Police legitimacy in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion: an analysis of a strategic plan

It has been argued that the legitimacy of criminal justice is not static but rather operates in a state of flux in terms of a dialogue between power holders and their relevant audiences (Bottoms and Tankebe, 2012). This paper reports on a study that examines the way in which police legitimacy in Scotland is dialogically engaged with a wider public. In this case that public is amorphous in terms of being the public-facing nature of a strategy document on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). The document sets out how the police service aims to incorporate EDI into its own internal operations, as well as how it will adopt this approach in its policing of communities. This is set within the context of a legitimacy crisis in policing in the UK and specifically in this case in Scotland. Several high-profile cases have been reported in the media that have raised serious concerns about the culture of policing in terms of racism and sexism. The paper examines the ways in which this strategic plan seeks to repair legitimacy through the rhetorical deployment of discourses that seek to reassert the power-holder status of the police and their authority over citizens.