Narratives of Legitimacy: Police Expansionism and the Contest Over Policing

Abstract

This paper examines the narratives of legitimacy used by the police to secure their place in the policing arena. A case study of the Montréal (Canada) police service’s (SPVM) expansion into the subway system, which had been policed by private security since its inception over forty years ago, provides insight into the contest over policing. The SPVM’s expansion was part of a broad reengineering of its service (e.g., rebranding) and took place against a backdrop of state support for the pluralisation of policing. Justifications provided by the SPVM for its Metro unit were successful in garnering media attention and support, which played a key role in this expansion. This study uses Boltanski and Thévenot’s (1991) polity model to analyze the police’s justifications and adjustment to shifting divisions of policing labour, and provides evidence of a struggle to maintain an image of the police as a communal good in the contest over policing.

Keywords: public police, expansionism, narrative of legitimacy, polity model