ABSTRACT
As a highly politicised organisation, it is by no means straightforward for the police service in England and Wales to secure legitimacy from the public and other key stakeholders (Manning, 1997). Unfortunately, recent events, including the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20-summit protests in London in 2009; the Leveson Inquiry (2011) into police-media relations and possible corruption in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS); the report of the Hillsborough panel into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster (2012); and the ACPO report into the abuse of police powers to perpetrate sexual violence (2011) have greatly damaged police legitimacy. Add to these events, the results of a recent survey by Brown (2012) which shows a disaffected police uniformed workforce, with 56 per cent of officers expressing the desire to resign from the service, and it is probably no exaggeration to claim that the police are facing a serious and extremely worrying legitimacy crisis.
