Policing Temporality: Police Officers Reflect on the Role of the Police in Gentrifying a High-Crime Neighborhood

Abstract

Prior research reveals the interrelations between gentrification and policing, yet this paper introduces the unheard perspective of the of police on their role in gentrification. The study focuses on South Tel Aviv, which houses immigrants, drug addicts, prostitution and houselessness. It is undergoing massive urban renewal and has become the most policed area in the city. Methodology includes interviews with police officers (N-15), ethnography with urban police and spatial analysis of urban renewal. The paper argues that: 1. Gentrifying a high-crime neighborhood triggers a collision of urban forces and spatial negotiations amid users, institutions, and areas in the city. 2. Police play a significant role in this process and must operate intensive borderwork on various scales, with technology becoming a tool for internal, microgeographical social borderwork. 3. Policing gentrification raises reflexivity among officers regarding their profession, social obligation and position in urban politics. The paper concludes with the concept of policing temporality to describe the role of police in gentrification.