Doing Fieldwork with the Police: Methodological and Ethical Considerations
- Date
- Wednesday 8 October 2025
- Time
- Explanation
- Entrance is free and open to all interested parties, both external and internal.
- Address
-
Wijnhaven
Turfmarkt 99
2511 DP The Hague - Room
- 3.46
Doing ethnographic or observational research on police raises a distinctive set of methodological and ethical questions that set this field apart from many other areas of social enquiry. Scholars must often negotiate entry into police organisations, build trust and credibility as outsiders, and remain reflective in settings that may be sensitive, demanding or even hazardous. In addition, researchers are challenged to recognise how their own background, identity and standpoint shape both the research process and the knowledge that is produced.
This session brings together established and early-career researchers to reflect on these challenges from the perspective of their own work. The presentations and ensuing discussion will address the practicalities of securing and sustaining access to police organisations, the influence of the researcher’s identity and perspective, the use and value of fieldnotes, and the importance of supporting the wellbeing of researchers in the field. The aim is to encourage collective reflection on what it means to undertake research in police settings, while also offering participants insight into the methodological and ethical dilemmas that such work entails.
The session will be of interest to those undertaking research with the police or other public institutions, as well as students and practitioners who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the practical and ethical complexities involved in policing studies.
Professor Mike Rowe
Mike Rowe is Professor of Criminology at Northumbria University. He has an international reputation for his research and publications in policing, with particular expertise in police culture and reform, race and racism, and the policing of domestic violence. More recently his work has addressed questions of policing and visual and material culture and police legitimacy.
Jasper De Paepe
Jasper De Paepe is a doctoral researcher with the Team Policing Studies at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University, and the Department of Public Governance and Management at Ghent University. His research focuses on knowledge exchange, collaboration between police and academics, police use of force, and the role of technology in community oriented policing.