Visibility, transparency and police‐media relations

The relationship between the British police service and the media has a chequered history and is one of complexity. Whilst the media has been a main contributor to promoting favourable images of policing and mystifying police work, conflict is endemic to the relationship and the level of trust between the parties is constantly in the balance. Commentators have suggested that the police are the dominant party in the relationship, managing the media to their own advantage and not in the interests of democratic policing. This paper examines the police‐media relationship in the context of the media advances in the 1990s. Drawing on research carried out across the police service in England and Wales, it concludes that although the police service has become more professional in the way it handles media relations, the complexity of the media world coupled with police organisational characteristics prevent police domination of the media to the extent feared.