Leadership, Volunteering and the Special Constabulary

Exploring strategic perspectives on the Special Constabulary

“…Overall, the interviews with senior leaders from the four police forces appear to expose a strategic culture among the senior leaders which falls some way short of the aspiration for ‘progressive leadership and direction’ (Ramshaw, 2019: 141). Contrasting with more aspirational thinking regarding the strategic potential for the growth, development and innovation of the Special Constabulary (Britton and Callender, 2018; Britton and Knight, 2016; Caless, 2018; NPCC, 2018), senior leaders in the study acknowledged that current thinking within their forces at senior level was often bounded, fixed and traditional, as reflected in wider academic study of policing cultures (Cockcroft, 2013, 2014; Loftus, 2009).…”

“…This strategic leadership context for the development of the Special Constabulary has been a long-neglected area for research and policy (Britton and Callender, 2018). As Ramshaw (2019: 141) argues, this is not only an important gap in wider research considerations of police leadership, but is also fundamental to the strategic development of the Special Constabulary:If Special Constables are to be more firmly embedded in the strategic delivery of core areas of policing and become more of a presence in reform, modernisation and professionalisation agendas, much rests upon progressive leadership and direction.This paper aims to begin to address this strategic gap in research, by developing insight in relation to key factors affecting organisational development and strategic implementation of policy in relation to the use of Special Constables. In exploring these issues, the paper undertakes an exploratory qualitative study engaging senior police leaders.…”