Community policing and lateral career paths

This paper is about career paths and the occupational value of community police work. Drawing on ethnographic research, it conflates officers' views of community policing as a career choice with debates on career paths, re-orientations and job turnover. It argues that understanding how and why career paths develop laterally have important implications for those attempting to bridge the gap between police resources and operational requirements-particularly, if experienced and skilled officers are to be retained in key front-line postings during periods of structural and operational change.