A study into the professionalisation of policing by examining the link between the epistemic authority and self-legitimacy of frontline police constables

Many police reforms fall under the rubric of police professionalisation and one of the major reforms that is taking place is through the College of Policing’s Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF). A consequence of the PEQF is that being a police officer is to become a graduate profession, either by completing a university degree before joining or completing a degree apprenticeship during the probationary period. This plan is to better embed professional knowledge within police practice and as an upshot develop a police officer’s Epistemic Authority (EA), i.e. the authority granted upon someone due to the strength of what they know.

One of the potential positive outcomes is that this may also improve an officer’s sense of self-legitimacy, that is, it will improve the confidence an officer has in the practice of the authority invested in him or her.

There is currently no literature seeking to link the two concepts, therefore a study to examine if there is a relationship between an officer’s EA and self-legitimacy would be an original contribution to knowledge.