There is much attention being given to Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) both internally (the workforce) and externally (the public). This focus on reacting to wrong doing means a trajectory of sacking police personnel (internally) and reactive hotspotting (externally) as if this is the only pessimistic thing the NPCC and Home Office can think of doing (Bell, 2014; Cummins, 2021).
Yet, consider how the reaction to negative ASB as a single focus is missing a trick (Barton, 2013). Think about the value and power of exploring growing Pro Social Behaviour (PSB) as the pursuit of something that we really do want, rather than just reacting to what we really do not (Grant et al, 2019). The same principle works internally (with the workforce) as well as externally (on the High Street).
Solution focused
Think PSB not ASB comes from a solution oriented mindset (rather than ‘problem solving’) as a more prosocial and proactive goal driven approach, rather than the negative defensiveness of just trying to react when things go wrong (Pancholi and Uduwerage-Perera, 2024).
EMPAC Senior Research Fellow, Dave Hill, explains “there is extensive research evidence that offering the carrot of a positive role model changes lives better than the stick of punishment. Being research informed means adopting what works to policy and practice but also filling in existing gaps. If we take the current work on VAWG, for example, young men are lacking pro social role exemplars to model what would good look like.”
“Overall, we seem to be in a form of policing neurosis which is negative by pursuing reactionary punitive tactics when we could be growing pro social leadership that inspires others to follow. This focus on the negative means pessimism, stress, fear and disillusionment whilst, contrast, by investing in PSB we grow hope, aspiration, trust and confidence.”
Nudge as push or pull?
Nudge theory advocates are keen to promote incremental change, but the current NPCC science portfolio is dominated by what not to do, rather than actual improvement. Vetting is essential but rather than aligning this to CPD within PDR, the existing machinery looks for ‘bad’ in order to try and contain it rather than invest in ‘good’ and the potential boost of growth (Beckley, 2021).
A strong PSB measure rarely coincides with strong ASB, so growing PSB means there is a sustainable resilience to the negative; meaning people are not sucked into toxicity because this is not only called out, but a much better working culture is readily available. Pushing people away and out into the dark is a flawed tactic when you consider the enormous power of pulling people towards the light of the pro social (Hoffman and Muller, 2018).
PSB in action: what good looks like
Internally (where things begin), investing in PSB means leading by example through exemplar behaviours that model the virtues and skills that policing should stand for. This matters in pragmatic detail, particularly in challenging times (as articulated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner); a core role for leading is to be present and to be present when needed most, tested by what people do, not just what they say. There is a growing ‘them and us’ wall between management and worker in policing, often affiliated with efficiency reliance upon technology: which misses the vitality of interpersonal working relationships and trust as the bedrock of high performance (Vidal, 2022).
This is mirrored externally in the relationship with the public (Mukherjee and Mathew, 2024) where policing seems to only conceptualise a single tactic of enforcement as the way to conduct interpersonal contact. What PSB means is investing in relationship capital as the way of enabling internal and external sustainable collaboration, with a forthright focus on exemplar behaviours (Kohtamaki, et al, 2012), for example in community growth (Ryan, et al, 2025; Moselen, et al, 2025).
Modelling PSB means more of a focus on human interaction, human behaviour, human values and less on punitive systems and procedures. That’s how you win optimistic hearts and minds: that’s how you lead change in police stations and on the street.
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