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This paper examines the perceptions of police who work in Queensland's discrete Indigenous communities. Given the strong relationship between policing practices and the environments in which police work, we examine how 'place' and 'space' – particularly the environmental context of Queensland's discrete Indigenous communities – can inform policing. Interviews with fifteen police officers who work in Indigenous communities across Queensland found that police felt like strangers in Indigenous communities; they were acutely aware of their status as a (predominantly) white minority in a (predominantly) non-white space, which had implications for their policing practices. This also contributed to their perceptions of discrete Indigenous communities as strange lands – spaces in which their own (settler) social norms did not necessarily apply, and within which the work of policing had to be adjusted and reshaped. Overall, police found it difficult to reconcile their experiences of policing in discrete Indigenous communities with their experiences of policing elsewhere in Australia. In many ways, they were not trained nor prepared for policing in these distinct contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of retirement on police officers. Using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 police retirees from Queensland, Australia, we explore the impacts of retirement on police officers' sense of wellbeing as well as the coping strategies utilised by retirees in the transition from paid employment to retirement. We found experiences of retirement varied amongst participants depending on the role they had whilst policing, the type of social interactions they had pre and post retirement and their financial position. Common themes include conflicting emotions, relevance deficit, anger and disappointment, financial issues and the loss of social networks. Coping mechanisms involved psychological counselling, expanding external social networks and seeking out other interests and hobbies in the lead up to/upon retirement. We suggest these findings can enable policing organisations to provide improved support for police officers leading up to retirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police views of young people inform the way they exercise discretion over this group. However, few studies have sought to formally document and examine police views of young people. The limited existing research is also mostly dated. This article begins to address this gap in the literature by presenting the results of semi-structured qualitative interviews with 41 police officers from Queensland, Australia. Stemming from a larger study of Police-Citizens Youth Clubs and using a grounded theory approach to data analysis, the article demonstrates the key ways in which police conceptualised young people. It reveals that while police had varied views, they predominantly constructed young people as in need of intervention. The article concludes by arguing that such a conceptualisation of young people could be problematic, given that police intervention has been shown to be a strong predictor of future criminal justice involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people with cognitive disabilities (YPWCD) are overrepresented as offenders in the criminal justice system. However, most existing research on this topic examines overrepresentation in courts and corrections rather than at the police gatekeeping stage of the criminal justice process. Furthermore, while the views of other groups have been documented, the perspectives of service providers - who often bear witness to YPWCD's interactions with police - have yet to be examined. This research addresses this gap by analysing qualitative interviews with service providers from Queensland, Australia, using the three most common theoretical explanations for the overrepresentation of PWCD (the susceptibility, differential treatment and psychosocial disadvantage theses) as an analytic framework. A number of implications emerged from the study. There is a need to take a critical and intersectional lens to YPWCD's experiences, as well as to equip police to work with YPWCD to de-escalate interactions with this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]