The development of police professionalism has led to a host of changes to internal training and recruitment practices, to leadership and the conduct of police work. The professionalisation agenda focuses on creating police services that are self-regulating, operate high levels of internal regulation, and develop a core body of expertise and knowledge. The College of Policing has been established to promote professional policing and it is intended that the College will be become a statutory body with regulatory powers.

Ambiguities relating to professionalisation stem from the difficulties of defining how ‘best practice’ in policing can be defined. There are also concerns that some elements of professionalisation might mean that the service becomes more insular and less accountable to the general public.

Scientific policing and more effective use of technology form another dimension of police development. The application of scientific principles and practices offers the possibility for more effective practice in terms of officer deployment and crime investigation and prevention. More embedded technology – through smartphones and social media, for example – would provide the means to effectively integrate such evidence into routine police activity.

Although science and technology can contribute to specific aspects of policing it might be more difficult to see how they can be extended across the broad remit. The value of community policing, for example, is difficult to quantify and measure since much of what it intends to achieve relates to subjective concepts such as ‘public reassurance’.

Pluralisation of policing has usually been examined in terms of the different sectors that contribute to broad processes of policing. It seems likely that the delivery of a blended approach within sectors will become increasingly common: as public police employ private contractors and volunteers and external agencies provide services to the public sector.

Concerns about the quality of private provisions have emerged and challenges in relation to accountability and governance will be exacerbated given the transna­tional operation of many private police agencies. Nonetheless, it seems inconceiv­able that pluralisation will not continue to develop.

Financial austerity might impact on policing in three key ways. First, in terms of the pressures wrought by reductions in public spending on police services. These will mean reductions in personnel. Second, concurrent reductions in expenditure on other agencies that also fulfil roles that reduce crime and disorder might mean that the police – the service of last resort – will face an increase workload. Third, demands on police services might also be increased if cuts in welfare spending, rising unemployment and associated social problems fuel a rise in crime or public disorder.

Social changes in terms of globalisation, environmental change, technology and communications will combine to transform the context in which policing is delivered. They will create new challenges for governments and many agencies but these will be particularly significant for police since they are difficult to reconcile with the territorial basis of modern policing.

Other social transitions related to the nature of citizenship will have implications for policing. The principles of community and Neighbourhood Policing might represent early forms of Big Society activity, incorporating inclusiveness, voluntarism and a grass-roots engagement in the delivery of services.

It might be difficult to extend democratic accountability to a pluralised policing environment, though, and the development of a more individualistic consumer-based society will mean increasingly complex demands are made on police services.

Many of these dimensions that will shape the future direction of policing raise important questions about the role and mandate of policing. Recent statements by the Home Secretary have envisioned a future in which police have crime-fighting as their core mandate. This narrow perspective may be politically appealing and consistent with popular media and cultural representations. It does not bear much scrutiny, however, in terms of the wide-range of functions police have performed historically.

A wider perspective on the police mandate, which incorporates crime prevention and service roles, is less tidy but at least provides a framework to develop forms of policing that will secure public consent and can be legitimate, democratic and accountable.