Police and the Policed

Language and Power Relations on the Margins of the Global South

This book examines communication between police and residents of a designated crime ‘hotspot’ community in the Global South. It looks at communicative realities within a marginalised community in the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago and explores how police and the individuals that they police purposefully assign categories to each other before, during and after interactions. It also examines the relations between the police and the community and how power is manifested through authored or assigned labels, stigmas and stereotypes. Overall, it suggests alternative strategies to address problematic police and community relations and provides another standpoint from which communicative redress between police and residents of marginalized communities in the Global South can be approached.