Legitimising police knowledge: Professional knowledge, culture and practice in Icelandic policing

This qualitative study examines how professional knowledge is constructed and legitimised within contemporary policing. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 police officers in Iceland following a shift to university-based education, the analysis uses Shulman, Eraut and Chan to explore how academic, experiential and relational knowledge are negotiated in practice. The findings demonstrate that the legitimacy of knowledge in policing is not determined solely by its evidentiary basis, but is produced through cultural, organisational and relational processes. While academic knowledge is gaining recognition, its authority remains contingent on existing hierarchies and experiential norms. Informal learning, peer interaction and relational competence emerge as key mechanisms through which knowledge is translated and enacted. The study advances criminological debates on police professionalisation by conceptualising knowledge legitimacy as a culturally mediated and organisationally embedded process.