Direct entry: Fairness, resilience and the impact on regular cops

Exploring police culture and reform strategies post charing cross: Insights from the literature

“…This leadership style, encourages participation in decisions and seeks to ensure that officers feel part of the organisation (Silvestri, 2003). However, despite the benefits of diversity schemes such as Direct Entry Programmes, a them and us culture was identified as operating between those with police experience, (who were perceived as more credible holders of the police role) and those entering the service with none (Williams et al, 2021). The scheme currently lies in a state of abandonment (College of Policing, 2022a), highlighting firstly, the restrictive nature of cop culture in any attempt by the police organisation to reform, and secondly the maintenance of a status quo within a police workforce, predominantly identified as being white, heterosexual and male.…”

Stress-related psychosocial risk factors among police officers working on Rape and Serious Sexual Offences

“…Dalton et al’s (2022) systematic literature review of specialist RASSO policing highlights the relationship between officer wellbeing with team cohesion and resourcing. Williams et al (2021) further detail these issues by pointing out the negative consequences resulting from organisational changes that have reduced RASSO specialisms across many forces. As work demands increase due to greater attrition, understanding victim vulnerabilities and dealing with trauma, the lack of specialist training has been shown to undermine police office confidence in their ability to prosecute cases (Charman and Bennett, 2022; Williams et al, 2021;.…”

“…Williams et al (2021) further detail these issues by pointing out the negative consequences resulting from organisational changes that have reduced RASSO specialisms across many forces. As work demands increase due to greater attrition, understanding victim vulnerabilities and dealing with trauma, the lack of specialist training has been shown to undermine police office confidence in their ability to prosecute cases (Charman and Bennett, 2022; Williams et al, 2021;. Consequently it has been argued that due to the stigma of wellbeing and health-related concerns including mental health, seeking help is often avoided (Bell et al, 2021; Bullock and Garland, 2018).…”