Police Specialism in England and Wales: an Exploratory Review

• In Event: POL Panel 4. Police officer belonging and cultural narratives

Abstract

Specialism can broadly be intended as any task that go beyond the traditional day-to-day duties of police officers and is routinely used to handle specific types of crimes, victims, and perpetrators. Despite this, there is lack of clarity around what police specialism should look like. The absence of validated criteria, tailored for a policing context, creates confusion and misunderstandings. As a result, there is little understanding of how police specialism affects officers' wellbeing, perceived competence, and performance. Improving the clarity around police specialism is becoming increasingly relevant. Especially, as emerging needs for further professionalisation have been clashing with the localist structure of police forces. Thus, frequently results in diluted expertise and unnecessarily duplicated resources.

The study links together evidence from the literature and the first-hand experiences of specialism among police officers in England and Wales. The study's aim was to establish what police specialism looks like in practice, adding valuable insights towards academic and police knowledge on the topic, but most especially giving a voice to police officers.

This preliminary investigation highlighted some of the socio-cultural, policy-based, and historical information that contributed to the development of specialism in the police in their contemporary form. A scarcity of original studies published on the topic, showed a consistent lack of appropriate terminology of how specialism is defined in practice and implemented across forces. Overall, common patterns have been identified as for how and why specialist units have been instituted in England and Wales over time. There is also evidence that specialism might impact on police efficacy, and that the specialist knowledge of officers working for within specialist units is frequently inferred – rather than measured. Potential advantages and the perceived challenges of specialism within policing were investigated, in the attempt of shaping what specialism should look like based on policing needs and concerns.

Author

• Arianna Barbin, University of Suffolk