Sarah Charman

Sharing a laugh: The role of humour in relationships between police officers and ambulance staff

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of humour within two different organisations, policing and ambulance work, which are linked by their focus on emergency work.Design/methodology/approach – Semi structured interviews with 45 police officers and ambulance staff sought to understand more about the relationships between these two distinctly different professions who work together closely and regularly in often very difficult situations.Findings – Interviews with police officers and ambulance staff revealed that humour is a key component in the working relationship of police officers and ambulance staff. The humour of superiority and the humour of exclusion are used to both cope with the demands of their work, reinforce group values and to strengthen the shared bonds between the two occupations.Originality/value – Humour has been studied within organisations but this paper reveals that humour also functions across occupational divides. Police officers and ambulance staff draw from a ...

Blue light communities: cultural interoperability and shared learning between ambulance staff and police officers in emergency response

A central feature of debate and controversy within organisations has been the effectiveness or otherwise of cross-agency working. At the front end of service delivery this becomes a matter of what has become known as the ‘interoperability’ of agencies and professions as they work jointly in problem solving, particularly in emergency situations and incidents. This paper examines the specific issues of interoperability between police officers and ambulance staff engaging in street work. Based on interviews with 45 practitioners, it exposes the cultural dynamics of working together across these two organisations. Applying the conceptual framework of ‘communities of practice’ to this particular dynamic, it discusses the various dimensions of situated learning between police officers and ambulance staff which enable these two professions to operate in a relatively coherent fashion. It concludes that central to the front-end effectiveness of emergency response is the degree of ‘cultural interoperability’ which police officers and ambulance staff would appear to benefit from. Extending the communities of practice framework further, it focuses on two critical cultural features of interoperability: communication and exchange based behaviour.

Crossing cultural boundaries: reconsidering the cultural characteristics of police officers and ambulance staff

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the organisational cultures of two different parts of the emergency service, the police and the ambulance service. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews with 45 police officers and ambulance staff sought to understand more about the relationships between these two distinctly different professions who work together closely and regularly in often very difficult situations. Findings – Interviews with police officers and ambulance staff revealed the strong and harmonious working relationship between the two professions and an existence of both shared organisational characteristics and shared cultural characteristics. These cultural characteristics, identified as both explicit and tacit in nature provide the “glue” which not only binds each organisation together but which appears to cement a longer term, tangible link between the police and ambulance services. Originality/value – This paper reveals a new dimension within cultural analyses of ...

Getting to the top?:selection and training for senior managers in the police service

This paper examines the processes by which the senior police officers in England and Wales are chosen and prepared for their role. Based upon research interviews with a sample of chief constables and assistant chief constables, it develops a critical assessment of the quality of each of the three key stages in this respect: the selection of those considered to have the potential to become senior officers, senior management training, and the appointments process at police authority level. In the light of the assessments made, the paper considers alternative schemes to those which currently operate at each stage of the process.

Singing from the same hymn sheet: the professionalisation of the Association of Chief Police Officers

The Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Wales and Northern Ireland (ACPO) represents the most senior tiers of the police service and has, arguably, a primary responsibility for ‘steering’ policing and policing policy under both central and local government (police authority) advice and guidance. In order to deal more effectively with the challenges of the late 20th century, the police service has been the subject of what is principally an internally driven desire to professionalise. That professionalisation has been aimed at both delivery of service and at the professionalisation of ACPO itself as a policy-making and policy advisory body. This paper focuses on how ACPO has developed organisationally, and on the impact of such change at individual force level. The paper also examines the dilemmas revealed in such developments.

Adjusting the police occupational cultural landscape:the case of An Garda Síochána

A central area of interest yet controversy within policing over many decades has been the extent to which there exists a pernicious and pervasive occupational culture which operates in stark contrast to the aims of a principled police force. This article seeks to analyse the contentious issue of the culture of a police force under the pressure of organisational reform, with particular reference to An Garda Síochána, the Irish National Police Service. It draws upon an analysis of interviews conducted with police officers working across a range of units in one division of the national police service of the Republic of Ireland – an organisation that has not long ago been the subject of a post-scandal suggested internal reform agenda, driven by the Morris Tribunals investigation of a major policing scandal. It presents an appraisal of officer perceptions relating to the key features of An Garda Síochánas ‘adjusted’ operational-level occupational culture as they may be. These imply that the outcomes embedded in a number of reforms might well have altered the ‘expected’ cultural expressions of the police, thereby, challenging the suitability of ‘conventional’ themes of police characteristics and practices in relation to Irish police experience on the ground. It seems Irish police officers share an outlook that views formal rules as self-serving and normative orders designed to regulate their professional conduct. Garda culture may be characterised by its relative adoption or adaptation of new approaches, methods and techniques in public service delivery. So too it looks as if conventional values relating to police solidarity and loyalty, may have been ‘conditionally’ adjusted, in accordance with a changing accountability framework.

Lobbying and representation : an analysis of the emergence of the ‘senior police voice’ during the late twentieth century

This paper charts the history and emergence of the ‘senior police voice’ within the UK. Before the 1990s, that voice was fragmented, hostile and contradictory. Cultural and political change plus a desire from within the senior echelons of the police service to professionalise began a long process of acceptance of the centrality of politics and the media within policing. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO, representing the senior ranks of the police service) in particular moved from the relative safety and anonymity of a ‘private’ organisation to a body, which was much more centre stage within criminal justice policy making. This paper analyses the development of a more corporate senior police voice through the Associations media activity and cultural change. It does this through an analysis of interviews with the members of ACPO, in particular its Presidents, who served as ACPO members from the late 1950s onwards.

The Bobby Lobby: Police Associations and the Policy Process

There are particular sensitivities regarding the interface between British policing and the political process. Unique in the public services, policing is, at least in principle, governed by the constitutional doctrine of ‘operational independence’ generally referred to as constabulary independence (Lustgarten, 1986). While the primary thrust of this doctrine is to inhibit any attempt by external political authorities to seek to control or even influence policing policies - these are to be the exclusive province of chief police officers themselves - the discourse surrounding constabulary independence (Savage et al., 1999) draws a more general demarcation line between the world of policing and the world of politics. Not only must politics not impinge on policing but also the police must not become embroiled in politics. The apparent quid pro quo of constabulary independence is the notion that the police should not in turn dabble in political affairs. However, not only is the concept of constabulary independence itself hugely contentious (Lustgarten, 1986), the idea that the British police have managed to stay aloof from politics is, to say the least, problematic.

Social, Personal and Group Identity

Whilst policing is very often characterised in terms of its legal roles and functions, Chap. 3 provides a more sociological account of policing as a ‘cultural institution’ which has changed fundamentally since its inception. This chapter builds upon the theme of identity by moving from the organisational to the cultural and, in doing so, explores the issues of social and personal identity and the formation of the self. This is done through an analysis of the social identity and intergroup relations literature. Understanding organisations is as much about understanding the attitudes, values and beliefs of the individuals who work within those organisations as anything else. Appreciating how these attitudes, values and beliefs are formed within the organisational environment is essential to a fuller understanding of the development of police culture.

The Research: Aims and Methods

This chapter sets out the aims and objectives of the four-year longitudinal research project undertaken in this book and identifies the nature of the research process. After a consideration of the distinct methodological challenges of both longitudinal cultural research and research within the police service, the chapter considers both the quantitative and qualitative elements of the research. It outlines the research themes to be explored and the manner in which the interviews were conducted. The main focus of the interviews is on the format of a semi-structured interview of the experiences of learning to be, becoming and being a new police officer. The aim of this research was to better appreciate the changing nature of the new recruits to the police service.