Organisational and procedural justice : applying theory to police practice

Editorial: This special issue of the Journal for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism brings together original empirical and conceptual works on organisational and procedural justice. In particular we focus on the implications of the extant literature for policing, and how police organisations can better manage their internal and external relations with stakeholders. The work contained in this special edition emanates from the International Colloquium on Organisational and Procedural Justice held at the Australian Institute of Police Management (AIPM) in October 2012. The Colloquium was a bilateral meeting of academics and senior policing practitioners from across the world, with the aim of discussing three key themes: (1) What do we know about organisational and procedural justice as it relates to policing? (2) What are the benefits to the police of adopting an approach aligned to the key tenets of organisational and procedural justice? (3) How can police organisations operationalise these key tenets? These themes are variously picked up by the authors in the following papers. In this editorial we begin by considering what is meant by organisational and procedural justice, before outlining, in the interests of transparency, the Colloquium and the logistics behind the editorial process. We conclude by considering the key themes emanating from the papers.