LLEWELLYN, Nick <br/><br/>
Identifying with the audience :  a study of community police work 

 - Philaldephia :  Routledge,  July 2008 
<br/><br/> This article examines a public meeting at which a community inspector from the Metropolitan Police Force (London, UK) addressed an audience of Highgate residents about new arrangements for dealing with crime and anti-social behaviour. The article examines how the identities of criminals and those who engage in anti-social behavior are constructed in talk. In this regard, it highlights the inferential significance of “age” and “urban geography” in the inspector's discourse. A series of jokes are analyzed which are shown to trade—for their intelligibility—upon the audiences' ability to hear how place name descriptions position persons with respect to criminal activity. The article is a further explication of how public speakers generate rapport with audiences; it also reveals highly divisive aspects of community policing.