COMMUNITY POLICING AS A SOCIAL PRACTICE AND MANAGERIALISM IN PUBLIC SAFETY: ANALYSIS OF AN OPERATIONAL UNIT OF THE MILITARY POLICE

From the perspective of strategy as a social practice and an ethnomethodological orientation, the research question of this article is: how do micro policing practices conducted by members of an Operational Unit of the Military Police occur in a context where macro practices of the New Public Management and Community Police predominate? In the field research, documentary research techniques, interviews with police officers and participant observation were used, with notes of community meetings, assistance to residents by telephone and messaging applications, and police emergencies. The results show that micro community policing practices are immersed in a tension between a participatory approach to community policing and macro practices that favor the instruments of managerial public administration. This research shows that the perspective of strategy as a social practice offers alternatives to deal with these tensions.

Keywords:
Strategy-as-practice; Public security; Community police