Police culture, stress conditions and working styles

Abstract

The standard model of police culture assumes that internal and external stress shapes police culture and that this culture promotes certain styles of policing. This model has been tested using a survey of police officers in the Netherlands. The street-level culture of the Dutch police has some elements in common with what we know from Anglo-Saxon studies, but there are also important differences. Dutch rank-and-file police are less conservative, the machismo element is less dominant and the fundamental mistrust of strangers is not as widespread. The findings of this study generally correspond with the causal relations of the model. Remarkably, no relationship was found between the professional police style and cultural elements in the police.