Introduction

Criminal justice has proved to be a long-standing site of substantive theological engagement. It may therefore come as a surprise to find that in the theological literature on criminal justice (at least in English), we find no substantive discussion of policing. Indeed, the case is no different in other discursive theological fields, such as Christian ethics, liberation theology, public theology, political theology or black theology, for instance. In all, we can find some occasional, passing and indirect mention of policing, but almost no sustained and substantive discussion where policing is the direct focus. There are a very few instances where policing does receive more than passing or fleeting attention (in texts where the focal interest is not, in fact, criminal justice), where it is similarly nonetheless secondary and instrumental towards other, more comprehensive frames of reference, primary ends and contexts of concern. Policing in its own right has therefore been curiously absent from all theological discourse as a site for direct, sustained and focused theological engagement, reflection, discernment or concern, whether critical or constructive.

In this chapter, I begin by asking what we might learn from this absence of specific, focal theological engagement with policing in the theological literature on criminal justice, as well as from those few discussions where there is at least some indirect mention or more extended consideration of policing towards other more primary ends, and whether and why that absence might matter. Those questions will help identify potentially productive theological foundations for a constructive and critical theological engagement, which I hope might also contribute in a small way towards a rich understanding of more conventionally established loci for theological discussion of criminal justice.

The constructive proposal is centred on love in the twin modalities of love of neighbour and love of enemies. Perhaps already this seems an unlikely candidate for a positive constructive theological engagement with policing; unlikely perhaps to survive exposure to its gritty, ambiguous reality. Suspicion about the role that might play in a constructive engagement with policing reflects perceived tension between love on the one hand and the dispensation of criminal justice on the other; suspicion that revolves around the role played by judgement, coercion, force, deprivation of liberty, confrontation.