Serving Police Officers Research Articles

Secondary Traumatic Stress: Prevalence and Symptomology Amongst Detective Officers Investigating Child Protection Cases

It has been increasingly recognised that individuals exposed to the trauma of others within their professional roles can be affected by secondary traumatic stress (STS). Despite this recognition, there is a dearth of literature examining the prevalence of secondary traumatic stress amongst police officers in the UK. This study aims to meet this gap. Sixty-three Detective Officers from Family Protection Units (FPU(s)), primarily engaged in child protection/abuse investigations, self-reported their experiences and symptoms associated with STS through a questionnaire. Findings indicate that over half of the respondents experienced STS symptoms with 11% reporting levels of symptoms that were in the high or severe range. This study is significant in that it provides empirical evidence of issues that have so far been little documented in the UK and considers the implications for policing policy and practice in terms of the health and well-being of serving police officers.

The perceived effects and comfort of various body armour systems on police officers while performing occupational tasks

BackgroundThe nature of police work often necessitates use of Individual Light Armour Vests (ILAVs) for officer protection. Previous research has demonstrated various biomechanical and physical performance impacts of ILAVs, however, little knowledge exists on the individual officer’s perceptions of ILAV. The aim of this study was to investigate officers’ perceptions of the impacts of three different ILAVs and normal station wear whilst performing police occupational tasks.MethodsA prospective, within subjects, repeated measures design was employed in which 11 serving police officers wore each of three different types of body armour (ILAV A, ILAV B or ILAV C) and normal station wear for a full day while performing tasks including a simulated victim drag, a patrol vehicle exit and a marksmanship shoot. Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS; − 10 to + 10) were used to examine officer perceptions of each ILAV. Finally, officers were asked to indicate areas of both discomfort and comfort of each ILAV on a mannequin chart.ResultsOfficers perceived less effort was required for the victim drag whilst wearing ILAV B (RPE = 3.6/10) when compared to ILAV A, ILAV C and even station wear (RPE = 4.7/10, 4.0/10, 3.8/10, respectively). A positive impact on performance was perceived for ILAV B (VAS = + 0.26) when performing a patrol vehicle exit and sprint task but not for the other two ILAVs (VAS = − 3.58, − 0.55, − 0.85, respectively). Officers perceived a positive impact of ILAV B (VAS = + 2.7) and station wear (VAS = + 1.4) and a negative impact of ILAVs A and C (VAS = − 2.1, − 1.7 respectively) on marksmanship. Despite all armour types being criticized for discomfort, ILAV B received lower ratings of discomfort overall, and some positive comments regarding both comfort and performance.ConclusionsOfficers perceived ILAV B to have positive effects on task performance. It was also rated more comfortable than the other two, possibly due to a longer torso design which shifted load from the shoulders to the hips and pelvis. Officer perceptions of comfort and effects on occupational performance should be considered when designing and procuring armour systems. Although ILAVs may be similar, perceived impacts may vary between officers.

Protecting journalists’ sources

Julian Harris (Deputy General Editor, Amicus Curiae) looks at the impact of a decision by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) in a case involving an ex-police officer turned journalist, Gerard Gallacher, and five other people – Mrs Gallacher another former police officer and his wife, and two serving police officers on continuing debate about press regulation and freedom. He highlights the importance of protecting the confidentiality of journalistic sources - an issue that was the subject of debate during the passage through Parliament of the Investigatory Powers Bill.

Police officers’ perceptions of false allegations of rape

The idea that women lie about rape is a long standing rape myth with little or no supporting evidence. Previous research has demonstrated a belief in high levels of false allegations among police officers, despite no evidence to suggest rape is falsely reported more than other crimes. This has implications for complainants’ willingness to report sexual violations, for the treatment of complainants within the justice system, and wider societal understandings about what constitutes rape. The data that informs this paper comes from an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study that focussed on rape attrition and the institutional response to rape. Forty in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with serving police officers in a UK force who regularly deal with reported cases of rape, and explored perceptions, practices and processes around rape. The research found police officers’ estimate of false allegations varies widely from 5 to 90%. The paper will discuss how police officers make judgements about perceived veracity of complainants in rape cases. This will demonstrate that whilst significant progress has been made in how police officers and police forces respond to rape, gender stereotypes about women as deceitful, vengeful and ultimately regretful of sexual encounters, continue to pervade the thinking of some officers. It will show that police officers differentiate between ‘types’ of reports they consider to be false, and operate with a notional ‘hierarchy’ of presumed false allegations that ranges from vengeful/malicious to mistaken/confused, with a corresponding reducing level of culpability attributed to women for the supposedly false allegation. It concludes that this serves to reinforce a culture that both supports and reproduces gender inequality and its manifestation in the form of sexual violence, and that intervention, training and institutional and policy frameworks are not wholly successful in addressing sexual violence in this context.

‘Getting a battering’

Since 2010, the number of officers in the Police Service of England and Wales (PSEW) has fallen by 12% (Home Office, 2015). Although there has been much public debate over the impact of these reductions (Barrett, 2014; Blanchard, 2014; May, 2015; Shaw, 2015; White, 2015), such arguments have mostly lacked robust supporting evidence. This study aims to help inform future debate by providing qualitative evidence via semi-structured focus groups with serving police officers. Semi-inductive thematic analysis revealed a dynamic set of elements, perceived by officers as both affecting and being affected by the PSEW’s demand and capacity balance.

Media representations and police officers’ identity work in a specialised police tactical unit

A growing body of research has highlighted how media representations of policing and contemporary police work are interconnected and influence each other. An underexplored dimension of this relation is how mediated representations of policing transfer meaning to police officers’ sensemaking of their occupational identities. With the aim of advancing knowledge on this issue, the following article reports a case study of a tactical police unit and explores what roles media representations of the unit play in serving police officers’ narrative ‘identity work’ relative to their work and their organisation. Methodologically, the article draws on an analysis of newspaper articles about the studied police unit and interviews with police officers working within the unit. The findings indicate that positively biased representations depicting the unit as heroic and elite had self-enhancing effects on police officers’ identifications, whilst critically oriented media narratives spurred reframing and projection of local counter-images of occupational work identity. These findings add to the present understanding of how the media affect real-life policing, by highlighting how these representations convey meanings to police practice and occupational identification.

New stories of mastery: constructive learning in the face of complex dilemmas of practice

This paper suggests that complex practice dilemmas call for thick stories of masterful practice that don't ignore the tensions and ambiguities involved. The paper draws on an Australian study of policing as a fruitful example. Academic commentary suggests policing is beset with practice dilemmas unique in their complexity. However, empirical studies suggest that stories of mastery dominating police culture are heroic, simplistic accounts from which the doubts and tensions of dilemma have been removed. The study reported here explored interviews with 50 serving police officers for indicators of whether they describe their work in similarly limited ways. In total, 351 separate dilemma statements were identified and a further 252 statements offered glimpses of how officers deal with dilemmas. These statements offer multiple clues as to what more comprehensive stories of complex practice mastery might look like. It is suggested that workplace learning and continuing education should actively encourage the construction of such stories. Similarly, for other domains of practice, it is suggested that stories of masterful practice describe, in plain language, constructive engagement with the wicked and unresolvable, in order to be helpful in an age of super-complexity in which liquid learning presents both challenges and opportunities.

Lessons from the street: Leading complex work at the front line

Emerging academic commentary asks how people can be prepared for work and leadership under conditions of increasing complexity. It has been noted, however, that treatments of leadership in the management literature have been slow to engage with complexity thinking and also remain largely focused on executive and middle level leadership. This paper explores the implications of complexity thinking for front-line leadership work. It does that, firstly, by considering leadership questions implied by newer theoretical perspectives on complex practice and secondly, by revisiting earlier insights into complex work at street level. Lipsky’s (1980) exploration of street-level bureaucracy suggested that unresolvable paradoxes in public policy have always created significant dilemmas for front-line practitioners and leaders. Policing, education and welfare are prime examples of this space. Indeed, Perez (2011) suggests that operational police and their leaders face uniquely complex dilemmas. Thirdly, then, this paper references research undertaken with 50 serving police officers in Melbourne to focus on key issues for contemporary front-line leadership.

We Could be Criticized! Policing and Risk Aversion

Rob Heaton is a serving police officer in Kent Police. He was awarded a M.Sc. degree in 1996 and Ph.D. in 2007. He has published several papers about the effects of policing upon crime rates, and the demands on the police service in relation to its resources. The term ‘risk aversion’ has become increasingly common throughout the public sector. In the context of policing, concerns have been expressed that risk aversion and related bureaucracy have become an impediment to the service in the fulfilment of its core functions. The article examines the reasons for the growth in risk aversion and its effects upon policing. Significant challenges have been recently made in the form of the Flanagan Report and subsequent Green and White Papers, together with the Home Office-sponsored ‘Reducing Bureaucracy in Policing’ report. The likelihood that these developments will halt or reverse the forces of risk aversion is assessed as uncertain.

Who is Qualified to Provide Expert Testimony on the Psychological Fitness for Duty of a Police Officer? A Guide for Agencies, Lawyers and Hearing Officers

The Rules of Evidence in the Federal Courts and most State Courts are lenient in qualifying witnesses as experts. This article looks at the most common standard for determining who is qualified to testify as an expert regarding the psychological fitness for duty of a serving police officer. The article then discusses key areas that agencies, attorneys and hearing officers should focus on in determining the credibility of an expert’s testimony. Finally, this paper suggests trial preparation techniques for counsel, should a disputed fitness evaluation become involved in litigation.

Anonymous blogs by serving police officers: author of a blog v Times Newspaper Limited High Court (Queen's Bench) 16 June 2009

Justice Eady in the High Court hears application for an interim injunction from a serving police officer to prevent a newspaper from revealing that the officer was an anonymous blogger commenting on police matters.

POLICE WORK WITH YOUTH-AT-RISK: WHAT CAN SOCIAL WORK CONTRIBUTE?

While traditional policing focuses on crime control by law enforcement, the Hong Kong Police Force has increasingly affirmed the importance of multi-agency collaboration and service-orientation in their work. The change provides impetus for venturing on more innovative training for police. The Police Attachment to NGOs Program is an unprecedented tailor-made multi-agency training program for serving police officers in Hong Kong. A series of these training programs were commissioned to the Department of Applied Social Sciences of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. So far, seven rounds of training have been completed. The program consisted of three phases — the pre-attachment induction phase, the attachment phase and the post-attachment deepening phase. The trainees were provided with opportunities to dialog with the social workers and youth-at-risk directly, an experience evaluated by the trainees as stimulating and rewarding. The program also generated benefits to the social workers and the service users of the NGOs because they both could gain better understanding of the police mindset, their work and difficulties. This paper discusses what social work can contribute in police training, including the design of the program, its implementation, and evaluation of its effect. In a way, the training can be regarded as an indirect social work practice from which both the young people and the society can benefit. Since the trained police officers can avoid stereotyping the youth-at-risk and have better collaboration with social workers, this training is able to enhance police work with youth-at-risk. 傳統警務工作重點在於預防罪案和執法。但香港警務處近年不斷强調多機構合作和以服務爲取向的警務工作摸式，爲警務培訓工作提供了革新的的機遇。「青鋒計劃」 (Police Attachment to NGOs Program) 是一項嶄新、具針對性、並强調多機構合作的在職警務培訓項目。計劃可分爲三個部份 —— 導引期，機構體驗期，和深化期。透過與前線社工和邊青直接對話，警務學員普遍認爲這項體驗計劃，獲益良多。另一方面，這計劃也爲參與的社工和邊青帶來了益處。他們表示對警方的工作和難處都增加了認識和諒解。本文章探討社會工作對警務培訓可以作出的供献，包括了培訓的設計，執行和檢討成效。無疑，這項培訓是一項間接的社會工作實踐，社工參與這項培訓，減少警察對邊青定型，促成警務人員和前線社工在處理邊青問題上的互相了解，對各方都有益處。

Book Review: Covert human intelligence; a view from the police

More than 20 years ago Gary Marx broke ground with his foray into the sociology of undercover policing. His view was, and still is, that these policing tactics are essentially a necessary evil, but that they are a double-edged sword and that it is conceivable that such methods can, in principle, be regulated and controlled in order that the worst excesses and least desirable (unintended) outcomes are avoided. In his review of the original book, the European criminologist Cyrille Fijnaut basically agreed, but he also signaled his awareness of the corrupting potentiality of police undercover practices and of the need to bring them under the cover of law and legality. Covert policing tactics raise troubling questions that are with us still. Roger Billingsley’s slim edited collection is a recent addition to this literature and, although under theorized and largely descriptive, it will be a useful resource to academic criminologists and other scholars who are interested to explore and understand the latest developments. Whilst mainly focused on the contemporary situation in the United Kingdom, the contributions in the book (mostly penned by former or currently serving police officers or lawyers) offer many useful insights into one crucial tactic in the broad array of covert policing practices: the use of clandestine informers. The book is divided into three sections. The first deals with legal issues: the perspective of defense lawyers, the administrative regulation of covert human intelligence sources (CHIS), the use of promises of immunity in informant handling, Crime Law Soc Change (2010) 53:205–206 DOI 10.1007/s10611-009-9218-9

Penalty notices for disorder: influences on police decision making

This research examined, via a multi-method linked design, the influences over police decision making when disorderly behaviour is being dealt with in the context of a new type of offence disposal, the penalty notice for disorder (PND). The results of a multivariate analysis of the factors predicting the real-life issuance of PNDs to offenders formed the basis of an experiment (using serving police officers as participants) that probed officers’ decision-making processes in disorder scenarios. This approach presents an opportunity to gain insight into how police use the power of arrest when an alternate, less-punitive, option is available.

Al-Qaeda's Counterintelligence Doctrine: The Pursuit of Operational Certainty and Control

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsGaetano Joe IlardiDr. Gaetano Joe Ilardi, a serving police officer with Victoria Police, Australia, is also a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Global Terrorism Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

An Examination of Content Preference in Offender Profiles

This study examined preferences for the content of offender profiles between two different groups of participants to assess the importance of presentation style and linguistic emphasis. The sample consisted of 70 undergraduate psychology students and 30 serving police officers who were each presented with a case study and three profiles constructed to represent three stylistically different representations of the offender. The accompanying questionnaire indicated significant differences in the profile selection between police officers and students, and also, more important, some disparity in the way these preferences are articulated and justified. Detailed analysis of results and suggestions for future research are also included.

Policing Styles and Volume Crime Reduction

Rob Heaton is a serving police officer in Kent Police. He was awarded an M.Sc. degree in 1996 and Ph.D. in 2007. He has published several papers on the subject of the effects of policing upon crime rates. This is the first of two linked articles (the second one to be published in a later issue) that examine aspects of the relationship between the use of focused ‘policing styles’ and recorded crime rates. During the 1990s, most police forces in England and Wales underwent a period of experimentation, adopting organizational structures and processes associated with one or more named ‘policing styles’. These developments were in the main intended to reduce substantial increases in reported crime. This study examines the crime reduction results in practice. It concludes that despite widespread reductions in reported crime, these were substantially the result of a return to equilibrium trends, rather than of police action. An exception was noted in respect of thefts of motor vehicles, which appeared to be amenable to intervention by intelligence-led policing.

Intelligence-Led Policing and Volume Crime Reduction

Rob Heaton is a serving police officer in Kent Police. He was awarded an MSc degree in 1996 and PhD in 2007. He has published several papers on the subject of the effects of policing upon crime rates. This is the second of two linked articles that examine aspects of the relationship between the use of focused ‘policing styles’ and recorded crime rates. The first article found that in general, it was difficult to demonstrate a causal link between the practice of a particular policing style and any subsequent reduction in recorded crime. However, there appeared to be an exception in respect of intelligence-led policing, which was associated with reductions in thefts of motor vehicles. This study examined the association between intelligence-led policing and recorded crime rates in greater depth. Three hypotheses were tested in relation to six police forces that had similar and well-embedded ‘intelligence-led’ structures and processes. The findings were in broad agreement with those of the earlier study.

Occupational colour vision requirements for police officers

Inclusion of public service professions in the UK Disability Discrimination Act in 2004 prompted a review of occupational colour vision requirements for police officers. Changes in the regulations which existed prior to 2003 were proposed. The aim of this study was to obtain the views of serving police officers in Northern Ireland on the importance of good colour discrimination in everyday police work and on the recruitment regulations for patrol constables introduced in 2003 in mainland UK. These views were obtained by means of a questionnaire and informal discussions. More than 65% of police officers who responded to the questionnaire considered that good colour vision was very important for effective policing. Fewer than 2% considered that colour vision was unimportant. Experienced police officers agreed that the employment of colour-deficient patrol constables, as permitted in the new regulations, would lead to reduced efficiency and organisational difficulties at the local level. A number of everyday activities were described which showed the need for accurate colour discrimination. The change in recruitment policy and the lack of clarity in the new regulations show inadequate appreciation of the needs of the occupation, of different types of colour vision anomalies and of the diagnostic function of colour vision tests. Failure to provide guidance on appropriate colour vision tests, examination procedures and counselling services is likely to result in inconsistent employment policies in different police forces. It is recommended that the colour vision standard in place prior to 2003 is reinstated at the recruitment stage. The Ishihara test should be used for screening, and colour-deficient applicants further examined with the Farnsworth D15 test as a replacement for the City University Test 2nd edition.

Insight into an outstanding journalist

The Louise Nicholas case has probably generated more gossip, discussion and talkback vitriol than just about any other court case in the past 15 years. The harrowing saga of abuse of a teenage girl by a ring of serving police officers seems to have polarised people into the 'she was a victim' and the 'she could have said no' camps and will probably become one of those seminal stories- such as that which led to the 1987 cervical cancer inquiry-that makes us question values we as a country hold dear.