The presentation of police in everyday life: Police–press relations, impression management and the Leveson Inquiry

Rob C Mawby

doi:10.1177/1741659014558433

Abstract

In 2012 the Leveson Inquiry investigated relations between the police and the press, examining the routine systems and processes of police–press relations in the UK and, more specifically, the conduct of senior Metropolitan Police Service officers during an investigation into phone-hacking (Operation Caryatid). The Inquiry is notable in that it shone a light on a normally hidden policing function; it brought the backstage processes of police–media relations, part of police ‘image work’, to the frontstage area. This article considers the Leveson Inquiry and the data it collected as a case study of police impression management; it examines how the police sought to manage impressions about how they manage impressions. It takes a dramaturgical approach drawing on the work of Erving Goffman and Peter K Manning, combined with impression management concepts drawn from management and organisational studies. The article concludes that the identified impression management tactics used by different police ‘teams’ combined to protect the collective police image and to reinforce, for the present, the dominant position of the police in their relationship with the press.

Highlights

The processes of police-press relations in the UK are, in the main, backstage activities rarely of interest to public inquiries and policymakers
Using an analytical framework underpinned by the dramaturgical perspectives of Goffman and Manning and operationalised by impression management concepts has enabled a textured analysis of the police image work at play during the Leveson Inquiry
Individual senior MPS officers were exposed as lacking judgement, but Lord Justice Leveson did not doubt their integrity

Summary

Introduction

The processes of police-press relations in the UK are, in the main, backstage activities rarely of interest to public inquiries and policymakers. The Leveson Inquiry provides a rich case study of dramaturgical image work and another textured level of analysis is added through incorporating within the analytical framework concepts from management and organisational studies Across these areas literature exists, sometimes in silos, that examines the common ground of how organisations, and individuals and teams within them, seek to influence internal and external perceptions. The Inquiry team’s two strategic lines of questioning coalesced with their appearances; both were questioned concerning their involvement in Operation Caryatid and their approaches to relations with the press Newspaper coverage anticipating their evidence highlighted Yates and Hayman as vulnerable to criticism with The Independent reporting ‘Leveson returns to tackle police’s bungled phone hacking inquiry’ (27 February 2012). Force Heads of Communications who gave evidence with their chief officers

The Detectives

10. The Provincial Press

Concluding comments