Maintaining professional standards and reflective practice

This chapter focuses on reflective practice as the means by which professional standards can be enhanced within policing. It is argued that reflective practice builds upon, and recognises, the existing professionalism of the service, while at the same time allowing for further development to ensure police services embrace evidence-based practices. However, recent damning publications on police culture have highlighted the urgent need for a more transformative, joined up and comprehensive approach to improving the professional standards of policing. This requires the service, its leaders, all staff and volunteers to think of professional standards within policing in aspirational terms and to emphasise the human dimension of the professionalism agenda in policing.