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Improving police probationer training through a democratic research process

Abstract Following a damning report on the state of police probationer training in England and Wales by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, entitled Training Matters (2002), the Home Office (2003), as part of its modernisation programme for the police service, decided that what police officers were required to know and learn to execute their statutory duties had to be examined and reported on. The learning requirements of police officers were to be thoroughly dissected and proposals made to update their knowledge, understanding and skills to effectively police in the 21st century. The article aims, not to report on the findings themselves, but to detail the innovative and democratic approach adopted by the research team to examine and propose changes to the learning requirements of police probationers. The research team adopted a democratic evaluation approach to this project, believing that such an approach not only ensures that the highest ethical principles are observed, but also democratises the research process from the participants' perspective and allows researchers to gather a rich set of data that is less coloured by their own judgements and values.