Policing the partnership: structural change, organisational legitimacy and police evaluations of probation in public protection
Policing the partnership: structural change, organisational legitimacy and police evaluations of probation in public protection
This article explores how police actors perceive the probation service in the wake of its outsourcing and reunification during a decade of profound structural reform, offering a unique perspective on multi-agency collaboration within criminal justice. Drawing on interviews with senior leaders, frontline officers and staff immersed within partnership arrangements, the study examines how probation’s organisational legitimacy is evaluated from outside. Using the conceptual lens of organisational legitimacy, we reveal how legitimacy is experienced as transitional–shaped by professional encounters and institutional memory. Participants frequently described probation as a service in crisis, citing operational instability and diminished capacity as barriers to effective collaboration. Yet these critiques were tempered by reflections on probation’s enduring moral legitimacy, grounded in shared values and long-standing relationships. The failed Transforming Rehabilitation reforms of probation services emerged as a cautionary tale, sharpening police awareness of the fragility of interagency partnerships and fuelling anxieties about the marketisation of criminal justice. Despite concerns, many expressed cautious optimism about the reunification of probation services and reaffirmed their belief in public service collaboration as essential to public protection. This paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how legitimacy is co-constructed across organisational boundaries and how police perceptions illuminate the relational dynamics underpinning effective multi-agency work in criminal justice.
multi-agency working, organisational legitimacy, partnership, Probation
Millings, Matthew
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Robinson, Gwen
3339b746-9dfe-4fa5-ae1b-027bc4d3cb7f
Annison, Harry
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Burke, Lol
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Carr, Nicola
7839561e-ad73-47f3-b4d8-c4cd3cff65ee
Millings, Matthew
400f075f-c21a-4855-865e-b99363e5df8e
Robinson, Gwen
3339b746-9dfe-4fa5-ae1b-027bc4d3cb7f
Annison, Harry
91ee5a4a-811e-4b57-9fd4-df643465b2a1
Burke, Lol
13f713c6-8d0e-482c-a8bd-719cdbcdc023
Carr, Nicola
7839561e-ad73-47f3-b4d8-c4cd3cff65ee
Millings, Matthew, Robinson, Gwen, Annison, Harry, Burke, Lol and Carr, Nicola
(2026)
Policing the partnership: structural change, organisational legitimacy and police evaluations of probation in public protection.
Policing and Society.
(doi:10.1080/10439463.2026.2637550).
Abstract
This article explores how police actors perceive the probation service in the wake of its outsourcing and reunification during a decade of profound structural reform, offering a unique perspective on multi-agency collaboration within criminal justice. Drawing on interviews with senior leaders, frontline officers and staff immersed within partnership arrangements, the study examines how probation’s organisational legitimacy is evaluated from outside. Using the conceptual lens of organisational legitimacy, we reveal how legitimacy is experienced as transitional–shaped by professional encounters and institutional memory. Participants frequently described probation as a service in crisis, citing operational instability and diminished capacity as barriers to effective collaboration. Yet these critiques were tempered by reflections on probation’s enduring moral legitimacy, grounded in shared values and long-standing relationships. The failed Transforming Rehabilitation reforms of probation services emerged as a cautionary tale, sharpening police awareness of the fragility of interagency partnerships and fuelling anxieties about the marketisation of criminal justice. Despite concerns, many expressed cautious optimism about the reunification of probation services and reaffirmed their belief in public service collaboration as essential to public protection. This paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how legitimacy is co-constructed across organisational boundaries and how police perceptions illuminate the relational dynamics underpinning effective multi-agency work in criminal justice.
Text
Policing the partnership structural change organisational legitimacy and police evaluations of probation in public protection
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 22 February 2026
e-pub ahead of print date: 22 February 2026
Additional Information:
This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council under Grant ES/W001101/1.
Keywords:
multi-agency working, organisational legitimacy, partnership, Probation
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 510953
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510953
ISSN: 1043-9463
PURE UUID: 918693dd-2941-4ec5-92cc-21a1316396b2
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Date deposited: 27 Apr 2026 16:51
Last modified: 28 Apr 2026 01:53
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Contributors
Author:
Matthew Millings
Author:
Gwen Robinson
Author:
Lol Burke
Author:
Nicola Carr
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