Direct Entry: Fairness, resilience and the impact on regular cops

The discourse emerging from the professionalisation agenda focuses on a drive for new knowledge. The introduction of the Direct Entry (DE) scheme in England and Wales is one practice that attempts to facilitate this. Controversial debates about credible operational experience and an over reliance on classroom-based learning, have become routine. By drawing on qualitative data from the Police Federation Pay and Morale Survey which explored perceptions of College of Policing initiatives, this paper reviews officer views on the DE scheme. The paper discusses the negativity surrounding the scheme and the consequences on both the scheme itself and the professional identity of frontline officers. The authors conclude that without further engagement with frontline staff and a shift in what is viewed as credible knowledge, negative perceptions will prevail. Moreover, evidence suggests that officers’ distance the new skills bought in through the DES and reaffirm their own competence through processes of ‘othering’.