CSSRG Seminar 23-11-11

1. CSSRG Seminar 23-11-11 Katja M. Hallenberg Centre for Criminology and criminal justice School of Law, University of Manchester

2. Today’s Presentation Overview of the police research in the UK: why, what, when, who? My PhD research: Investigative skills training, academisation and professionalisation

3. Why Police Research? • Brown (1996) • Accountability function • Professionalising function • Efficiency measurement function • Change function • Innes (2010) • Police research as a ‘mirror’ and a ‘motor’

4. Types of Police Research • Innes (2010) • Research by the police • Research on the police • Research for the police • Research with the police

5. Development of Police Research • Reiner (1992, 2010) • Consensus • Controversy • Conflict • Contradiction • Crime control • ‘Happy rapprochement’ (Reiner, 1994)

6. Who Conducts Police Research? • Reiner (2010) • Sources of police research: academia, police, Home Office, journalists, think-tanks, government and independent research organisations • Brown (1996) • Inside insiders • Outside insiders • Inside outsiders • Outside outsiders

7. My PhD Research • Scholarly Detectives: Police Professionalisation via Academic Education • Aims: • To provide a picture of the current state of investigative skills training in England and Wales, • To explore the relationship between police and academia in general and in terms of academic police training in particular, • To explore the process of ‘police professionalisation’ within the framework of sociology of professions, and with emphasis on the role of academic education.

8. ‘Story of the research’ 24 semi-structured interviews 14 participants, trainers and training co-ordinators from two forces and NPIA Building a framework through theory and empirical data

9. Police and Academia “I think there’s no doubt that policing has moved much closer to academic ability than practical ability, or both hand-in-hand.” (Participant 5, Force Crime Training) • ‘Degree in Policing’ – police forces linking with universities • Changing relationship: • From individual to organisational • From extraordinary to routine • From high-end only to all levels of the organisation

10. Professionalisation via Academisation • The ‘missing ingredient’: systematic body of theory, instructional abstractions, qualifications • “I suppose the missing bit is that kind of what public perceive as the training, qualification type of thing.” (Participant 1, National Training Design, NPIA) • “We talk about professionalising investigation, but we’re not a professional, we’re not a profession. Because a profession has certain aspects that make it a profession. You got to have awarding bodies, you got to have academic literature. We’ve no integrated academic literature. You got to have some kind of registration system, people can be stroke off. You know, all those kinds of things that make a profession work. We’re kind of in between the idea of profession.” (Participant 4, National Training Design, NPIA) • From experience to expertise, legitimising the knowledge claim, external recognition • “And it has benefits for the service as well in relation to how people outside will see the police service now. Whether we can actually now say we’re professionals because we’re attaching qualifications, academic qualifications to the training that we deliver? So I think it’s benefit to the service in how the public perceive us in the future.” (Participant 6, Force Crime Training) • “It’s going to be more and more difficult to fight the corner for police officers with regards to government and pay and conditions and stuff like that, without I think, without that professional academic qualification behind us.” (Participant 7, Force Crime Training)

11. Benefits and Challenges • Potential benefits • Standardisation • Externally recognised qualifications and career flexibility • Personal development and improved self-image • Professionalisation and relationships with the public, Other Professions and Government • Broader knowledge and deeper understanding • Potential challenges • Competing demands: time and money • Acceptance, engagement, support • Plurality of options • Control and management • ‘Two worlds thinking’

12. Social Change

13. Ontological Shift? • Changing cultural truisms and new structured situations(Sciulli, 2009) “The demands of 21st century policing, with counter-terrorism, with technology-enabled crime, with all of those new arenas of… how do I put it? Not even a physical landscape. It’s an electronic landscape to police. We start talking about child exploitation online. And all those kinds of things. That’s the response, the police response. We can’t, you know you don’t get a Bobby to go to that. That’s somebody sitting down, with some skills who will be able to identify where those offences are taking place, to be able to target those offences. That requires skills to do that and requires training. [...] We’re dealing with that kind of environment, and to deal with that we got to be more professional, more skilled policing service for the public. I think that needs a much more professional institute. I think the whole idea of two-year probation, to be able walk out in the street and be the master, the jack of all trades but master of none – I think we are coming to a close and I think 21st century policing requires a different approach...” (Participant 4, National Training Co-ordinator, NPIA) • A new narrative of the police profession?