Abstract
This ambitious book is about the roles, values and attitudes of chief police officers (assistant chief constables, deputy chief constables and chief constables) in England and Wales. The work is based on research with 94 officers, a sample that constitutes 43.1 per cent of all chief officers in the country. Excluding the notes on the research methodology, the introduction and a short postscript, the book is based on six very rich chapters that are only rudimentarily presented here. Chapter 1 deals with the selection and appointment of chief police officers, Chapter 2 focuses on getting and keeping the ‘top jobs’ in the force, whereas Chapter 3 pays attention to the challenge of leadership in the police at the upper levels of the force.
Chapter 4, which focuses on the relationship between chief officers and the police authorities, the directly elected police and crime commissioners, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Home Office, is the most fascinating and absorbing chapter of the book because the chief officers interviewed are explicit about the increased, as they view it, intervention of politics in their work, and the frustration and tension this causes. Chapter 5 focuses on the nature of experience in policing and exclusivity ‘in terms of understanding the job by having done it’ (p. 177). Finally, Chapter 6 provides an account of the chief officers’ views about the challenges facing policing in the next decade. Overall, the contribution of the book is that it offers an insightful account of the lives and perspectives of top officers, it debunks myths about policing at the top level but also verifies what the more informed reader might suspect about the role of politics on the job.
Policing at the Top is a book of many qualities. First, while not solely focused on chief constables, it is the first very good account of chief police officers in Britain since Robert Reiner’s (1991) pioneering masterpiece. If one is to understand policing as a line of work, paying attention to how those who deliver the orders think is the first (essential) step. In this sense the book is indeed a very welcome addition to the existing literature. Not only does the work complement and capitalize upon Reiner’s work but it also extends it to other high rank officers. By incorporating assistant chief constables and deputy chief constables Caless includes potential future chief constables, something that makes his study highly dynamic.
Second, Caless’ book is published at a critical time given the major changes to police and policing brought by the coalition government, most notably the first elected Police and Crime Commissioners in 2012. Caless provides a unique insight into the upper echelons of contemporary British Police who are invisible to much of the public. The often powerful and emotional excerpts from the interviews that the author provides are a very positive aspect that not only enliven the text but also, on a couple of occasions, inform the reader about some cryptic terms used among chief officers on the job. One such example is ‘role creep’ (i.e. when the police authority gives orders and attempts to take over the operational and command structure of the force).
On the other hand the book would have been strengthened by the inclusion of a more detailed account about the sample of officers that Caless recruited, and specifically, some demographic data and information about their rank. These could potentially be important variables relating to the responses given. The part of the work titled ‘notes on the research methodology’ does provide technical information about the methodological approach; however, some more information would be highly beneficial.
Moreover, and despite that, as Caless notes, police officers including chief officers ‘enjoy discussing the nature of the job and its ramification, the criminal justice system, [and] engagement with the public’ (p. 207), he has not asked the interviewees their opinion about the force as a whole and especially their views about the role of the police in a capitalist system which tends to use the force as its arm.
Putting aside the missed opportunities for the book to be even better, I found Policing at the Top a wonderful, accessible, very interesting and timely read. Although it is about the British police it has the capacity to benefit significantly those interested in police and policing in other contexts. It is a very much needed and in many respects ground-breaking piece of work that delivers on the promise of its title. This is a work that Caless should be congratulated on, and one that is destined to be an essential book in police studies.