6 - Gift

Summary

The primary focus of this chapter is the third form of exchange relationship, donation or gift. Our concern here is with gifts to the police organisation, rather than to individual members. This can entail the giving of cash grants, or the provision of complimentary goods and services to the police organisation, usually in return for acknowledgment or recognition.

Part 1 of the chapter examines private sponsorship of public policing and its increasing importance to police organisations as a means of enhancing their resources. Part 2, similarly, considers the growing reliance of police organisations on the voluntary assistance of people who are not police officers.

PART 1: PRIVATE SPONSORSHIP OF PUBLIC POLICING

Introduction

While the notion of private sector subsidies or sponsorship of public police agencies and operations might strike those who favour a large state apparatus as less than desirable, the idea of private sponsorship of governmental functions is not at all new. Let's start with some easy cases:

• Funding for the arts: Many works of art are donated to public museums by private citizens. Many public art exhibitions are sponsored by corporations. The Louvre, traditionally resistant to naming galleries after benefactors, announced in 2007 that it will name a wing after Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and the Ruler of Abu Dhabi (Riding 2007).

• […]