Introduction

The dominant reform agenda of the police service in England and Wales for the last three decades has revolved around the re-emergence of community policing and a languorous cultural shift from ‘rules’ to ‘values’ (Clark, 2005). At the heart of this shift is conflict between a reflective emphasis on the underpinning ‘values’ of policing and a pragmatic emphasis on the common-sense ‘craft’ of police work. This presents challenges for training and education and, for police officers, raises the question, ‘Whose side are we on?’. Attempts to inculcate more flexible thinking about values, bringing police officers closer to the communities they serve, has often met with resistance manifested through a myriad of police occupational cultures. Consequently, an implementation gap has appeared between the resurgence of a community policing philosophy, the training and development police officers receive to carry out this role, and the practice of street-level community policing.

A new model of police education and development has emerged in England and Wales, running from pre-entry recruitment, through career qualifications, to preparation for leadership and senior command (Flanagan, 2008; Neyroud, 2011; Sherman, 2011). A shift towards police education has long been advocated by international scholars as a mechanism for broader police reform (Bayley and Bittner, 1984; Chan, 1997; Roberg and Bonn, 2004), yet the community values that lie at the heart of this reform agenda have been met with sustained resistance by in-service police officers across a number of international jurisdictions and at all levels of the police hierarchy. This chapter identifies problems encountered when researching personal or professional values and outlines how changes to the provision of police training and education can address the cultural issues that have been subject to sustained public criticism. The chapter subsequently draws on evidence from training and education programmes in Europe and the US and puts forward an understanding of values that is able to envisage long-term change and reform within the police service.

Police education in England and Wales

The regionalised structure of the police in England and Wales makes it difficult to develop a coherent national strategy for police learning and development, resulting in fragmented training provision, little oversight of training delivery and the absence of a clear evidence base to support policy developments (Peace, 2006). Reform has also been inhibited by resistance from police officers to academic study in what is regarded as a practice-focused vocation.