This study examines the factors that determine the effectiveness of nationally published police professional practice documents, explores the role of professional practice publications in developing and moulding in- service training, and considers whether a drive to reduce police bureaucracy, that also reduced the flow of such documents, might have a detrimental impact on the quality of investigations. An important subsidiary aim is to explore the nature of the investigative process and to identify the ways in which the professional practice publications can best be used by the police service. Because the body of police professional practice publications was only introduced in the last 20 years, there has been little, if any academic interest in this area and the research aims to contribute to improved knowledge of it. Many police studies are concerned with classic themes such as discretion, accountability, and leadership. As well as the specific theme of this research, a contribution will also be offered to the research concerning aspects of these classic themes. The use of discretion within specific investigations will be explored and consideration given to whether the police should be able to use their own flair when carrying out investigations or whether they should be constrained by tried and tested methodologies. In respect of accountability, the thesis will offer a discussion on whether the purpose of the documents is really to influence investigative practice, or whether they were created as another way of holding police officers to account, to shield the police as an institution from reputational damage when things go wrong, or just a retrospective 'stable door closing exercise'. Police leadership is examined, particularly in connection with the selection of Chief Officers and the organisation known as the Association of Chief Police Officers, and its role in commissioning national police guidance. The thesis revisits the sociological analysis of police occupational culture and suggests aspects of the professional guidance process that may imply a need to refine and/or re-conceptualise some traits reported in the locus , classicus in this area. It offers a discussion- about the way in which 'workforce modernisation', or 'civilianisation', in UK policing, might require an update in the paradigm offered by some classic police research. The link between university-based research and operational policing is considered, and in particular the ways in which evidence-based research could be better used to inform police practice. This study, which incorporates a US/UK international comparison, was mainly conducted using qualitative research techniques and in particular semi-structured interviews with police officers and other significant respondents in England and the United States. The research highlights the contribution that practitioner researchers can make to improving investigative practice within the police service and increasing our knowledge about 'what 'works'. This thesis, and the work to which it refers, reports the results of an analysis of my own fieldwork. Any ideas, data, images or text resulting from the work of others (whether published or unpublished) are fully identified as such within the work and attributed to their originator in the text, bibliography or in footnotes. This thesis has not been submitted in whole or in part for any other academic degree or professional qualification. I agree that the University has the right to submit my work to the plagiarism detection service TurnitinUK for originality checks. Whether or not drafts have been so assessed, the University reserves the right to require an electronic version of the final document (as submitted) for assessment as above.

The purpose of this study was to focus on the classroom preferences of students completing a police Foundation Degree course (FdSc) at the University of Central Lancashire. A secondary factor under consideration was an attempt to identify the differences in student preferences based on seven factors (Affiliation, Teacher Support, Task Orientation, Personal Goal Attainment, Organisation and Clarity, Student Influence and Involvement) making use of The Adult Classroom Environment Scale (ACES) to measure the social environment of adult education classrooms. The scope of this study investigated over a three year period three first year cohort intakes undertaking the FdSc through the use of a non-random volunteer sampling technique to determine the study group. A non-experimental descriptive quantitative research methodology, specifically a longitudinal trend survey consisting of 85 first year students. Findings from the study show student affiliation, the extent students like and interact positively with each other, and involvement, the extent to which students are satisfied with the class and participate actively and attentively in activities as the highest factors for consideration within the classroom environment for students. The study revealed the importance of teacher support, how students experience feelings of support, and that care and mutual respect are valued. Classroom management and how students need a well organised learning environment through an understanding of the objectives of the class were also revealed. Conclusions reached suggest that a better understanding of student perceptions can be used to improve teaching approaches and to evaluate different teaching techniques for presenting material. The significance of the study is apparent as increasing numbers of Further and Higher education establishments seek to deliver police pre-employment training. This study contributes to existing literature by considered the role of human interactions in the classroom environment of police training, an area where few studies have been conducted into the dynamics which take place.

The thesis explores the role of academic education in police professionalisation. Due to its high complexity, specialisation and status, detective work is well-suited for illustrating these developments and the practical and symbolic benefits they can bring to the police and policing as a whole. The overall approach of thesis is iterative. Literature from police studies and sociology of professions provides the conceptual and theoretical framework for the empirical data of 24 semi-structured interviews conducted with 14 police national training coordinators and local police trainers. The increasing academisation of police training and the formalisation of the police-academia relationships suggest police professionalisation has reached a tipping point. This is seen in the current investigative skills training in England and Wales, which is characterised by growing centralisation, standardisation, and emphasis on formalising the professional knowledgebase of investigations and policing – a trend which the Professionalising Investigation Programme exemplifies. While the police (including the investigative specialism) can be shown to display many of the qualities of professions, it has lacked the level of instructional abstraction characterising other professions, typically provided by higher education and, crucially, leading to externally recognised qualifications. Developing academic police education is not without its challenges, chief among them the perceived epistemological and cultural divide between the ‘two worlds’ of police and academia. A successful transformation requires careful consideration of the content and format of the arrangements, investment, support, acceptance and engagement from police, academia and government, and a simultaneous change to cultural dispositions (habitus) and internal and external structures (field). This is worth the effort as a number of practical and symbolic benefits of police academic education can be identified. It has the potential to improve the quality of service by deepening police knowledge and understanding and facilitating community-oriented approaches. More importantly, academic education bestows a rich cultural capital, strengthens and legitimises police expertise, market monopoly, and status in the eyes of the public, other professions and the government. It enables the survival of the profession, giving it the tools to prevail in conflicts over competence and the right to define and interpret policing and its social context. In summary, police professionalisation via academic education can be explained in terms of agency and structure both; as a deliberate occupational upgrading spurred by social and economic aspirations and aimed to reconceptualise and relegitimise policing; and as an inevitable reaction to wider changes and a deeper ontological shift taking place in the society.