Submitted by Haroudo Xavier Filho (haroudo.xavierfo@ufpe.br) on 2016-03-21T16:59:46Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO JULIANA VERSÃO DEFINITIVA - digital.pdf: 2313603 bytes, checksum: c942710229e5c789e1a4b12419ed71fa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-21T16:59:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO JULIANA VERSÃO DEFINITIVA - digital.pdf: 2313603 bytes, checksum: c942710229e5c789e1a4b12419ed71fa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-12 / Através das lentes da sociologia das profissões e da sociologia das organizações policiais, desbrava-se um espaço pouco conhecido tanto para a comunidade acadêmica quanto para a sociedade em geral: o agir da Polícia Rodoviária Federal (PRF), ou a forma de atuação de seus policiais. Para além das competências legais e da identificação do lugar da PRF no sistema de segurança pública do Brasil, o trabalho objetiva se voltar para seu modus operandi, dirigindo o olhar para o que seja o padrão operacional dos agentes que fazem o policiamento ostensivo das rodovias federais. Tal conhecimento é relevante na medida em que essas informações constituem um dos indicadores da qualidade do regime político existente em uma sociedade. O objetivo geral do presente trabalho é, portanto, investigar o exercício do mandato policial pela Polícia Rodoviária Federal, através da articulação entre suas dimensões legais/abstratas, práticas e simbólicas. Para tanto, realizou-se pesquisa documental e vinte entrevistas semiestruturadas, cujos produtos foram interpretados com o auxílio da análise de conteúdo. Após a definição de características essenciais à função de polícia nos contextos democráticos, partiu-se para a apreciação dos elementos internos e externos, sugeridos por Manning, que dificultam a definição clara e o cumprimento adequado de seu mandato pelas instituições de segurança pública (manipulação de aparências, características ocupacionais da profissão policial, ingerência política, controle ineficiente da atividade e o dilema entre a lei e a ordem). Os resultados indicam que em determinados aspectos, como o fortalecimento do controle legal da atividade e a tentativa de blindagem em relação à (má) influência política, a PRF já se encontra num estágio relativamente avançado de desenvolvimento de medidas para se fortalecer como instituição democrática. Já em outros, como os padrões da cultura ocupacional vigente interna corporis, ainda há um longo caminho a ser percorrido para atingir a polícia se quer em contraposição à polícia que se tem. / Through the lenses of the sociology of professions and of the sociology of law enforcement organisations, an area little known to both the academic community and society in general is addressed in this paper: the actions of the Brazilian Federal Highway Police (Polícia Rodoviária Federal - PRF), or its officers’ way of working. In addition to the establishment of legal jurisdictions and the identification of the PRF’s standing in the Brazilian public security system, this work aims to look at its modus operandi, directing its gaze at the operational standard of the officers who ostensibly police federal highways. Such knowledge is relevant to the extent in which said information constitutes one of the indicators of the quality of the existing political system in a society. The overall objective of this study is therefore to investigate the practice of law enforcement by the Brazilian Federal Highway Police in linking its legal/abstract, practical and symbolic dimensions. Documentary research and twenty semi-structured interviews took place to accomplish the afore-mentioned purpose, and the data collected was interpreted with the help of content analysis. After defining essential characteristics to the police’s role in democratic contexts, the next step was the appreciation of the internal and external elements, as suggested by Manning, which hinder the clear definition and the proper fulfilment of their enforcement by the institutions of public safety (manipulation of appearances, the profession’s occupational features, political interference, inefficient control of the activity and the dilemma between law and order). The results indicate that in certain aspects, such as the strengthening of the legal control of the activity and the attempt to shield itself from (bad) political influence, the PRF is already in a relatively advanced stage in the development of measures to strengthen itself as a democratic institution. In others, however, such as the standards of the current occupational culture interna corporis, there is still a long way to go in order to achieve the desired police as opposed to police that exists.

This thesis follows up with reflection of police work, from the point of view policeman and policewoman themselves, in the historical context of the operation of the Police of the Czech Republic from 1991 until present. The foundation of all of this work is orally historical research from present and former police officers. The goal of this work is to apprise public with perception of police surrounding from inside, right from regular police officers. In this thesis are analysed and evaluated discovered connections. Key words: Police, Police of the Czech republic, oral history, history, police culture

This study aims to understand how police officers in Sweden are affected by their line of work in their personal life. The study is based on qualitative research where the empirical material has been gathered from interviews with Swedish police officers. A total of eight police officers have contributed to this study. The main theoretical concept used in this study is Göran Ahrnes notion of the “organizational centaur”. Alongside this concept, the essay also covers police culture and organizational concept. The results of this study reveal that several police officers find it hard to combine their line of work with their personal life. Not only does the occupation affect the police officers themselves, it also affects their family and acquaintances. Moreover, the results demonstrate how police officers relate to their profession in their spare time. Finally, the results of this study express how changes within the police organization has affected the work situation for many police officers in Sweden.

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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The occupation of policing is one that is traditionally associated with men and regarded as a masculine sphere. The South African Police Service (SAPS) is no exception. My thesis seeks to investigate how masculinity is experienced by male and female officers in the SAPS in one specific police station in the Western Cape. Connell’s (1995) three-fold model of the structure of gender in society is used to understand masculinity, along with her distinction between hegemonic and subordinated forms of masculinity. According to this model, gender is structured through power relations, production relations and cathexis. Through an analysis of organisational police culture operating at three levels - formal, institutional and ‘canteen’ (or informal) – I explore the experiences of police officers in this regard. Each of these levels offers a different arena of analysis for understanding the culture of policing in the South African context. In my discussion, I highlight that although Connell’s model of how masculinity is constructed is useful for understanding the dynamics of police culture across these different levels, the experience of masculinity by both male and female police officers has to be understood as a complex process. The idea of a simple hegemonic masculinity is too limiting in understanding gender dynamics and relationships within the institution. My thesis also argues that, within the confines of the SAPS, there is a need to value certain traits perceived as ‘masculine’, such as physical strength, while also taking into consideration the value of other attributes generally perceived as ‘feminine’, such as compassion. The acceptance of a more androgynous police service, with more space for personnel to move between socially accepted gender roles and expectations, is needed. The valuing of these traits should not be gender-specific, but should create opportunities for officers to be able to display both ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ traits and engage in ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ duties, regardless of their gender. The field research was located at a single police station, referred to as The Dorp Police Station. A qualitative, case study methodology was employed, drawing extensively on in-depth interviews with individual officers along with limited informal and participant observation at the police station. Content analysis of the online version of the official police journal provided an additional source of data for the study. The study also involved an engagement with general and South African literature on masculinity, policing and police culture. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die beroep van polisiëring word tradisioneel beskou as manlike bedryf. Die Suid-Afrikaanse Polisiediens (SAPD) is geen uitsondering nie. My tesis poog om ondersoek in te stel oor hoe ‘manlikheid1’ deur beide manlike en vroulike beamptes in die SAPD by spesifiek polisiestasie in die Wes-Kaap ervaar word. Connell (1995) se drievoudige model van die struktuur van gender in die samelewing word deur die loop van hierdie tesis gebruik om ‘manlikheid’ te verstaan. Tesame hiermee word daar onderskeid getref tussen ‘hegemoniese2 en ondergeskikte vorme van ‘manlikheid’. Volgens hierdie model is gender gestruktureer deur magsverhoudinge, produksieverhoudinge en Cathexis. In hierdie tesis ondersoek ek die ervaringe van polisiebeamptes rakende die drie vlakke - formele, institusionele en ‘kantien’ of informele kultuur - waarop polisiekultur in organisasies funksioneer. Elkeen van hierdie vlakke bied ander gebied van analise wat beter verstandhouding van die polisiekultuur in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks bied. In my bespreking beklemtoon ek dat, alhoewel Connell se model rakende die konstruksie van manlikheid in die samelewing nuttige hulpmiddel is om die dinamika van polisiekultuur oor die bogenoemde vlakke te verstaan, moet daar in ag geneem word dat die ervarings van ‘manlikheid’ van mans en vroue in die polisie komplekse proses behels. Die idee van eenvoudige ‘hegemoniese manlikheid’ is te beperk vir die verstaan van gender dinamika en die verhoudings in die instansie. My tesis beweer ook dat daar behoefte in die SAPD is om waarde te heg aan eienskappe wat as ‘manlik’ beskryf word, soos bv. fisiese krag. Terselfdetyd word daar ook waarde geheg aan eienskappe wat as ‘vroulik’ beskou word, soos bv. deernis. Daar is behoefte vir die aanvaarding van meer androgene polisiediens met meer geleentheid en ruimte vir lede om tussen sosiaal aanvaarbare genderrolle en -verwagtinge te beweeg. Die waardering van hierdie eienskappe behoort nie gender-spesifiek wees nie, maar moet eerder geleenthede skep vir lede om beide ‘manlike’ en ‘vroulike’ pligte te voltooi, ongeag van hul gender. Die veldwerk is gedoen by enkele polisiestasie, waarna verwys word as Die Dorp Polisiestasie. Kwalitatiewe metodologie wat wat gevallestudie behels is gebuik tydens die studie. Daar is gebruik gemaak van indiepte onderhoude met individuele beamptes asook beperkte informele deelnemende waarneming by die polisiestasie. Aanvullende bron van data vir die studie was gevind in die vorm van inhoudsanalise van die amptelike aanlynpolisiejoernaal. Daar is ook in diepte gekyk na die algemene Suid-Afrikaanse literatuur rakende ‘manlikheid’, polisiëring en polisiekultuur.

This thesis attempts to identify what the barriers to building a trusted police service in China and India are through answering the questions: How has economic modernisation impacted upon policing? To what extent are the two police forces trusted by its citizens? Do the police carry out their duties in a fair and unbiased fashion? What do police corruption/malpractices look like and why does it persist? And what are the influencing factors in decision-making at the moments-of-truth? There is very limited research into the Chinese Police generally and even less on factors affecting organisational culture, practices, and decision making. There is no comparative study between the Chinese and Indian Police. This thesis found that the Chinese Police are held in higher esteem than the Indian Police by their respective citizenry. Both the Chinese and Indian police use stereotypes and are biased against certain section of society in the way they carry out their duties and that corruption and malpractices are tolerated and engrained in its culture but is subtler in China than in India. However, one surprised finding is that India is more at risk of the rule by man than China, even though India is said to be the world's largest democracy grounded on the principles of the rule of law.

The reform measures recommended by the Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct (referred to as the "Fitzgerald Inquiry") radically transformed the face of policing in Queensland. The most significant of these recommendations was the establishment of an external oversight body, the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC), which has independence from executive government and holds the power to investigate not only police but any public servant or politician. Other recommendations included "Whistleblower" legislation, increasing sanctions for serious misconduct, lateral recruitment and promotion by merit rather than seniority. The first main research question tested in this thesis is whether these reform measures have produced improvements in the following areas: the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes for dealing with complaints against police; public confidence in those processes and the public standing of the Queensland Police Service (QPS) generally; standards of police behaviour; the incidence of corrupt conduct; and police attitudes towards reporting misconduct by their fellow officers. These Fitzgerald Inquiry reforms were strategies primarily derived from two schools of thought describing the nature and cause of police corruption: deterrence based theory (including "individual" or "rotten apple" theory) and cultural (also labeled "cultural" or "socialisation") based theory. To date most strategies used to combat police corruption have been underpinned by these theories. A third theory - situational based theory (sometimes titled "environmental" or "opportunity" theory) - which has had success in crime prevention, has been scarcely used in the area of police corruption. However, an extensive body of research has affirmed the effects of situational factors on police behaviour, suggesting the potential for the application of situational crime prevention initiatives in combatting police corruption. The second research question proposed in this thesis is whether situational based theory could also be beneficial in the prevention of police corruption. Data drawn upon to test the first research question were interviews and surveys with police officers, public attitude surveys and statistics from the processing of complaints against police. Although each source has limitations, collectively the data are sufficiently comprehensive - and robust - to defend conclusions about the general direction of the changes which have occurred. These data indicate that the Fitzgerald Inquiry reforms have, at least to some degree, had their intended impact on the QPS. These reforms have contributed to an apparent improvement in public confidence in the complaints system and the QPS generally. Moreover, the available evidence suggests that the Fitzgerald Inquiry reforms have resulted in a weakening of the police code of silence. As far as the specific issue of corruption in the QPS is concerned, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions from existing data sources. However, the weight of the available evidence is that such conduct is less pervasive and occurs at lower levels than was the case in the pre-Fitzgerald Inquiry QPS. It is very difficult to ascertain which reform components were the most effective and which were not helpful at all, as these reform measures were initiated simultaneously. For example, the negative elements of the police culture may have been eliminated or reduced but whether it was the cultural strategies or one of the deterrence based strategies influencing officer behaviour remains unknown. The second main research question the thesis poses is that the use of situational crime prevention techniques has potential for contributing to the prevention of police corruption. A situational analysis of complaints against police data, including the development of a typology for classifying types of police corruption and misconduct, was used as an example of how this may be accomplished in Queensland. The study provides some, albeit limited, support for the hypothesis that situational crime prevention methods are applicable to police corruption. Based upon three years of complaints data, enough homogenous cases were gathered to enable the analysis of four categories of police corruption - Opportunistic Thefts, Driving under the Influence, Assault (while off-duty), and Theft from Employer. Given that this study only used three years of complaints data held by the CJC and more than nine years of data exist, productive situational analyses of many other categories of corruption is probable. This study also illustrated that complaints against police data are being under utilised by the QPS and the CJC. For future research in the situational analysis of complaints data, I recommend improving the gathering of data from complaints files for storage in electronic form to enable situational prevention analysis to be conducted more readily. A geographical example was used to illustrate further how complaints against police data could be more extensively utilised as a prevention tool. This analysis was conducted at an organisation unit level determined primarily by geographical factors. The complaint patterns of units of similar "task environments", as measured by unit size and type of duties performed, were compared in an attempt to identify those units experiencing the presence or absence of "bad apples" or a "negative culture". This study led to the conclusion that a divisional analysis of complaints data can provide information valuable in combatting police corruption. When task environment was held constant, it was possible to identify units experiencing the effects of possible "bad apples" and/or "negative cultures". Once these particular units were identified, intervention strategies to address the units' particular problem could be constructed. Future research in this area would involve ongoing divisional data analysis followed-up by individual assessment of officers identified as "bad apples", or a "compare-and-contrast" procedure to distinguish features requiring correction in units identified as having a "negative culture". The research findings presented in this thesis are that progress has occurred in a number of areas in addressing the problems identified by the Fitzgerald Inquiry, but that there is undoubtedly scope for more to be achieved. Despite the very significant increase in the resources and powers available to investigators post-Fitzgerald, it is still difficult to prove that a police officer engaged in misconduct, or that other officers were aware of this fact and had failed to take action, because of the constraints imposed by evidentiary and legal requirements. Thus, while it is vital to maintain an effective and credible independent complaints investigation system and ensure that there is a proper internal discipline process in place, the scope for increasing the "deterrent power" of the present system is limited. Putting more resources into complaints investigations might make a difference at the margins, but is unlikely to lead to a significant increase in the probability of a complaint being substantiated and a sanction imposed. Investing more resources in investigations has an additional cost in that such resources are then lost to other efforts to combat corruption that may provide more fruitful results in the long term. The value of an occasional substantiation is placed above the ability to engage in a large amount of prevention work. Inevitably then, three clear messages are apparent. First, continued effort must be made to modify the organisational climate of the QPS in terms of commitment to integrity. Recommended strategies to accomplish this end are to continue the recruitment of more educated, female and older officers to reduce police-citizen conflict and the negative elements of the police culture, and also to develop a comprehensive, integrated approach to ethics education for QPS officers at all ranks and positions. Second, other forms of deterrence against misconduct are needed such as the use of covert strategies like integrity testing which could be conducted in conjunction with the CJC. Third, a greater emphasis needs to be placed on developing and implementing preventive strategies. This thesis has shown that valuable prevention strategies can be gained from situational and divisional analysis of complaints data, and a range of proactive management options based upon situational crime prevention theory are recommended. These strategies have application in any police service.

La présente thèse propose d’observer les distinctions des attitudes face à la légitimité de la police et l’emploi de la force chez des futurs policiers québécois à différents stades de leur formation policière initiale en école. Plusieurs chercheurs et de nombreux policiers sont d’avis que le métier de policier est appris dans son intégralité sur le terrain et que, de facto, la formation en Académie de Police est inutile. Or, est-ce vraiment le cas? Se pourrait-il que la formation policière engendre des changements d’attitudes graduels et subtils chez les futurs policiers de sorte que ceux-ci sont imperceptibles, mais à la fois les préparent à l’exercice de la profession policière? C’est précisément ce que la thèse vise à documenter, en lien avec les questions de légitimité de la police et d’emploi de la force. La formation policière sera considérée avoir un apport si les futurs policiers plus avancés dans la formation ont des attitudes plus positives face à la légitimité de la police et sont plus favorables à l’emploi de la force que leurs collègues plus novices. Sans contredit, la littérature sur la légitimité de la police est vaste. Or, ce concept est, dans la grande majorité du temps, abordé de façon unidirectionnelle où les citoyens évaluent la légitimité de la police. Il est ici proposé de changer d’approche et d’adopter plutôt une perspective interactionniste et dialogique de la légitimité de la police où la perception de la légitimité de la police qu’ont les citoyens découle du regard que les policiers portent sur la légitimité de leur institution. Dans ce contexte, la formation policière est vue comme une voie de transmission de la légitimité de la police à laquelle sous-tend un processus de socialisation professionnelle qui permet l’adhésion à la culture policière. Ce sujet de recherche est abordé d’un point de vue macrosociologique grâce à une méthodologie quantitative basée sur une enquête transversale à mesures répétées. Concrètement, l’analyse consiste en des comparaisons de moyennes d’attitudes face à la légitimité de la police et face à l’emploi de la force à différents stades de la formation policière. Pour ce faire, les données ont été collectées, dans un premier temps, auprès de 1 494 futurs policiers en formation au Québec. Dans un deuxième temps, pour écarter l’hypothèse alternative que l’explication des écarts d’attitudes entre plusieurs groupes d’étudiants à différents stades de formation pourrait en fait provenir d’une maturation généralisée à tous les jeunes en phase d’émergence de l’âge adulte (c’est-à-dire, entre 18 et 25 ans), la thèse incorpore une dimension de comparaison avec des citoyens de la même tranche d’âge en considérant un échantillon de 601 étudiants d’autres programmes de formation. Conformément aux trois objectifs spécifiques de la thèse, les résultats ont permis d’observer qu’au cours de la formation policière : 1) les attitudes des futurs policiers plus avancés dans la formation sont plus positives et plus distinctes de celles de leurs homologues d’autres programmes de formation que les attitudes des futurs policiers en début de formation, ce qui indique un apport de la formation policière dans le développement de la légitimité de la police chez ceux en voie d’exercer le métier , 2) les attitudes du groupe de futurs policiers plus avancés dans la formation sont plus homogènes que celles de leurs comparses plus novices, ce qui suggère l’adhésion à la culture policière, et 3) les futurs policiers en fin de formation présentent une dissociation dans leurs attitudes face à la légitimité et face à l’emploi de la force relativement à leurs collègues plus novices, dans le sens où leurs attitudes face à la légitimité de la police sont moins fortement prédictives de leurs attitudes face à l’emploi de la force. Ce dernier résultat semble mettre en lumière le développement d’un jugement critique face à la légitimité de la police et son pouvoir d’emploi de la force au cours de la formation policière. La thèse conclut donc que l’utilité de la formation policière en école est loin d’être vaine; elle paraît occasionner des changements d’attitudes subtils et graduels qui peuvent se révéler importants à l’exercice du métier de policiers. / The thesis suggests studying the variations in attitudes toward police legitimacy and the use of force for in-training police students at distinct phases of police initial training at the Police Academy. Several researchers and many police officers attest that the police craft is solely acquired and learnt on the street and, therefore, the training provided at the Police Academy is pointless. Yet, is this really so? Could it be that the training provided by the Police Academy triggers such gradual attitude changes that they go unnoticed, while contributing to preparing the recruits to perform the police line of work? These questions underlie this thesis, specifically in regard to police legitimacy and use of force in the sense that the contribution of the police training would be unveiled if in-training police students more advanced in the study program have more positive attitudes toward police legitimacy and are more favourable to police use of force. Undeniably, the literature on police legitimacy is extensive. However, authors generally adopt a unidirectional point of view where police legitimacy equates to citizen perceptions of police. Rather, it is advocated here that an interactionist and dialogic approach is better suited to understand police legitimacy. The latter is based on the premise that citizens’ perceptions of police legitimacy ensue from the outlook that patrol officers have on the legitimacy of their institution. In that case, police training is considered a professional socialization process which acts as a police legitimacy transmission channel leading to the conformity to police culture. The thesis tackles this research topic with a macrosociological approach supported by a quantitative methodology based on a repeated cross-sectional research design. Precisely, the analytical strategy consists of mean comparisons of attitudes toward police legitimacy and use of force scores at different stages of the police training curriculum. As a first step, data were gathered from a sample of 1 494 future police officers in training in Quebec, Canada. Then, in order to rule out the alternative hypothesis that attitude score fluctuations between groups at different stages of the training could result from a maturation phenomenon generalized to all youth in the phase of emerging adulthood (i.e. 18-25 years old), the thesis includes a dimension of comparison with the general population of the same age group by taking into account the attitude scores of a sample of 601 students from other study programs. In accordance with the three specific objectives of the thesis, results show that, along the police training: 1) attitude scores of in-training police students more advanced in the curriculum are more positive and more divergent from those of the students from other study programs than these attitudes for freshmen, reflecting the impact of training in the development of the perceptions of police legitimacy in those on the path to serve as patrol officers, 2) attitude scores of the group of in-training police students more advanced in the curriculum are more homogenous than those of more novice groups of in-training police students, which suggests the adherence to a specific professional culture, and 3) in-training police students in the senior phase display a greater disconnection between their attitudes toward police legitimacy and attitudes toward police use of force compared to their more junior colleagues, in the sense that their attitudes towards police legitimacy are less strongly predictive of their attitudes toward police use of force. This last result sheds light on the development of critical judgment. All things considered, the thesis concludes that the worth of police initial training is far from vain; it strikes as being responsible for subtle and gradual attitude changes that can prove important to police work.

Begreppet psykologisk trygghet har visat sig vara en faktor som påverkar om personal trivs och stannar på arbetsplatsen. Begreppet innebär hur tryggt det upplevs att visa sig sårbar i en grupp och vad det får för konsekvenser. Forskning om poliskultur har visat att den karaktäriseras av tradition och rigida normer, vilket påverkar beteenden i gruppen. Den aktuella studien syftade till att undersöka hur nyblivna poliser upplever psykologisk trygghet i sin arbetsgrupp, samt hur de beskriver normer i förhållande till detta. Åtta deltagare intervjuades med en semistrukturerad intervjuguide baserad på Edmondsons teori om psykologisk trygghet samt forskning på poliskultur. Datat analyserades med reflexiv tematisk analys. Majoriteten av deltagarna upplevde att humor var ett framträdande sätt att hantera svåra upplevelser, men det fanns även behov av annat typ av stöd. De flesta deltagare upplevde att det var viktigt att visa sårbar för att lära sig yrket, samt att det påverkade relationerna i arbetsgruppen positivt, men flera upplevde det även som skrämmande och skamfyllt. Deltagarnas beskrivningar av arbetsgruppens normer, och deras förhållande till dem, verkade påverka upplevelsen av psykologisk trygghet. Normbrytande beteende sanktionerades, vilket avskräckte från framtida normbrytande. Resultaten stärker teorierna om att psykologisk trygghet är förenat med lärandebeteende och att poliskulturen är traditionsbunden. Psykologisk trygghet kan vara en bidragande faktor till att få poliser att trivas och stanna inom yrket. / Psychological safety has been shown to affect employees’ job satisfaction and turnover intention. The term “psychological safety” means how safe one feels in showing vulnerability in a group and the consequences it might bring. Research has shown that police culture is characterized by traditionality and rigid norms, which affects group behaviour. The present study aimed to examine how new police officers’ experience psychological safety within their work group. Eight police officers were interviewed with a semistructured interview guide based on Edmondson’s theory of psychological safety and literature on police culture. The data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Most participants found humour to be a pronounced coping strategy for negative experiences, but there was a need for alternative ways of coping. Most participants found showing vulnerability to be essential for learning the police role, and that these behaviours had a positive effect on relationships within the work group, even though several found showing vulnerability frightening and shameful. The participants’ descriptions of the norms within the work group, and how well you fit into them, affected their experience of psychological safety. Breaking norms in the group was often followed by sanctions, which disencouraged similar future behaviour. The findings in this study support existing research on the link between psychological safety and learning behaviour and on police culture being governed by traditions. Psychological safety could be a contributing factor to keeping police officers satisfied so that they might stay within their line of work.