The central contention of this thesis, and its original contribution to the subject area, is that the recent development of civilian intelligence analysis in Scottish policing presents a challenge to an otherwise hegemonic ‘cop culture’ in police intelligence work. In advancing this argument this thesis develops the existing literature by recognising that academic research to date on ‘police culture’ has focused almost exclusively on the cultures of sworn police officers, and particularly those ‘cops’ engaged in ‘frontline’ policing. Civilian police staff groups have been excluded from existing cultural accounts, despite their long-established position in many police forces, particularly those in Scotland. Drawing upon five years of qualitative sociological fieldwork, and taking inspiration from the theory and research of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this thesis highlights how civilian intelligence analysts – as office-based, young, predominantly female and embodying a new ‘academic’ knowledge that is divorced from experience – have become increasingly essential to the effective functioning of intelligence-led policing. The integration of civilian intelligence analysis into police intelligence work in Scotland, however, is inhibited by the persistent hegemony of a cop culture that privileges masculinity, physicality, solidarity, cynicism and, above all, the experiential knowledge that the ‘crime-fighting’ cop has gained from policing ‘the streets’. The cultural challenge of civilian intelligence analysis, emerging from within wider processes of civilianisation and pluralisation, has provoked a patriarchal response from police officers. This response is characterised by masculine domination and the exertion of symbolic violence within the wider ideological construction of the ‘police family’. This patriarchal response has also contributed to the infantilisation of the intelligence analyst in Scottish policing, as a concomitant form of cultural control. The interplay of these processes of cultural challenge and control contributes to a phenomenon of cultural dissonance – a sense of difference, discord and disharmony – between police officers and intelligence analysts. This cultural dissonance is sustained in everyday practice through the perpetuation and persistence of a ‘them and us’ culture between these groups. This thesis concludes by exploring the future of intelligence analysis in the context of profound and on-going organisational reform, and in doing so identifies recent processes of de-civilianisation in Scottish policing. Although intelligence analysis has remained relatively insulated from de-civilianisation to date, fieldwork disclosed how there has emerged disquiet about the potential diversification of the intelligence analyst role and concern for the future position of the intelligence analyst in Scottish policing as it enters a new phase in its distinctive development.

Since the reintroduction of a Scottish parliament in 1999, and set against a backdrop of significant cuts in public spending, there has been much debate regarding law and order discourse from a Scottish perspective. In 2011, the Scottish Government conducted two consultations on the most radical programme of police reform for a generation. The consultation process ensued that on 8 September 2011, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice announced the Scottish Government’s intention to introduce legislation to create a single, national police service in Scotland with claims that it would deliver an estimated savings of £130 million a year and £1.7 billion over 15 years. Under this new legislation local policing became (for the first time) a statutory requirement, giving key responsibilities to local police commanders to devise local policing plans for each area in consultation with local authorities and communities. This localised focus raised questions as to the potential gains and losses of such a merger and prompted a renewed focus on enduring academic debates regarding local policing strategies, governance, accountability and the relative merits of different styles of policing across Scotland’s communities. Understanding the impact and implications of these local arrangements provides the focus for this thesis. The level of recent organisational change which has occurred across policing in Scotland is comprehensive in its scope and sits within the concept of macro level change. With regard to police reform, the majority of existing research has focused on micro level or operational changes; with an example of this being seen in the work of Skogan (2006) who examined the impact of community policing initiatives. Despite there being a large number of existing studies on police reform, there is a distinct lack of research which examines macro levels of reform, such as those recently experienced in Scotland. Therefore, this project, which was conducted parallel to the implementation of police reform in Scotland, is able to provide a unique and valuable snapshot of how reform was experienced on the frontline at the very time it was being implemented. Local policing strategies were chosen for this study as it is believed that this is the approach which bests suits an examination of daily interactions between the public and local police personnel. By employing a qualitative methodology using semi structured interviews and non-participant observations, this project is able to show both the individual and group construction of the meanings associated with post reform policing practices in each of the case study areas. The researcher does not attempt to make any broad generalisations regarding post reform local policing across Scotland from the findings, however, similar themes highlighted in the findings as being experienced by both case study area provides a framework for conducting further research. In terms of the thesis’ overall contribution to academic literature, the key findings reported here highlight that there is a requirement for a specific police organisational change theory to be developed which can fill the gaps in current change literature and assist in framing future police reform. This police change theory should include a directive that recognises the importance of the role of frontline staff in the translation of changes at an operational level and support the inclusion of members of the frontline in the planning and implementation of future police reforms.

This study examines the development of police stop and search in Scotland from the post-war period onwards. The aim is to explain the remarkable scale of stop and search, the attendant lack of political or academic engagement prior to the formation of the single service in in April 2013, and to draw out the implications, both for policing and the public. The thesis takes a top-down perspective which seeks to explain the policing direction in terms of elite outlooks and decision-making over time. It is argued that search rates in contemporary Scotland can be explained in terms of an incremental shift in the way that the tactic has been conceptualized by political and policing elites. Specifically, it is argued that the post-war construct of stop and search as a reactive mechanism premised on investigation, detection and the disruption of crime, has been displaced by a proactive model, premised on intensive, risk-based stop and search activity. It is argued that this shift has partly attenuated the link between stop searches and suspicious behaviour by introducing non-detection as a measure of successful deterrence, alongside the traditional aim of detection. In short, it is argued that stop and search has been remodelled as a tactic that can be legitimated irrespective of the outcome. The thesis will show how this shift has progressively weighted the balance between crime control and individual freedom in favour of the state, and weakened the rights of the individual, with minimal regard for procedural protection and human rights. The thesis employs a wide range of data sources and methodologies to investigate the core argument, which is developed from three interrelated positions. First, taking a historical perspective, the thesis examines elite sensibilities and decision-making in relation to stop and search from the early 1950s, through to the early 2000s. Next, the thesis adopts an empirical position to investigate the use of stop and search between 2005 and 2010, and shows how search activity on the street reflected dominant outlooks higher up the ranks. Finally, the thesis adopts a normative perspective in order to assess the ethical implications of stop and search practice in Scotland, and to develop a series of informed recommendations for policy and practice.

Considering police-public consultation forums as a device, or tactic, to ‘civilize’ policing, the possibilities and limitations of ‘civilizing policing’ using this method can be shown. Police-public consultation forums can ‘civilize’ policing – in the sense Loader and Walker (2007) use the term – by contributing to police reform, democratic policing, and police legitimacy. Using the case of Edinburgh, Scotland, the achievements of police-public consultation forums for reform, democratic policing, and legitimacy, are examined and an argument made that consultation forums can make positive contributions in each of these areas. However, the example of consultation forums also reveals significant conceptual and structural limitations to the ideas of reform, democracy, and legitimacy when applied to the police. These limitations are articulated using the social theory of Simmel, Weber, and Lukes: Simmel and Weber reveal the inflexibility and non-negotiable aspects of the police that defies reform and democratic ambitions; Lukes provides an important precautionary perspective on the ‘democraticness’ of democratic devices; and, comparing Lukes with the work of Weber provides a view on legitimacy that reveals advanced complexities to ‘police legitimacy’. In sum, police-public consultation forums contribute to ‘civilizing policing’, but it is also useful to reflect and consider the non-negotiable limits the ‘form’ of the police applies to possible positive change.