Police Misconduct in England and Wales
Tracks
Track 2
Friday, July 12, 2024 |
8:15 AM - 9:45 AM |
Conference Room 1 (TIC) |
Speaker
Dr Sara Grace
Lecturer In Criminology
University Of Salford
Police misconduct – exploring motivations for disclosure of colleagues’ misconduct
Abstract
This paper brings together data from a vignette survey with 362 Police Officers, PCSOs and police staff from across England and Wales and 11 semi-structured interviews. Existing research on the ‘blue code of silence’ has largely adopted Klockars et al’s (2004) vignette methodology, questioning officers about their willingness to report observed misconduct. Taking a different starting point, this research presented respondents with three scenarios where they observed a colleagues’ misconduct and, at the time, took no action. Instead, asking what they would disclose in a subsequent investigatory interview about their colleague’s actions and why. The scenarios therefore accept the premise that there is a blue code of silence – that wrongdoing was not reported in the first instance – and assesses the extent to which police employees are willing to uphold that blue code when it is challenged. Using quantitative data, the factors associated with different levels of disclosure – full disclosure, partial or misrepresentative accounts or claiming to be unable to remember – are explored. Whilst qualitative data, from both the survey and subsequent interviews, allow for consideration of the motivations for disclosing colleagues’ misconduct (or not). Tentative findings are presented, exploring the role of the code of silence but, also, of integrity, trust and self-preservation in disclosure decisions.
Professor Layla Skinns
Professor Of Criminology And Criminal Justice
University Of Sheffield
Police misconduct hearings as a response to discrimination in the Metropolitan Police: A square peg for a round hole?
Abstract
Given the currently heightened concerns about institutional racism, sexism, misogyny and homophobia in the Metropolitan Police in London, this suggests there are likely to be regular breaches of professional standards relating to discriminatory misconduct. In this paper, I examine whether police misconduct hearings offer an adequate and appropriate opportunity to fully scrutinise these particular forms of misconduct. I examine the extent and nature of this discriminatory misconduct and whether it is underpinned by individual, cultural or organisational factors, as well as how disciplinary hearings and the media react to discriminatory misconduct cases. To do this, I draw on exploratory research involving observation of misconduct hearings relating to discriminatory malpractice in the Metropolitan Police between February and December 2023, content analysis of written misconduct hearing outcomes and press reports at the time of the hearings. It is concluded that misconduct hearings offer an overly individually-focused response to problems that are culturally and organisationally driven. As such, they will only ever be one part of the solution to issues of institutional discrimination and therefore represent something of a square peg for a round hole.
Professor Louise Westmarland
Professor Of Criminology
The Open University
Police misconduct, now we know what and where, but why? Some qualitative data from a survey of UK officers and support staff.
Abstract
This paper analyses some so far unpublished qualitative data collected as part of a survey, the quantitative findings of which we have published previously. It adds to the discussion of police misconduct by teasing out some questions, and possibly a few tentative answers, as to why police officers engage in the types of misconduct that have come to light in recent years. Increasing amounts of research, and the publication of police misconduct hearings, have revealed some of the cases of the types of behaviours counted as misconduct and the penalties involved. What remains is the question of why police officers get involved in some of the behaviours, given the growing awareness of the types of sanctions they will receive. Is it because they think that no one will tell and so it will remain hidden? Or that their colleagues will cover up for them? Or because they think have the power and justification to bend the rules? Has the increasingly public nature of police misconduct, through public hearings being reported in the press, had any effect on the type of behaviours the police engage in or has it made them more wary of being caught? This paper explores these issues using a large of amount of data we have been working through in an attempt to consider some suggestions.