Civilianising the ‘Blue Code’? An Examination of Attitudes to Misconduct in the Police Extended Family

Abstract

Despite the importance of integrity to policing, the extensive literature on police misconduct, police culture and the code of silence, a significant knowledge gap exists in respect of the integrity of police staff and their opinions of misconduct. Having identified these gaps, a methodology was developed that built on previous studies of policing integrity across the world. This methodology, which consisted of an anonymous electronic survey distributed to every employee of a police force in northern England, provided the means through which any variances between civilian police staff and police officers could be examined. The results of the survey showed that despite certain similarities between police officers and police staff, there were a number of significant differences in respect of their views and opinions on integrity. The key finding of this research project was that in spite of the literature affirming the strength of the ‘blue code of silence’ amongst police officers, police staff were actually less likely to report incidents of misconduct than officers. This indicated that the code of silence amongst police staff may actually be stronger than that of police officers. This paper also offers explanations as to why this might be the case.

Keywords

policing integrity police corruption misconduct extended police family blue code of silence civilianisation police ethics

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barry

D. P.

(1999). Handling police misconduct in an ethical way. Retrieved April 19, 2006, from http://www.neiassociates.org/barrythesis.pdf.

Bullock

Gunning

(2007). Police service strength, England & Wales, 31 March 2007 (Home Office statistical bulletin). London: Home Office.

Button

(2007). Security officers and policing: Powers, culture and control in the governance of private space. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Carter

D. L.

(1990). Drug-related corruption of police officers: A contemporary typology. Journal of Criminal Justice, 18, 85–98.

Chan

J. B. L.

(2003). Fair cop: Learning the art of policing. University of Toronto Press.

Chan

(2005). Changing police culture. In Newburn

(Ed.), Policing: Key readings (pp. 338–363). Cullompton: Willan Publishing.

Christopher

(1991). Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department. Los Angeles: Dianne Publishing

Cooper

(2006). A national evaluation of Community Support Officers. London: Home Office.

Delattre

E. J.

(1989). Character and cops: Ethics in policing. Washington, DC: AEI Press.

10.

Fitzgerald

G. E.

(1989). Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct. Brisbane: GoPrint

11.

Flanagan

(2008). The review of policing: Final report. London: Home Office.

12.

Goldstein

(1977). Policing a free society. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.

13.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary. (1999). Police integrity: Securing and maintaining public confidence. London: Home Office.

14.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary. (2002). Modernising the police service: A thematic inspection of workforce modernisation. London: Home Office

15.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary. (2006). Raising the standard: A thematic inspection of professional standards. London: Home Office.

16.

Johnston

(2003). From ‘pluralisation’ to ‘the police extended family’: Discourses on the governance of community policing in Britain. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 31(3), 185–204.

17.

Johnston

(2006). Diversifying police recruitment? The deployment of Police Community Support Officers in London. Howard Journal, 45(4), 388–402.

18.

Kappeler

V. E.

Sluder

R. D.

Alpert

G. P.

(2001). Breeding deviant conformity: The ideology and culture of police. In Dunham

R. G.

Alpert

G. P.

(Eds.), Critical issues in policing (4th ed., pp. 290–316). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

19.

Kleinig

(1996). The ethics of policing. Cambridge University Press.

20.

Kleinig

(2001). The blue wall of silence: An ethical analysis. New York University School of Law, Center for Research in Crime and Justice.

21.

Klockars

C. B.

(1980). The Dirty Harry problem. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 452, 33–47.

22.

Klockars

C. B.

Ivkoviæ

S. K.

Harver

W. E.

Haberfeld

M. R.

(2000). Measurement of police integrity. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs.

23.

Klockars

C. B.

Ivkoviæ

S. K.

Haberfeld

M. R.

(Eds.). (2004). Contours of police integrity. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

24.

Knapp

(1972). Report of the Commission to investigate alleged police corruption. New York: George Braziller.

25.

McIvor

(2004). The culture of the police service. Retrieved January 2, 2008, from http://www.bullying999.co.uk/culture.htm.

26.

Miller

(2003). Police corruption in England and Wales: An assessment of current evidence (Home Office Online Report 11/03). London: Home Office.

27.

Mollen

(1994). Report of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Procedures of the Police Department. New York: City of New York.

28.

Morton

(1993). Bent coppers: A survey of police corruption. London: Little, Brown.

29.

Newburn

(1999). Understanding and preventing police corruption: Lessons from the literature paper 110. London: Home Office, Policing and Reducing Crime Unit.

30.

Newell

(1996). Questionnaires. In Gilbert

(Ed.), Researching social life (pp. 94–115). London: Sage Publications.

31.

Parrett

L. J.

(1992). Past, present and future roles of civilians in the police service. London: Home Office.

32.

Parrett

L. J.

(1998). Past, present and future role of civilian personnel in the police service of England and Wales. Norwich: University of East Anglia.

33.

Punch

(1985). Conduct unbecoming. London: Tavistock.

34.

Punch

(2000). Police corruption and its prevention. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 8(3), 301–324.

35.

Reiner

(1985). Politics of the police. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books.

36.

Reiner

(1992). Politics of the police (2nd ed.). Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

37.

Reiner

(2000). Politics of the police (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

38.

Roebuck

J. B.

Barker

(1974). A typology of police corruption. Social Problems, 21, 423–437.

39.

Rothwell

G. R.

Baldwin

J. N.

(2007). Ethical climate theory, whistle-blowing, and the code of silence in police agencies in the State of Georgia. Journal of Business Ethics, 70, 341–361.

40.

Savage

S. P.

(2007). Police reform: Forces for change. Oxford University Press.

41.

Sayed

Bruce

(1998). Police corruption: Towards a working definition. African Security Review, 7(1), 3–14.

42.

Sherman

L. W.

(1978). Scandal and reform: Controlling police corruption. Berkeley: University of California Press.

43.

Skolnick

J. H.

(1966). Justice without trial. New York: Wiley.

44.

Skolnick

J. H.

(2002). Corruption and the blue code of silence. Police Practice and Research, 3(1), 7–19.

45.

Trautman

(2001, January). Truth about police code of silence revealed. Law & Order, 68–76.

46.

Unison. (2002). Equal before the law: Attitudes and aspirations of police staff. London: author.

47.

United Nations. (1996). International human rights standards for law enforcement. Retrieved October 12, 2005, from http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/pocketbook.pdf.

48.

Waddington

P. A. J.

(1999). Police (canteen) sub-culture: An appreciation. British Journal of Criminology, 39(2), 286–308.

49.

Westmarland

(2004). Policing integrity: Britain's thin blue line. In Klockars

C. B.

Ivkoviæ

S. K.

Haberfeld

M. R.

(Eds.), Contours of police integrity (pp. 75–94). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

50.

Westmarland

(2005). Police ethics and integrity: Breaking the blue code of silence. Policing & Society, 15(2), 145–165.

51.

Wilson

J. Q.

(1968). Varieties of Police Behaviour. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press

52.

Wood

J. R. T.

(1997). Final Report of the Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service: Volume 1: Corruption. Sydney, NSW: The Government of the State of New South Wales.