In Defence of Knowledge and Judgement: The Role of the Shift in Managing the Horizontal and Vertical Learning of New Police Recruits. Dr Sarah Charman @sarahc2612

Plan …… Formal and Informal learning Assumptions about Police Learning Learning at Work The Research Evidence Using and Valuing Knowledge and Experience

Formal Learning Informal Learning Information and knowledge about processes and procedures Informal Learning ‘Language’ of the organisation and normative processes

ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT POLICE LEARNING I Formal Learning The Police Training Environment Informal Learning “On the Streets’

ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT POLICE LEARNING II Identity adaptation Directional change Training Schools Working Police Environment Role of tutors Location of first posting

Theories of Learning have tended to ignore: Context within which learning takes place Context within which practice takes place The nature of human interaction Learning as a social process

Andragogy Adults use experience as a source of learning: They learn more effectively when they understand real-life connections with the learning; They are self-directed; They prefer to be able to understand the justification for the content of their learning. Teaching should be less directive, more facilitative and should utilise shared experiences and knowledge

Aims To assess the presenting and changing attitudes, values and beliefs of the new recruits to the police service in the early stages of their police career To evaluate the key influences upon the formation and development of the attitudes, values and beliefs of new police recruits

Methods Within five weeks of joining Six months after joining Four year longitudinal research study utilising semi-structured interviews (with quantitative elements) with two cohorts of new police recruits (plus tutors and development officers) to ‘Evermord Constabulary’ in England. Within five weeks of joining Six months after joining One year after joining Four years after joining

QUALITATIVE QUESTIONS QUANTITATIVE QUESTIONS The role of the police How to learn to be a police officer The influences of others in learning to be a police officer The expectations and realities of being a police officer What makes a ‘good’ police officer The major challenges facing policing QUANTITATIVE QUESTIONS Most important priorities of a police officer Most important characteristics of a police officer Most important influences upon a police officer 22 statements about policing with which to agree or disagree on a 5 point Likert-type scale

How Officers Learn

THE SQUARE OF POLICE LEARNING ‘FORMAL’ LEARNING ‘INFORMAL’ LEARNING VERTICAL LEARNING Classroom based learning focusing upon the acquisition of skills and knowledge, passed on from ‘expert’ to ‘novice’. This is exemplified by police trainers and by the new pre-join qualifications. Non-prescriptive direction and advice during early placements within police stations, most notably from the Sergeant in charge of the shift. HORIZONTAL LEARNING ‘On the job’ learning through a process of tutelage or ‘shadowing’. New recruits spend approximately 10 weeks under the supervision of another constable on shift – the ‘tutor period’. Completion of Police Action Checklist. Non-prescriptive direction and advice during early placements within police stations. This comes from other constables who are colleagues of the same rank as the new recruits although with more experience.

Force recommendations Tutor payments, tutor units embedded within NPT, three tutor hub locations, tutors spend almost 100% of their time tutoring, all new recruits spend two years in NPT with managed attachments with R&P, Investigations etc Force recommendations

Professionalising the Tutor Constable Role Understanding the value of experience (Bayley and Bittner, 1984): Teaches officers about goals Teaches officers about tactics and tactical decision making Teaches officers about presence Appreciating the value of experience: Reward Recognition Training Time “Officers must be helped to learn from one another less haphazardly then they do in the front seats of patrol cars” (Bayley and Bittner, 1984:55).

“Policing at its best is based on knowledge allied to professional judgement, not on hierarchy wedded to procedure and process. The demands of the future require more emphasis than ever to be placed on what police officers and staff know, not what rank they hold. In that context, leadership occurs and must be developed at all levels in policing, in different ways. All officers and staff should be reviewing the evidence of what works in policing and have a high degree of professional discretion”. College of Policing (2015) Leadership Review