Third Party Policing

“When police enlist landlords, businesses, and regulators to help fight crime.”

Summary

Third Party Policing (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in Criminology, 2006) offers a groundbreaking examination of a modern policing strategy in which the state “outsources” parts of crime control to non-offending third parties. Lorraine Mazerolle and Janet Ransley define the concept as the process by which police persuade or coerce actors—such as landlords, regulators, business owners, parents, and local officials—to take responsibility for preventing crime in settings where traditional guardianship is absent or ineffective.

The 261-page volume explores:

Theoretical foundations: how regulatory tools and civil remedies allow police to create crime control guardians in new venues.

Core dimensions: partnership mechanisms versus coercive levers, equity concerns, and unintended consequences of offloading enforcement to third parties.

Evidence from field cases: including initiatives like Oakland’s Beat Health Program and Minneapolis’s RECAP, where third parties were leveraged to address drug-related disorder and repeat offending locations

Challenges and accountability: ensuring fairness, maintaining public trust, and avoiding overreach through civil or regulatory enforcement

 Why It Matters

As law enforcement agencies increasingly rely on multi-agency cooperation, Mazerolle and Ransley’s work provides vital insight into how policing evolves in regulatory states. The book remains essential reading for policymakers, criminologists, urban planners, and civil society groups seeking to understand the risks and opportunities of shifting crime prevention beyond uniformed officers to broader community actors.