Police transformations – Explanatory policing in linguistic and cultural diversity

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bernd Meyer
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics ; Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 549223293

The 'Police Transformations' transfer project will develop linguistic routines, skills, and reflective abilities based on everyday police work that are adapted to changing social conditions and expectations. This will be achieved through a mutual exchange of specialist, practical, and experiential knowledge between linguists, social scientists, and police officers. The police play a central role in shaping social cohesion and managing conflicts in an increasingly linguistically and ethnically diverse Federal Republic of Germany. The interdisciplinary team of linguists and social anthropologists conducted a study on police officers and citizens' interactions in a linguistically and culturally diverse society. This study was part of the basic research project 'Police translations - multilingualism and the construction of cultural difference in everyday police work', which served as the predecessor project. The results indicate that police officers must communicate, explain, and question their actions more as police work is evolving into a primarily communicative task. The police are reflecting on and advancing independently through a challenging transformation process. The transfer of inputs from science is a definite possibility. The transfer project 'Police Transformations', applied for here, will confidently continue the linguistic work of the predecessor project with a clear focus on application. The scientific continuation project 'Policing as Categorization Practice' will undoubtedly further develop social science research questions. The predecessor project successfully identified specific linguistic challenges and analyzed best practices used informally by police officers. The knowledge transfer project resulting from this offers scientific support for the required organizational change.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants (Transfer Project)
• Application Partner: Polizeipräsidium Mainz
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Jan Beek; Professor Dr. Thomas Bierschenk