‘It’s a Profession, it Isn’t a Job’: Police Officers’ Views on the Professionalisation of Policing in England

Lumsden, Karen

Abstract

This article focuses on police officers’ views on the professionalisation of policing in England against a backdrop of government reforms to policing via establishment of the College of Policing, evidence-based policing, and a period of austerity. Police officers view professionalisation as linked to top-down government reforms, education and recruitment, building of an evidence-base, and ethics of policing (Peelian principles). These elements are further entangled with new public management principles, highlighting the ways in which professionalism can be used as a technology of control to discipline workers. There are tensions between the government’s top-down drive for police organisations to professionalise and officers’ bottom-up views on policing as an established profession. Data are presented from qualitative interviews with 15 police officers and staff in England.

Citation

Lumsden, K. (2017). ‘It’s a Profession, it Isn’t a Job’: Police Officers’ Views on the Professionalisation of Policing in England. Sociological Research Online, 22(3), 4-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780417724062

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 15, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Sep 19, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017-09
• Deposit Date: Oct 10, 2019
• Journal: Sociological Research Online
• Electronic ISSN: 1360-7804
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 4-20
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780417724062
• Keywords: Sociology and Political Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2795706
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1360780417724062