Initial police training in England and Wales, 1945-2009

• Main Author: Peacock, Shauna Mary
• Published: University of East Anglia 2010
• Subjects: 363.2
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.569323

A thematic inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in 2002 concluded that dramatic changes needed to be made to the training of police recruits to reflect the policing needs of the twenty-first century. The training, it reported, had not changed since the end of the Second World War. This thesis charts the developments of Initial Police Training from 1945 until 2009. Each chapter represents a decade of continuity and change in the training programme. Whilst there is much emphasis on the programme of the time there is reference to the social and political issues impacting on the development of police training. Policing cannot be conducted without the support of the community and the links between the service and the public they serve are evident throughout the research. Initial police training has not been a major field of academic endeavour and the little that has been written is often focussed on the significant change to probationer training made in the 1980’s as a result of work conducted by the University of East Anglia. This thesis presents the continuity and change in the training since the Second World War to the present day. It concludes with a summary of the issues still facing those with responsibility for the development and management of training for future police officers. The research was conducted predominantly with the use of documentary evidence from a range of sources from the report of the committee tasked with reconstructing the police service following the Second World War through to newsletters from the latest training modernisation group. The documentary research is supplemented by interviews with key players in the most recent developments in initial police training.