ABSTRACT
The police workplace is a hierarchical, power-laden environment. Elite studies scholars recognise power as an inherent feature of ‘studying up’, whereby the researcher is uniquely positioned as ‘subordinate’ compared with the powerful, elite participant. Drawing on literature from elite studies and critical leadership studies, this chapter explores the experience of interviewing policing elites, and examines how power operates within, and surrounding, the interview encounter. By conceptualising the power dynamics in researching elites as complex, fluid and dynamic, the chapter equips researchers to understand and navigate the distinctive methodological and ethical challenges of studying policing elites.
