Citation:
Lisa Dorn and Brian Brown, Making sense of invulnerability at work--a qualitative study of police drivers, Safety Science, Volume 41, Issue 10, December 2003, Pages 837-859.
Abstract:
This paper reports a qualitative study of 54 police drivers who were interviewed
about their views on police driver training, driving strategies and their
accident involvement. Study of the transcribed interviews indicated that
officers constructed narratives of themselves as being highly aware of hazards
presented by other road users and they used a variety of discursive devices to
minimise their own culpability and attribute risk elsewhere. Rather than
maintaining a straightforward ‘illusion of invulnerability’ they were
formulating a ‘topography of risk’ in which they were responding to hazards
presented by suspects or other road users. Their meticulously detailed accounts
of the circumstances surrounding accidents serve to place them as knowledgeable
and impartial participants and create a sense of expertise and authority.
Training initiatives could profitably seek to challenge this ‘topography of
risk’ and sense of authority so that drivers more fully appreciate the hazard
they may present to themselves and
