Tangled Up in Blue

1. Tangled Up in Blue Women police officers and the investigation of sexual violence

2. Introduction • Researchers’ background - Dr Marian Foley: Responses to sexual violence • Dr Martin King : Media representations, men and masculinities • Mr Ian Cummins : Policing issues and social change • This research is part of a wider project that is looking at a series of issues related to cultural representations of policing and violent crime.

3. Law and Order • The Criminal Justice System (CJS) is a part of society that is both familiar and hidden • It is familiar in that a large part of daily news and television drama is devoted to it • The majority of the population, have little, if any, direct contact with the CJS • Reiner (2003) notes the debate about the relationship between the media, policing and crime has been a key feature of wider societal concerns about crime since the establishment of the modern police force.

4. Reality… Who’s reality? • Reiner (2003) also argues that TV drama creates an expectation that crimes can be cleared up routinely in half hour slots • Taps into the debate about whether the media is a mirror or a window (Kellner,1995) • Hall (1997) and Dyer (1993) on representation • What kind of reality do we want from TV? From police shows? • Real word impact difficult to say (O’Sullivan,2005) • Reiner (2010) Mass media has a role in shaping attitudes to policing

5. Representations of policing • Dixon of Dock Green • Popular TV series 1955-76 • Jack Warner – came to represent the archetypal “British Bobby” • Ironically Warner was the character shot by Dirk Bogarde in the 1950 film The Blue Lamp • Set in an idealised working class community in the East End of London (an area associated with key notions of white working class Britain

6. Reiner’s “Cop Culture” • Seen as a form of “hegemonic masculinity” • Reiner (2000) “core characteristics” of police culture • exaggerated sense of mission • celebrate masculine exploits • show willingness to use force and engage in informal working practices. • lead socially isolated lives and display defensive solidarity with colleagues • culture is marked by cynicism and pessimism • So Dirty Harry begat The Sweeney

7. From Juliet to Jane… • Heidensohn and Brown (2010) in Newburn and Peay… Policy, Politics, Culture and Control • Female police shows – increasing role for women in investigation of violent crime • US – Police Woman (1974-78) - Charlie’s Angels (1976-81) - Cagney and Lacey (1981-88) UK – The Gentle Touch (1980-84) - Juliet Bravo (1980-85) - Prime Suspect (1999-2006) - Scott and Bailey (2011-present)

8. Bike or dyke? • Programmes reflect assimilation stage (1972-1982) - women officers encroaching on men’s spheres of policing (Brown, 2000) e.g. The Enforcer • But… these shows often mirror professional/feminine incompatibilities, reflected in the treatment of women in policing at this time (Brown and Heidensohn, 2000) • Bike or dyke? • Period of challenge (1983-1984) – women in lead roles • Inspector D’arbley – Juliet Bravo – Sexism and hostility • Prime Suspect – based on DI Jackie Malton – Jane Tennison – masculinasation? Clear agenda about women and their role in policing (Brunsdon, 1998) • Prokos and Padovic (2002) There oughta be a law against bitches – masculinity lessons in police academy training • Where are we now ? Sarah Lund and Scott and Bailey

9. The changing role of women • 1970 Equal Pay Act • 1975 Sex Discrimination Act • 1975 Employment Protection Act – illegal to sack a woman because she is pregnant • 1976 Women Police ceased to exist as a separate organisation • 1976 Equal Opportunities Commission • 1976 Domestic Violence Act – orders against violent partners • 1977 First Rape Crisis Centre • 1983 Alison Halford – ACC Merseyside highest ranking female officer • 1984 Equal Pay (Equal Value Amendment)

10. Agenda for Change • For the Service to demonstrate consistently that it values women officers; • To achieve a gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation balance across the rank structure and specialisms consistent with the proportion of women in the economically active population; • To have a woman’s voice in influential policy fora focusing on both internal and external service delivery; • To develop an understanding of the competing demands in achieving a work/life balance and a successful police career; and • To have a working environment and equipment of the right quality and standards to enable women officers to do their job professionally.

11. Research • Email sent to local branch of NARPO asking for volunteers • Officers who had experience of investigating serious offences and sexual violence • Project – looking at how “police investigations into serious violence and sexual offences are portrayed in drama and fiction” • 10 volunteers - 1 f 9 m – 9 recorded interviews • Then followed up with six interviews with female officers • 1 recorded interview – five telephone interviews • Research has become more focused on the working lives of the officers involved in the project

12. LS110139 Female ex-police officer. Experiences like Annie in Life on Mars “I’d be standing there at the counter talking to an elderly couple and the sergeant… walks past and just grabs your bum, gooses you while you were talking to them and I went ‘ooh’… and he’d say ‘alright love, see you’ve got your knickers on today’… it sounds wrong today but that was just the environment…it was his way of kind of bonding” “…there’s so much about Life on Mars that you could’ve run that as a training video, you really could…” “I went in the police and then I went in the CID and I thought this is me. So it was funneling down and then I worked on my first murder, and I thought this is me” “You girls join the job to find a husband, so I give you six or twelve months, you’ll find a fella, you’ll get pregnant, you’ll be off… I thought Fuck you. I’m going to do my thirty years if only to stick it up you”

13. Dead woman’s stilettos “It was a policy of practice if you like that there was one woman in the office… there was a practical need for police women, obviously for the searching of the same sex and all that kind of thing, but it definitely wasn’t dead man’s shoes it was dead woman’s stilettos” “I’ve seen people who have been completely eviscerated and heads chopped off, everything you can imagine and nothing bothers me…” “I worked on my first murder… I suppose it was the attention to detail, the minutiae, and I think realising, even though I was still relatively young at the time, the gravity of what you are being given to do… if you can’t raise your game for that, then you shouldn’t be in the job” “…people say is that why your marriage broke up, I say no I married the wrong man” “St Mary’s… that was an absolute catalyst because the involvement of women in the investigation of rape used to be we’ve got this woman who says she’s been raped. Just get me a WPC to interview her, and that was your involvement in it”

14. Boring as paint “…almost everybody I’ve met in the television industry has said to me, as a police officer, which British crime drama do you really like? I said none of it.” “Basically it’s all crap, everything that you’re doing is just regurgitating things that were wrong twenty years ago and it’s still wrong now” “Somewhere in the publicity… will be the words gritty, authentic, it’s not. I’ll tell you what, I’d love to sit down and watch it with you and I’d say, well that wouldn’t happen and I’d tell you why it wouldn’t happen”

15. Contact details • Dr Martin King • M.king@mmu.ac.uk