Police Culture, Reproduction, and Transformation: A Morphogenetic Approach to Police Organizational Change

• In Event: Police Organizational Culture and Change

Abstract

Police organizations are notoriously regarded as resistant to change, and police culture is often cited as an explanation for the tendency to reproduce rather than transform police practices (Chan, 1996; 2007). This tension reflects the ongoing sociological debate between structure and agency, and how these influence one another (Archer, 1995). Morphogenesis is attentive to the role of culture, viewing culture as a causal force which shapes action occurring under existing structures, and action which will re-shape future structures. In this paper, I use a morphogenetic approach to explore police organizational reform. Morphogenesis provides an explanatory framework for understanding social change as it emerges from an interplay of structure and agency, arguing that structure and agency reciprocally influence each other over time (Archer, 1995). A morphogenetic approach can provide a deeper understanding of organizational change (or lack thereof). Using the Intelligence-led Policing (ILP) reform (Ratcliffe, 2008) as an empirical case study, I explore culture as a transformational barrier in an attempt to understand how the actions occurring between pre and post reform contribute to the emergence of reproduced or transformed structures. I explore how the integration of ILP processes and technologies met with existing police cultures to shape its practical implementation.

Author

• Crystal Weston, University of Guelph