operations' for police in generally and for the local Revierpolizei officers respectively. The remainder of the country was divided into approximately ten other municipalities (several of which were *Ämter* or townships which could be further subdivided into a few dozen small towns.) Municipalities often had one 'population center' (usually with a population under 3,000) and several others included places with populations in the hundreds: however, these municipalities were all geographically large and even these subdivisions masked the presence of dozens of separate villages typically with populations ranging from 50 to 300. Some villages reportedly had 'year-round' populations of less than 10. Of the approximately 100,000 inhabitants, slightly over half live in the three cities. The area is a mixture of farmland and wooded areas, with both agriculture, as an economic factor, and hunting often cited by police and government officials as playing a major role within Falkenmark: this fact, and the general distance between 'population centers,' primarily gave the country its image and rural despite the majority of inhabitants living and possibly working in more urban areas. Tourism, though not seen as a major factor, was occasionally suggested as a topic that might become increasingly relevant, specifically in the context of vacation homes to rent and generally lower costs for both construction and property ownership compared to much of Germany. There was some anecdotal evidence pointed out by officers that some residents, particularly in smaller villages, were simply 'summering' or staying a shorter time; this was often attributed to the inheritance of houses by younger generations who had little interest in permanently relocating and expected or had difficulty in selling the house.

Significant both for the community and specifically for the organization, planning, and practice of police is the concept of 'demographic change,' specifically in terms of population decline. In the three decades since German (re)unification, the county has lost close to one quarter of its population, which has been attributed both by researchers and in local knowledge to low birth rates and a general exodus primarily attributed to a lack of significant local education and employment opportunities. (Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg 2019) While it is easy to overstate this—the local unemployment rate at the time of the study, at around 8%, was almost three time the national average—many of the most prominent effects were changes or transitions rather than outright decline. Most notably was an increasing urbanization of the population, with residents leaving villages and sparsely populated areas and few moving in, though official estimates generally predict similar urban decreases in coming years. Local officials and police often attributed this transition to primarily older people moving into cities or towns to have better access to resources, medical care, general infrastructure, and to be less dependent on cars. One Revierpolizei officer simply stated that "young people are leaving, leaving dilapidated villages." Often this was considered to be, apparently from an increase in unemployment, a significant negative effect of reunification (cf. Glaeser 2000) as in the German Democratic Republic (DDR, *Deutsche Demokratische Republik*) it was stated that even most smaller villages had small shops or kiosks but today residents often need to travel significant distances to shop for groceries and basic needs. This is also reflected in the types of stores, with a high proportion of 'discount' or lower-end shops, often in shopping centers, replacing the more 'upscale' shops of pedestrian streets. (cf. Eckert and Willisch 2012) Anecdotally, one officer suggested that while in many places Internet technology has brought some benefits—i.e. in the availability of services and ability to order products online—locals, particularly older people, have had a hard time adapting or simply have not made an attempt, and still prefer to visit and speak in person, but are increasingly unable to do so while living in villages.21

In terms of images and first impressions, there seemed to be visible evidence to produce plausible narratives of both change and decline. In an impressionistic ethnographic sense (cf. Van Maanen 1988), visiting the area reminded me more of familiar post-industrial areas of the US—New Jersey or eastern Pennsylvania—more than the parts of Germany I was already familiar with. While the prevalence of abandoned or run-downed buildings is often used to symbolize

21 This was framed as part of a larger explanation of societal changes. An officer described a long-term case in which a local resident had been accused and investigated for online fraud—fraudulently selling products which were never delivered. Despite dozens of ostensibly legitimate complaints, the local prosecutor claimed there was "no risk of repetition," and declined to bring charges. The officer saw this as a general cultural reluctance to adapt to new technologies or to try to understand them, and speculated that many in the police and prosecutor's office saw some victims of computer crimes as deserving: this not an otherwise widely pronounced view by accompanied officers, however, and email scams and 'phishing' were described as concerns by some officers and in a few cases investigated and recorded during fieldwork. The officer making these statements considered himself to be rather tech-averse, and—in this case similar to most Revierpolizei officers—preferred to work through word-ofmouth, face-to-face contract, or over the phone than primarily through incident reports and postings on the internal computer system.

the economic 'failures' of the East (cf. Haese and Lantermann 2012) it was common to encounter condemned or simply vacant buildings directly across the street from new 'suburban' housing developments. Many storefronts had been closed or had 'for sale' signs, but recently opened stores and restaurants could easily be found as well. While the region overall experienced a population decline, the (few) cities experienced slight increases, but, as stated, largely reflected in new construction, with some city blocks resembling ghost towns.

Despite the area being overwhelmingly rural by every measure—including economically—slightly over half of the population lived in the three largest municipalities which, while still small by city standards, were decidedly more urban in character. This was reflected in the division of the Revierpolizei as well, with about half of all officers responsible for city districts and the other half for rural townships or geographically-large towns. Even more residents reportedly worked in the cities, often with longer commutes: infrastructural challenges were presented in the lack of significant highways, with the patrolling of twolane county roads and concerns about truck traffic playing a major role both in the practice and the discourse of policing locally. Car accidents, including fatal accidents, often were attributed to long-distance truck drivers who "shouldn't be here at all," according to some officers. Tragic events such as car accidents often were used as a moral lens to propel narratives about how 'things should work,' and the case of accidents where drivers simply 'passing through' could be held responsible formed a key issue where insiders—locals or the broader community—could be rhetorically defended against potentially reckless, if not quite hostile, outsiders.

Travel by car was a necessity in most places—country officers typically were responsible for an area that could not thoroughly be patrolled in one shift, and as a result often needed to expend more effort in scheduling appointments and planning visits to avoid spending an inordinate amount of time in transit. This was a cultural factor as well as practical and infrastructural: pre-unification, in the DDR, car ownership was rare, with waiting lists famously lasting up to or over a decade (Glaeser 2000), and this lack of effective 'independent' transportation had supposedly been reflected in a more decentralized economic infrastructure, such as a higher incidence of local shops in villages and non-urban areas compared to the situation today. Relatedly, motorcycle or motorscooter ownership was higher, as these were more easily accessible and affordable, and is reflected today in a prominent local motorcycle culture, both in organized 'weekend rider' groups and as private interest or hobby. Many of the accompanied officers were motorcycle owners and/or enthusiasts and shared a sympathy for other motorcyclists—sometimes describing it as "typically Eastern"—but also expressing concern for the danger and risk of serious or fatal accidents, particularly among younger or untrained riders: this was often narratively coupled with the overall danger of private transportation and the contemporary need for longer-distance commuting.

While in the more rural areas locations were spatially separate and almost always required a car to travel 'from scene to scene,' this was sometimes the case in the urban areas as well (in the largest city in particular), as the forms of public life were not always seen as conducive or relevant to the realities of police foot patrol. Patrolling or traveling by foot was presented—as it often is in the community policing literature (Pate and Skogan 1985, Kelling and Coles 1996)—as a preferable way to maintain a non-threatening but effective public presence and better engage with the community, but also weighed against the benefits of having access to a police van and the included resources (including space for private discussion) and the various downsides of actual foot patrol, such as the distances between locations worth visiting from a police perspective. The choice of walking or driving, for city officers, often appeared to be more of a personal preference, sometimes simply weather-dependent, rather than strategic, as walking the streets was not reliably an effective way to encounter the community. Foot patrol was more often used at specific locations, such as parks or shopping areas, rather than between locations.

Also reflected in the demographic change was the fact that the population was significantly older than would be expected—this was reflected in observations and encounters, with almost no police encounters involving individuals presumed to be between 20 and 30 years old occurring at any point during the fieldwork. Statistically, about 13% of residents are under 18, while over 75% are over 30, with a full quarter of the local population over 65. (Land Brandenburg 2014, Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg 2019) This further lent to a fractured view of the character of the region—at least from my perspective—as while many areas appeared characteristically "German" and urban in nature, with major pedestrian shopping streets, parks, and cities clearly intended for foot traffic rather than automobiles (cf. Jacobs 1961) cultural expression in public took different forms—i.e. in the sense that the cultural symbols of youth and even forms such as a graffiti were less visible—and the types of public events offered, while still significant in number, tended to be more 'general audience' events rather than specialized cultural offerings. Venues likely to skew younger, such as nightclubs, dance halls, or certain types of bars, were rare, but other types of cultural 'infrastructural centers' (cf. Barlösius and Spohr 2017) such as cafes, restaurants, and especially 'canteen style' restaurants were not only common but often populated by large groups of regulars. Most significant events and encounters involving younger people or youth (outside of visits to schools) involved local village events, such as annual village festivals or, more often, volunteer fire department events: it should, however, be noted that the events attended by Revierpolizei officers better represent the priorities, interest, and knowledge of the specific officer rather than reflect the realities of village life. It was significant, though, which types of events and locations the officers considered central or key in establishing themselves within a community, and these places tended to represent the demographics of the region and municipalities as described.

In many ways the urban areas fit the description by Bude (2012) of an "Anti-Ghetto," where "not the appearances, but the *retreats* define the public image." (16, own translation) Cultural life was, for better or worse, generally perceived and described as predictable. Individuals often brought up their perceived frustrations and the broader narrative of decline, though rarely defining specific problems—at least not problems that could be immediately dealt with by the police or other organizations. These narratives emphasized the lack of opportunities, at least from the perspective of young people or those finishing school, suggesting that those who leave wouldn't want to come back. While not all characterizations were negative, and few were *consistently* negatively, they generally reflected the idea of a different pace of life and the lack of significant expectations, contrasting this with the perceived values of young people who value action and excitement. (cf. Goffman 1967) This was even seen in the narratives of police work: I was told that while many officers were close to retirement, and despite overall reductions in the number of planned positions, it was difficult to find enough suitable young(er) officers as most early-career or out-of-the-academy officers were more interested in a "more exciting" assignment in the cities of Potsdam or Brandenburg an der Havel. Officers themselves tended to speak more positively of the region but often based on personal experience, with one officer directly stating "if you weren't from here, you wouldn't want to work here." He implied that the pace of life and the type of work was preferable and more rewarding than that which one might find in the inner city, but could understand why new officers would find it 'boring.' A convergence of disparate narratives was clear in how negative elements of social life—economic disadvantage, lack of positive future expectations—could be reconciled with social-world (notably, the local world of policing) which valued stability, predictability, and personal connections.

Community partnerships could be seen as a synthesis of organizational and personal levels of communication and interaction in many ways. (cf. Ohder and Schöne 2018) Community groups, public organizations, and initiatives were prominent within the community but connections between police and community were most present through direct personal connections, which could be done through organizational representatives or leaders but was also manifested through pre-existing relationships between officers and individuals who *happened* to have an organizational or community affiliation. Some community groups both official groups and informal collections of 'concerned locals,' 'café regulars' or 'busybodies'—were treated openly with respect and concern but afterwards described as individuals who can "safely be ignored." The division between the symbolic and instrumental functions of community-oriented policing became clear here, in some cases signifying that problems might not arise spontaneously but rather as a function of 'concerned citizens' problematizing something and creating a conflict, whereas simply listening to their concerns and negotiating might avoid even the perception of a problem: this was sometimes reflected in a more clichéd "village mentality" where newcomers (in some case even after years of local residency) were considered suspicious by some residents and, in the most extreme cases, accused by residents for every unexplained occurrence. (cf. Geertz 1973) By promising to 'keep an eye out' officers could essentially remove the responsibility or ownership of the 'problem' from the complaining resident and would likely find no legitimate or convincing ground for further official action.

In comparison to a great deal of research on community policing (and personal experience), churches and organized religion seemed to play a very reduced role in the community, at least in the perspective of the police, and essentially zero role in terms of police-community relations. The only notable events involving religious communities at all involved Christmas concerts where I encountered (off-duty) officials and administrators, but church leaders were never observed to be directly involved in any obvious police-community partnerships. Whether this is simply an oversight based on missing observations, an attempt by the police to avoid a potentially controversial framing, or a result of the general lower levels of religious belief and church participation is difficult to determine (about 80% of Brandenburg residents are not registered with any church compared to 28% nationwide, and surveys have often shown a lack of religious belief among young people in particular, with Peter Thompson (2012), writing in The Guardian, referring to East Germany as "the most godless place on earth"); this played little role within the ethnographic fieldwork as the topic simply did not come up and only became noticeable in comparison to the (primarily US-oriented) literature. (cf. Winship and Berrien 1999) A handful of off-hand comments may speak to a generalized community orientation but arguably should not be given much weight. The German word "Heide" can refer both to heather or moorland, and is often used in local place names or designations of farmland, but the term can also mean *pagan* or *heathen*. As Brandenburg was one of the last parts of contemporary German to be fully Christianized (in the 12th Century as part of the early Northern Crusades), on more than one occasion an officer half-jokingly pointed out signs or names using the word "Heide," mentioned the comparatively late Christianization of the region or local history generally, and commented along the lines of, "we're all still heathens here."

The elements that held the region together, both from the frames offered by the policing organization and the narratives of individual officers, as well as that reflected in the community itself broadly, seemed more about a shared narrative and common problems—both in terms of social change as well as in persistent identified risks including flooding. In the simplest sense, the shared values though often emphasizing frustration or reflecting negative associations—formed a type of solidarity which police work, especially its more informal incarnations, attempted to reinforce and utilize. Observed encountered and settings were often divisible into 'scenes,' with distinct divisions—typically the simple act of traveling by car to a new location—and obvious symbols of "the community" as a whole were not obvious, but the narrative refrain of community concern and values seemed to guide a great deal of observed action, and the work of police officers seemed geared around maintain the idea that there was a shared community. (cf. Anderson 1991) While this study was rather an exploration of police work *within a context* than an exploration of that context itself, it was quickly clear that the context both defined and reflected the presentation and dramaturgic role of the police in society: as this connection was perceived dramaturgically, it is intentional that the analysis of the context is less empirical or based on outside measurements and more impressionistic, with an understanding of the characteristics and critical elements of the region and local communities based on experiences, observations, anecdotes, stories, and that which was offered by the cultures approached through participant-observation.

#### **3.5.3 Protocol: Field Research**

Police officers from the Revierpolizei in Falkenmark were accompanied on their shifts recurring over a period of one-and-a-half years (with additional observations beyond that.) Field stays were typically one or two weeks per month, during which time one officer would be consistently accompanied, though this was not always possible and many adjustments were made to the schedule to accommodate the work to be done, public events which involved evening or weekend shifts, vacations and sick days, etc. Participant observation was conducted in 19 Revierpolizei jurisdictions or beats—because of personnel changes some beats included different or multiple officers, such as due to someone covering a shift, retirement, or an officer transferring to a different district. In some cases, the same officer was only accompanied on-duty for two to four shifts, while others were accompanied for (non-consecutive) weeks—many others, particularly the station 'chiefs' were in contact and available for unstructured interviews during or after fieldwork with other officers and were primarily involved this way (though all station chiefs were also accompanied 'in the field' several times as well.) Half (9) of the accompanied officers were assigned to city districts, though more 'unassigned' time was spent there conducting interviews or with general discussions, as country officers generally have less accessible offices and spend more of their shift traveling by car, meaning that I generally began these shift from the respective Polizeirevier or, in some cases when it was more convenient, being picked up directly (in some cases, particularly when officers live in the communities they police, the distance between the Polizeirevier and the assigned jurisdiction is significant enough that officers have permission to keep their weapon and car at home, rather than spend upwards of 90 minutes commuting to a station and then back to their district.)

Exceptions to planned routines were made in cases that were considered (by me, but often presented by the police as potentially useful) to break the routine this particularly included public events or the opening of a Christmas Market, where multiple officers would be on-duty, as well as training or inspection; for example, firearms certification was conducted over several days in one week, and in that week I attended with different groups of officers. Additional observations were made with several units outside of the Revierpolizei, some of whom were organized at a different administration level, but in most cases the officers working there had prior experience within the Revierpolizei (which was my reason for being there) and the observations were still enlightening: this included two days spent patrolling in a boat with the *Wasserschutzpolizei*, the marine police, as one officer had previously worked in the Revierpolizei. Qualitative data was drawn from all observations, recorded either immediately or whenever possible in fieldnotes and then transcribed or reconstructed at the end of the shift or event. Attempts were made in going back to the 'raw' field notes to reconcile presumed or already known background information with 'pure' observations (cf. Wolfinger 2002)—a complicated task to separate, especially with the consideration that a great deal of Revierpolizei work looks unlike either American policing or urban German policing, two forms with which I was much more familiar, and that fact that many interactions were so dependent on prior knowledge (unknown to me) and were further explained or contextualized by officers post hoc, essentially leaving two ways to interpret the field notes: as a raw experienced or observed situation with no 'anchored' meaning, or as an interaction guided (but not solely interpreted) by the narrative explanation given.

No audio recordings were made at any point with the assumption that this would fundamentally alter the nature of interactions if done overtly: as a result, quotations from officers are approximated or reconstructed based on the notes but may not always be word-for-word accurate. Additionally, as all interactions, discussions and interviews were in German, statements were translated into English: in doing so every attempt has been made to convey the spirit, rather than the technical accuracy, of the original statement within the communicative context, and where the use of specific jargon or terminology appeared significant or difficult to convey simply it has been indicated in a footnote—for example, in the US the use of the term 'cop' internally by police is normal, but the closest German equivalent of this in terms of slang, 'Bulle,' would be considered more derogatory and provocative—the more common internal terms for police in Germany, 'Beamte' or 'Kollege,' refer respectively to a civil servant or to a colleague or co-worker. These terms may convey additional meaning, but as they are also essentially standard terminology, 'over-accurately' translating them into English may convey meaning that is not intended or only significant against a broader cultural background. The Revierpolizei is referred to here as a 'unit,' though practically it was more of a role or designation for individual officers and was referred to collectively as "the Revierpolizei" but never specifically as a "unit." Officers working within the Revierpolizei are generally and generically referred to as 'Revierpolizei officers' here for the purposes of clarity, though within Brandenburg they are more parsimoniously referred to as "Revierpolizist" or "Revierpolizistin" (the second case indicating female gendering) or colloquially as "RePo": the availability of a short, simple term to refer to these officers apart from the comparatively clunky "community-oriented police officer" or other similar terms likely plays some part in making this policing role essentially a household name locally, and this cannot easily be conveyed in translation. In the same way, the previous term "Abschnittsbevollmächtiger" was almost exclusively referred to as "ABV" (the full term only given when explaining the term itself or in an ironic manner) and was often used interchangeably with "RePo" in ways in which the distinction did not matter. (A similar phenomenon can be found in the recurring use of "Mark" referring to the currency existing prior to the introduction of the Euro in 1999 in some cases it could be an indicator that the story being told took place in the past and in other cases the terms were simply being used synonymously despite technically referring to distinct things existing in mutually exclusive contexts.)

The use of terminology is more problematic in referring to the presence and role of non-police individuals within encounters. The term 'citizen' is primarily used here, cognate to the German term "Bürger" which is widely used and often intended to refer to *anyone* police come into contact with, regardless of citizenship. (Ley 2013) Similarly, the term 'resident' is similarly used, cognate to the German "Einwohner" which can refer more specifically to a police-involved individual during an encounter at that individual's residence, to a member of the local community (potentially in contrast to outsiders or non-residents, for example, tourists or visitors to a festival), or simply be used generically and interchangeably with 'citizen.' The everyday speech of officers tended to differ greatly from the more formal bureaucratic language or that reflected in the more technical German policing literature (i.e. that used in academy training or described as "Kriminologie"), with words such as "suspect" ("Verdächtiger") or "offender" ("Täter") rarely being used in observed encounters or narratives in place of more everyday formulations, along the lines of "the guy who did it," though the term for victim ("Opfer") did play a more significant narrative role. The literature often uses the term "polizeiliches Gegenüber," (Frevel 2015) conveying something like "the police counterpart" to refer to any form of interaction partner: this term was never encounter outside of one or two ironic uses, and despite its potential effectiveness at adequately conveying the idea of a non-police actor in a police encounter it is avoided due to too closely resembling an institutional frame for pre-structuring or pre-coding interactions.

#### **3.5.4 Sources of Data**

Overall, data was primarily generated from three sources / settings:

These sources demonstrated a great deal of overlap and the data generated is at times used interchangeably. This distinction was primarily important due to the fact that citizen encounters were often obviously embedded in larger interactions which could only be recounted from specific perspectives—the contextualizing narratives were useful for interpreting the deeper meanings behind gestures, speech, and action generally within interactions but were also interpretable in their own rights both as front stage presentations (cf. Richardson 1990)—of how police officers justify and present their own actions—and as more relaxed backstage presentations—how officers categorize and narratively frame various elements of their work, the community, and human interaction. Dividing encounters into analyzable segments or units could prove difficult even with narrative contextualization—while many encounters were clearly formalized and involved a stated policing goal, such as in responding to a complaint, a great deal of interaction between police and citizens was semi-formal or informal but still involved discussions of relevant matters, such as making small talk with locals in a café who provide information about ongoing concerns. The simplest interactions still bore relevance, at least in a symbolic manner, such as in cases where police officers would wave to passing motorists or pedestrians—the individual might be an off-duty police officer, neighbor, spouse of a co-worker, someone known from a community group or formal organization, someone who has been in contact with the officer to express concerns, or someone who is 'known to the police' for having been in trouble previously. These micro-interactions still firmly belong to the observed world of policing, and understanding them requires a hermeneutic approach at essentially two levels: it is necessary to understand the basic 'rules' (in this case likely unknown to the officer him/herself) governing when the officer greets an individual without initiating a deeper encounter, and it is necessary to understand the relationship the specific individuals have to the officer (i.e. how their social role and meaning is being constructed.) In a deeper sense, these types of actions reflected the basic construction of the community, of the establishment of 'insiders' even if no outsiders were actively indicated, though to the officers themselves this need not be overt and is likely more reflexive and simply a part of everyday life. Exploring the difference between formalized encounters—those in which every participant expresses awareness of what is going on and more-or-less recognizes (if not accepts) the institutional perspective of policing and its demands and concerns—and informal interactions proved to be key to understanding the practical role of community police officers in the specific setting.

The narratives used by police were relevant both as accounts of personal or communicated experience but also as representations of learning processes and models of sharing those experiences. Often the fit between policing values and community values can be observed heuristically based on the terminology officers used in various settings and the extent to which this terminology reflects or guides action. For example, Van Maanen (1978) found that, for the police he examined, citizens were in most cases relegated to the role of 'know-nothing' or 'asshole' with little opportunity for citizens to provide information that the police would value short of a confession. In contrast, in the present case there was a marked distinction between abstract stories of crime, lacking in identifiable local elements, and richer narratives which, while often stopping short of defending criminal acts, emphasized broader contexts and maintained a separation between the act and the individual who committed it. Additionally, narratives shared by fellow officers, officials, and local 'contacts' were a major source of local knowledge in a more general sense to provide meaning and context (e.g. an officer learning and accepting that a certain bar has a bad reputation or that a 'eccentric' local man is generally considered kind-hearted and trustworthy by the local community) as well as to learn and identify patterns for emerging issues that need to be dealt with: unlike the more typical or traditional filtering of incidents and calls for service through emergency responses and dispatchers, many observed and handled issues began essentially as rumors or vague stories from officials or residents which were then followed up on by officers, often over a longer period of time, with efforts made to both establish a more 'workable' narrative understanding and to manage the connection of the issue to the police, the presumption being that not all issues required an active police intervention as long as the officer can contextualize and keep track of the problematic elements. Tsoukas (1996) states that, "individual knowledge is possible precisely because of the social practices within which individuals engage—the two are mutually defined." (14) In this, the construction of individual knowledge, which in turn became a resource of symbol of expertise, was undertaken through a variety of social practices within different arenas, such as the broader police culture, the community as a general setting, and against a variety of perspectives and frameworks either shared, semi-trusted, or simply taken as a source for 'raw data' for police—for example, in the stories of 'bar regulars' who are mostly "safely ignored" the police still recognized narrative elements which they then reinterpreted in a way which let them better contextualize the information. Working with stories was not just a way for police to identify problems, however, but it was also a key part of image work and maintaining the desired relationship with the community, with police needing to narratively position themselves in others in ways that did not rely on (de-personalizing) policing or legal terms.

In an ethnographic sense, attempts were made to approach the police organization, police culture, and police work in a broader (quasi-holistic) sense. The major focus—both by design and by organizational constraint—was on accompanying and observing officers on-duty, but the entire project involved a significant deal of necessary contact with administrators and officers in the Revierpolizei and those with different or additional duties. Perspective was provided by representatives of other agencies, particularly the Ordnungsamt in various municipalities, as well as employees or officials from local governments, fire departments, refugee homes, nursing homes, and restaurants in regards to the problems that concern them and their interactions with the police. A significant amount of time was spent with police officials and administrators both in planning and carrying out research e.g. in learning the lay of the land and understanding the basic structure and organization of policing in Brandenburg—and later on in a more informal way— I was often invited to private events, and several times to an informal monthly meeting involving the police chief, the former chief and representatives from various government and private organizations in the fields of health and safety. Private events in particular often become storytelling sessions, with officers and administrators reminiscing, many of the stories involving policing in pre-unification East Germany. In this way, information was collected both on specific incidents or anecdotes as well as general perspectives on the local community and the changes it has experienced over the past 30 or 40 years. Entering into the 'home life' of officers, though only a minor component of the overall fieldwork, was key to breaking out of a dichotomy of the 'pure' outsider perspective which I brought to the field and the institutional perspective inherent in the bureaucratic trappings of the job—it was important to experience how police officers live and talk about their community when they aren't on the clock. As most officers lived in, or at least near, the neighborhoods they policed, this also often worked as a good introduction into many aspects of community life that could not simply be entered into as, essentially, a tourist to that social world.

#### **3.6 The Drama of Policing: Dramaturgy, Narrative, and Hermeneutics**

Viewing interaction from a dramaturgic, humanistic, perspective is a hermeneutic process that involves "'seeing' human action as creating meanings that can be understood 'as if' they were literary texts—embodying metaphorical, poetic, and symbolic meanings." (Gusfield 2003: 125) The primary focus of the dramaturgical view is centered around the performance and the basic assumption that actors in that performance will attempt to cast themselves in the best light negotiating, managing, recasting themselves or even pleading to alter possible perceptions. These negotiations are performative and symbolic and certainly constituted through existing, perceived, and evolving power dynamics, though the façade of the performance can often mask the naked exercise of power more commonly depicted in political economy (see also Strauss 1978.) Actors who find their attempts to make serious, bold statements met with ridicule may accept the proffered role as a comedian and even mold that role into one of social critic, maintaining a respected status despite the rejection of their initial performance. (cf. Goffman 1959, 1961) Dramaturgy is essentially a vocabulary of metaphors of theater, of performance, which can be applied to individual interactions, social movements, and image work at all levels. The questions of how and in which way these metaphors can be applied are (ideally) conceptually useful in exploring the nature of interactions between fully deterministic or ritual encounters and uninterpretable chaos. Discarding assumptions that all actions, gestures, utterances, threats of violence, apologies, etc. must be purely functional allows room for these events to have symbolic meaning, either communicating to other participants (actors), to a varyingly engaged audience, or directly to the self-identity of the performer. (Flick 2007) The language of drama is one of metaphor, in which the *true* nature of a phenomenon must not be fully understood in order to be incorporated into a story, but rather, as in symbolic interactionism, the meaning understood within the scene is that which can further the story and from which actors take their cues. When we address US police officers with, "Officer," or use the formal tense while speaking with German police officers, we may not be consciously imagining the on-going interpretation in the officer's mind and considering how our use of vocabulary affects the other's perception of us, but we do so *because this is done*: this is the script that is being followed, and while this is not to imply that no deeper meaning lies behind this (as it certainly does) the fact that established forms can be created to give continuity to disparate and unique situations is reason enough for us to explore how these taken-for-granted constructs and ideal types are used as part of a performance.

Dramaturgy is particularly relevant to the practice and institution of policing. Policing has shrouded itself in the mantle of crime control and risk prevention, despite the realization that much of what police do only incidentally involves law enforcement (Bittner 1970) and the difficulties and bureaucratic contradictions created by the institutional demands to demonstrate effectiveness. (Sparrow 2016) The selected case, as with many rural or small-town jurisdictions, further challenges this as effectively presenting crime as the *sole* or even primary police preoccupation would be, to put it simply, a challenge. (cf. Kröhnert and Lindner 2009) Rural policing in particular has for this reason often been considered to emphasize peacekeeping and general stability over the production and defense of bureaucratic realities. (Banton 1964, Young 1993) The institution of policing in these settings is more constrained in terms of establishing its own separate life-world in which the institution itself defines which people, places, and things are problematic and must be dealt with, as well as *how* those problems are dealt with. (cf. Manning 2003) Yet even in 'normal' police settings (that is, the urban departments which are overrepresented in the literature and media), the conflicts over police interpretations of situations and alternative perspectives within the community (ranging from everyday 'common sense' interpretations to medical, psychiatric, or religious perspectives on conflict, deviance, and problem-solving) cannot be simply handled through case-by-case processing: the police are bound to the images they reflect, and have themselves long recognized the need to manage those images. (Strecher 1971, Manning 1988)

Returning to the case at hand, the institutional level of policing—represented by the use of formal public messaging, organizational structuring, and the establishment of formal policies, commissions, and programs (cf. Crank 2003, Mensching 2007)—faces the challenge of reconciling the vision of policing inherited through institutional constraints, bureaucratic necessities, demand conditions, and available resources and measures with a portrait of openness, responsiveness, and concern for not just the concerns of the community but for the very existence of an entity that can be defined as such. Police in Germany, paralleling developments in most Western countries, have developed from a more state-centric *purely* institutional model to one more concerned with public perceptions and the rights of citizens, with public safety generally touted over criminal punishment as a core goal. (Kreissl 2008, Dübbers 2015) One of the most visible manifestations of this is the creation (or, more accurately, continuation) of the Revierpolizei and the reliance upon them as a principle element of policing, rather than a supplement or 'token' unit, and the related establishment of community partnership. The mandate of the Revierpolizei itself reflects a dramatization of what policing is, exemplified for example in the emphasis on cooperation with schools and the safety of children going to or leaving school: using the vocabulary of social problems, this is a "valence issue," (Nelson 1984, Gusfield 1989) in contrast to a position issue, which can effectively be presented in terms of consensus and in terms of social or community values without the need to even acknowledge or consider any organized opposition.

Organizing efforts around valence issues—and taking efforts to ensure the continuing perceived valence of these issues—is one visible form of image work that maintains a connection between police and community and downplays the potential for conflict. Emphasizing prevention and public safety, and particularly public safety for children, can both frame the police as not actively against any segment of society and also allow for a narrative where 'nothing happening' is still seen as a success. Rather than having to outright become "moral entrepreneurs" (Becker 1963) providing new frames of morality or community values or relying on their presumed expertise in recognizing developing problems, police can combine the organization of everyday work and image work by emphasizing and communicating a focus on pre-defined problems and similar valence issues where no community opposition is expected. (cf. Ericson and Doyle 2003) This is similar to the arguments of Bittner (1970) and Manning (2003) that the dramaturgical focus of the police institution has been on law enforcement precisely because this confers a stronger idea of legitimacy and avoids the need for police to morally or situationally justify their decision-making: crime is by the general definition (in play here) an act against society, even if maintaining this positioning requires a great degree of selectivity in who is treated as a criminal (as well as when and where.)

Police often demonstrated a sense of role conflict in needing to carry out their work, particularly in contexts where they developed sympathetic narratives of acts or individuals which from an institutional context were criminals or offenders, but from other perspectives (within the community) may be seen differently. (cf. Johnson 1970, Regoli and Poole 1980) One officer described investigating a potential arson where it was found that the owner was responsible, concluding the story with, "the man didn't have any money… maybe I shouldn't have done it," referring to his own actions leading up to the man's arrest. While this demonstrated sympathy with the key actor in the story, the sympathy shown in the narrative was not presented as a challenge to the institutional ideals of the police. In a way, the individual was a victim of circumstances but not 'the opposition': other issues, particularly drugs or alcohol-related issues, are framed as supported by interest groups who are unlikely to change their values or norms, and, as a result, efforts might instead focus on making compromises in terms of what behavior is considered acceptable in public (if well concealed or not provocative, etc.)

In the same way, police can provide legitimacy for activities, events and settings which are essentially already legitimate within society, and undercut possible expectations that the police are trying to 'ruin a good time' or put people on edge. By policing public events in more participatory, non-adversarial, ways police officers (as well as the larger organization) can present themselves as supporting—whether tacitly or officially- what is going on. In the present case this primarily involved attending events and settings such as the annual and traditional Christmas Market, 'classic car' shows, parades, fairs and festivals, and sporting events: as will be explored in the next chapter, this further required the manipulation and management of the 'expected' police role to allow for a more participatory engagement—both fulfilling the demands of policing, as a process, and maintaining more than tacit membership within the 'mainstream' community. Some events—notably an electronic music festival and a nationalist march—were more obviously treated as 'outside' the core community, either due to primarily drawing a crowd from outside the region or for being too far outside the mainstream, and policed not through participation but rather through external control and the establishment of fixed boundaries, e.g. in setting up checkpoints to inspect cars entering the area. The institutional and organizational demands for police officers to establish themselves some way within society have often been overlooked (Banton 1964 provides an early and illustrative example) and in the present case, though these demands were rarely explicit, they were firmly seen as part of the job, and a desirable one at that: officers wanted to police a community in which they had some stake.

The involvement of the community was present in encounters more often than not. This reflected a typical 'ethnographer's dilemma' as, especially early on, many interactions were either essentially indecipherable or only interpretable in terms of broad strokes and clear outcomes. In contrast to a great deal of the urban-centric ethnographic literature, encounters tended to be approached by participants (police and residents) as taking place within a larger temporal framework—i.e. fewer people were complete strangers to police, and most encounters involved elements—utterances, references, symbols, or even the stated or unstated purpose of the encounter itself—which had earlier histories and needed to be understood in some way in order to 'follow the action.' At the same time, overly depending on officers to explain their actions and decision making seemed to violate the spirit of an ethnographic approach, and this led to the realization that how police talk about what they do is crucial, separately from what they do or how they do it.

#### **3.6.1 In their Own Words: Role and Identity**

The Brandenburg Police newsletter "info110" describes the Revierpolizei officer as "seismograph, mediator and problem-solver in uniform." (2010: 15) Revierpolizei officers could be considered as 'specialized generalists' as they are intended to not only work in a specific but broadly defined jurisdiction (i.e. being solely responsible for a variety of tasks in a geographically large area and 'the community' in general) but also with a vaguely defined mandate that clearly differs from a more institutionalist view emphasizing enforcement or measurement, but one that is also intended to be more practical and functional, in terms of replacing or at least supplementing standard patrol policing, than purely symbolic. Lehmann (2010) emphasizes the fact that the actual practices of the Revierpolizei vary somewhat from official designations and also recounts the concerns of officers that bureaucratic interference will hinder, constrain, or undermine their work in terms of community relations. In describing their job, officers often distinguished "Revierpolizei work" from other required tasks, with Revierpolizei work covering general, often long term, efforts to "maintain contact" and "keep a positive relationship" and other work including more formalized policing tasks such as traffic control, inspections of various kinds (such as residency checks), and responding to accidents or emergencies. Semi-formalized tasks such as 'providing advice,' particularly to schoolchildren or to seniors were 'core tasks' for some officers but only tertiary to others, more relevant to the 'prevention' unit (where, significantly, some of the officers who most valued these tasks had previous experience.) Generally, though, the core of Revierpolizei work was consistently presented as the idea of "making oneself available," both by being known and present in the community and by being physically contactable and reachable (with several officers claiming to never turn off their work phone or to regularly give out their private number), and then following up with the resulting expectations from community members. Though it might not be the 'typical' start of a case or encounter, 'cold calls' where someone who was not closely acquainted with the officer simply called the officer's mobile phone to discuss a problem or arrange a meeting did occur, confirming this image of 'availability' presented by officers. The self-image of community-oriented officers presented in the literature has been generally consistent with that reflected in the fieldwork, though it should be noted that little research has been done to date specifically on community-oriented officers in Germany, and that the extant research primarily has, as in the present case, focused on rural areas where extra weight appears to be given to those units as the major face of policing.

Ohder and Schöne (2018), in their study of the Bürgerpolizei in Sachsen, note that, "in stark contrast to the tendency towards anonymization among police officers… community-oriented officers are properly personalized." (150—151, own translation) This proved to be a major component of the Revierpolizei both in terms of identity and in the development of individual encounters. Personalization took place on two conceptual levels, both of which were of relevance though varying case-by-case: inside the role of the police officer, and outside that role as a private citizen. These levels very roughly correspond to the dramatization of policing authority (further explored in the following chapter) through *personal* and *situational* frames, respectively. Many officers in Falkenmark were local to the area, especially within the Revierpolizei, and so were already known to neighbors, friends, family etc. as private individuals, and were therefore concerned with their reputation as well as with the local community broadly. (cf. Banton 1964) Officers, however, saw a significant component of their job simply as establishing themselves within their given community, regardless of their previous relationship to that community generally or in specific contexts, with most officers stating at some point that it required years to establish oneself as reliable and trustworthy: one officer specifically stated that "it takes at least two years before you can really do anything as a police officer." Establishing oneself, as a process, consisted both of deciphering formal as well as informal community and social networks—country officers often were responsible for 20 to 40 distinct municipalities or villages with their own representatives and local organizations, and simply keeping track of who was responsible for various tasks and geographic areas could require significant effort—as well as gaining the trust of key individuals and the community in a more general sense.

The experiences and backgrounds of the involved officers varied, though attitudes towards the work were broadly similar; major distinctions or dissimilarities are indicated, but as noted, were generally rare, with more observable differences between officers in other units and the Revierpolizei than within the Revierpolizei itself. Many officers commented on this in particular, emphasizing that, though each officer likely has his or her own preferred 'style,' being a Revierpolizei officer requires a belief in the idea of communication and negotiation rather than a strict black-and-white worldview, as well as the ability to know when to be 'relaxed,' (*lässig*) but also when to become strict (*streng).* This specific formulation came up regularly: *remaining relaxed* and, when necessary, *becoming strict.* One former Revierpolizei officer had been transferred out of the unit, and, although the specific details were not indicated, it was suggested by other officers in the unit that "he is a good cop, but he couldn't talk to people the way that you need to." It was clear through many other statements that the 'needed' way to talk to people was not a specific method or approach, but rather emphasized the idea that the officer simply needed to have an approach at all, essentially that the officer needed to maintain control—through dramaturgical practices and impression management—even in situations involving discretion and the relinquishing of formal control.

Officers tended to be older, though this was also reflective of the overall average age in Falkenmark, and this also translated into most officers having a great deal of experience within and without the Revierpolizei. Officer Karsten had begun as an ABV officer prior to unification, and claims to have been the oldest officer to 'survive' reunification, with most over 30 being let go or deemed ineligible.22 He was already eligible for retirement as I first entered the field, but he saw the Revierpolizei as his "dream job," often abstractly portraying a conflict

22 The process of vetting the police post-unification seems to be something of an elephant in the room even today, with the detailed descriptions of background checks and processes presented by the 'new' administrators being treated with suspicion by Eastern officers who

between the administration which wanted to 'put him behind a desk' and himself with his determination to be 'among the people.' He had served, with one uniform or another, as the community officer for his specific municipality for almost 40 years, and claimed to have been offered and turned down leadership or administrative positions on several occasions: "too much paperwork." He approached his job with an unmistakable sense of humor, both in the office and often when talking to residents (though noticeably this quickly vanished in 'serious' situations.) Officer Karsten, more so than most officers, described the work of the Revierpolizei as often unappreciated by the 'bureaucrats' and (abstract) administration. His independent streak was evidenced by his continuing to patrol an area that was technically outside his jurisdiction (and outside of Falkenmark entirely) with the justification that it had previously been part of the same municipality and that "they know me there." As a country officer, he spent little time in the *Polizeirevier* and worked as much as possible directly from his local office, but even then he claims to prefer spending as much time 'outside' as possible, and, despite the 'slow pace,' often has more than enough to keep him busy; according to him, this is a function of being known in the community: "I don't even have to go to people, they come to me first." Showing an interest for 'little things' was also essential to establishing oneself in his view, which would give him a fuller picture of what is going on and become essential when something 'bigger' happens: "I can't just show up after a murder, I have to already be there when something happens." He subsequently linked his knowledge of the community, and the community's knowledge of him, to a local clearance rate of around 60%, above the county and state average. A clipping from a local newspaper, on display in his office, declared him "a cop through-and-through, available to help day and night," which Officer Karsten followed-up with, "you're always in uniform."

Officer Schmidt was relatively new to the Revierpolizei when I first met him, also working in a rural municipality, but had already spent 30 years working patrol shifts (*Wach- und Wechsel-Dienst,* or *WWD.*) He noted that the pay for a

sometimes made statements such as, "They thought we were all StaSi." (cf. Glaeser 2000) Officer additionally described the various reforms and changes in organization following unification as "not always without friction." The current study is not focused on the historical realities, but disparate narratives were identifiable between the exclusively 'native-born' Easterners in the local Polizeiinspektion and the administrators working outside the county. Local officers who had worked both pre- and post-unification almost universally presented a narrative of "everyone over a certain age was gone, and everyone younger was kept" and tended to center these narratives on how little information trickled down to line officers about what was going on. In some tellings, it was presented as if the officer had almost no knowledge about the dismantling of the Berlin Wall or German (re)unification, and suddenly arrived to work one day to find himself living in a new country.

Revierpolizei was actually lower due to more 'standard' working hours, rather than overnight or weekend shifts, and less opportunity for overtime; he considered this an acceptable trade-off because the Revierpolizei is "better for your health," even if "there isn't much to see." As a newer officer, he spent more time together with other officers—specifically with Officer Karsten, who worked as the 'backup' officer for the jurisdiction, and, despite his years on patrol, the difference between knowing the community through responding to calls and the need to proactively make contact as a Revierpolizei officer was a frequent topic. Officer Schmidt saw particularly difficulties in his exceptionally rural ("Nur Felder und Acker!") municipality, specifically as it has seen comparatively high turnover for Revierpolizei officers, meaning that not only it is difficult to establish oneself personally, but that the institution itself does not seem to carry the weight it does in other places.

Officer Hermann was a city officer, working in the county seat, which meant his offices were within the central police station, shared with two other city officers. Characteristically, as a city officer his work was, at least on the surface, somewhat more structured, with more formal meetings and discussions with officials and 'location managers.' In comparison to the country officers previously described, he saw some of the work he described as 'bureaucratic' as a crucial part of the job, though also described it as "the things you don't want to do now." Flipping through the documents on his desk, he listed off some of the 'ongoing concerns': issues with parking at a local school, relatedly his desired solution to replace generic "children playing" signs with those forbidding normal parking during school hours, the need to 'catch up' other officials in the Ordnungsamt and prosecutor's office that a certain individual could not be located and the need to supply more 'documentation' (including photographs) and send them by internal courier, and making an appointment to visit a refugee home to follow up on a call from the local administrator. Officer Hermann was also a former ABV officer, though he described the current incarnation as "improved." Like many officers, he often spoke in terms of familiarity which could be understood both from a police perspective and more individually—describing problematic individuals as "known to us," but also emphasizing the need to "find a solution that is good for everyone." Describing those individuals who he sometimes needs to keep an eye on, mostly including individuals who "had problems with—or without—alcohol," he frequently concluded with "but they're harmless."

Officer Reiner was also a city officer, as well as the station chief for a Polizeirevier. He lived in the county capital, however, very close to the main police station, and had been planning to transfer there once a position was open. He frequently made jokes at the expense of the police organization—ranging from pointed criticism of administrative priorities to simple everyday 'observational humor,' (when his work computer took several minutes to boot up in the morning, he commented, "high-security computer—it takes longer so that anyone trying to steal our data just gives up," and later, when a computer crash resulted in some lost data, "computers are funny people.") He described the local Polizeirevier—which included three city officers and three country officers, and also housed two detective and some additional personnel—as "structurally problematic," too small to offer much in terms of services or resources and with no potential for advancement for officers there, but also necessary for providing some service at all. He noted that the city had "previously been a county seat, but now it's a village." The situation was occasionally seen almost as dire, with increases in resources in other jurisdictions often being framed against a lack of increases in the specific Polizeirevier: when officers were discussing that a new car was needed, Officer Reiner stated that, "realistically it's more likely that we'll lose one." The Polizeirevier had recently moved into a new building, out of the old Volkspolizei station which Officer Reiner described as "frightening, but probably on purpose," (cf. Millie 2012 for how police architecture overlaps with image work) into a smaller and less obviously 'police-modern' building. One advantage was that the new building was not far from the local Ordnungsamt and also a canteen which was used by both police officers and Ordnungsamt personnel, meaning that the degree of formal and informal contact between the two was seemingly higher than in locations simply due to convenience.

Officer Müller was also a station chief, and though this gave her a larger administrative workload than most officers, she always tried to find time to patrol the city by foot. Notably, and admittedly against regulations, she sometimes left her service weapon in the armory, stating that in the rare event that a situation called for violence by the police, a firearm would only escalate the situation, and that "I don't want to hurt anybody." She described her work as chiefly governed by routines at various levels—for example, winter was often quieter as people didn't go out as much but also were quicker to "ignore things that bother them." Spring and summer kept the Revierpolizei busier, with a great number of public events requiring the police to 'define their own role,' often precariously, such as with political demonstrations: "there are two sides who don't like each other, and we're standing in the middle." These fixed demands for activity were sometimes seen as in conflict with the proactive work of the Revierpolizei in determining their own work patterns and networks, particularly as, at the time, an increase in nationalist and anti-immigrant demonstrations was taking place and these events were seen as risky for the police, both in terms of physical safety and in image. Officer Müller's beats was one of the busiest in terms of stereotypical police activity, with more observed cases of crime (or at least events dramaturgically treated as 'criminal') than with most officers, involving several hit-and-runs and assaults, which provided a slightly different context when at one point she stated, "there's nothing going on right now, it's better that way."

Trust was often cited as a significant resource, essentially a form of social capital to be built up and managed, which could lead both to future access (to information and cooperation) and be leveraged or 'spent' at times when a more 'traditional' police intervention was seen as necessary. Lehmann (2010) quotes one officer:

When I go to someone today and fine them five Euros, then I shouldn't expect them to have a good deal of trust in me and to tell me something that is, for police work, much more important.

This example equates trust among the community as useful not simply as an outcome on its own, but as a resource or condition that can prove useful in conducting 'actual' police work, presumably incidents involving more serious crime rather than minor incidents involving 'five euro' fines. Similar hypotheticals were often encountered. Many of these similarly showed a divide between tasks or activities considered important in their own right and those which seen as either not worth the trouble or else likely to unnecessarily hurt the image of the specific officer in the eyes of those involved. Officers took many opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge of past cases, particularly those who had to be sanctioned or fine: for example, while passing a local clinic, one officer commented, "They're not happy to see me here: I had to ticket the boss for speeding once." ("Hier bin ich nicht so gern gesehen, ich musste einmal den Chef beim Schnellfahren kontrollieren.")

At a more serious level, Revierpolizei often expressed reservations about serving arrest warrants, and most accompanied officers stated that very often they would attempt to avoid personally serving it if possible. The reasons for this included both a more general concern for image, presumably from the general community, neighbors, and bystanders, as well as more practical concerns: the arrestee would more likely be back in the community—sooner than later—and it would be best for everyone if that individual was comfortable talking to the specific officer rather than hostile. Keeping in touch with 'police-known' individuals, though not specifically stated in the official mandate, was seen as a key part of 'keeping one's eyes open,' or 'paying attention,' essentially part of the 'seismograph' function. This was linked to maintaining trust as a way to maintain open communication even when other agencies or other others would be essentially shut out, but also was often reflected in a skepticism towards "hard methods" such as arrest, which could have longer term consequences such as making it impossible for someone to have a normal job. Notably, the most vocal critic of arrest and "hard methods" was Officer Wolfgang, who unlike many officers had gone 'full circle,' starting as an ABV officer in the 1980 s but transferring to work in almost all other possible divisions (patrol, investigation, prevention, marine) before 'returning' to the Revierpolizei. Officer Wolfgang commented that "as you get older, things look different, you can talk [with others], you don't always have to take repressive measures."

Revierpolizei officers saw themselves as distinct from the larger police organization both in their group identification and its corresponding roles but also because of their emphasis on being known as individuals. Several officers when first presenting their work specifically stated "the Revierpolizei is not the patrol/response unit." They emphasized and valued being recognized both as Revierpolizei officers and personally, mentioning the importance of 'recognizability' (*Wiedererkennungswert*); one officer stated "no one is happy to see the [regular] patrol car, but if I show up, that's the Revierpolizei," and more made statements along these lines. This was seen not just as a tactic but specifically as a motivating factor and a source of job satisfaction: Officer Karsten poignantly stated, "policing has to come from here –" and gestured to his heart, "and not from here" and showed his wallet. The idea that the Revierpolizei, by mandate and necessity, see their work as something that they need to care about, in that they need to remain part of the community and incidents prior to and after the arrival of police on the specific scene, was often expressed as well as observed. This additionally correlated with a general independence from administrative structures—one officer, for example, stated that he was "theoretically" attached to the main Polizeiinspektion, and his boss could always require him to work there rather than out of the (geographically closer) Polizeirevier or his own local office, but that this "essentially never" happened. Activity reports were produced and reviewed by station or Revierpolizei chiefs, but rarely appeared to be explicitly detailed or discussed critically, with assessments of officer performance apparently reliant more on reputation and, in line with Officer Karsten's comments about negative feedback, the fact that poor decisions or lack of motivation by an officer would certainly get back to the police.

Key to the perception of the work was not just the capacity to divide tasks between 'important' and 'unimportant' (with the added advantage of 'community legitimation' in making this distinction) but specifically the ability to act based on this. Officer Wolfgang simply stated that, for him, the advantage of being a Revierpolizei officer was "the opportunity to do something." ("Die Möglichkeit etwas zu tun.") This was immediately contrasted with detectives who *must* do something. At the same time, there was a general skepticism towards both (though not necessarily simultaneously) the abstract ideas of punishment and to the actual administration of it through the organization. Officers provided some examples of cases where they could not reconcile the choice by the prosecutor to not pursue charges with either 'community concerns' or with an institutional philosophy. These examples presented a noticeably different vocabulary than that most typically in use talking about the community or everyday work: one narrative described a "typical purse thief" who was known to police, with a known place of residence, who was randomly caught by the officer on the street soon after a reported purse snatching and in possession of "exactly the right amount of money"; the evidence was supposedly considered insufficient to view the crime as "likely to be repeated" and the individual was not charged. Sometimes this difference in priorities was reflected in officers going out of their way to take actions: Officer Karsten recounted a case where cars had been broken into outside a cemetery during funerals. He had signs made at his own cost advising or reminding visitors not to leave valuables in the car, claiming that it would be possible to 'find money' to have it done officially, but this way "it got done."

Officers often emphasized the peacekeeping aspects and general stability, rather than first pointing out problems—critical issues were often only brought up situationally, such as when we passed or visited certain locations, or when specific incidents occurred, or else as part of other narratives and stories, rather than preemptively in describing the job. Officer Karsten, while highlighting the independence and freedom inherent in working in rural areas, stated that "unless you get negative feedback, everyone is probably happy." If officers were established, known, and trusted, they could be relatively confident that problems would come to their attention before they 'got out of hand,' and would not need to actively seek out behaviors to problematize. Though primarily presented sarcastically or within anecdotes, "waiting" (or else "patience" though this term was rarely used) was often presented as a key policing virtue: essentially, an understanding that it was better to wait until the right time to act—which implied a better and more complete knowledge of the situation and various related factors—rather than to act rashly or become too eager to become involved in private matters ("like American police," according to Officer Karsten.) Other formulations juxtaposed 'waiting' against either the perceived motivations of police officers or a lack of respect or resources (typically from the 'bureaucracy'): when a court employee encountering another Revierpolizei officer in the hallway of the courthouse commented, "Oh, do you need to wait?" the officer responded, "yeah, but we get paid for waiting, too." This, of course, occurred against a backdrop of waiting which that officer used to engage in conversation with many people working, passing through or waiting in or near the courthouse, which involved following up one ongoing case and suggestions for two new problems to follow up on.

This related to the need of specific local knowledge—both in a general, long term sense as well as immediately and situationally. Officers, for example, showed pride in knowing their way around their beats without having to rely on GPS, and often on knowing where individuals lived without needing to check the address. Jurisdictions for country officers in particular were very large, and officers described the need to both be able to travel efficiently and to know which places are worth visiting preemptively, because "you can't be in every village every day." One officer had the keys to the main gates of a local campground which also served as a shortcut that would not otherwise be located by GPS. Knowing family histories, where individuals worked, where people (both individuals and groups) could be best found and when, and which channels to use to get certain types of information was crucial; at the same time, officers need to be up to date, often starting their day by reading internal reports or logs of the previous day's events or from the overnight patrol shift. This information could sometimes be immediately necessary or relevant, and otherwise more effective as a type of resource or simply a topic for communication: for example, it was reported at one point that the overnight shift responded to an assault in a 'home for troubled youth' and that a counselor or staff member was lightly injured—this event was described, classically, as "one bad apple spoils the bunch"—and the officer later (a few weeks after the incident) took the opportunity to visit the home to 'check in,' but not specifically to follow up on a 'problem' or 'incident.' Demonstrating concern or interest in this way might help to establish rapport with personnel there, and additional help in putting faces to names, but was also clearly seen as running the risk of (further) turning the incident into a criminal event. Officers frequently evidenced their connection to the community by waving or pointing out various individuals as we drove or walked past: "he's the owner of a large agricultural business," "she had some trouble with her ex-husband a few years ago but it's better now,"; these descriptions we're not always purely descriptive or positive: "those two are just a pair of village idiots," "[that old man] over there, he just wants to get everyone else in trouble, you can't really trust him but just have to stay polite." One quickly resolved case involved a ticket for speeding (resulting from an automated camera) which had already been paid, but where the relatively young person in the picture did not at all appear to be the older man to whom the car was registered and who had paid the fine. Seeing the name and the picture, the officer immediately stated, "oh, that's his grandson who visits sometimes." In cases where individuals couldn't immediately be framed against the local setting, officers usually, rhetorically at least, attempted to hypothesize their role or purpose, such as conjecturing that "they must be tourists" based on the lack of local license plates and the general appearance of the car and family inside, or "I bet he's the guy who is looking to buy that house in [Kleindorf], I think I saw that same car parked there earlier."

Becoming involved in the community took place at various levels, both individually and through more formal organizations or meetings, often directly through or facilitated by local government. Even this, however, was often framed as a way to establish oneself *personally*—many officers attended evening meetings off-duty, rather than having to alter their schedule. In other cases, schedules were often altered so that officers could attend evening events or weekend festivals on-duty, but the need to 'show oneself' was narratively seen as more important than specifically 'being on the clock.' At most public events, Revierpolizei officers didn't see themselves enforcing order so much as establishing and maintaining relationships. In cases where order maintenance as seen as a more serious issue officers were 'ordered' from the *Bereitschaftpolizei* (lit: "readiness police", but effectively the unit for crowd control and policing public event) and a primary function of the Revierpolizei was to evaluate the general security needs; however, officers often seemed to distance themselves from the more formal and impersonal presentation typical of the Bereitschaftpolizei, spending more time at events simply 'making the rounds' and engaging in small talk with various known individuals. Some officers emphasized the need to become associated with the uniform, to become essentially, as a uniformed local officer, part of the image of the place, but others (with overlap between the two) talked about the need to be engaged as a private citizen, to "drink a beer in the local tavern."

Overall, officers spoke very positively about their work—specifically in terms of freedom to set their own goals and boundaries—mostly positively about their local communities, and ambivalently about the broader police organization, expressing insecurities with the seemingly permanent nature of reform and concerned about perceived attempts to channel their work to suit less rewarding and purely bureaucratic goals. Ohder and Schöne (2018) found similar worries about community officers in Sachsen, including the statement, "When the police can't solve a problem, they send the Bürgerpolizei" (154); this was not intended to highlight the versatility of the Bürgerpolizei as a virtue, but rather constituted a complaint that the 'defining' tasks of the unit can easily be put aside when the administration needs to exploit them to get something done quickly. These types of concerns tended to specifically involve making arrests or 'picking someone up' as well as prisoner transportation: apart from the use of local knowledge in locating someone for arrest, neither of these tasks was seen as generally in compliance with the core idea of the Revierpolizei, and were presumed to be more related to the ability to keep a patrol car in service while only devoting a single-officer car to a task that is primarily driving. These casual uses of the Revierpolizei as a 'jack-of-all-trades' resource were seen as not only unrelated to the core mandate, but sometimes—specifically in the case of arrests—were considered directly contradictory, jeopardizing the goodwill which officers had built up.

Officers were generally positive about the members of their local communities, seeing them as predominantly 'supportive of the police' and non-problematic, but the problems of the region and demographic changes were frequently invoked as difficulties to be confronted. Many police-related problems were discussed in these terms, shifting blame directly away from the individual to the broader situation and social structure. Many villages in particular were described with the words, "there's nothing to do here, nothing really happens." Problems or incidents involving younger people in particular were often described with some level of sympathy: in several reported cases of youth 'hanging out' or drinking in run-down abandoned buildings the officers, in describing the situation, put significantly more emphasis and blame on the absentee owner. In one related case where a fire had apparently been started in an abandoned villa and then put out by firefighters, the officer simply stated, "they should have let it burn down." The owner was described as a "Wessi" (West German) who came over immediately after unification and bought several buildings, but then moved back to the West and did not maintain most of the properties but involved lawyers "every time local government tried to do something about it." This fit into a larger trend in many rural areas, with an increasing number of abandoned or poorly maintained buildings coupled with a lack of guardianship portrayed as a significant risk factor, though officers more often spoke of the risk of 'broken glass' in a literal sense than the creeping spread of deviance and disorder predicted by "Broken Windows." (Wilson and Kelling 1982)

The cities were seen a bit more hopefully, though each had neighborhoods, specific buildings, and visible groups in public (i.e. "daydrinkers" in parks or near train stations) which were essentially written off by the police as best managed through avoidance: police approached these locations or groups only when necessary and often accompanied by another officer, and otherwise only claimed to attempt to negotiate or maintain a 'stability,' e.g. preventing groups drinking in public during the day from approaching or harassing passers-by. One particular location was described with the statement, "you don't need a uniform [presumably 'officer'] there, you can't regulate anything, it will just make it more chaotic." Other problems were often presented more in terms of something to be monitored rather than requiring direct intervention, or best solved simply by informing other parties. One such situation involved a class of high school students, apparently 15 or 16 years old, who had begun sneaking bottles of vodka into school and 'covertly' taking sips during class; apparently as a result of 'egging each other on,' the behavior had escalated and some students started openly drinking in class and outright defying the teacher, who was unable to regain control. In the presented narrative it was unclear how the case had 'officially' played out, but it was clear that the officer had only learned of the situational informally by word-of-mouth, rather than through police channels. The officer didn't specifically want to see the students punished, but saw little that the police could formally do otherwise. The situation was apparently resolved semi-formally, as one of the involved students was the child of an 'allied' official (either from the Ordnungsamt or city government administration, the specifics were not clear) and it was essentially communicated that there *could* be consequences if the behavior were to continue.

Officers had generally high expectations for knowing their community and being known there—the police newsletter "info110" (2010) reports a poll suggesting that 24% of residents could identify their local Revierpolizei officer, further suggesting this indicates room for improvement. However, the goal never seemed to getting to know the entirety of the community, but rather to become established enough to have a detailed local knowledge, trust, and access to various formal and informal networks. The challenges presented were often in reconciling the values and expectations of individual officers, institutional demands and pressures, broad community norms and values, and the role, presence, and concerns of various private individuals, complicated by the fact that officers for the most part considered themselves, significantly, both permanently part of the community and permanently police officers.

#### **3.6.2 Private Lives and Public Police**

A major concern of the present study—further explored in the following chapter in particular—is the overlap of private or community roles, that is, as an *individual*, and officially designated roles, i.e. that of a police officer. The fact that the personal lives of officers almost inevitably becoming intertwined with their work is seen as a major element of rural or small-town policing. (Young 1993, cf. Banton 1964, Girtler 1980) This was generally seen as positive and necessary both by the officers themselves and by the broader policing culture, with the Brandenburg police newsletter "info110" emphasizing the need for a community-oriented officer to "not only have life and career experience, but to also be professionally all around accomplished, societally established and socially recognized." (2010: 15) The work of the Revierpolizei and the infrastructural and populationrelated realities essentially demands, and the organization generally encourages, this overlap as well, with the practical decentralization of policing not manifested in the establishment of more official posts or institutional locations but rather in the distribution of policing tasks and authority to established members of local communities (even when the officers require significant time and effort to effectively establish themselves.) In the present case this blurring of institutional and social frames is predominantly set against a rural backdrop.

However, the relation of the police role to personal lives can be viewed another way both through presented narratives from Revierpolizei officers and in the literature on the transformation of German policing post-unification. Veterans of the East German Volkspolizei described their views of West German police as simply 'playing a role' or even 'inauthentic' in the way that work was performed while on the clock, and once the shift was over the expressed attitude and concerns of the individual would shift. In describing differences in lifestyle between Eastern and Western officers, Glaeser (2000) writes:

Traveling to and from work was a quite different experience for the members of the former People's Police [Volkspolizei] and the (West) Berlin Police. While most officers of the Berlin Police change from plain clothes to uniforms only after they reach the precinct, People's Police officers had to travel from home to work and vice versa wearing their uniforms. Since many eastern officers in the [DDR] did not own cars, or because public transportation was free for police officers in the [DDR], and gasoline was very expensive, they traveled on buses, streetcars, and commuter trains to work, while most western officers used their cars. Thus, People's Police officers were recognizable as such on the way to and from work, and many of them tell stories about the reactions of fellow citizens to their presence in uniform. They were asked questions or used as sounding boards for all sorts of concerns, and at times they were also abused as public symbols—scolded or spat on—to show disapproval of the regime. This also meant that the officers felt compelled to intervene as police officers when something called for their attention… The meanings of the concrete chronotypes of workplace, road to work, and home, therefore, were quite different for members of the People's Police and for officers of the (West) Berlin Police. Eastern officers perceive this shift in meaning frequently as a *loss* of meaning. They see, for example, wearing plain clothes on the road to work as a backing out of the responsibilities of a police officer; in extreme cases they interpret it even as apparent shame of *being* a police officer, suggesting that their western counterparts are *acting a role*. Western officers see this much more as a positive affirmation of their right to a private life free of the impingement of work. (84–85)

The situational nature of events, the assumption that individuals had stronger ties to the community or location, is further supported by the bureaucratic structure of German governance and police in particular. As individuals are presumed to be registered at their proper address and therefore can be found again in the future there rarely seems to be significant pressure to immediately handle a case or mete out justice, with a focus instead of explaining the situation as it is, resolving the immediate relevant conflict, and dealing with the individual actors at a later date. The bureaucratic meaning of 'dealing with individuals' is easily shifted when the officers see their role strongly as individuals embedded in a community and with interpersonal (even "Goffmanesque") factors such as respect, trust, and 'saving face' often being more effective than financial penalties. Officer Preuss, a city officer in Officer Reiner's district, responded to a minor car accident ('fender bender') at a supermarket parking lot. The general situation was quickly resolved, with the taking of brief individual statements and establishing a narrative of what had occurred and who had taken which actions. However, the driver of one car did not have his driver's license and claimed that it had been stolen—he further suggested he had talked to Officer Preuss about it previously, but the officer later commented, "I know I met him before, but I don't remember anything about a license, and it was long enough ago that it should have been replaced." He said he needed to "have a chat" with the driver (*"Ich quatsche mal mit ihm."*) He essentially let the driver go with a warning (for not having a license, otherwise both drivers were given minor fines), suggesting that it would start to cost—10 euro for every 'stop'—as long as he didn't replace the license. Back in the car after everyone had cleared the scene, he said to me:

I told him "If you were here [in my office] before I would've told you to get a new license right away." He said he would the next time he gets paid. Maybe, but I would bet against it. But next time I'll remember him.

As a city officer, Officer Preuss had generally fewer unplanned encounters with already known individuals—but even in this case one of the passengers was familiar with the Officer, and extended greetings to his wife and made some jokes at the conclusion of the situation. While Officer Preuss was skeptical of the driver's claim, he essentially used that skepticism as leverage to 'give him another chance,' or else let the problem be resolved by someone else. The implication was clear that, if the officer encounters the driver again and he has not procured a new driver's license, then it would not only be seen as inexcusable and punishable but essentially as a break of trust, particularly due to the fact that the driver had claimed to have already 'legitimized' his excuse by meeting with the officer. This type of warning is potentially, at least rhetorically, effective, as the chance of Officer Preuss responding to specific future incidents is significant, and it would be easy for him to follow up (if he so desired) to see if the driver was involved in any reported incidents, detected while speeding, etc., and could then find cause to personally intervene and/or allow the 'formal' punitive sanctions—such as financial penalties and 'points' against a driver's license—stand.

Niederhoffer (1967) describes "ceremonious interruptions" (57) as breaks from the formal routine, for example, a coffee break during work hours which is overtly dramatized to be an injection of 'personality' and 'personal concerns' into an environment otherwise dominated by procedures and official concerns, and in which the governing rules are either "no shop talk," or at least none without a healthy dose of sarcasm and irreverence. (cf. Goffman 1981) These types of situations are defined by their spatial-ness, being both hidden from public and from formally organized environments, allowed them to work as "involvement shields" (Goffman 1967: 38) where individuals can "safely do the kinds of things that normally result in negative sanctions." (39) For the Revierpolizei in Falkenmark, at a much more overt and visible level, this was reverse, with the intrusion of formality and serious concerns often providing the breaks from the personal, individually-defined, and often irreverent attribution of meaning to encounters and interactions. Rather than using these interruptions as a form of "role release" or "breaking role," they instead seemed to incorporate aspects of the formal role—in terms of basic orientations and institutional concerns and demands—into semiformal or informal roles played out within contexts which downplayed formality or official-ness. Coffee breaks were notable as a ritual—often shared between different officers or members of 'allied agencies' such as the Ordnungsamt, courts, or mayors' offices—which mixed, sometimes seamlessly, topics of 'formal concern,' such as the planning of public events, information about and the prevention of crime, and inter-agency coordination, with everyday gossip, joking, and personal or biographical information. While this type of situation is likely far closer to the norm than an abstract institutional ideal, the fact that even formal 'technical' information was more often than not shared within the format of a 'personal' conversation adds an important element to the theoretical consideration of "local knowledge" and the basic communication and symbolization of 'community values.' Officers who had access to computer records and generally up-to-the-minute information about events (public and criminal) still often preferred to gather information about local 'goings on' by word-of-mouth; presumably not despite, but rather because of, the generally pre-coded nature of this communication, that this information was put into an everyday (and/or organizational) context that 'raw data' (in this case, information still processed through a formal policing framework) would not as easily transmit. Reading an incident report about a 'disturbance' at a certain time and address might contain the same key functional "hinge points" (Barthes 2004) needed to interpret the story, vaguely, but hearing the story from someone with some form of closer connection to the people, locations, and events further contributes "catalysers" which can provide context outside of a purely legal institutional frame (e.g. what *really* was the cause of the disturbance, regardless of who can be legally held responsible?) and an "index" or form of "ready-made knowledge" which can locate the narrative in time and space. Officers see this as core to their work, as they (like most 'audiences') are still able to interpret the story told in their own distinct or unique way, rather than necessarily taking the proffered meaning at face value, and yet engaging in 'narrative reconstruction' in this way allows officers to simultaneously define problems *as police* and *as members of the community.*

Exploring the creation of (joint) meaning within the situated nature of policing requires a consideration of the "cultural setting." (Gusfield 1989) Police interactions in society take the form of negotiations over meanings and roles—while these encounters are often self-contained and unique, they are also challenging and re-contextualizing their own guiding elements in ways which can carry over into other interactions. This, in the end, is the core of a community-policing initiative: not simply to handle problems from incident to incident, but to fundamentally alter the relationship between *policing* and the community, and even to alter the nature of the community itself, in a way that allows for problems to be dealt with at a deeper level, to be dealt with jointly by community members (including the police) and to come to the attention of community representations and 'policing partners' before they become emergencies. Based on the observations of the Revierpolizei in Falkenmark in action, in encounters with citizens and in taking official or informal action, the following chapter will explore the practices and situation uses of symbolic action and communication and the management of policing roles as ways to synthesize everyday community norms and the values, expectations and demands of institutionalized policing.

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### **4 Framing Police Encounters: The Dramaturgy of Authority**

#### **4.1 Negotiating Authority, Defining Order: Dramaturgy and Institutional Police Roles**