‘The jeopardy is immense’: Job Insecurity Among Civilian Police Staff in an English Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office

This article explores the experiences and implications of administrative staff's job insecurity within an Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) in England. The 2011 Police and Social Responsibility Act established a new system of local police government in England and Wales pivoted around the figure of a locally elected official. OPCC (civilian) staff are key to developing and implementing local police and crime policy; however, their employment dependency on the commissioner within a neoliberal environment appears to significantly impact their perceptions of job security. Drawing on semi-structured interview data (n = 24) with OPCC staff members (n = 13) from a wider ethnographic study, we identify novel acute perceptions of job insecurity among this category of personnel as a prime mover of what we understand as an overpoliticisation of the post-2011 institutional architecture. This latter novel characteristic arguably erodes the impartiality and sobriety that leads to a rational and effective local police and crime policy. Embedding our analysis within an understanding of the wider neoliberal public sector reform strategies, we offer original empirical insights on a much-neglected aspect of the local governance of policing in England. Ultimately, we show how an institutional architecture that in principle intends to further democratic legitimation and local policy responsiveness may in practice operate to the detriment of these very same aims.