Flying the Flag: A Mixed-Methods Study Examining Policing Subjectivity in a Canadian Auxiliary Police Service

Abstract

Although studies have explored the recruitment and retention of sworn police officers, the recruitment, retention, and roles of Canadian auxiliary police officers have largely been overlooked. Examining this issue through the lenses of self-determination theory, symbolic representation, and relations between the state and civil society, this research addresses the deficiency in the literature by examining the demographic composition, recruitment, retention, and role of an auxiliary police unit in a police service in Ontario, Canada. This study utilizes a sequential explanatory mixed-methods research design that collects quantitative data using a survey and supports this data with semi-structured interviews. I present two arguments in this dissertation. First, the ideal subjectivity of police volunteers has shifted, along with the state’s monopoly on crime control, from a primary focus on physical attributes, such as toughness and brute strength, to one where police organizations seek subjects with the right attributes to support positive community relations. Second, I argue that the state empowers auxiliary police volunteers to contribute to public safety in this way by fostering interactions along the margin between the state and civil society. This marginal work enables both the enfolding of civil society values and norms into the policing apparatus and the unfolding crime control functions into civil society. Despite being an indispensable resource, volunteerism in the public sector is decreasing, and recruiting and retaining auxiliary police volunteers has become challenging. Researchers should continue to study police auxiliaries due to the vital role they play in determining how police organizations relate to the communities they serve.