Abstract

Rural police officers try to construct the identity of rural policing by telling stories. In their stories they explain how rural policing works and what its strength is. According to these stories, relations between police and citizens are different from what is usual in the cities. Rural police officers are more used to solving problems by ‘talking’ and not by ‘escalation’. Rural officers work on a broad range of problems, including all kinds of service tasks. Two factors are often mentioned why the rural police have a different (and ‘better’) way of working. The long patrol distances make that it takes a long time before assistance will arrive, so initially officers have to deal with problems on their own. The social density of rural communities makes that police officers have different positions compared with city officers. As a result rural officers are more focused on peace keeping than on rule enforcement.