Introduction
Police occupational culture has been evolving in recent years showing concern since it is viewed as one of the barriers respecting police reform. According to Fielding (1994, p. 47), the occupational culture of policing can be regarded as ‘ an almost pure form of hegemonic masculinity that emphasizes the aggressive physical action, competitiveness, exaggerated heterosexual orientations, misogynistic and patriarchy attitudes towards women and the operation of rigid in-group or out-group distinction’. It manifested that the male-oriented culture can enhance customary beliefs about women in negation of women as latent sexual fighter. Additionally, Reiner (2010) asserted that to know more how police operations performed, one have to realize the policing culture, such as, the values, norms and perspectives that impart their action. Police occupational culture is composed of a number of integral parts and every component is vital to a perception of the entire. Such constituent is about the mindset of how the police behave (Perez, 2010). This circumstance underlines the reality that the occupational culture associated with police is directly linked to the conducts and moralities of street or other frontline-serving officers (Newburn, 2012). Palmer, Das & Shearing (2012) argued that police occupational culture is not taken apart or separated from the organizational culture; this is a framework within which policing is administered and carried out in all societies.
Culture and Police Culture
Culture is a word that comprises multiple meanings. Brooker (2003) defines that culture comprehends those profound and aesthetic forms that clarify an era, nation, society or social group as being naturally and/ or humanly constructed. Hence, in its board explanation, culture can be described as the inclusive of the intrinsic notions, faiths, values and knowledge which formulate the mutual foundation of behavior (Singh et al, 2012). Also, it includes taken-for-granted emotively ordered beliefs directing action, and cultural formations, which are the apparent expressions of those beliefs (Haarmann, 2007). Culture, as a concept, implies both commandants and limits that are widely gripped by its whole associates (Markus, 2011). Loyalty to a police culture is seen as an all-or-nothing proposition. As Paterson and Polloc (2011) indicated, the police culture is to convey common values, attitudes, and beliefs within a police context. This distribution of emotions, or a political economy of emotions, is consistent with power, class structure, and domination in a society in which constitutes distinctive value configurations (Smith, 2009). These, in turn, reflect the adaptation between distinguished practitioners to contingencies on the work basis, which build segments within the occupation (Stets and Turne, 2007). Obviously, uniformed officers will confront various contingencies than do supervisors, detectives and the management (Manning, 2003).
The Occupational Culture of Police
Firstly, the police culture penetrates the certain range of police who have been measured comprising police corruption, the use of discretion and police reform (Cockcroft, 2012). One of the examples of police discretion is that when a police halts a person for a traffic violation or acts in response to an action of a tumult, and that person beams a police ID, matters usually ease up (Baker, 2011). In fact, responding officers and traffic police remain a lot of latitudes in selecting what laws to administer, which people to enforce them, and the way where they stand up for the law (Miller, Hess & Orthmann, 2010). The feature of the fellowship enables the offender to professional courtesy, which shield them from punishment (Rice and White, 2010). As a result, the responding officers are likely to express remorse for the disturbance and agitation, and it’s comprehended that nothing seemed to be happening. Peters and Pierre (2012) asserts that police services feature a typical attribute, that is, the level of officer discretion boosts as he descends the hierarchy, with very large discretion consisting in the front line. Another case is that black people who hardly receive equal treatment as whites from the police are 26 times more likely than whites to face stop and search in England and Wales by police (The guardian, 2010). Secondly, it is not strange that many police departments have issues with institutional racism, homophobia and sexism (Rowe, 2008). When departments look for fresh recruits from the community, official musters seldom demonstrate the demographics of population (Brogden and Nijhar, 2005). Minorities and women still struggle for recognition of the circle, small number is at order level, and numerous address sexual harassment and discrimination. Although a Home Office indicates that the number of female officers has moved up 10 per cent in between 2000 and 2010 in England and Wales, they are still only an adjunct of many male officers (Home Office, 2011). Nearly all of the prior researches on women police have focused on the abilities of women to perform police work; almost all assume that women do have such acquired power indeed. Gaines and Kappeler (2011) also manifest that women police have come across a great deal of difficulties in joining police work, for the most part, on account of the negative attitudes of the men; thus male officers expect women failing. On the other hand, black women said that their supervisors do not dispatch white women to high crime areas and one claimed experienced verbal racial insults (Gaines and Kappeler, 2011). Cole and Smith (2006) concluded that the resistance to women police because they have trouble to interrupt police work and violate departmental secrets, which is viewed as male world, about police corruption and violence. Thirdly, Paton (2009) found that the motivation of people to join the police work is power and status of the job. Others may say that they work as police officer as they have a desire to help people, but they take a disdainful and putrid as time goes by (Ross, 2011). The police cultures are likely to inculcate a sense of entitlement to power and ascendancy over the rest of society (Loftus, 2009). Similarly, police training particularly is intended to remold or erase a person’s former identity and shape a police officer. The police uniform, badge and gun reflect the symbols of power and authority in worldwide. If officers don the uniform, they will guarantee the authority that accord with it (Rhodes, 2011). They also anticipants and demands obedience and needs for esteem from the public. So wearing the uniform and exercising the power of the job are referred to as the police personality (Rhodes, 2011). Certainly, a great deal of officers abandon the police personality at work, while others take it everywhere, night and day. Lastly, the occupational outlooks of police culture embraces a mistrust and doubtfulness of citizens, evaluating people in the light of their plausible threat, a ” we against they” inclination toward citizens, and adherence to the peer group (Travis, 2011). It is probable that the police personality appears to separate officers from the rest of society (Siegel, 2009). Similarly, police believe that societal order depends on the quality of people, including the police itself (Bisschop et al, 2012). When a person defies the police, the police will shield their right to maintain control and enforce authority. At that time, officers have to place confidence in each other to offer assistance and support in their striving to enforce control. They create powerful links of loyalty that assure they do the same for each other (Macvean and Neyroud, 2012). Therefore, police officers might alter their views towards citizens and administrators, role orientations, legal constraints, and policing strategies. They are possible to deal variously with the stress of their work environment (Thurman and Mcgarrell, 2005; Gaines and Worral, 2011). Indeed, the police culture subsists inevitably, having the culture born by its structure and by any external influences.
The Importance of Police Occupational Culture
Taking into account the cultural values and power relations, it is more realized that how the police culture is created and sustained, how the nature of work in the police force come through as well as their synergy and socialization within the society is explored. The police force seems to be a conservative group in its work environment, and the work of police is inherent in isolation. This isolation forms its members who are regarded as a ‘ race apart’ and a mode of group spirit, because they believe that the world is an ” us against them” concepts (Mclaughlin, 2006). They have to look after each other, support each other and have high trust in each other. It seems as if a very airtight shop environment, which is difficult to pierce. In spite of this, police culture has developed core beliefs and values that in many ways mirror those of a larger society from which they originate. The large number of the police force is hired from working class and the lower middle class individuals, who balance the major population (Greene and Heilbrun, 2010). In most cases, this aspects and actions of this segment of society can be regarded as the reflection of a wider society. On the other hand, not only do the creation of sub-culture make a wider society and the shift work, but also it impels isolation. In general, it fosters polices an attitude that instills all other borders of their life, an attitude towards continuing suspicion which cannot be halted, enables them a sense of mission. Likewise, the occupational culture of police shows an understanding that help deal with and adjust to stresses and attentions the police faces (Cockcroft, 2012). Ferris and Treadway (2012) explained that career success is connected the part with political skills, the part with networking ability, and with the intelligence of reshuffling and resiling one’s emotion because the emotional tone of an officer on the street may not be able to conform to the request of top command. This understanding enables police officers how to see the social world and their role; moreover, the police culture plays an important role to analyze what the police do, and their broad political function (Carrabine and Lee, 2009). However, police officers encounter varying degree of extrinsic political pressure to obtain results at different times resulting from demanding moral panics or tendency towards crime statistics (Reiner, 2010). In order to wind up a case, which under the influence of result- getting pressure, police officers is more likely to feel force to expand their powers and infringe upon suspect’s rights (Reiner, 2010). This is of crucial importance to realizing the adaptability of occupational cultures in policing of which is an acknowledgement that police cultures do not inevitably take a significant responsibility to public expectation when it comes to effective law enforcement. Last but not least, the occupational culture of policing is demonstrated by values and value weights between internal and external division (Palmiotto, 2011). It makes a great impact of female officers. For instance, Dempsey and Forst (2011) clarify that ways of stresses and its coping faced by female officers is unlike males and that this may come out a cross-cutting component unified based on shared feelings instead of rank. Furthermore, the culture both breaks and merges the occupation while these values alert a structural possible for clashes in the police organization (Rowley and Waring, 2011). Not only may clashes cause division alteration in value, but may cause differences in the force of the work and ways of settling differences.
Conclusion
To sum up, the culture of the police, including the values, attitudes, norms, and beliefs, inspire what they behave in a certain way. Of course, it is neither integrant nor universal and nor unvarying. Police culture is not largely negative. It can be considered to be practicable for the existing police officers in an occupation viewed to be risky, erratic, and estranging. The officers cling to officers’ members to bolster up the police work where the other officers will ” pull their weight”, which they will protect, support and help their colleagues while facing external hazards and which they will keep concealment deterred by independent investigation (Georgulas, 2012 cited in Goldsmith 1990). Then, the police occupational culture is not solitary, because it demonstrates the social values of societies, such as individualism, prejudice against others, women and people of color, as well as material success. It seems to specifically be molded by local authority, situational pressures, and media dramatizations (Gottschalk, 2009). On the other hand, police act in response to the troublesome, the nasty, the violence and the ordinary when they are summoned, as such; the emotional tone of policing becomes an outlook of basic humanity. Even more, the outward aspect of police culture is actually seen as a sense of mission. There is a sensation that policing is not just a career but with a meritorious purpose, at least in principle. It ignores the mundane existence of policing described as often tedious, trivial and unprofessional.
