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Discourse & Society
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Police Status, Conformity and Internal Pressure: A Discursive Analysis of Police Culture

Karen Frewin

MASSEY UNIVERSITY, NEW ZEALAND

Keith Tuffin

MASSEY UNIVERSITY, NEW ZEALAND

This paper provides a discursive analysis of interviews with eight police officers about a range of contemporary issues concerning the police force. Officers drew on three common linguistic resources (police status, conformity, and internal pressure) which are identified, illustrated and discussed in terms of their social consequences and rhetorical effectiveness. We suggest that these discourses operate collectively to maintain the reputation of the police. This is achieved through the imperative of rigidly conforming to standards. Diversity is discriminated against at the point of recruitment and also via a series of internal pressures for existing officers who fail to conform. We have tried to demonstrate the discursive resources producing such social practices. We argue that a climate of conformity pervades the wider police culture and discuss the implications of this.

Key Words: conformity • culture • linguistic resources • police • reputation

Discourse & Society, Vol. 9, No. 2, 173-185 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/0957926598009002003
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