The extraordinary intricacies of policing vulnerability

Vulnerable people have become a key focus of policy over the past few decades. As a result, police organisations have had to adapt to ongoing requests for specialised attention and protocol development to mediate the interactions between frontline officers and members of a variety of vulnerable groups. This article examines the various socio-political developments that have led to contemporary policing practices in relation to vulnerable people, and untangles a series of problems in our current approach to vulnerability. Additionally, we propose an alternative operationalisation of vulnerability, which shifts the focus from siloed cultural competency to integrated critical diversity, and in doing so, attempts to relieve some of the institutional, political and operational pressure faced by policing services.