The Role of Police Culture in the Police Professionalisation Agenda

This paper seeks to extend our understanding of the role played by police culture in debates around police professionalisation. In particular, it will seek to position the contemporary police professionalization agenda as a direct result of the shift towards post-Keynesian policing over recent decades. In doing so, this paper will argue that this transformation has signalled a distinct form of professionalisation which, in a break with more traditional forms of occupational professionalisation, has sought to limit and control the discretion available to practitioners. This, it will be argued, is directly linked to attempts to control behaviours associated with police culture. From this foundation, the paper will present the findings of a research project investigating police officer experiences of engaging with degree level study to highlight structural and cultural challenges related to using Higher Education as a tool with which to promote police professionalisation.