Issues of the Qualitative Research on Police Communication

Abstract

Fundamentally, researching police communications exists on the boundary of two young sciences that have won independent recognition nearly simultaneously. Géza Finszter, the President of the Police Science subcommittee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, has given voice to his concern in recent years that the police is uncovering the dysfunctions of its organization by employing authoritarian communications and citing secrecy considerations, thereby inhibiting the transformation of the police into a high status occupation, cooperation with the citizenry, and the creation of mutual trust. In this article, I am going to review the history and opportunities, as well as the challenges of research in police communications; what dilemmas the communications researcher must face in the diversity of methodologies.