AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CUL TURE(S) OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE FORCE BETWEEN THE 1930s AND THE 1960s A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Thomas William Cockcroft Department of Law, Brunei University August 2001 Acknowledgements Thanks to the following people for their help, support, advice and encouragement over the last few years; Keith Cockcroft, Graham Cockcroft, Jane Hopkins, Arthur Hopkins, Ged Denton, Ulanda Taylor, Kieran Heneghan, Keith Barton, Jane Woolfenden, Mark Bartholomew, Graeme Clarke, Rachel Leigh Carter, Betsy Stanko, Sharon Cowan I would also like to thank Dr Robert Perks of the National Sound Archive for his help. The research would not have been possible without the co-operation of the 26 retired officers who agreed to take part in this research. Many thanks to all of you. The following people also deserve medals; Phil Rawlings, Jenny Deiches, Fiona Brookman ABSTRACT The majority of published work in the area of police occupational culture follows the methodological template of Skolnick (1994) which utilises both participant observation and the interview. The way in which this approach has been used has proved problematic for a number of reasons. First, it has promoted a view that police occupational culture is static and unchanging. Second, it has failed to acknowledge that officers have a choice whether or not to engage in certain behaviours. Third, it has promoted a view that police officers display essentially negative behaviours. The aim of the present research was to investigate, by means of techniques drawn from oral history, the culture or cultures of police officers within the Metropolitan Police Force in London between the 1930s and the 1960s. Firstly, there was a desire to find out to what extent accepted correlates of police occupational culture applied to police work in the period prior to the 1960s when it was first investigated. Secondly, if there did appear to be differences between the findings of the present research and those of authors charting post-1960s police culture, ideas would be forwarded in an attempt to explain such variations. Examples of factors which could account for such variations might include changes in the relationship between the police and the public, changes in police practice or changes in legislation. Through 26 interviews with retired officers, it was found that the intensity of Skolnick's key factors for the emergence of police occupational culture (danger, authority and the need to appear efficient) appeared to be greatly influenced by wider societal factors manifested in the state of police/public relations. Similarly, the present research found great variations within the officers' apparent adherence to key parts of the police 'working personality' as proposed by Skolnick. In short, the great variation in police behaviours exhibited in the present research could be attributed to the fact that wider social factors served to affect the intensity of Skolnick's three key factors. 3 Contents Page 1. Introduction 7 2. Literature Review 12 What is Police Occupational Culture? 12 Danger Authority Efficiency 13 Suspiciousness Pragmatism Excitement 15 Social Solidarity Social Isolation 17 Variations in Police Culture 20 Police Cynicism Police Pessimism 23 Categorisation of the Public 24 Conservatism Authoritarianism 26 Machismo 28 Racism 33 Changes in Police Culture 37 A New Conceptual Framework? 41 Conclusion 44 3. Methodology 47 Oral History 48 Criticisms of Oral History Techniques 49 Advantages of Oral History Techniques 59 Analysis 65 How the Research was Carried Out 70 Equipment Used 78 Methodological Issues Encountered in this Study 78 4. Findings 88 Introduction 88 Pressure for Arrests or Summonses 89 Discretion 93 Common Sense 100 General Discipline 101 Attitude of Older Officers 103 Camaraderie 105 Social Solidarity 111 Social Isolation 113 Attitudes to Policewomenl 115 The Role of the Policewoman Attitudes to Women in General 119 Attitudes to Ethnic Minority Groupsl 120 Relations with Ethnic Minority Groups Complaints against the Police 124 Corruption 126 i) Perjury and the 'Embroidering of Evidence' 126 ii) ViolenceNiolence against Prisoners 130 iii) Bribes 136 ivY RobberyfTheft 140 v) General Malpractice 143 Relationship with Barrow Boys and Street Bookmakers 144 Relationship with Prostitutes 147 The Rubber Heel Squad 150 The Relationship between CID and Uniform 153 Relationship with Magistrates 157 The Relationship with the Public 161 Differences in the Police/Public Relationship between Areas 165 Perceived Changes in the Police/Public Relationship over Time169 Differences in Cultural Dynamics between Geographical Areas/172 Police Stations Relationship with Left and Right Wing Organisations 180 Relationship with Law-Breakers 183 Role of the Police. Thief-Taking or Public Service? 187 Cynicism/Hardened 189 'Once a Copper, Always a Copper?' 194 5. Analysis 197 Introduction 197 An In-depth Overview of Skolnick's Conception of the 199 Police Officer's 'Working Personality' Comparison of the Findings of the Present Research 207 to the Literature Review Direct Comparison of Key Correlates of Occupational 217 Culture between Existing Research and the Present Research The Importance of Wider Social Factors in Accounting 224 for Variations in Police Culture 6. Conclusion 226 7. References 230 8. Extra Resource 234 8. Appendices 235 Appendix 1 Core Topics Covered in the Interviews 236 Appendix 2 Details of the Interviewees 237 6 Chapter 1 Introduction This piece of research was undertaken in an attempt to find out more about the nature of police occupational culture. Since the 1960s when the subject was first addressed, there appears to have been very little theoretical progress made except for the work of Chan (see Chan 1997). Skolnick's research introduced a methodological template characterised by intense and relatively short-term pieces of research based upon participant observation and interviews. This approach has been utilised by later authors such as Cain (1973), Smith and Gray (1983) and Manning (1977) and research undertaken in such a way has tended to unearth similar data and draw similar conclusions. These findings, generally, appear to suggest that the police indulge in corrupt, immoral, or at best, questionable practice most of the time with little or no mention of those situations where officers display good police practice. Such negative behaviours are viewed as being the result of cultural influences acting upon the will of individual officers with scant regard for any personal or individual motivations which they might hold. In many ways, it appears that the modus operandi employed by many researchers during such research is to carry out an observation of police behaviours but only to analyse improper behaviour. This may give the impression that police work is, by its very nature, tainted by corruption or impropriety. A more in-depth exploration of such issues will occur in the Analysis chapter. The premise of the present research is not to dismiss the existing research in the area of police culture but to add to it or enhance it. In many ways, it may be possible to view such existing pieces of research as limited in that they generally involve a researcher observing police action and then ascribing their interpretation of its meaning to it. This is not to say that the opinions of sociologists are to be discounted. We should acknowledge, however, that the subject area might benefit from an analysis of the meanings which the social actors themselves ascribe to their working lives and the behaviours therein. 7 Oral history techniques have been used previously in the study of the police, speCifically by Brogden (1991) and Weinberger whose collection of transcribed interviews with police officers is held at the National Sound Archive (Collection C684). However, the approach utilised by the present research differs from the work of Brogden and Weinberger in that it uses aspects of the methodology to investigate the occupational culture of the police rather than particular aspects of the social history of policing. Because police culture is viewed, in many ways, as an umbrella term for all that is seen as wrong in the police it is vital that those who served in the profession have their views heard. To utilise the views of such individuals would undoubtedly provide us with a deeper understanding of the culture or cultures of the police because we would not merely be observing police behaviours and ascribing a meaning or meanings to them but because we would be letting the ex-officers describe their own perceptions. It may be possible to question the objectivity of such an approach and argue that the information from the interviews has been selected and categorised and, therefore, represents the biases or agendas of the researcher. Similarly, an unscrupulous researcher, it could be argued, may decontextualise the views of the interviewees to make any particular point that he or she desires. This first of the above views could be countered with the argument that any information that has been filtered out of the text has been done so because it is superfluous to the concept of police occupational culture as defined by authors who write on the subject. With regards to the latter point, the wealth of information which was amassed throughout the interviews rendered such falsification needless. The use of such a methodological technique (i.e. one which concentrates upon the views of officers) was seen as a means of giving an