Research Teun Eikenaar new lecturer in Public Order and Danger Control Written on Friday, March 21, 2025 On 1 February 2025, Teun Eikenaar was installed as lecturer in Public Order and Danger Control at the Netherlands Police Academy. This makes him the successor of Otto Adang, who was lecturer in this subject from 2004 to 2024. Otto had a background in biology, Teun’s background is in anthropology and philosophy. ‘These are the two subjects I studied and that I still feel closely connected with,’ says Teun. ‘It isn’t as if I work my way through bulky philosophical publications every week, but my approach, also in the context of police issues, is always anthropological and philosophical.’ ‘To concretize this: I have conducted research into frontline professions in the security domain for about fifteen years,’ Teun explains. ‘This involves the police, but, for instance, also special investigating officers. I wrote my doctoral thesis about the latter. I was also employed by the Netherlands Defence Academy for a while, where I was involved in military issues, always based on an interest in the way of thinking and acting and the dilemmas of professionals in these lines of work. I conduct my research by talking a lot, interviewing people, but also by being present and truly involved, based on an open interest.’ In the backseat This is why Teun is mainly interested in what police officers do and experience every day. ‘What are the difficulties you run into, how do you make your work meaningful, how do police officers mutually cooperate? I always enjoy riding in the backseat of the patrol car or hanging out near the coffee machine, not because I love the coffee, but to gain insight into what is going on in a frontline team. What is on the minds of the police officers and how do they talk about their jobs.’ ‘An interview or a survey provides very valuable data, but to really get into the fibres and capillaries of an organization, you need to tag along with its people. Not all people are equally eloquent when talking about their jobs. What they consider to be important can be seen in the way they do their jobs. That’s gold to me.’ At the Local Policing Knowledge Centre, Teun works as a lecturer in Public Order and Danger Control, but this will not be his only job at the Police Academy. ‘I’ll play a double role. For a while now, I have been involved in further shaping the moral resilience theme by studying moral injury and moral strain, especially among police and Royal Netherlands Marechaussee officers.’ ‘What were the intense incidents you encountered? What is still on your mind? But also, what part of your work do you consider to be valuable? Do you manage to do or achieve this in the context of your job? In this study, I will closely cooperate with Annika Smit, lecturer in Resilience. The moral component of resilience is such an extensive subject. It leaves a lot to be explored and raises a great number of questions. This fits the philosopher in me.’ Legacy Teun is a relative newcomer in the field of public order and danger control. ‘It is an area of expertise that Otto very effectively put on the map. He was a figurehead on this theme and has left us quite an extensive legacy. Thinking about the option to use force touches on the core task of the police. The monopoly on the use of force is a vital and precarious asset. This has always had my interest.’ ‘Not so much in an instrumental sense, but in relation to the meaning of this monopoly on the use of force. How do police officers bear the monopoly on the use of force? What are the internal dynamics in play within the police regarding the demand for more or other means of force? How do we account for the implementation of the monopoly of the use of force to the outside world, but also to ourselves?’ Social subjects also interest Teun. ‘Take, for instance, the climate protests. A new relationship seems to be developing between protesters and the police. Previously, a sort of informal contract appeared to be in place between them that indicated how protests should be conducted and in what way the authorities facilitated them. But this contract seems to be changing. Under pressure from politics and public opinion, potential limitations of the right to demonstration are being discussed. I consider these challenging issues that I have not yet formed an opinion on, but these are research subjects that I would like to delve into.’ Building a bridge It is Teun’s intention to partly build on Otto’s legacy and partly select a new personal approach. ‘As an anthropologist and a philosopher, I am someone with a different outlook, who emphasizes different things. This may result in fresh insights. Substantively, Otto and I may arrive at the same conclusion, but I think we will reach our conclusions by at least partly different routes.’ ‘For instance, I will try to build a bridge between public order and moral issues. To find cross-pollination between these subjects. Succeeding Otto means I’ve got large shoes to fill. But I’m also planning on buying a pair of my own.’