Post-conflict reconstruction and police reform are located in the security-development nexus where global and state power moves towards individuals. In recent years, there has been an increased investment by the EU and the UN to contribute to police reform in post conflict societies. This article offers a conceptual map for the analysis of power across contexts through police reform interventions in post conflict societies. It draws on various theories of power to explain the conceptual-contextual gap. This map facilitates the observation of the police as a technology of power and as a projector of power in post conflict societies. ‘Unintended-empowerment’ through power projection is introduced to explain how police as an organisation and policing as a practice are often undermined. The article concludes with an outline to assist the analysis of the conceptual-contextual gap in police reform interventions and outcomes in post conflict societies through power optics.

Following over a decade of focus on terrorism and transnational criminality, how have three ‘intermediate capacity’ countries (Denmark, Finland and New Zealand) structured their intelligence and law enforcement inter-organisational relationships to respond to such wicked problems? This article presents the results of case studies regarding Denmark, Finland and New Zealand that examined the inter-organisational arrangements between the countries intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The case studies used publicly available secondary sources from the period 1 January 2007–31 December 2012 to obtain data for analysis. The data was analysed using research that had established the types of inter-organisational relationships organisations can have to determine the relationships occurring in each of the countries. The results of the case studies establish that the three countries are committed to a variety of cooperative, coordinated and collaborative relationships.

Since the 1980s, police custody in England and Wales has experienced civilianization and privatization of roles once performed by the police. The purposes of this paper are to explore these organisational arrangements and to reflect on what they reveal about patterns of policing in the 21st century. These matters are examined using a unique 2014 survey of custody managers who provided data on 213 suites across 41 police forces in England and Wales, and the Isle of Man. Findings are presented on the extent of civilianization and privatization of custody suites, the conditions of the suites in terms of their busyness and whether they were seen as ‘fit for purpose’ by staff, as well as on the most common types of custody suites and their features. These findings show that whilst civilianization was common-place, privatization was not; over two-thirds of custody suites were owned, managed and staffed by police officers or civilian detention officers employed by the police. As such, the research does not support the idea that there has been a transformation of policing, at least not with respect to who owns, manages and/or staffs custody suites in England and Wales, where the police still have a monopoly.

Police are expected to be creative, but also systematic. This paper asks the question whether police strategies help promote creative policing. Estonia is the case study in this analysis; a country which has a police force that never systematically employed any model of policing, and where the sphere of police is under-researched. Using a content analysis of legal documents, the models and strategies of policing were analyzed, and five general coordination mechanisms of the police (military, bureaucracy, professionalism, community orientation, and public-private orientation) hovering above strategies were recognized. These mechanisms were analyzed in light of the developments of strategic thinking with the aim to identify opportunities for a creative and innovative way of policing. The findings illustrate that the mechanisms have various potentials in supporting to find “blue oceans.” The article makes suggestions for further research on promoting creative policing.