‘I wannabe a copper’: The engagement of Police Community Support Officers with the dominant police occupational culture

Abstract

Drawing upon ethnographic research with Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) working in two neighbourhood policing teams in northern England, this article presents a typology of PCSO orientations to work and for the first time details the ways in which PCSOs utilize aspects of the dominant culture to manage the discord between aspirations and opportunities within the PCSO role. Engagement with aspects of the dominant culture varied according to career aspirations and orientations to work; ‘Frustrated PCSOs’ were most likely to endorse cultural characteristics as a means of facilitating integration and enhancing opportunities for crime control, while Professional PCSOs selectively endorsed aspects of the dominant culture in an effort to diversify their deployment, enhance their effectiveness and to support the acquisition of craft skills, thereby strengthening any future applications to become police officers. The article concludes by considering the resilience of the traditional police culture, particularly the dominant crime-fighting ethos therein and the implications presented for the future of the PCSO role.

Keywords

Crime control neighbourhood policing PCSOs police culture policing

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