Ward, web, and world Geopolitical outlooks of and for the Dutch police

In 2017, the Dutch Police have summarized their position and ambitions in the statement Police: Connected to Ward, Web, and World. The statement combines a long-existing emphasis on local, community-oriented policing (‘ward’), since the 1980s, with a re-orientation towards transnational policing (‘world’), since the 1990s, and new urgencies to police digital space as well (‘web’). Against a backdrop of globalization and digitization, local places are pictured as ‘nodes’ in extended and intensifying networks, with possibly far-reaching consequences (like the undermining of Dutch society by global drugs trafficking). The statement, however, is rather general and may benefit from a more refined and reflexive spatial approach. To this purpose, this study develops a critical geopolitical framework. Geographical reasoning pertaining to the police is analyzed through seven geographical entities where the police (are expected to) do their work: place, region, infrastructure, network, territory, scale, and space (abbreviated as PRINTSS). The term ‘blue-PRINTSS’ refers to geopolitical outlooks of and for the Dutch police. These outlooks may be articulated by the Dutch police themselves, to reflect on their site and situation (outlooks of the police), or by other influential actors (outlooks for the police). The framework is used as a navigation device to explore the imaginaries of global (dis)order, crime and transnational policing, the evolution of the Dutch police landscape, Dutch scholarly police studies, and Dutch police education.