Police chiefs are bullies who lack ideas, says study

Police chiefs tend to treat junior officers like "children", use "bollockings" to control their subordinates and can be staid and predictable, new research suggests.

A study of police management culture among the country's most senior officers gives a damaging impression of a secretive service that is bland and superficial and results in weak leadership.

It also accuses leadership culture of "lurching from fashion to fashion and quick-fix to quick-fix".

The criticisms come at a time when police chiefs are under unprecedented attack from the Home Secretary. David Blunkett has privately, and increasingly publicly, expressed his frustration at the lack of dynamism from many chief constables and is currently putting through new laws that will give him the powers to sack underperforming chiefs. In the Home Secretary's most recent outburst he warned Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and the leaders of other big city forces that he might take over the control of divisions if street crime was not reduced in the next two years.

Research by the Home Office-funded National Police Leadership Faculty, at Bramshill police college in Hampshire, will give further ammunition to Mr Blunkett and other critics.

Dr Robert Adlam, head of research at the faculty, which is intended to provide a centre of excellence for police leadership, wrote in Police Review magazine: "There remains a lack of real intellectual originality and boldness within police management culture. In consequence, there is only a superficial and limited capacity to embrace diversity."

He added: "Most significantly the data reveals low levels of 'secretive scheming'. In general, police managers are suspicious of their colleagues – be they superiors or subordinates.

"Police management culture is also characterised by expressions of authoritarianism and the use of coercive power. The punitive nature of the culture is most clearly reflected in the fear of the 'bollocking'."

He continued: "Police management culture still finds itself expressing parent-child styles of social interaction. A consequence of this style is treating junior officers like children."

Dr Adlam argued that the research "reveals some of the reasons why police leadership has been found wanting".

He did, however, point to some strengths of the current management system, including quick decision making and problem solving; a "get things done" attitude; a wide range of specialism and skills; and a "sense of camaraderie and solidarity".

But part of his advice for police chiefs and managers was for them "to read extensively – not the irrelevant texts of management but modern international literature. This might sound a bit odd but it would help them to be less staid and predictable".

Chief constables have in the past been accused of being clones – middle-aged men from very similar background with very similar approaches and ideas – by the police authorities that oversee the running of forces.

The Home Office has recently introduced several fast-tracking schemes to encourage talented young officers to move up the ranks and this has begun to change the make-up of the top levels of policing. Several female police officers have also broken through to chief constable rank.

But despite these changes Mr Blunkett is determined to push through further reforms, which have begun to alarm police chiefs who are worried that their autonomy is going to be undermined. At the end of last month the Home Secretary criticised them for failing to adopt a more "can-do" and "inspiring" approach to crime fighting.

In an apparent swipe at British police chiefs, the Home Office paid for a former New York police commissioner to fly to London to lecture them on how to bring down crime.

Many within the police service, however, believe that Mr Blunkett is largely motivated by his fears for his own job, which could be under threat if crime figures start to rise.