Theorising police professionalisation and academic education

The paper explores the role of academic education in police professionalisation by placing it within a theoretical framework of sociology of professions. Police can be argued to display many of the qualities of professions but has lacked their characteristic level of ‘instructional abstraction’ provided by higher education and leading to externally recognised qualifications. Academic education bestows a rich cultural capital, strengthens and legitimises police expertise, market monopoly, and status. It enables the survival of the profession, giving it the tools to prevail in conflicts over competence and the right to define and interpret policing. The paper argues that that police professionalisation via academic education can be understood in terms of both the agency and structure: as a deliberate occupational upgrading spurred by social and economic aspirations, aimed to reconceptualise and relegitimise policing and as an inevitable development emerging out of the broader social changes

Leading sustainability in higher education

The paper presents preliminary findings from a small-scale research project on the experiences and changing identities of ‘ESD leaders’ in HE context. The key aims is to explore three interconnected ‘stories’ of 1) participants’ personal relationship with sustainability, 2) their experience of leading a specific sustainability focussed project, and 3) their conceptualisation of sustainability leadership and identity as an ESD leader. This is done via five narrative interviews with academics involved in ESD projects with curricular/pedagogic focus. The narrative approach reflects the conceptualisation of both sustainability and leadership as a ‘narrative enterprise’ involving meaning- and sense-making (Simkin, 2005; Handy, 1989) and ‘re-storying’ required for deep transformation (Herrick & Pratt, 2013). Theoretically, the project draws from and contributes to several areas of inquiry, including ‘general’ leadership studies, leadership research within HE context, particularly the increasing focus on distributed and informal leadership (e.g. Juntrasook et al, 2013; Bolden, Petrov & Gosling, 2008ab, 2009; Gosling, Bolden & Petrov, 2009), the broad education for sustainable development literature and the emerging sustainability leadership research

Police and higher education

The paper reports on a small pilot study which explored the above themes through semi-structured interviews of police officers and staff with higher education experiences

Criminology picks up the gauntlet: responses to the Whole Earth exhibition

The Whole Earth? exhibition (http://www.hardrainproject.com/) currently hosted by several institutions of higher learning in the UK, Scandinavia and Australia, including Canterbury Christ Church University. The exhibition comprises of over 60 meters of images and text, reflecting on the consequences of our unsustainable living practices but crucially also seeks solutions and ways to enact positive change by issuing ‘university challenges’ relating to various disciplines. Criminology/criminal justice, while not mentioned by name in the exhibition challenges, includes various theoretical approaches (e.g. critical criminology, zemiology, green criminology and public criminology) with clear sustainability links. More broadly, issues of inequality and injustice (and ways of addressing them) can be linked to the four areas of environmental, social, economic and cultural sustainability (UNESCO, 2005). Indeed, Agyeman and colleagues (2003: 3) note how “justice and sustainability are intimately linked and mutually interdependent, certainly at the problem level and increasingly at the solution level.” The project seeks to facilitate responses to the Whole Earth? exhibition hopefully moving toward concrete actions and behaviours. The more direct approach involves various reflective activities and focus groups, using the exhibition as a key stimulus to thinking about criminology/criminal justice links to sustainability and what the discipline and its students, both as a group and individually, can and should do. The ‘photo blogging’ activity allows students to draw the connections to their local context and encourages them to develop a ‘critical lens’ through which to view the issues of (in)justice and (in)sustainability in their own communities. This is particularly important as the exhibition images and text focus mostly on the developing world, the photo blogging The project adheres to and seeks to further Education for Sustainable Development approaches and principles (UNESCO, 2004; HEA/QAA, 2014). It is explicitly values-driven and collaborative (students as co-authors of any dissemination of results). It is authentic (i.e. relating to real-world issues and experiences) and locally relevant, facilitating interdisciplinary thinking and critical problem-solving. The project also provides an opportunity for experiential learning (particularly through photo blogging) and greater engagement of students with their local communities. This both links to and expands the formal curriculum and in so doing encourages critical reflection on sustainability and justice (ibid, Cotton & Winter, 2010; Willmore & Tweddell, 2014). The hoped for long-term impacts include increased awareness of sustainability and justice among students that will hopefully last beyond the University as well as assist in on-going efforts to embed sustainability into the curriculum

Unpacking the Blue Box: structure, control and education in policing

Research addressing the relationship between Higher Education (HE) and police officers tends to fall into one of three camps. First, that which explores the relationship between police institutions and academic institutions, second, those which explore the appropriateness of the HE setting for the delivery of police-specific knowledge, and, finally, research which investigates the impact of police higher education engagement upon police officer attributes and practice (Brown. 2018. Do graduate police officers make a difference to policing? Results of an integrative literature review. Policing: a journal of policy and practice, policing, 1–22. doi:10.1093/police/pay075). Thus far, little research has discussed the impact HE has on the relationship between officers and the police organisation. This research, derived from interviews with 31 police officers who undertook in-service degrees, explores police officers’ engagement with HE study and the consequent changes to their perception of their relationship with the profession. This is contrasted with the relatively unchanged structural and cultural expectations the organisation places on officers regardless of their newly acquired graduate status as reported in the extant literature (Hallenberg and Cockcroft. 2017. From indifference to hostility: police officers, organisational responses and the symbolic value of ‘in-service’ higher education in policing. Policing: a journal of policy and practice, 11 (3), 273–288). The discrepancy can be explained through the recent scholarship on public sector isomorphism and the police’s transformation into a hybrid organisation (Noordegraaf. 2015. Hybrid professionalism and beyond: new forms of public professionalism in changing organizational and societal contexts. Journal of professions and organization, 2, 187–206), as well as the competing knowledge paradigms within policing (Williams and Cockcroft. 2018. Knowledge wars: professionalisation, organisational justice and competing knowledge paradigms in British policing. In: L. Huey, and R Mitchell, eds. Evidence-based policing: an introduction. Bristol: Policy Press, 131–141). Importantly, however, the current paper takes this discussion deeper. It argues that the police’s unique role in serving not just the public but also state interests inevitably shapes and constrains the process of professionalisation, the relationship between the police and HE, and officers’ ability to use knowledge and skills gained through HE study

"It's just some numbers": Awareness of far-right tattoos

Whilst information and legislation around the practice of tattooing and associated health risks (PHE, 2013) is readily available, the ethics of tattooing, particularly the ethics of supporting customers to understand the meaning of their tattoos, is less so. Tattoos that convey a hidden meaning are prevalent among far-right groups (Birkett 2021) and identification of such symbols is widely utilised in combatting extremism (e.g. CTPHQ 2021, ADL 2022). Crusader imagery (Koch 2017), memes and meme culture (Bogerts and Felitz 2019 & De Crook 2018), Viking or Norse iconography (Miller-Idriss 2017) and punk aesthetic (Raposos and Bentley 2020) have all been associated with the far-right. However, none of these studies look at the process of being tattooed, determining the meaning of their proposed tattoo, or the role of the tattooist.    This paper reports preliminary findings of phase one of a project on seeking to address these questions. A sample of ~250 university students were surveyed about their own tattoos and meaning behind them, before asked to interpret the meaning behind different symbols, some overtly or covertly associated with extremist groups, and their suitability as tattoos, looking at the aesthetic appeal of the symbol as well as the meaning

Beyond crime: justice and sustainability in the classroom and community

Criminology and criminal justice are not perhaps the most immediately obvious disciplinary hosts for embedding ESD. Yet, specific theoretical approaches (critical criminology, green criminology, zemiology and public criminology) within them illustrate clear overlaps with the sustainable development agenda. Perhaps the most explicit connections between criminology and sustainability are made via the concept of justice. Agyeman and colleagues (2003: 3) note how “justice and sustainability are intimately linked and mutually interdependent, certainly at the problem level and increasingly at the solution level.” Issues of inequality and injustice (and crucially, ways of addressing them) can be linked to the four areas of environmental, social, economic and cultural sustainability (UNESCO, 2005). The paper reflects on how such considerations have been introduced into criminology and criminal Justice curriculum by way of a new and innovative module ‘Criminology for a Just Society’. The pedagogical approach adopted is explicitly interdisciplinary and student-centred. The learning, teaching and assessment strategies of the module were developed in close collaboration with the students, facilitating a strong sense of commitment and ownership. Service learning through volunteering placements and assessment embedding critical reflection and knowledge exchange have helped facilitate transformational learning for all involved. The paper reflects on the student and staff experiences from the first year of ‘Criminology for a Just Society’, focusing on the benefits and challenges of learning beyond familiar disciplinary and classroom contexts, and the more enriched and connected understanding of criminology and sustainability developed as a result

This is not a drill: Police and partnership preparedness for consequences of the climate crisis

This scoping study investigates the state of preparedness of the police and their partners for the potential consequences of the climate crisis in a UK context. The research engaged participants at strategic, tactical, and operational levels of planning and operations, and conducted a thematic analysis of qualitative data to identify key themes: climate change impacts; why the police should care; prioritisation and preparation, and enabling and impeding factors. The results suggest that the police and their partners may be ill-prepared for the gamut of possible consequences. Preparedness appears hampered by a narrow focus on legislated requirements, short-term planning, lack of funding and resources, and limited prescience. Recommendations are made for redefining planning parameters, strengthening central government engagement, amplifying awareness and understanding of trend analyses, prioritization of ‘futures’ thinking, ethical considerations, and collaborative preparedness. The study has implications for law, public policy, and professional practice in the UK, and other global jurisdictions seeking to develop risk assessment processes and preparedness for the consequences of climate change

Police and Higher Education

Interest in the relationship between police and higher education is not a new phenomenon. However, in the UK, co-operation between police and the academy has been slow to develop, particularly when compared to the United States and Europe. Nevertheless, a number of police-university partnerships and a variety of courses from Foundation to Masters level aimed at current and aspiring police officers has mushroomed over the last decade, illustrating a recent formalisation of the police-academia relationship in the UK. Overall, the relationship between police and academia has become more routine, taking place at organisational (as opposed to interpersonal) level. The recent introduction of the Certificate of Knowledge in Policing, overseen by the newly established College of Policing, is likely to further expand and deepen the relationship between police and higher education institutions. The impact of academic police education on the professional identities of the students and the broader organisational culture of the police is a topic that has so far garnered relatively little research (e.g. Punch, 2007, Heslop, 2011). Yet, professional communities, such as higher education and policing, strongly influence identity construction through the process of socialisation. Institutions define and confirm identities via expert knowledge systems that provide ways to interpret the social world and the individual’s place in it. Indeed, an individual’s entrance to the cultural landscapes of higher education or policing can be viewed as a transformational experience, requiring a renegotiation of one’s self-identity. The perceived and actual cultural and paradigmatic differences between the police and academia implies separate social (and mental) spaces which suggest conceptual tension, uneasy compromise, and a certain degree of dissonance are a possibility for the students wishing to occupy both worlds of higher educatio

This is not a drill: police preparedness for climate emergency

The growing evidence of the dangers facing communities across the globe prompted the UK Parliament to declare a climate emergency in 2019, but is policing prepared for this crisis? A new study by Dr David Lydon, Dr Katja Hallenberg and Violeta Kapageorgiadou of Canterbury Christ Church University suggests much more planning and briefing needs to done in relation to the future operating environment for policing, ethical dilemmas of policing a climate emergency, and developing thought leadership