Power through education

“You broke the first rule of policing: don’t f--k with the middle class”. This was a line from a television programme I watched recently. It rang bells with me. Not particularly owing to its coarseness but how clearly it defined the ideological position of the policing profession and its relationship with the various classes.

Starting with the premise that police officers traditionally have been drawn from the educated working class and how this suits government to have them remaining on the periphery of the middle class as a means of control.

We have the ability to change from this entrenched position by fully moving into the middle class through education. As it stands, we have been allowed to sniff around the edges and get a pat on the head through pay rises, but the only ideological barrier which exists presently is our professional exclusion through education.

This might sound indulgent to some, but if our profession of policing was moved from the current “para-professional” status into the “educated professional class” we would be industrially and socially powerful, like the Australian Medical Association. How couldn’t we? With 43,000 sworn police officers in Australia, whose responsibility is to enforce law and order, our position in society is as strong as the AMA, if not stronger.

Through a lack of formalized recognition by the Government-controlled culture toward the policing profession, our entry has been hindered into the educated middle-class professions – and governments like it this way. We are cheap labour in an ever-increasing response to the fracturing classes of governments.

A great example of how education keeps the policing profession in the para-professional bracket is the frequent change in promotional education standards. By continually changing the goal posts, it creates frustration with and indifference to the benefits of education with our profession. The professional class recognized entry to higher wages and socio-cultural standing through education from the inception of the capitalist system of governance in which we are participating. To sustain this system, you need “foot soldiers of the State” to maintain order and perpetuate it. This is where para-professions such as teaching, nursing and policing fit in.

In a fine display of exclusion and subordination to our profession, currently in SAPOL you could have a PhD in law and not be qualified to hold the rank of sergeant. Indeed, the Commissioner with his recognized education isn’t eligible to hold the rank of sergeant under his own system of promotion. I find this curious and somewhat bewildering but not surprising.

Just think how much it is in the favour of the State to keep its police officers at such an education level to keep them in the para-professional bracket and thereby not allowing them entry into the recognized professional class. Just think about how much money is being saved and how difficult we would be to control industrially if we were in the educated middle class.

The way forward is progressive education policies and visionary leaders both inside police management and police unions. This is the stuff of removing the magnifying glass and raising the binoculars. This is the way forward and has the potential to change our role in the nation-state. The only way to strategically join the educated middle class and enjoy its rights and privileges is to stand shoulder-to-shoulder through education.