1
Results of a survey on the state of the police
service in England and Wales
Ben Bradford, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford
Jennifer Brown, Mannheim Centre, London School of Economics
Isabell Schuster, Mannheim Centre, London School of Economics
This survey was initiated by the Stevens Independent Commission into the future of
Policing in England and Wales and conducted with the help and support of the
Police Federation of England and Wales and the Superintendents Association.
Results are based on an on-line survey of officers up to the rank of chief
superintendent. Over 14,000 police officers responded, equating to one in ten of all
serving officers.
December 2012
2
Key findings
The purpose of the police
 There was strong agreement among respondents about the crime fighting, crime
prevention and reassurance purposes of the police.
Delivery
 Three-quarters (76%) of respondents felt the police treat the public with
respect, which accords with IPCC confidence survey data indicating 75% of the
public are happy with police-public contacts.
 72% felt that the police overall are doing a good or an excellent job.
Legitimacy
 About half (54%) believed public opinion toward the police has changed for the
worse over the last ten years, especially young people, motorists and those
from the working class.
 Less than one quarter (22%) of respondents felt closely aligned with the stated
values of their force.
 Police officers are concerned about the impact of police and crime
commissioners:
 Over two-thirds (69%) of respondents thought PCCs not a good idea.
 Nearly four-fifths (78%) strongly agreed police service should be free of
political influence.
Relationships
 Respondents did not believe they are supported by the present government
(95%) or by the media (82%), or indeed ACPO (69%) and the judiciary (56%).
 There was widespread, although by no means universal, agreement that police
relationships with different population groups (such as motorists, young people
and the working class) have deteriorated over recent years.
Organization
 A plurality of officers who responded to the survey (43%) wanted to retain the
43-force structure, as at present, although 29% opted for some regionalisation
and 18% a national police force.
Workforce and work relations
 More than half (56%) of the police officers who responded to the survey had
recently contemplated leaving the service, with mid-career constables the most
likely to have done so.
 One third of respondents (33%) were very worried about the threat of being
forced to retire.
 Respondent’s sense that they are treated in a fair and equitable manner was
linked to their sense of the legitimacy of the service and their commitment to it.
Forces with officers who feel they are treated in a fair and equitable manner
tend to be those that receive lower levels of complaints from the public.
3


One-fifth (20%) of officers say they experience bullying at work all or some of
the time. Forces where respondents report higher levels of bullying also tend to
be those that receive more complaints from the public.
Only one quarter (27%) of respondents thought a national college of policing a
very good idea
Resources
 Respondents were generally opposed to the involvement of private companies
in policing:
 Less than half (44%) thought private involvement in managing custody
suites a good idea
 Over 80% thought private involvement in traffic accidents, interviewing
witness or suspects, dealing with victims of crime a bad idea.
4
Results of a survey on the state of the police service in England and Wales
Contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Methodological note
3.
The purpose of the police
4.
Delivery
5.
Legitimacy
6.
Relationships
7.
Organization
8.
Workforce and work relations
9.
Resources
10. Conclusions
11. References
12. Appendix
5
1. Introduction
This paper reports results from a survey initiated by The Stevens Commission, which
has been tasked with examining the future of policing in England and Wales. It was
inspired by Lord Stevens’ commitment to engaging as wide a range of views from
police officers about the future of their service. Additional surveys are being conducted
with police staff and also the general public.
The last root and branch examination of the Police Service was the 1960-62 Royal
Commission. Conditions prevailing at that time were the growth of affluence; decline
in deference; inclination to question authority; glorification of youth culture; civil
protest; self-conscious African-Caribbean/Asian identity; and changes wrought by new
technology; police scandals. Political scandals such as the Profumo affair created an
atmosphere that suggested a remoteness of political life from ordinary people and
fostered distrust in politicians. More specifically the Royal Commission was preempted by a number of police corruption cases and Parliamentary concern over the
management of complaints about police conduct.
A similar atmosphere prevails today, with the context of policing affected by the
banking crisis and the apparent low number of individuals identified for criminal
prosecutions; the Leveson inquiry which was critical of the police investigation into
the phone hacking scandals and a perception that may have been created of too close a
relationship between press and police; the death of Ian Tomlinson during a G20
protest, the implications of the Hillsborough report on the probity of South Yorkshire
officers’ statements at the time of the disasters, so called ‘pleb-gate’ affair of the
Government Chief whip’s alleged comments to a police officer, the suicides of chief
officers under investigation, and the recent sacking of a chief constable. Yet, while
current concerns around the police resonate with the context of the earlier
Commission, there are some important social and economic differences. To name just
two, advances in information technology have dramatically changed people’s access to
information and modes of social interaction and, rather than the relative affluence of
the 1960s, we are now entering what many have characterised as an age of austerity.
Policing itself has moreover gone through significant change. At the time of 1962
Commission England and Wales had a traditional model of policing: single beats on an
alternating shift, a pattern that had prevailed for more than 100 years. Since then there
has been an increasingly rapid cycle of change, with the advent of policies such as unit
beat policing, problem oriented policing, reassurance policing, neighbourhood
policing, evidence-based policing – the list could go on. The management of the police
has evolved through the application of new public sector management techniques,
financial management initiatives, ‘value for money’, ‘best value’ and now austerity led
management.
As in the case of the earlier commission, the Commission chaired by Lord Stevens is
committed to hearing what the police themselves have to say about the present state of
and the impeding changes to their service as well as enquiring into their own present
assessment of their service and its management. It therefore commissioned this survey
as one aspect of a wider enquiry into the views of serving officers across a range of
subjects. Some questions in the 2012 survey mirrored items included in a similar
survey fielded on behalf of the 1962 commission (in 1960). Throughout this report we
6
draw comparisons across the two surveys, and we therefore have measures of the
views of police officers separated by 60, sometimes very turbulent, years.
The current Commission is structured around seven key themes: purpose; delivery;
legitimacy; relationships; organization; workforce; and resources. Each of these themes
is picked up in this report, which comprises a preliminary account of a survey
conducted with ranks of officers up to chief superintendent.
The Commission gratefully acknowledges the assistance and support of the Police
Federation and the Superintendents Association in the conducting of the survey.
2. Methodological note
This report comprises data collected via an on-line survey (using Survey Monkey) sent
to all serving officers up to the rank of Chief Superintendent during the last two weeks
of September and first two weeks of October, 2012. The survey included both closeended questions, usually with responses on Likert-type scales, and open-ended ‘freetext’ questions that allowed respondents to enter response in their own words. We
report findings from both types below, although the main emphasis is on the closeended questions.
In all 16,267 people responded to the survey. Of these, 14,167 indicated they were
serving police officers. The remainder were members of police staff. For present
purposes they were excluded from the analysis as this group are the subject of a
separate survey, the results of which will be published in due course.
The response rate represents one in ten of all officers serving up to the rank of chief
superintendent. The response rates are given in the Table 1.
Table 1: Officer numbers, 2012, and survey responses
Total
number
Survey
number
Response
rate (%)
Men
98,352
11,410
12
Women
36,014
2,686
8
6,673
602
9
127,693
14,167
11
Chief Superintendent
404
42
10
Superintendent
942
105
11
Chief Inspector
1,780
224
13
Inspector
6,657
1,020
15
Sergeant
21,457
3,057
14
Constable
103,126
9,698
9
All
134,366
14,167
11
BME
White
7
The overall survey response rate was around 11%. Table 1 shows that there was some
variation across demographic categories and ranks. Male officers were more likely to
have responded than female; while BME officers were somewhat less likely to have
responded than White officers. Response rates rose from Constable to Sergeant to
Inspector, before falling back again as rank increased further.
In terms of the representativeness of the achieved sample, therefore, men are over
represented (73% serving, 81% responding) and women under-represented (27%
serving and 19% responding). By contrast, 5% of respondents were from BME groups,
approximately proportional to the representation of ethnic minority groups in the
service. As Table 2 shows, proportionately more officers at sergeant rank and fewer
constables replied to the survey than are presently serving. Proportionately more
inspectors responded.
Table 2: Officers by rank: as proportion of total police strength and as proportion
of achieved sample
Percentages
Constable
Sergeant
Inspector
Chief Inspector
Superintendent
Chief
Superintendent
Proportion
of serving
officers
77
16
5
1
1
Proportion
of survey
respondents
68
21
7
1
1
0.3
0.3
It is important to note that with a response rate of around 10%, the achieved sample
should not be considered to be representative of all serving police officers. Significant
bias may have resulted from self-selection into, or out of, the sample, as well as other
factors, and the results presented in this report should be treated as purely indicative.
Nevertheless, the sheer size of the sample – one in ten of all serving officers – along
with evidence presented below that suggests the survey does not cover only the views
of the disaffected, implies that the survey results is a useful indicator of the opinions
of police officers serving at this time of significant upheaval, both within the police
and more widely.
3. The purpose of the police
An early task the Commission set itself was to examine the purposes of policing and to
revisit the ‘Peelian principles’. While the provenance of these principles remains
uncertain (Reiner 2012), they very clearly set out the functions of the police as
preserving order and investigating crime but whose “principal object” was to be the
prevention of crime (General Instructions, 1929:1). These instructions went on to
explain that the “security of persons and property, preservation of the public
8
tranquillity will thus be better protected than by the detection and punishment of the
offender after he has succeeded in committing the crime” (p2). This dual role – dealing
with crime and preserving order – to this day corresponds well with what is known
about the public’s vision of the purpose of policing (Jackson et al. 2012a; c.f. Bittner
1974).
Governments in recent years have privileged crime fighting – that is, dealing with
crime after it has occurred - yet, as Reiner points out, while he may have had rather
little to do with the principles as they have come to be known, as shown above, ‘what
is beyond doubt is that Peel emphasised ‘prevention of crime’ as the key role of the
New Police’ (Reiner 2012: 8, emphasis added). Reiner further notes that the social
service and crime control components of modern policing are encapsulated in the force
versus service debate. Achieving a balance between these ends, which may be both
complementary and in competition is arguably the key debate in modern policing
(Loader in press), the survey therefore probed officer’s opinions about the purpose of
the police as they see it.
Officers responding to the survey were very clear about what they consider to be the
main purposes of policing with over 90% saying that each the following activities or
factors are important or very important
 Maintaining order
 Investigating locally committed volume crime such as burglary
 Maintaining focus on serious crime
 Preventing crime
 Counter-Terrorism
 Dealing with anti-social behaviour
 Reassuring communities
Of somewhat lesser importance was the police mandate to protect civil liberties (69%
said this was important or very important), and, particularly, the police’s roles in
dealing with mentally ill people – only 28% of respondents thought this important or
very important.
Interestingly when asked by Ipsos MORI poll on behalf of Police Federation 2011
which organizations are responsible for providing various services members of the
public indicated their belief that a range of agencies should be involved; but also that
there should be a clear lead agengy in each cases (see Figure 1). The police were the
clear lead in cases of domestic abuse but less so with other vulnerable groups. It was
striking that little if any involvement was thought appropriate from the private sector.
9
Figure 1: Public preferences for the delivery of services
Answers to the question: ‘Which of the organizations on this card do you think are responsible for
providing the following services?’
Percentages
Source: Ipsos MORI poll, 2nd Feb 2011. n=1,141
Investigating serious and local crime, maintaining order and crime prevention were
critical elements of the police role to all respondents in the current survey, independent
of gender, rank or ethnicity and, for the most part, location. However, with respect to
the police’s involvement with the mentally ill or protecting human rights, there were
some differences between provincial and metropolitan forces. This division relates to
local authority arrangements. In England, Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties
are one of the four levels of administrative subdivisions outside Greater London.
Police forces associated with Metropolitan counties are Greater Manchester,
Merseyside, South Yorkshire and West Midlands, with London being policed by the
Metropolitan Police Service. So-called “shire” counties are policed by provincial
police forces that are smaller in number of officers than the metropolitan police forces
and have lower populations. Officers in the provincial forces were more likely to
endorse a human rights mandate for the police, while those in the metropolitan were
more likely to endorse police responses to the mentally ill.
4. Delivery
The Commission felt that, in thinking about what the police do, it was crucial to
consider how officers undertake their policing tasks. Taking their answers to the
functions described above a median split was calculated for endorsement of items that
can be thought of as crime control (investigating locally committed volume crime such
as burglary, maintaining focus on serious crime, counter-terrorism and dealing with
anti-social behaviour) and also for items making up more social welfarist/community
interventions (crime prevention, reassurance, protecting human rights, dealing with the
mentally ill, supporting the building of community cohesion).
10
It was then possible to classify police officers in terms of their endorsement of these
two broad areas of delivery, crime control and social engagement. Two-fifths (42%) of
the officers who responded weighted crime control as more important than social
welfare, while 58% thought both equally important. Men, sergeants and inspectors and
white or Chinese officers were the more likely to be crime oriented, while women,
probationer constables and chief superintendents, and those from non-Chinese BME
backgrounds were more likely to be both crime and social welfarist in orientation.
Those officers who believe that the police function should incorporate both crime
control and welfare functions appear to be more open to innovation. They were more
likely to be supportive of the idea of the police college, private involvement in
policing, and to think of themselves as closer to their force’s values. They were
however more likely to wish the 43 forces to remain as they are, possibly because they
wished to maintain a close link between police and local communities.
When it came to their assessments of the performance of the police, just over half of all
respondents (53%) agreed or strongly agreed that the police service concentrates its
efforts on doing the right things; 34% disagreed with this proposition. However,
respondents with a crime focus were more likely than not to disagree that the service
concentrates on doing the right things (64% disagreed), while only 39% of respondents
who prioritised both crime and social welfare disagreed with the idea that the service is
doing right things. See below for more discussion of these questions.
The survey also contained an item that mirrors a question that has been fielded to
members of the public, via the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW), for many
years: ‘Taking everything into account, how good job do you think the police in
England and Wales are doing?’ Some 21% of all respondents thought that the service
was doing an excellent job; 51% gave a ‘good job’ response, while 23% indicated a
fair job and 4% a poor job. By comparison, over the 12 months July 2011 to July 2012,
some 62% of the public felt their local police were doing an excellent or good job
(ONS 2012). Officers are therefore more likely than the general population to think the
police are doing an excellent or good job, but perhaps not by a particularly large
margin.
Respondents to the officer survey who had a combined crime and welfare orientation
were somewhat more likely to think that the police service as a whole is doing an
excellent job (23%) compared to those with a crime focus (17%). Across the different
ranks the most junior (student/probationer constable) and the most senior (chief
superintendent) respondents were the most likely to think the police service is doing an
excellent job. Female respondents were more likely to think this than male
respondents.
Figure 2 shows that overall there was little significant variation in responses to this
question by ethnicity. Yet, the results suggest that Black officers had somewhat more
favourable views on this measure than their White counterparts. Given the on-going
problems in relation to racism and discrimination faced by the service this finding
11
should be treated with some caution, and it may reflect nothing more than bias
introduced by self-selection into the sample.1 It is, nevertheless, an intriguing result.
Figure 2: Rating of ‘how good a job’ the police do: by ethnicity
Percentages
Police fairness
Research has shown that the fairness of police actions is a key concern for members of
the public (see Jackson et al. 2012a), with concerns revolving primarily around the
‘procedural fairness’ of police activity (Tyler 2006). What then did respondents to the
officer survey feel about the fairness with which police services are delivered?
On the whole, respondents felt the police treat members of the public with respect. The
majority of officers (76%) thought the Police Service dealt respectfully with members
of the public always or very often, 21% thought this was the case often, and only 2%
thought it happened not very often. Respondents were somewhat less positive,
however, in terms of impartiality of decision making when forwarding cases to the
CPS. Such decisions were thought to be made always or very often on a fair basis by
56% of the sample, while 33% felt this was done often and 11% felt such decisions
were made fairly not very often or not at all often. When it came to the police’s actions
and decisions being explained to members of the public in a timely fashion – a key
aspect of procedural fairness (Tyler and Huo 2002) – only 29% of survey respondents
thought this was achieved always or very often, 44% felt it often happened, and 27%
not very often or not at all. What these results suggest are that police officers
themselves do note areas where they can improve.
Notably, officers with a crime control orientation were more critical of police delivery
with respect to explaining actions to members of the public, forwarding cases to the
1
There were also only a small number of Black officers in the survey.
12
CPS and dealing respectfully with members of the public. Women officers are more
positive in their ratings of delivery in these three regards than men.
By and large critical assessment of delivery was associated with rank (Figure 3). In
terms of explaining decisions to the public, assessments became more critical the
higher the rank. When it comes to despatching papers to the CPS impartially then the
reverse trend was observed with greater criticism associated with lowering rank.
Overall there were few officers of any rank who believed that members of the public
were not treated with respect.
Figure 3: Assessments of poor service delivery: by rank
Percentage thinking each aspect of service is achieved ‘not at all often’ or ‘not very often’
These findings imply that police officers are aware of potential problems in the way
interactions with the public are handled, particularly in relation to the flow of
information between police and citizen. Indeed, there is some evidence that public
experiences of direct contact with police officers have improved in recent times. For
example, data from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) suggest
that levels of satisfaction with encounters with police contact, which were already
quite high, have increased further in the last few years, rising from 70% in 2008/09 to
76% in 2010/11.
5. Legitimacy
Legitimacy and accountability issues are critical to the notion of policing by consent,
the bedrock of the model of policing in the United Kingdom. The Police Federation
(2008) explained the basis in law for the holding of the office of constable:
The Office of Constable means a police officer has the additional legal powers of arrest and
control of the public given to him or her directly by a sworn oath and warrant. These are not
13
delegated powers simply because they have been employed as an officer. Police officers are not
employees. Each sworn constable is an independent legal official; they are not agents of the
police force, police authority or government. Each police officer has personal liability for their
actions or inaction. The chief officer of the force to which the constable is attached also has a
level of corporate responsibility. Those who hold the Office of Constable are servants of the
Crown, not employees. Police officers have access to most statutory employment rights afforded
to employees, but it is a criminal offence for police officers to take industrial action.
So, we often think of the legitimacy of the police as their accountability in law; yet,
legitimacy is also a feature of the beliefs and actions of the populations the police
serve. Research has tended to find that public perceptions of police legitimacy are
grounded most strongly in trust in or experiences of procedural justice (Jackson et al.
2012b; Tyler and Huo 2002), although many other factors are also likely to be
important. Furthermore, police officers also have a sense of their own legitimacy, and
the legitimacy of the organization they work for, in relation for example to the ability
of individual officers and the organization to command respect and deference from the
public (Bottoms and Tankebe 2012).
Work on legitimacy in criminal justice settings (Bottoms and Tankebe 2012; Jackson
et al. 2012b) stresses that legitimacy is a multi-faceted concept that encompasses
factors such as the relationship between police and public, citizen and police views of
the efficacy and social usefulness the of the police, concerns about the legality and
probity of police activity, and sense of shared values among those working within the
organization and in its relationships with citizens. A number of questions tapping into
these ideas were included in the survey, and we summarise the results below.
Relations between police and public
Just over half (54%) of the police officers in the survey thought that the public’s
opinion of them had changed for the worse in recent years (see Figure 6). A further
question asked specifically about how much officer though the public supported them.
About 10% thought that the public gave them very little support, about 25% thought
not very much support, 59% thought some support and 6% a great deal of support.
Officers with a crime focus were marginally more likely to think relations with the
public had changed for the worse (57%) compared to 52% of those with a crime and
welfarist orientation.
There is an interesting comparison to be made with the original 1960-62 Royal
Commission, which also ran a survey assessing attitudes among serving officers. An
even higher proportion (around 70%) of officers in 1960 thought that public attitudes
had changed for the worse, while almost none thought they had changed for the better.
Considerably more officers in 1960 than in 2012 thought there had been no real
change. A narrative of decline in the relationship between police and public appears,
on this basis at least, to have had currency within the police service for over 50 years.
14
Figure 4: Police officer attitudes about change in public opinion towards them:
1960 and 2012
Percentages
Turning to officer’s own views relating to the legitimacy of the police, Table 3 shows
results from questions probing some of the different elements of ‘self’ legitimacy.
These questions are intended to tap into respondent’s sense that the police concentrates
on doing the right thing, is free from corruption, and fulfils a useful social function.
Table 3: Police officers’ views about different aspects of ‘internal’ legitimacy
Percentages
Strongly
agree
Police
concentrate
most of their
effort on doing
the right things
Police are
generally
free from
corruption
If we have fewer
police we'll have
less crime
7
42
74
Agree
46
50
20
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
31
4
3
15
1
1
2
2
1
14,141
14,148
14,159
Don't know
n (=100%)
Respondents were generally fairly certain that (a) police are needed to combat crime
and (b) that British police are broadly free of corruption. Yet, there was much less
consensus in relation to the idea that ‘police concentrate most of their effort on doing
the right thing’, with only a bare majority (53%) agreeing with this statement. One
interpretation of this finding might be that a significant proportion of serving officers
15
doubt the extent to which the police as an organization utilises its resources in the best
way possible and thus does not always manage to ‘do the right thing’. The police
officers in the survey do appear to link rates of crime with numbers of officers. This, as
Reiner (2012) and others observe is a more complex relationship and indeed rates of
recorded crime have actually gone down despite the reduction in the overall numbers
of police officers.
UK-based research on the legitimacy of the police among the public has found that
alignment with the values represented and enacted by the police is the most important
aspect of the relationship between police and public. What did police officers think
about the values of their organization? Figure 5 shows that less than one quarter (22%)
of officers surveyed felt ‘close’ to the stated values of the force they worked for. Some
43 said they felt neither close not distant, while 14% felt distant and 15% said they
didn’t know how they felt. Considering ‘don’t know’ and ‘neither’ responses together,
it seems that 58% felt ambiguous or undecided about their sense of alignment with
force values (although 94% of respondents did at least know what their forces stated
values were).
Figure 5: Alignment with force values
Responses to the question: ‘How closely do you feel aligned to the Forces’ stated values?’
Percentages
A further factor influencing the legitimacy of the police – from the perspective of
serving officers, at least – could be argued to be the extent to which it is free from
direct political control (or ‘interference’). We note, of course, that others might see
such accountability as a prerequisite of legitimate policing, underlining the fact that
legitimacy is a fluid and contested topic, and that different parties in the debate may
have quite different views on how the power invested in the police is mandated and
maintained.
The officers surveyed were strongly of the view that policing should be free of political
influence and that they should not be accountable to democratically elected politicians
(Table 4). Pertinently, given current events, 49% thought that Police and Crime
16
Commissioners were not a good idea at all, while a further 20% thought this not a very
good idea.
Table 4: Views on political influence on policing
Strongly agree
78
Percentages
Police should
be
accountable
to
democratically
elected
politicians
4
Agree
Police should
be
independent
of political
influence
17
14
Disagree
2
31
Strongly disagree
1
42
Don't know
1
8
The free text comment respondents were able to make in the survey provide some
evidence of the reasons respondents gave in support of their opinions about police and
crime commissioners:











PCCs linked to political parties were seen as putting politics into policing;
There was a perception of a danger that people with extreme views might be
elected as PCCs, and might encourage abuse of the position;
There were reservations about candidates, for example about the extent to
which they might be influenced or pressured politically or commercially;
Candidates were seen as lacking experiences and knowledge about law
enforcement;
There was a general concern about the possibility of corruption;
Some respondents felt this was too much power for one person;
There were concerns that the advent of PCCs would lead to more bureaucracy;
High costs/’waste of time and money’ was also another frequent concern;
Respondents doubted whether PCCs would lead to improvements in efficiency
or effectiveness;
Officers worried that decisions will be made on the basis of vote-catching
rather than what is genuinely important;
The (potentially) low turnout was mentioned as a problem.
However not all officers were negative about the prospect of PCCs. Some respondents
noted that adding a degree of democracy might be desirable, and that PCCs might
provide an opportunity to challenge the service to improve. Consider these two more
in-depth quotations:
“Essentially, I agree with the plan for a democratic mandate for the PCC. Whilst the Police
Authorities are partially elected, I have found them to be very "committee" based in style,
thereby increasing to a massive degree the level of bureaucracy on Policing. That said, I have
17
found my local Police Authority to be highly effective, and will be sad to see that partnership
element end.”
“PCCs are a fairly good idea as I believe they present an opportunity to galvanise a single,
cohesive approach to police and partners working together to prevent crime and deal with
offending - counter-intuitively, the single elected role could cut through much of the fractured
and polarised landscape of local politics in local authorities. I also believe that PCCs hold the
potential to raise the profile of policing and its challenges with the local community - Despite the
best efforts of Police Authorities, the public rarely understood their role or engaged in
consultation with PAs to any meaningful degree.”
Public trust
To provide some context to the findings presented above, Figure 6 shows that, overall,
the police are ‘mid-table’ when it comes to public trust in a number of important
professions and occupations. The general public are most likely to say they trust
doctors, teachers or judges, and least likely to trust journalists and politicians. Police
come about half way in this list with, just over 60% of the public trusting police to tell
the trust in 2011.
Figure 6: Trust ratings from IPSO- Mori 2011 data
Percentage trusting each profession to ‘tell the truth’
Source: Source: IPSOS- Mori, June 2011 data
Looking at change over time, Figure 7 shows that according to ISPSOS-Mori data
stretching back to 1983, levels of public trust in the police have remained broadly
constant, and higher than the average level of trust across the professions shown in
Figure 6. By contrast, data from the CSEW over the same period show a decline in
confidence in the police from 1984 to 2000 and subsequently, from about 2002/03, a
significant increase (see ONS 2012). This difference is most likely due to the different
survey questions used: IPSOS-Mori ask respondents if they ‘trust the police to tell the
truth’; the CSEW asks ‘how good a job’ people think the police are doing. The latter
formulation seems likely to be more variable over time because it may condense a
much wider range of views (such as judgements about the instrumental effectiveness of
18
the police and their competence) than the former, which is much more closely delimited to a moral issue about trustworthiness). Provisos aside, it seems that police
pessimistic perceptions of declining public opinion (see Figure 6 above) are not borne
out by the recent CSEW/IPSOS-Mori data.
Figure 7: Trust in the police 1983-2011 (IPSOS-Mori data)
Percentages
Source: Source: IPSOS- Mori, June 2011 data
6. Relationships
A key feature in the development of policing in recent years has been the growth of
partnership relationships, in part as a recognition that the police service cannot deliver
all aspects of policing alone, and indeed increasingly does so in collaboration with
other agencies. Furthermore, the ‘public’ the police serve and interact with is made up
of different groups and sectional interests. We noted above that declining relationships
between police and public appear to be a concern of police officers now in much the
same way as they were in 1960. Relationships with the public and other institutions
may also be a key element in police officer’s sense of the place and importance of the
police within society. In this section we probe more deeply into police officers’ views
of their relationships with various groups in society and with legal, policy and other
actors.
One set of survey questions asked whether respondents felt whether different groups
have become more resentful towards the police than ten years ago. Figure 8 shows
results from this question, drawing from the 1960 and 2012 data. Strikingly, officers in
2012 were much more negative than their 1960 counterparts about relations across all
groups shown, with relations with motorists and young people being perceived as
particularly problematic. One interesting finding is that class appears a more salient
element of concern in 2012 than it was in 1960 – despite the alleged decline in the
relevance of class as a social category it seems that when asked police officers in 2012
are able to consider ‘the working class’ and ‘the upper class’ as social groups with
whom the police have relationships (and, often, worsening relationships).
19
Figure 8: Relations between police and different ‘publics’: 1960 and 2012
Percentage of respondents thinking each group ‘more against’ police now than compared with 10 years
ago
Note: Ethnic minorities not covered as a separate category in 1960.
Data from the IPCC confidence survey shows a marked correspondence with the
officer data (see Figure 9). Working class citizens are the least happy with police
contacts and those from some BME groups are less happy than their white
counterparts. Young people are the most likely to be unhappy with the quality of
police-public encounters. It seems that difficult relationships between police and young
people, working class people and (some) BME groups are recognised from both sides.
Figure 9: Satisfaction with contact with the police by class, ethnicity and age
Percentage ‘happy’ with contact
Source: IPCC
20
Why do police officers think that people have become more antagonistic toward them?
In 1960, the Royal Commission identified these reasons for the deterioration:
a) people knew more about the law;
b) young people were more antagonistic to authority and lacked parental control;
c) that sentences were too lenient; and
d) enforcement of petty regulations antagonised the public.
The press were then thought to have contributed to deteriorating relations between
police and public because of banner headlines and making minor incidents appear
more major giving the public a distorted view of the police. Then 18% thought media
reporting unfair.
Fast forward to 2012 and police concerns about the media persist and have indeed been
amplified. There is a sense that people are well informed through the internet (or at
least have access to a lot of information via the internet) and that the press has given
wide coverage to various malpractice stories involving the police. In the present survey
52% thought the press gave the police very little support and 20% not very much
support. The police point of view is well illustrated by this comment from a
superintendent
“The media have a big part to play in adversely affecting public confidence in the police, that is
not to say that they shouldn't uncover wrong doing or poor performance in the public interest,
most of the time they are looking for cheap stories to sell papers, you have only to look at the
avalanche of FOI requests to be convinced of that.”
Respondents to the 2012 survey were however rather less concerned about police
relationships with a number of other groups (often ones not mentioned in the 1960
survey); 22% thought members of the LGBT communities were more resentful
towards them that 10 years ago, and only 12% though this about disabled people.
Officers with a crime focus were more likely to think these groups were more resentful
towards the police that officers having a crime and welfarist orientation.
Notwithstanding the superintendent’s comment above, the media are just one
institution with which police have a relationship, and the survey contained items
asking respondents about the extent to which police are supported by a range of other
institutions and actors. Responses are shown in Table 5.
Overall, the sense is that police do not feel well supported in the work they do. A
majority of respondents felt the police received not very much or very little support
from: the present government; the media; ACPO; the judiciary; and the CPS. Only in
the case of the Police Federation and the public did a majority feel that the police
received at least some support.
21
Table 5: Degree of support from different organizations/institutions
Some
Not
very
much
Very
little
Percentages
Very little
plus not
very much
0
4
18
78
95
0
17
31
52
83
ACPO
2
26
33
36
68
The Judiciary
2
39
37
19
56
CPS
Police
Federation
The general
public
4
44
35
16
51
10
43
25
19
44
7
58
24
10
34
Present
Coalition Govt
Media
A
great
deal
To put the results described above in some context, only 15 officers of the over 14,000
surveyed (many fewer than 1% of the sample) thought the present Coalition
Government supported the Police a great deal, and only 658 (4%) thought the
Government gave them some support. In their textual responses several officers
expressed this lack of support as the breaking of a social contract or covenant
“The covenant between Police and Government no longer exists due to the recent pensions
reform and the lack of respect shown to police by this Government. The Police have always
accepted that reform was necessary but to change pensions which formed part of an employment
contract demonstrates a lack of awareness of the duties performed by Police and the restrictions
placed upon them.”
“I live in a rural county and currently have to drive 84 miles each day to get to/from work. I feel
that the psychological contract between me and the Service/Government has been broken; as a
police officer I accept certain restrictions on my life but was compensated by the terms of my
pay/pension. As an officer that deployed in the London riots of 2011, I worked 18-20hrs a day for
7 days in a row, initially sleeping in terrible accommodation where me and my team were all
bitten by fleas/bed bugs and I won't mention the food. We were financially compensated for the
hours we worked but worked without complaint serving the community and the government. It is
situations like this that warrant the good terms that police officers are employed on”
7. Organization
In the wake of the recent reorganization of policing in Scotland into one ‘national’
force, and the re-structururing of forces in Europe, continued questions are likely to be
asked about the organization of policing in England and Wales. Respondents to the
officer survey were asked about the structure of the police organization, and their
responses can be summarized as follows:



49% felt that the Police Service in England and Wales should remain as 43
forces, as at present;
29% thought that the service should be ‘regionalised’ into a smaller number of
bigger forces;
18% thought that the service should become a national police force; and
22

4% felt that the service should be reorganized into local territorial command
units coterminous with Local Authorities.
Figure 10 shows that there were quite sharp differences of view between officers of
different ranks. Probationer/student constables and constables were the most keen to
retain the present structure of 43 forces, whereas officers of inspector and above
support were more likely to support the idea of regionalising forces. Interestingly there
is no clear consensus among the 42 Chief Superintendents who responded to the
survey.
Figure 10: Preferred organizational structure of police in England and Wales: by
rank
Percentages
If we examine these preferences by the existing ACPO regions then a varied picture
emerges (Figure 11). While retaining the 43-force structure remained the majority
preference for all regions, there was by no means a consensus. Officer in Wales and
the South West strongly supported regionalisation, while in London and the West
Midlands we find a measure of support for a national police service. Indeed, 37% of
Welsh officers supported regionalisation, compared with 28% of English officers;
conversely, only 12% of those serving in Welsh forces prefer a national police force
compared to 18% of those serving in English forces.
Further analysis suggested significant variation in the views of respondents from the
big metropolitan forces and the provincial forces. There was a somewhat greater
preference for regionalisation among officers serving in provincial forces (36%,
compared to 26% of officers from metropolitan forces).
23
Figure 11: Organizational preferences: by ACPO Region
Percentages
8. Workforce and work relations
Clearly any organization is reliant on its workforce, and the Commission was anxious
to have an indication of what officers thought about the qualities important in being a
police officer, and also the ways in which they were managed by both supervisors and
senior managers. Intriguingly, the original instructions set out for the ‘new police’
constable that he [sic] ‘must be civil and attentive to all persons, of every rank and
class’ (p41) moreover ‘he must remember that there is no qualification more
indispensable to a police officer than a perfect command of temper, never suffering
himself to be moved in the slighted degree by any language or threats that may be
used’. (p42). In a later publication of instructions to London Metropolitan police
officers published in 1890 officers were reassured that ‘every man has an equal
opportunity of rising to the higher ranks if he shows himself qualified by activity and
intelligence ... it is desirable that the aspiring constable should improve himself in his
leisure hours’. Further they were enjoined to use the library, at their own expense to
read ‘books of reference, history and geography’. Thus self-improvement undertaken
in the officer’s own time and at their own expense was an early marker for career
minded officer.
The present Government have introduced the College of Policing as a new
organization to handle standards setting, research and educational aspects of policing,
and the Commission was also keen to obtain officers views of this innovative idea.
Qualities of police officers
Officers were asked to rate the qualities they felt important to being a police officer.
Almost all thought having a strong sense of duty and public service and being polite
and courteous as the most important, followed by having emotional intelligence, being
physically fit and, some way behind, having a paramilitary appearance (Figure 12). By
contrast, being a graduate did not rate as a pre-requisite to being a police officer.
24
Figure 12: Ratings of qualities thought necessary to be a police officer
Percentages
Training and standards
Just over a quarter (27%) of officers thought the proposed College of Policing a very
good or fairly good idea (with about a third saying they did not know enough to come
to a view) and a third that it was not a good idea. The following comments give a
flavour of the different viewpoints put forward.
“A police college would be abhorrent to me. It is, in effect, paying for the privilege of inserting
another level of bureaucracy into an already over regulated organization which will have the
power to discipline officers and effect their careers.”
“A police college would be a good idea but I fear it will not produce any radical improvements
within the police”.
“There are benefits to a Police College but this must be properly funded and regulated.
Development of officers is very poor in terms of opportunities for training and opportunities for
accessing and attaining qualifications relevant to their role.”
Despite the relatively high levels of opposition, respondents still had some quite strong
views on what the College should actually do now that it is set up. For example, more
than 70% thought it should develop core knowledge needs for training to work in the
police; define skill competencies; and develop police leadership. Similarly, more than
60% of respondents thought there should be a register of accredited police
practitioners, and accreditation of education institutions that deliver training.
By contrast, fewer than 50% or respondents agreed that: the college should have the
power to strike officers from a register if they are found guilty of misconduct or
incompetence; that it should mandate IT systems; that there should be a link between
performance and pay; and that the college should have compulsory membership or
fees. It seems that there may be significant opposition from within the service to the
transfer of a number of powers and responsibility to the College.
Respondents also had views on which groups should be included in the remit of the
College. Just over half thought it should encompass police staff and incorporate non
25
Home Office Police Forces (57% and 56%, respectively). About a third (32%) thought
it should include private companies involved in delivering policing, while 23% felt
private investigators, and 22% private security, should also be included.
Morale
Officers were asked if they are currently giving serious consideration to leaving the
Police Service. This question does not necessarily mean officers will leave, but it is an
indication of morale and their concerns about what is happening to the Police as the
following response describes
“Every now and then police morale is reported to be at rock bottom. The situation with current
pay and pensions has made this a reality. I consider myself to be highly motivated. I want to
deliver a first class service to the public. However I expect to receive financial compensation for
the difficult situations I manage for the violence I deal with and for the restrictions on my private
life. 16 years ago I entered into an agreement with the Government. I would work to 55 years of
age and retire with a good pension. My salary is half that of my peers who work in the private
sector. I enjoy my job. This fact together with the pension reward at the end of my service is
adequate compensation for the difficult nature of job. I no longer want to go to work. My
goodwill has gone. I feel angry, betrayed and bitter.”
And as a more senior officer put the current situation
“I would not recommend this career to my children which, as the son of a police officer, are a
shame. I have enjoyed immensely being a police officer and serving the public. However morale
is lower now than I have ever known and I will not regret leaving the service in due course.”
A key question fielded in the survey was one that asked whether respondents where
currently considering leaving the service. Over half, 56%, said yes: that is, over 8,000
of those answering the survey responded that they were ‘currently giving serious
thought’ to leaving the police. Male officers were slightly more likely to say they were
contemplating leaving than female (58% compared with 52%). There was significant
variation in answers to this question across the different forces. In only seven did less
than 50% of respondents answer in the positive, while in 14 forces more than 60% said
they were seriously considering leaving; in three forces over 70% of respondents said
this.
Officers who said they had seriously considered leaving the service were more likely
to think that:
 the service is changing for the worse;
 the work has become much harder;
 they are not supported by Government, Media or ACPO;
 Aspects of the management of the service are problematic e.g.
 Promotion not on merit
 Not being able to influence decision
 Poor internal communication
 Experiencing bullying or harassment at work
 Not having access to flexible working
While many respondents indicated they were thinking of leaving the service, a similar
number were also worried about the threat of being forced to retire. In the wake of the
financial crisis and the cuts to police budgets, some chief constables have exercised
‘regulation 19A’, which allows them to compulsorily retire officers on the grounds of
26
efficiency. One third (33%) of survey respondents said they were ‘very worried’ about
this happening to them, with a further 24% saying they were ‘somewhat worried’ by
the thought that they may be required to resign.
Figure 13 shows the breakdown by rank of answers to the questions relating to leaving
to force and being required to resign. Both concerns generally receded as rank
increased. Probationers were most worried about forced retirement but, perhaps not
surprisingly, least likely to say they were seriously considering leaving.
Figure 13: Concerns about leaving the service or being forced to resign: By rank
Percentages
Percentage
Organizational justice
Organizational justice – the extent to which supervisors and senior managers treat staff
in a procedurally fair manner (with dignity and respect, explaining decisions, acting in
a neutral and transparent manner and allowing staff an input into decision-making
processes) and in a distributively fair manner (for example in relation to the
distribution of work tasks and the fairness of promotion procedures) – has been shown
to be a key influence not only on ‘staff-satisfaction’, but also in relation to people’s
readiness to work on behalf of organizations, comply with rules and regulations, and
their attitudes towards those they serve (Colquitt et al. 2001; Tyler and Blader 2000).
Work within police organizations tends to reproduce these findings (e.g. Myhill and
Bradford in press). Interestingly even from the very outset, the earliest Commissioners
of police had an eye to the management of officers extolling the need for
superintendents to be “firm and just, kind and conciliating” on all occasions (p18-19).
A suite of questions probing respondent’s sense of procedural and other aspects of
organizational justice were included in the present survey. Results from these questions
are shown in Table 6, and a range of opinions were reported, with officers least happy
with access to training, the fairness of promotion exercises, and the extent to which
27
they have a voice in decision making processes. By contrast respondents tended to be
much happier about their interpersonal relationships and, to a lesser extent, the fairness
and openness of management and decision-making.
Table 6: Responses to organizational justice items
Percentages
Experienced
little or none
of the time
Promotion being achieved purely on merit
Have the sense you can influence decisions
Good quality communication within the organization
Explanations for decisions made by managers
Equal distribution of work such that no one is carrying a fair load
Openness and honesty in way managed
Fair, consistent and impartial decision making
Fair and respectful interpersonal contact amongst officers and staff
65
62
57
53
44
41
39
18
Rank proved to be an important factor behind many of the responses (Figure 14). For
example, the degree to which respondents felt promotion was being achieved on merit,
and that decision-making was fair, consistent and impartial, by and large mirrored
rank.
Figure 14: Percentage believing decision-making is fair and that promotion
achieved on merit by rank
Percentages
Multivariate analysis of organizational justice
To investigate respondents’ perceptions of organizational justice further we used
multivariate techniques to, first, create an organizational justice scale. Factor analysis
28
of the items outlined in Table 6 suggested that all loaded onto one underlying
construct, ‘organizational justice’ (question wordings and factor loadings are shown in
Appendix Table 1). This factor was extracted as a scale (scored such that higher scores
equalled more favourable views), which was saved for further analysis.
Moving on to consider what characteristics were associated with higher or lower scores
on the organizational justice scale, Table 6 shows the results from a linear regression
model predicting scores on this variable. Controlling for the other variables in the
model women gave on average more favourable assessments than men; BME officers
tended to hold a less favourable opinion than their White counterparts. Younger
officers (aged under 30) tended to think the organization somewhat more just then their
older colleagues, as did sergeants and senior ranks when compared to PCs. Officers
who said they had experienced bullying tended to think their organization less fair.
Table 6: Results from Linear regression predicting assessments of organizational
justice (high=better)
Unstandardized betas
Gender (ref: male)
Female
0.14***
Age (ref: under 30
31-40
-0.02
41-50
-0.06*
51-60
-0.04
60 plus
-0.03
Ethnicity (ref: White)
BME
-0.14***
Rank (ref: PC)
Sergeant
0.28***
Senior
Experience of bullying (ref:
no)
0.61***
Yes
0.07**
-0.34***
Constant
R2
0.08
n
13,130
We then used assessments of organizational justice as a predictor in a series of
analyses predicting some of the legitimacy measures described previously and a range
of other key variables from the survey. In each case the response variable was
dichotomized, such that positive responses were coded 1 and others 0; binary logistic
regression models were therefore used.
29
Table 7: Results from binary logistic regression models predicting measures of
internal legitimacy and other factors
Service
concentrat
es on the
right thing
Feels
close to
force
values
Has
consider
ed
leaving
force
Betas
Thinks
police
should be
accountabl
e to elected
politicians
0.18***
0.05
-0.28***
-0.38***
31-40
0.23***
-0.12
0.28***
0.15
41-50
0.41***
-0.02
-0.19**
0.44***
51-60
0.47***
-0.19
0.38***
0.45***
60 plus
-0.09
-1.5
0.29
0.8
-0.12
-0.01
0.23**
0.28**
Sergeant
-0.02
0.65***
-0.07
0.08
Senior
Experience of bullying
(ref: no)
Yes
Feels job has got
harder (ref: no)
Yes
Feels public support
police (ref: no)
Yes
Organizational justice
(high=more)
Constant
0.23***
1.28***
-0.24***
0.28***
-0.09*
-0.09
0.30***
0.12*
-0.25***
-0.24***
0.46***
-0.24***
0.14***
0.35***
-0.18***
0.14**
0.78***
0.78***
-0.50***
0.09***
-0.03
-1.68***
-0.07
-1.63***
n
12,608
12,791
12,791
11,886
Gender (ref: male)
Female
Age (ref: under 30)
Ethnicity (ref: White)
BME
Rank (ref: PC)
Table 7 shows the results from some of these analyses. The findings are highly
consistent. Holding the other variables in the models constant officers who felt their
organization behaved in a just and fair manner were more likely to think the police
concentrates on doing the right things, more likely to feel close to force values, and
less likely to have considered leaving the service. In every case the statistical effects
were both significant and substantively quite large. Notably, officers who felt they
experienced more organizational justice at work were also somewhat more likely to be
supportive of democratic oversight of policing.
Some other findings from these models are also of note. Officers who had experienced
bullying felt less aligned with their organization, were more likely to have considered
leaving the service, and were more supportive of democratic oversight. Those (the
large majority, recall) who felt the job had got harder were also less likely to feel
30
aligned with the actions and values of the force and to have considered leaving – yet
they were less likely to be supportive of democratic oversight.
By contrast, officers who felt the public supported the police, felt more aligned with
force actions and values, were less likely to have considered leaving, and were more
likely to support democratic oversight. One interpretation here might that officers draw
a feeling of legitimacy and a sense of security (in terms of both ‘job security’ and a
feeling that police are more secure in wider systems of governance) from the
perception that the public support them.
Force level organizational justice data
To further investigate the implications of organizational justice we calculated a mean
score for each police force and compared this with other variables at the force level.2
One notable finding was that forces with higher mean levels of organizational justice at
the time of the survey (from the point of view of their officers) also tended to be forces
with lower levels of complaints, as recorded by the IPCC, whether this was all
complaints (Figure 15) or only incivility complaints only (Figure 16). The association
was statistically significant at the conventional 5% level in both cases.
Figure 15: IPCC complaints by PFA level organizational justice
2
One (small) force was excluded from this analysis as it tended to be an extreme outlier on many variables.
31
Figure 16: IPCC complaints (incivilities only) by PFA level organizational justice
The findings presented in Figures 15 and 16 should to be treated with some caution, as
the complaints data pertains to 2010/11 and the survey data to the autumn of 2012.
While it may be that forces that treat staff in a fair and respectful manner might expect
those staff to be more likely to treat members of the public in the same way (Myhill
and Bradford in press) and be more motivated in relation to the job in general, thus
eliciting fewer complaints, it may equally be that a low level of public complaints
simply reflects an easier policing environment, resulting in less stress inside the service
and more favourable opinions of organizational justice among police officers. Be that
as it may, these results suggest that the survey data presented here do connect with
some ‘real world’ data in potentially interesting ways.
A focus on bullying
Questions were asked in the survey about bullying and harassment and violence at
work, issues faced in the police service as much as any other workplace. Table 8 shows
that 20% of respondents reported experiencing bullying at work some or all of the
time. Some 19% also reported experiencing violence at work some or all of the time,
although it should be noted that the question did not probe the source of the violence,
and it may be that much of this was violence from the public toward the police.
Further analysis suggested that women officers, BME officers and, strikingly, senior
officers were most likely to reported experiencing bullying and harassment at work
(see Figure 17). When it came to different types of bullying or harassing behaviour,
Asian or Asian British officers were the most likely to experience harassment on the
grounds of race or religion (see Figure 18), while women were more likely to
experience harassment on the grounds of gender (24%) pregnancy or maternity (11%).
32
Table 18: Experience of bullying or harassment at work
Bullying
at work
Percentages
Violence at
work
2
4
Some of the time
18
16
Little of the time
33
11
None of the time
47
65
All the time
Figure 17: Experience of bullying at work by rank
Percentage reporting being bullied ‘all’ or ‘most’ of the time
That senior officers were more likely to reporting bullying was perhaps surprising.
Figure 19 suggests this effect only really ‘kicked in’ at Superintendent level (of whom
there were 105 in the sample, so care must be taken not to overstate this finding). A
quote from a chief inspector provides some clue as to the nature of the bullying
experienced by higher ranked officers
“I can't wait to retire for a variety of reasons. Pay and conditions eroded by successive Govts,
bullying from senior management at ACPO level which would result in constructive dismissal in
private industry, a 'do as I say and not as I do' mentality among the top brass who abuse their
positions, treat underlings as slaves and have no niceness or humility..”
A further clue may be found in the pressures of work and delivering performance by
the reducing numbers of officers at the level of superintendent and chief
superintendent. Latest Home Office figures show there to be 380 chief superintendents
and 890 superintendents. This is a drop of 24% of Chief Superintendents and 18% of
superintendents since 2010 (Figure 19). These are the ranks subjected to highest
attrition, and these may be causing strains that increase the prevalence of bullying
behaviour.
33
Figure 18: Experience of bullying and harassment by ethnicity
Percentage reporting being bullied ‘all’ or ‘most’ of the time
Figure 19: Percentage drop in ranks between 2010 and 2012
Percentages
Source: Home Office
Associations between bullying and wider police activity
To investigate the implications of bullying for police activity we calculated a measure
of bullying at the police force level. This comprised the proportion of respondents in
the force reporting that they experience bullying some or all of the time (the mean of
this variable was .21, with a standard deviation of .06).3 We found that the proportion
3
One (small) force was excluded as an outlier.
34
of officers in a force reporting bullying was correlated with both the number of
complaints per head of population that force received in 2010/11 (Figure 20) and its
sanction detection rate in 2009/10 (Figure 21). Note that the temporal order of these
data (the complaints and sanction detection data predate the data on bullying extracted
from the officer survey) means that these results should be treated with some caution.
Figure 20: Complaints per 1000 population: by proportion of officers
experiencing bullying
The association between bullying and complaints was positive (and statistically
significant at the 5% level), suggesting, as in the case of organizational justice, that
forces that allow their staff to be treated badly also garner more complaints from the
public. Yet, the association between bullying and sanction detection rates was also
positive – forces that were more effective in achieving sanction detections also
appeared to have somewhat higher levels of bullying (although this relationship did not
attain statistical significance at any conventional level).
One interpretation of these results might be that more results- or performance-driven
forces generate more complaints because their emphasis is on ‘getting a result’ and not
the quality of interactions with members of the public (or other aspects of
performance) and, commensurably, generate stress within their workforce that leads to
a greater level of bullying. While with the data currently available these relationships
are impossible to disentangle, this would be a fruitful area for future research.
Figure 21: Sanction detection rate: by proportion of officers experiencing
bullying
35
Finally, we examined the correlation between force-level organizational justice (see
above) and experiences of bullying (Figure 22). There was a strong negative
correlation between these two factors at the force level, statistically significant at the
5% level. More organizationally just forces – at least from the perspective of the
survey respondents – also tended to have lower levels of officers reporting being
bullied on a regular basis.
Validating the survey
Two of the issues covered in the discussion above provide insight into the nature of
bias in the survey resulting from the 10 per cent response rate. First, we examined the
correlation at the force level between the item concerning ‘serious thought about
leaving the service’ and response rates. We found a negative correlation between
answering this question in the affirmative and the response rate: in other words forces
in which a lower proportion of officers said they were thinking about leaving had the
higher response rates. Second, we examined the levels of reported organizational
justice with the response rates from each force. This time the correlation was positive:
response rates were higher in forces where mean levels of organizational justice were
also higher.
Taken together, these findings suggest that that ‘disaffected’ officers were less likely to
respond to the survey, and that responses from the survey are likely to be biased in a
positive, not negative, direction. This is an interesting suggestion, given for example
the extremely negative views respondents expressed in relation to the coalition
government and, of course, the large numbers who reported considering leaving the
service.
Figure 22: Proportion of respondents experiencing bullying: by force
organizational justice score
36
9. Resources
Respondent’s perceptions about the use and distribution of resources within the service
were assessed in two ways. First, officers were asked whether they felt the service
spends money wisely. Only 20% of those responding to the survey agreed or strongly
agreed that this was the case, while 75% disagreed or strongly disagreed (4%
responded don’t know). Constables and sergeants were the least likely to agree that the
service spends money wisely, while the level of agreement with the question rose with
rank (Figure 23).
Second, the survey probed police officers views of private sector involvement, with a
series of yes/no questions asking respondents whether they thought the private sector
should be involved in a range of police activities. Some respondents felt there was
some scope for private sector involvement, with 44% saying yes to involvement in
managing custody suites and 31% yes call centres. However there were decisive
majorities against private sector involvement in other areas:





Attending road traffic accidents – 93% opposed
Interviewing witnesses or suspects – 89% opposed
Scenes of crime – 83% opposed
Policing public events – 79% opposed
Dealing with victims of crime - 70% opposed
Figure 23: How well does the police service spend money: by rank
Responses to the statement ‘The police spend money wisely’
Percentages
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We conducted further analysis of these questions by constructing a simple additive
scale (so respondents who had more favourable views of privatisation scored more
highly). Notably, 32% of respondents scored zero on this scale, that is, they did not
think there should be private sector analysis across any of the seven categories listed
above. Less than 5% scored 5 or more.
Interestingly, there was little variation in mean scores on this scale across many of the
variables covered elsewhere in this report, such as rank, gender, perception of
organizational justice, or assessments of internal legitimacy. One explanation for this
might be that views on privatisation are associated with party political opinions,
something not covered by the survey.
Below is a sample of comments that indicate some of the reservations about, and
aspects of the support for, the involvement of private companies in policing.
“I feel that the British Police Service is a unique organization in Law and Order around the
world. There is of course issues with some of our antiquated methods or ways of obtaining
equipment and facilities through which streamlining could save money. …Roles such as SOCO,
call centres for the 999's and training are better carried out by those with policing knowledge and
experience, it is a unique job and all parts gel together as a cog system. The current ideology of
taking us apart at the seams is destroying the joined up working methods established over
decades. Example, civilian enforcement officer gave out 6 parking tickets to an Audi in my town.
They just issue the ticket because that’s the revenue they are employed to get. No bigger picture
is looked at. In the 1990's a traffic warden working with the Police would have seen this car
issued a ticket, carried out a PNC check and hey presto a stolen car would have been recovered a
lot quicker. The costs to owner/insurance companies etc. minimised. This seems small to you I
am sure but I can replicate this across the whole system.”
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“The thought of any privatisation in my opinion is madness. I appreciate that some roles can be
civilianised, but for me to become a good police officer requires years of time in uniform / CID
etc. Privatisation in my opinion hasn't worked anywhere else and is nothing more than policing
on the cheap”.
“'Privatisation' - there are some areas that could be put out to private industry, for example court
file administrative functions. But the main core functions that require experience, knowledge and
integrity, and involve (in whatever way) evidential considerations, should remain completely
within the remit of the police.”
In sum, we might conclude that while many officers who responded to the survey were
open to the idea of some level of private sector involvement in the provision of
(public) policing services, there was also significant opposition to this idea, and this
opposition was overwhelming in regard to certain services, especially those relating to
public safety and criminal procedure.
10. Conclusions
The survey reported in this paper provides some intriguing findings that can be brought
together into four groups.
First, there appears to be high levels of dissent among serving officers in relation to
some of the key reforms currently being enacted in policing. Most strikingly, there
were widespread negative attitudes toward PCCs. Furthermore, there was dissent in
respect of views about the Police College and private sector involvement in policing,
with significant proportions of officers opposed to all these developments. Relatedly,
there appeared to be no desire for a graduate-only police force. Finally, a large
majority of respondents did not feel well supported by government or by ACPO. It
seems therefore that there needs to be re-engagement between police and government
and between front-line officers and senior management. In particular, police officer’s
trust in the government appears to have almost completely broken down, and, unless
addressed, this issue is likely to seriously undermine present and future efforts toward
reform. At the moment, support for current and up-coming reforms is largely absent.
Second, police officers who responded to the survey tended to feel both that public
support, while relatively high, was nonetheless diminishing, and that relationships
between police and certain population groups are particularly difficult. While, as the
English riots of August 2011 demonstrated, there is much evidence to support the idea
that there is a need to improve relations between police and young people, in
particular, there is perhaps also some cause for optimism here. Comparison with the
1960 survey data showed that a narrative of decline in public support for policing has
been around for over half a century (at least) – yet recent survey data from other
sources suggests that public trust and confidence in the police has actually been
increasing in recent years (or is at the very least stable and in any case higher than trust
in some other important professions and institutions).
Certainly there is no reason for complacency. But all available evidence suggests that
public support for policing is (a) stronger than officers seem to suppose is the case and
(b) susceptible to change via tools readily available to the police themselves. There is
undoubtedly a need to reconfigure the relationship between police and certain sections
of the community, particularly in relation to issues such as stop and search. But by
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drawing on principles of procedural justice, avoidance of harm, and the need for strong
affective links between police and communities (Jackson et al 2012a; Loader in press),
it should be possible for police to work toward overcoming the barriers that
undoubtedly exist. This process will not be helped, however, if officers are encouraged
to retreat into an ‘us and them’ bunker mentality, something which the data presented
here suggest is a danger.
Third, just as principles of procedural justice offer an important guide to re-envisioning
the relationship between police and public, it seems that the related concept of
organizational justice offers an important insight into the dynamics of the police
organization itself. Officer’s perceptions of organizational justice within their force
were strongly associated with their sense of the legitimacy of the police, with support
for democratic oversight of policing, and with commitment to the service. Conversely,
bullying was higher in forces with lower levels of organizational justice, and both
factors were negatively correlated with the level of complaints made against a force.
Work needs to be done on the management of officers within police forces – this
appears to be a house divided, with rank and file officers alienated from senior ranks,
from government and, potentially, from some of the public they serve. Of especial note
is the extent of disagreement on some of the key measures of views about the service
itself. While a large majority of respondents felt the police overall did a good job,
rather fewer felt it concentrates on the doing the right thing or spends its money wisely.
Only a minority felt closely aligned with the stated values of their force. One
explanation of these divergent results may be that officers remain highly supportive of
an abstract vision of policing and its success as an institution; they are also supportive
of colleagues (believing them to be free of corruption and delivering a good service to
the public, for example). Yet they are much more critical of the police as an
organization, for example in terms of relations between staff and managers, or the
functioning of internal processes of communication and decision-making.
The findings reported here therefore resonate with those from some of the classic
studies into ‘police culture’ (see Reiner 2010 and Waddington 1999 for overviews).
Officers accept and support the ‘mission’ of the police, and retain close affective links
with colleagues, but are suspicious of senior managers and reform efforts. However
our findings also suggest that a model for reform based on organizational justice
principles may be able to address some of the issues raised above. Furthermore, there
appears to be links between justice judgements within the organization and its
‘external’ activity, at least as this is assessed by complaints made against it. Issues of
fairness and equity may be important strands linking both internal and external reforms
of policing.
Fourth, whilst there was a high level of agreement between officers in the crime
controlling mission of the police there was a divide between those who in addition
thought community engagement an essential part of the police mandate. This has two
immediate implications. Clearly any reconfiguring of the police will be predicated on
perceptions of its purpose, and an ideological – or practical – construction of a police
force exclusively driven by a crime control remit will be rather different to one that
also incorporates notions community engagement. Additionally, apparent disagreement
about the primary purpose of the police may provide some insight into current tensions
both within forces and between the police and Government. Both clarity and some
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rapprochement are essential if the conundrum of force versus service is to be resolved
and a relative balance struck between them.
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Appendix
Table 1: Organizational justice: question wordings and factor loadings
Respondents were asked to agree/disagree, with answers on four point scales
Fair, consistent and impartial decision making
0.72
Explanations for decisions made by managers
0.73
Have the sense you can influence decisions
0.63
Good quality communication within the organization
0.66
Fair and respectful interpersonal contact amongst officers and staff
0.55
Openness and honesty in way managed
0.73
Promotion being achieved purely on merit
0.41
Equal distribution of work such that everyone is carrying a fair load
Factor loadings from Principal Components Analysis
0.44