In recent years, policing organisations across the UK have invested significant time and resources into awareness training on bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination, racism, and professional standards. Such training is important. It helps establish expectations, clarifies unacceptable behaviour, and demonstrates organisational commitment to ethical policing.
Yet despite this investment, inquiries, misconduct investigations, whistleblowing reports, and media exposés continue to reveal examples of harmful behaviour that were witnessed by others but went unchallenged. A recent report into the New South Wales Police in Australia highlighted toxic cultures of bullying and harassment.
This raises an important question: if officers and staff are aware of the issues, why does a culture of silence persist? The answer lies in a fundamental misunderstanding of how human behaviour works. Most cultures of silence are not sustained by ignorance. They are sustained by powerful social and psychological forces that make intervention difficult, even when people know something is wrong. Understanding this distinction is critical if policing is to move from awareness to action.
The Knowledge Gap Myth
Traditional awareness training assumes that people fail to act because they lack knowledge. If officers understand what bullying looks like, they will challenge it. If they understand what sexual harassment is, they will report it. If they understand racism, they will intervene. However decades of behavioural science tell us that knowing what is right and doing what is right are often two very different things. Most officers do not require a training package to tell them that racist comments, sexual harassment, intimidation, or bullying are wrong. They already know. The real challenge emerges when they witness such behaviour in a complex social environment and speaking up carry’s risks.
The question is not whether people recognise misconduct. The question is whether they feel able to challenge it.
The Power of Social Risk
Policing is built on relationships. Officers rely on colleagues during emergencies, dangerous incidents, and high-pressure situations. Trust and solidarity are essential. However, the same bonds that make teams effective can also make intervention difficult. When officers consider challenging inappropriate behaviour, they are often conducting a rapid risk assessment.
Will I damage relationships?
Will I be excluded from the team?
Will I be labelled difficult?
Will this affect promotion opportunities?
Will my colleagues trust me afterwards?
These concerns are not imaginary. The work of US psychologist John Dividio confirms that human beings sub consciously undertake a cost v benefit analysis in risky situations. When costs outweigh benefits, they often fail to act. Many individuals who have spoken up in organisations describe experiences of isolation, career setbacks, or damaged professional relationships. As a result, silence can feel safer than intervention.
Awareness training rarely addresses this reality.
The Influence of Hierarchy
Policing is a hierarchical profession. While hierarchy is necessary for command, accountability, and operational effectiveness, it can also inhibit challenge. Let’s not forget also the presence of informal hierarchies alongside more formal ones. Research into obedience and authority consistently demonstrates that people find it harder to question those above them than those alongside them.
An officer may feel comfortable challenging a peer who makes an inappropriate remark. The same officer may remain silent if the behaviour comes from a supervisor, specialist officer, or highly respected colleague. The issue is not a lack of moral awareness. It is the social pressure created by status and authority.
Many cultures of silence are therefore less about individual courage and more about organisational structures that make challenge difficult.
The Problem of Ambiguity
Not every situation is obvious. Popular discussions often imagine misconduct as clear and undeniable. Reality is messier. A comment may be disguised as humour. A behaviour may be dismissed as banter. A supervisor’s conduct may be explained away as stress. Witnesses often find themselves wondering:
“Did they really mean that?”
“Am I being overly sensitive?”
“Should I wait and see?”
This uncertainty creates hesitation. While many see fear as the main reason people fail to act, Psychologists have long understood that ambiguity is one of the greatest barriers to intervention. People frequently delay action while seeking additional information. Psychologist Catherine Sanderson in her book “Why We Act, turning bystanders into Moral Rebels” calls this the ‘Perils of Ambiguity’.
Unfortunately, by the time certainty arrives, the opportunity to intervene may have passed.
The Lessons of the Bystander Effect
Research into bystander behaviour has shown that the presence of other people can reduce the likelihood that any one individual will act. When several people witness a problem, responsibility becomes diluted. Each person assumes someone else will step forward. Each person looks to others for cues. If nobody acts, silence becomes interpreted as a signal that intervention is unnecessary.
In policing environments this effect can be particularly powerful. A group of officers may witness problematic behaviour. Several may privately disagree with it. Yet if nobody speaks, everyone may assume they are alone in their concerns. The result is collective silence despite private disagreement.
Culture Always Beats Training
Perhaps the greatest limitation of awareness training is that organisational culture often sends stronger messages than formal instruction. Officers learn from what they observe. They notice: Who gets promoted. Who gets protected. Whose complaints are taken seriously. Who is held accountable. What behaviour leaders tolerate.
An organisation may deliver excellent training on dignity and respect but if individuals who engage in harmful behaviour face few consequences, officers quickly learn what the organisation truly values.
The informal culture becomes more influential than the formal training. People do not simply follow policies. They follow norms.
Why Active Bystandership Matters
This is where active bystandership becomes crucial. Active bystandership shifts the focus from awareness to action. Instead of asking, “Do people know what is right?” It asks, “Can people do something when they see a problem?” The distinction is significant. Active bystandership recognises that intervention is a skill. Like any skill, it can be developed, practised, and strengthened. Importantly, it does not require dramatic acts of heroism. Most successful interventions are small, early, and low-risk. Positive evolution starts with small actions.
Small Actions Create Big Change
Many people imagine intervention as a formal confrontation. In reality, effective bystanders often use subtle approaches. They might:
Ask a question.
Change the subject.
Check on a colleague.
Challenge behaviour privately.
Express discomfort.
Seek support from others.
Escalate concerns when necessary.
These actions may seem minor. Yet they interrupt harmful behaviour before it becomes normalised. They communicate that standards matter. They demonstrate that silence should not be assumed as agreement.
The power of small actions is important as it starts to reduce the fear people often have when they consider an intervention. Also, they start to see the benefits of action, which as we have discussed above starts to balance out the potential costs. Hierarchies can be overcome when intervention is seen not simply as a challenge, but more as being a better colleague. This form of critical loyalty transforms a culture from passivity to action.
Building Intervention Confidence
One of the most important aspects of active bystandership training is that it helps people develop confidence through practice. Instead of discussing values in abstract terms, participants rehearse real situations. They learn how to respond when:
A colleague is being bullied.
Inappropriate jokes are made.
Discriminatory comments occur.
Sexual harassment is witnessed.
Excessive force concerns arise.
A supervisor behaves inappropriately.
This practical focus helps bridge the gap between intention and action. People move from knowing what they should do to understanding how they can do it. This is strengthened when colleagues practice intervention together. This helps address pluralistic ignorance which often stops an individual from intervening. Discussion helps to build the team. It demonstrates unity to address harm; it keeps harm doers in check and again it helps to transform a culture of silence to one of action.
Creating Everyday Heroes
Professor Philip Zimbardo’s concept of the “heroic imagination” argues that ordinary people can learn to act courageously in everyday situations. The key is preparation. When people anticipate challenges and mentally rehearse possible responses, they become more likely to act when those moments arise. Active bystandership develops exactly this capability.
It prepares officers to recognise moments of choice. It gives them practical options.
It increases the likelihood that they will act rather than remain passive observers. Importantly, it reframes intervention as professional responsibility rather than personal bravery.
The Future of Police Culture
If policing wishes to reduce bullying, racism, sexual harassment, discrimination, and other forms of misconduct, awareness training alone will never be enough. Awareness may tell officers what good looks like but active bystandership helps them create it.
A healthy culture is not defined by the absence of problems. Every organisation will experience mistakes, poor judgement, and inappropriate behaviour from time to time. The true measure of culture is how people respond when those moments occur.
Do colleagues stay silent?
Do they look away?
Or do they step forward?
The future of policing depends less on producing officers who can identify misconduct and more on producing officers who are willing and able to intervene when they see it. Cultures of silence are not broken by awareness. They are broken when ordinary people decide that doing nothing is no longer an option and that is the promise of active bystandership: transforming passive witnesses into active guardians of the culture they want to create.
When you put the effort in ‘Silence isn’t inevitable’.
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