(Re)Negotiating police culture through partnership working : trust, compromise and the ‘new’ pragmatism

O'Neill, ME; McCarthy, DJ

Abstract

While a topic of considerable interest in the 1990s and early 2000s, there has been little literature on partnership working in the public sector in recent years. This is surprising given that the practice has been extended through the national roll-out of Neighbourhood Policing in England and Wales in 2008. This paper presents a reassessment of how the police operate in partnership with other agencies. In contrast to the previous literature, our research suggests that police officers involved in partnerships find them effective, crucial to their work and, at times, enjoyable. Rather than conflicting with traditional police culture, partnership work is enhanced by, and enhances, the police orientation towards the pragmatic. We explore the implications of this for our understandings of police culture.

Citation

O'Neill, M., & McCarthy, D. (2014). (Re)Negotiating police culture through partnership working : trust, compromise and the ‘new’ pragmatism. Criminology and Criminal Justice, 14(2), 143-159. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895812469381

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Dec 20, 2012
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jan 22, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Journal: Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Print ISSN: 1748-8958
• Electronic ISSN: 1748-8966
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 143-159
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895812469381
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1748895812469381
• Related Public URLs: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/journals/Journal201382
• Additional Information: Grant Number: SG-46702; Grant Number: PTA-031-2006-00462