Fathers on the frontline: How UK police officers experience involved fatherhood

Based on a critical case study of the UK Police Service, this thesis provides insight into the experiences of father-carers who work in frontline protective service roles. It draws on data collected via in-depth, narrative style interviews with 27 frontline police officers who are fathers with caring responsibilities. The research interviews were carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic but the narrative approach used allowed participants to describe their experiences both before and during this time. The analysis shows how officers face relentless trauma in their interactions with criminals, victims and police managers, highlighting the extent and nature of the physical and emotional damage to which they are subject as result of operational and organisational stressors.
The findings make three inter-related contributions to the extant research on gender, protection and caring. First, they provide insight into participants’ perceptions and experiences of the police service as an uncaring organisation, one that fails to protect them from physical and emotional harm, to alleviate their emotional suffering, and to recognise or accommodate their needs as aspirant caregiving fathers. Second, the findings provide insight into how father-carers experience their own caregiving fatherhood whilst working on the frontlines of policing, developing a conceptual analysis of the methods they use to prevent their work-related emotional dirt from spilling over into family life and their relationships. Finally, the findings contribute to knowledge and understanding of what conditions of possibility might need to exist for frontline protective service workers to be better supported and more involved as parents and/or caregivers now and in the future.