ABSTRACT
In August 1988, Wolff Olins presented a report to the Policy Committee of the Metropolitan Police which contained proposals for changes to the corporate identity of the force. Wolff Olins is one of the best known corporate identity consultancies in Britain; its managing director is Wally Olins, the ‘high priest of the cult of corporate identity’ (BBC Radio 4 1991), whose recent projects include the DTI, the Prudential and the controversial British Telecom identity. The proposals caused a great deal of comment in the press, including the tabloids; none the less the force proceeded to implement the scheme which has cost a large amount of time, effort and money. A corporate identity for a police force raises a good many questions related to the theme, the ‘authority of the consumer’. Who consumes the services of the police? How does a corporate identity ‘empower’ consumers? What kind of ‘authority’ can consumers exercise over a body which represents the power of the state? What problems can corporate identity solve for the police? Before addressing some of these questions it will be useful to examine the modern discipline of corporate identity.
