Resistance through representation: 'storylines', advertising and police federation campaigns

Abstract

The Police Federation has become an active and successful pressure group on policing and criminal justice issues in the U.K. This article traces the origins of the Federation through to two bitter and far reaching campaigns in the post‐war period. The first was the Federation's law and order and pay campaign in the 1970s, the second its battle against the Conservative government's reform proposals during 1993. It is argued that these campaigns represented ‘moments of truth’ when the Federation took it case to the public, appealing above the heads of government and senior officers in pursuit of its goals. A notable, and perhaps unique feature of these campaigns is shifting the ‘arena of negotiation’ through the use of press advertisements. The core textual and pictorial images and representations of the police and policework deployed during these campaigns are examined through use of the richly suggestive concept of ‘storylines’.