Police are not unusual in saying one thing and doing another indeed they might well be
Sociological research on the police, as with many other organisations and occupational groups, has identified that the Police Force have their own distinctive culture that has existed in both traditional and modern police times, that is, a set of informal rules that map out how the job is really done as opposed to how things should be done, a justification required by the ambiguity of their role in society. This culture is borne of the situations that police find themselves in whilst carrying out day-to-day duties. We are engrossed in cop culture where research, normally involving what police actually do on the street, has been popular in the UK over the last twenty years in the light of public concerns relating to crime issues and following various disturbances in inner city areas (Brixton (London), Toxteth (Liverpool), St Pauls (Bristol)) and the way such incidents were policed. In the writings of Jupp (1989) some of this research centres on the role of the police in their organisational and cultural context, for instance, Cain 1973; Chatterton, 1983; Holdaway 1983; Punch 1979, 1985 and Young 1991, who are famed for their ethnographic research, and presenting a negative outcome of policing. Another area generating much research is the relationship between police officers and ethnic minority groups in society, which has spread into further concerns with police work with regard to a whole range of social groups and social divisions within society, for example, Brogden, Jefferson and Walklate (1988). ... As written by Waddington (1999) as quoted by Reiner (1992) the main referents of the traditional ‘police sub-culture’ are quite clear: ‘its sense of mission; the desire for action and excitement, especially the glorification of violence; an ‘Us/ Them’ division of the social world with its in-group isolation and solidarity on the one hand, and racist components on the other; it’s authoritarian conservatism; and its suspicion and cynicism, especially towards the law and legal procedures.’ However, Waddington suggests that police subculture is much more complex than this operationalized definition. ... ’ Waddington (1999) feels the need, and rightly so, to criticize the many variations of this idea of a police culture as generally what researchers tend to focus on is what police say, gathered through surveys or by observing canteen culture, rather than their actual action as according to Fielding, 1994 ‘police sub-culture’ is operationally reduced to the ‘canteen culture’. ... (1998) it is important to understand police culture when considering policy reforms; for instance, the police officers love of action may mean that many officers oppose community-policing styles and that factors like machismo, racism and conservatism may alter how well women and ethnic officers can be integrated.