Police occupational culture

Classic Themes, Altered Times

Bibliographic Data

ID5817153
AuthorsBethan Loftus (0000-0002-5346-1332, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume20
Issue1
Pages1-20
Publication date2009-11-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolicing & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1043-9463 • E-ISSN: 1477-2728
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10439460903281547
OpenAlexW2005347883
LanguageEN
Citations received220
References cited39

Understandings of police culture rely heavily on ethnographies conducted several decades ago. In these classic accounts, authors have identified recurring themes within police dispositions and practices over time and space. There have, however, been important developments within policing contexts, some of which could be expected to transform the cultural ethos that has long underpinned the police identity. This article draws upon ethnographic research conducted in an English police force to explore how much of the classic characteristics of police culture have survived the period of transition. It shows that the underlying world view of officers displays remarkable continuity with older patterns, and argues that police culture endures because the basic pressures associated with the police role have not been removed. In light of this apparent durability of cultural themes, the article calls into question the increasingly accepted view that orthodox conceptions of police culture no longer make any sense. Keywords: police cultureorganisational changecore characteristicscommunity policing Notes 1. I particularly have in mind the Macpherson Report (Macpherson Citation1999) which famously declared that failure to properly investigate the racist murder of black student Stephen Lawrence in London was a consequence of 'institutional racism'. Media exposés of highly questionable police conduct have likewise propelled problems of police culture into public consciousness (e.g. BBC documentaries such as The Secret Policeman and Undercover Copper). 2. In order to preserve the anonymity of the Force, I have given the organisation a pseudonym. The names of all individual officers, and some details, have likewise been changed. 3. The latter are designed to manage those incidents requiring an immediate response or ones within short timescales, while the former are involved in community work. 4. The IMU comprised of five separate shifts (1-5), while the CAT officers operated along one shift system. 5. These included the promise of extra police powers, an expansion of the prison system and more severe prison sentences, the reduction of police paperwork and the enhanced recruitment of 'real' police constables (as opposed to civilian Police Community Support Officers, for example). 6. What is notable in these cases was officers' use of Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. This piece of legislation provides arrest powers for relatively trivial offences and was extensively employed by the police to charge people for offences to which they have no real defence (see also Dixon Citation1997). 7. On the face of it, these instances of 'easing' demonstrate that not all officers shared a thirst for action or worked with the dominant crime control model of policing. But it is worth emphasising that only certain types of crime - and people - were viewed within this framework. 8. There was a limit of what acceptable easing behaviour was, however. On one occasion, some officers were caught sleeping in the parade room during their night shift. This was heavily frowned upon by the other shifts as it meant they had left their patch wide open to 'outsiders

Policing Practices and Perceptions