An ethnography of gendered policing

It has been suggested that male police officers are the purveyors of a unique form of occupational masculinity. Publicised cases of sexual harassment and discrimination. which have come to light in the past few years, tend to support this assumption. Substantial out of court settlements seem to suggest that despite numerous attempts to reform what has been described as police 'canteen culture', a solution appears elusive. In this thesis therefore. evidence will be presented from fieldwork with two northern police forces to explore this supposedly masculinist culture. Various ways of explaining the interrelationships between men, power and identities will be analysed by theorising about 'certain aspects of policework which lend themselves to the maintenance of masculinities. Throughout this discussion the way occupational cultures, within male dominated environments, are bel ieved to perpetuate and reinforce certain ways of 'being a man' , will be considered. In the course of the analysis, status, sexuality, competence and heroism will be used to look at the way masculinist ways of working may have informed our ideas about the police

Police ethics and integrity: Keeping the ‘blue code’ of silence

This paper examines attitudes towards police ethics and integrity using the responses of police officers and support staff to some ethical dilemmas via an online questionnaire. The aim of the study was to explore potential connections between respondents’ beliefs about the seriousness or type of misdemeanour and their likelihood of reporting the behaviour. Using a series of scenarios, we explore professional ethics and integrity by analysing the evidence from our survey of around 1,500 police officers, police community support officers (PCSOs) and police support staff. Throughout, we aim to show which of the scenarios were considered the most ‘serious’, which are more likely to be reported, and offer some suggestions as to why the ‘blue code’ is significant. The findings suggest the persistence of a reluctance to report some misdemeanours; of the 10 scenarios created for the survey, there was a great deal of certainty around the reporting theft of cash, but respondents were less likely to report a colleague keeping a ‘found’ watch. Accessing the Police National Computer without due authority was seen as relatively ‘serious’ and covering up for a drink-driving colleague and use of excessive force were both likely to be reported. We discovered ambiguities in responses around sexual touching of a colleague in an office setting, but a lower level of concern regarding an officer who forms a romantic relationship with a victim of crime who he met in a professional setting. Respondents expressed distrust in the force’s anonymous messenger system, set up for reporting a colleague’s behaviour without revealing their own identity and said they could treat a whistle-blower with respect or caution, depending on the circumstances of the individual case

Putting their Bodies on the Line: Police Culture and Gendered Physicality

This paper looks at the way police officers talk about their bodies and reveals their beliefs about their colleagues’ abilities based on size, strength, and gender. It attempts to bring the study of ‘the body’ into the arena of police culture. Assumptions around front line policing being constantly fraught with danger, and requiring a strong, fit, and capable body are analysed by drawing upon data from an extensive period of ethnographic fieldwork. The officers’ highly sexualized and gendered notions of the body are discussed throughout the paper in terms of police culture. Their beliefs about force and strength—actual or imagined—and the ways in which the appearance of the body is important are analysed in terms of gendered policing. The way this is influenced by beliefs about bodies and occupational culture in policing more generally is examined in the light of certain tasks and activities

Democracy experts are divided on Lord Stevens’ proposals to reform police accountability

Last week the report of the Independent Police Commission, led by the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens and commissioned by the Labour Party, was published. Its recommendations included the abolition of the post of Police and Crime Commissioner – introduced in 2012 to establish a new form of democratic oversight of the police – and the replacement of the Independent Police Complaints Commission. In this post we ask experts in democracy and police accountability to respond to the proposals and consider the implications of further reform

Police ethics and integrity: Can a new code overturn the blue code?

This paper analyses police officer perspectives on the seriousness of potential misconduct or unethical behaviour, and the factors that might shape whether they would report their colleagues' misdemeanours. It compares responses from police officers in UK three forces, looking at potentially corrupt behaviours described in a series of scenarios. The discussion includes why some types of misdemeanour seem more likely to be reported and the potential effects of a newly introduced formal Code of Ethics. In terms of differences between ranks and roles, and different responses from different services, the study suggests that the way police culture operates is significant and needs to be more widely addressed. The study used scenario based questionnaires to elicit views about the seriousness of certain police behaviours and to ask whether officers would report colleagues' misdemeanours. It develops a previous survey by one of the authors which conducted a similar survey published in 2005. Using the same questionnaire the new study examined a larger and more diverse sample of serving officers (n=520). This new study compares responses from police officers in UK three forces, geographically distributed across the country and have differing characteristics in terms of size, rurality, population density and policing priorities

Governance of policing and cultural codes: interpreting and responding to policy directives

In terms of governance, British policing seems to arise from a history of local traditions influenced more recently by centralist managerial demands. A creeping process of privatisation has led social scientists to argue that patterns of governance in British policing are changing in several directions. This has included the way police officers not only are challenged, but also challenge these changing modes of governance in terms of ethical codes of behaviour. There is evidence that police officers, as meaningful actors, have made attempts to diverge from these strictures and have forged their own ways, via their cultural knowledge and practices, to ‘do policing’, rather than relying upon codes of practice or rules and regulations

Revisiting the Yorkshire Ripper Murders: Interrogating Gender Violence, Sex Work, and Justice

Between 1975 and 1980, 13 women, 7 of whom were sex workers, were murdered in the North of England. Aside from the femicide itself, the case was infamous for police failings, misogyny, and victim blaming. The article begins with a discussion of the serial murder of women as a gendered structural phenomenon within the wider context of violence, gender, and arbitrary justice. In support of this, the article revisits the above case to interrogate police reform in England and Wales in the wake of the murders, arguing that despite procedural reform, gendered cultural practices continue to shape justice outcomes for victims of gender violence. In addition, changes to prostitution policy are assessed to highlight how the historical and ongoing Othering and criminalization of street sex workers perpetuates the victimization of this marginalized group of women

Outsiders inside: ethnography and police culture

This chapter considers the issues around researching police culture. One of the tried and tested methods of researching police culture is to use an ethnographic approach. The study of police culture using ethnographic methods includes two studies. In the first case, the study was to be about ethical decision-making in cases of homicide investigation. The second case study is an earlier ethnographic set of observations of front line police officers in north-east England. Ethnography can cover every possible area of police culture, or provide any solutions to the so-called problems it poses, but it probably offers more insights than any other method could conceivably achieve. Ethnography is expensive, time consuming, difficult to arrange and carry out; it is problematic in terms of ethics and researcher safety. They provide the researcher with the feeling they have seen the inside of an occupational culture

Challenges of policing London: a conversation with the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir John Stevens

This interview explores the career and philosophies of one of the most powerful police commanders in the world, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Sir John Stevens, as the head of this Service, has some innovative and often controversial ideas about how London can be made the "safest capital city in the world". In the following "conversation" he explains the underlying approach to his work and future plans for improving the lives of the people who live in the city and its surroundings

Gender and policing: sex, power and police culture

Gender and Policing is an innovative study of the real world of street policing and the gender issues which are a central part of this. Derived from extensive ethnographic research (involving police responses to gangland shootings, high speed car chases as well as more routine policing activities), this book examines the way police attitudes and beliefs combine to perpetuate a working culture which is dependent upon traditional conceptions of ‘male’ and ‘female’. In doing so it challenges previously held assumptions about the way women are harassed, manipulated and constrained, focusing rather on the more subtle impact of structures and norms within police culture