When politeness becomes a liability: Giving officers back the right to act

20th March 2026Vsevolod Shabad, Independent Researcher & Governance Adviser

Independent researcher and governance adviser Vsevolod Shabad believes the language and internal communications architecture of British policing means that officers who highlight and escalate serious risk don’t always get the necessary response, and lack protection for their actions; with other high-risk professions having identified and addressed the same challenges, he looks at what policing can do restore the right for officers to speak clearly.

To read this article you need to have an individual paid subscription or subscriber access via your organisation’s corporate subscription.

Please sign in to your account or subscribe to a plan below to read this article.

If your organisation has a corporate subscription please register a FREE account with your organisation email address for full subscriber access.

Email Address or Username:

Password:

Forgot password?

Having problems creating an account or can't sign in? Please e-mail [email protected]

Username: *

Email Address: *

Verify Email Address: *

Captcha: *

A registration to Policing Insight also registers you for access to sister site PolicingTV.

Receive the Policing Insight Weekly Digest Receive the Policing Insight Daily Brief (powered by Media Monitor) I would like to receive information and offers from carefully selected partners of Policing Insight and PolicingTV

Having problems creating an account or can't sign in? Please e-mail [email protected]

When politeness becomes a liability: Giving officers back the right to act

Request a password reset using the form below