“Being Diverse and Being Included, Don’t Go Together in Policing”—Diversity, Inclusion, and Australian Constables

Abstract

Across the globe, there is little research that examines the impact of diversity on police practice, particularly whether it increases or decreases the competency of the police organization or whether police officers perceive diversity within the organization and the addition of diverse officers as positive or negative. Contributing new findings to the extant policing literature, this research analyzes data collected from interviews with forty-six constables working in one of the largest Australian state police organizations. Contributing five key findings regarding diversity and inclusion in policing, this research suggests that lack of acceptance of diversity broadly, and bias towards diverse identified officers, results in the exclusion of officers, and a workforce that is fragmented. The lack of unification constables in this research have with diverse colleagues is concerning given that a cohesive police team increases the safety of all officers, improves the effectiveness of police response, strengthens the communication between police and citizens (as well as communication within the organization), increases the morale of officers, and will support the legitimacy of the organization. Whilst constables in this study were not asked questions about their own implicit or explicit levels of bias towards members of diverse groups, the unsolicited responses from many of the constables, as well as the recognition of Whiteness in terms of the racial identity of many officers within the organization, suggests that constables in this study are biased towards officers that are not part of the majority group.

“Insufficient guidance and a lack of preparation”: Police academy training and the reality of police work

“…Given that academy training outlines its training curriculum and trains recruits in the basic skills needed for police work, it is reasonable to suggest that recruits entering the workplace have an expectation that they are prepared and have the necessary skills to respond to a variety of situations. The lack of preparedness reported by the constables in this research, however, is concerning given that police officers are expected to be able to deal with all sorts of situations and scenarios involving members of the public while performing competently and professionally (Blumberg et al, 2019;Boursnell & Birch, 2020;Miles-Johnson & Fay, 2022;Rogers & Wintle, 2020). The lack of preparedness constables reported in this research certainly has implications regarding the likelihood that they may engage in poor policing, or differential policing, and may increase the likelihood of them being involved in or accused of misconduct in the future (Miles-Johnson, 2019;Sargeant et al, 2017).…”

“…Police officers in Australian police academies are positioned to impart knowledge and experience regarding police work, but there has been a steady stream of criticism concerning the inability of training officers to adequately prepare recruits for the reality of police work in different contexts (Dwyer et al, 2020; Gibbs & Haas, 2020; Miles-Johnson, 2019; Morgan, 2022; Rogers & Wintle, 2020). The sharing of “war-stories” or informal lessons may be interesting to recruits, and although these may have a positive effect on practice, critics argue that these are often in direct contrast to the content of policing response within the curriculum, and places recruit in a precarious position because they must determine which practice (or the best practice) to adopt (Belur et al, 2020; Miles-Johnson & Fay, 2022). This may have a negative effect on Australian recruit attitudes towards engagement with diverse community members because research posits that perceptions of engagement may be formed before field placement commences (Miles-Johnson, 2019).…”

“…It is problematic that many of the constables spoke about the lack of basic skills training offered by the academy, because on their first day of employment (out of the academy) constables are deployed as the responding officers to a wide variety of calls for assistance and are expected to be able to respond to all calls appropriately. As part of the organisation's competency measures and professional standards affecting all officers in their first year of policing, constables are assessed on their ability to police in different situations and are expected to reach a certain standard of competency (Miles-Johnson & Fay, 2022). All Australian police organisations induct constables into a first-year foundation programme upon graduation.…”

“…For example, Constable 13 said: Gaining real experience in police work during training in relevant policing practices is argued to increase the capability and capacity of police to respond to different types of crime and will increase the likelihood that officers will gain relevant workplace skills (Fleming & Rhodes, 2018). Training police officers in all crime types and community related responses is important, and certainly dominates much of the general-duties training curricula in Australian police academies (Miles-Johnson & Fay, 2022). But many of the constables in this study spoke about the lack of training relating to specific areas of police work, and that they only realised this upon graduation and entering the workplace.…”

“…Police officers engaged in training recruits are meant to provide relevant and current operational accounts of practice. They may, however, on occasion, impart knowledge about police practices and professional standards based on previous operational work (Miles-Johnson, 2019; Miles-Johnson & Fay, 2022). This is problematic because there is a risk that sharing war-stories may create misinformation regarding what constitutes “best-practice” in policing and is likely to increase citizen complaints regarding officer misconduct.…”