10 Lessons from the past: managing and professionalising the police
A House of Commons Briefing paper noted in 2020 that:
… police complaints and discipline systems are key to police accountability [...] Public confidence in the systems is vital to securing overall confidence in the police. The systems [...] are notoriously complicated despite repeated attempts to simplify them with reform. The independence of the systems (or perceived lack thereof) has also been the subject of repeated criticism.
Despite well over a century of innovation in professional standards, training and oversight of complaints, challenges remain. What can the historical information you have learned this week offer to discussions in the present?
Figure 13: Online news headline from November 2024 [Description: Police officer in cap and high visibility police jacket facing away from the camera.] Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czr78x0e5yzo]
Three main conclusions can be drawn from any study of the police misconduct and professionalisation:
- Police misconduct is not confined to a succession of ‘bad apples’. The history of police corruption, scandal and misconduct clearly shows the fallacy of the ‘bad apple’ explanation. While there have undoubtedly been occasions when individual officers have engaged in criminal or serious misconduct, ‘the history of policing has too many examples of institutionalised corruption for this “explanation” to carry much credence’ (Newburn, 2015, p. 7). Blaming individual ‘bad apples’, which has often been the response of police authorities in the past, has potentially damaging implications. It diverts attention away from institutional change, by implying that punishment of individuals rather than institutional change is required.
- Periodic public scandals around high-profile instances of police misconduct (whether individual or collective) have been a feature of policing for well over 150 years. The number of serious misconduct cases brought to light in the last five years indicates significant further work remains to raise standards within policing. Historically, scandals have acted as a prompt to necessary reforms, and we might expect this pattern to continue. It would be preferable, however, to continue the improvement of professional standards and the reinforcement of a culture of integrity without being prompted by scandal. History suggests that initial training and continuing professional development may have a role to play here, if oriented away from the rote learning of procedures, standards and policies and towards the development of professional ethics and appropriate use of discretionary autonomy.
- More positively, the historical willingness of the British police and British politicians to have open discussions about police legitimacy and the failings of police, even while shying away from systemic change, have helped to maintain broad public confidence. While under pressure at present, police training and oversight mechanisms are far more robust now than they have ever been. The IPCC, for example, while frequently criticised for length of time it takes to address cases and the number of findings it makes in favour of the police, ‘actually performs quite well [...] when compared to Independent Police Complaints Boards in other European countries’ (Johansen, 2013, p. 159). Police misconduct undoubtedly poses ongoing challenges for the legitimacy of policing, and forces have often been reluctant to admit systemic or cultural failings, but a recent trend to greater openness offers a route to progress in the future.