Abstract

Despite all efforts to implement multi-ethnic policing, the under-representation of migrants as police officers is still a reality. The present paper questions the process to shape and proliferate multi-ethnic policing as well as the resulting effects of the first European transnational document – which covers almost all aspects of related policing – in order to gain further insights into the possibly disturbing or stimulating factors of implementation. One factor identified is ‘framing’, whose potential relevance is briefly evaluated using some recent examples concerning migration and policing. For the sake of this article, framing may be defined very basically as a well-directed multidimensional attempt to persuade relevant audiences of one’s own interests and may prove to be important in all fields of strategic action of policing. The winning or losing in budgetary competitions provides or diminishes resources for all kinds of police tasks and especially those targets who are marked as ‘unnecessary’ in the face of budgetary cuts. This is especially true concerning the transfer of social and democratic values into the police. Therefore ‘framing’ is probably one of the most essential strategic instruments for decision makers in the police to achieve their relevant goals in a dominantly neoliberal and increasingly populist environment.