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Policing the COVID-19 pandemic: police officer well-being and commitment to democratic modes of policing

Kyprianides, A.; Bradford, B.; Beale, M.; Savigar-Shaw, L.; Stott, C.; Radburn, M.

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Authors

A. Kyprianides

B. Bradford

M. Beale

L. Savigar-Shaw



Abstract

Police organisations have a wealth of experience in responding to emergencies, but COVID-19 is unprecedented in terms of the speed, scale and complexity of developing doctrine and its implementation by officers. The crisis also threw into sharp relief the fact that police policy and, crucially, practice are always implemented within wider social, political and economic contexts. Using online survey data collected from 325 police officers based at forces operating across different UK contexts (cities, conurbations, towns and rural areas), we seek to understand officer experiences and perceptions of policing COVID-19. In particular, we examine whether (internally) organisational climate and (externally) the UK government’s response to COVID-19 were important to (a) officers’ support for police use of force at times of emergency, (b) officer’s support for procedurally just policing at times of emergency, and (c) their health and well-being; and whether identification and perceptions of self-legitimacy mediate the associations between these variables. We show that a positive organisational climate was associated with less support for police use of force, more support for procedurally just policing and increased police officer health and well-being. Our results, however, suggest potential negative correlates of police officer self-legitimacy: higher levels of self-legitimacy were associated with poorer police officer health and well-being and increased support for police use of force. These results have important implications for our understanding of police officer well-being and police officers’ commitment to democratic modes of policing when faced with policing a pandemic.

Citation

Kyprianides, A., Bradford, B., Beale, M., Savigar-Shaw, L., Stott, C., & Radburn, M. (2021). Policing the COVID-19 pandemic: police officer well-being and commitment to democratic modes of policing. Policing and Society, 32(4), 504-521. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2021.1916492

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 9, 2021
Online Publication Date Apr 28, 2021
Publication Date Apr 28, 2021
Journal Policing and Society
Print ISSN 1043-9463
Publisher Routledge
Volume 32
Issue 4
Pages 504-521
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2021.1916492
Keywords COVID19; police officer well-being; democratic modes of policing
Publisher URL https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10439463.2021.1916492

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