Police Beat: The Emotional Power of Music in Police Work By Simon ...

The officer who uses angry or threatening expressions, for example, might frighten a potentially unruly citizen back into law-abiding behaviour. At the Grayville department, these emotional expressions are not considered or classified as ‘emotional expressions’ for such a classification in the departmental context would imply that a variety of unprofessional behaviour was taking place. In the Grayville department, displayed bodily representations of emotions are highly reflected upon, highly considered and logically thought-out actions, as opposed to unplanned and personally felt emotions that have ‘escaped’ onto the body’s outer. Carefully thought out actions can be used in predictable ways in policing and very often bear no relationship to the officer’s personal feelings.

The highly reflected upon restriction or suppression of expression that police officers practice on the job, that theoreticians following Hochschild would term ‘emotional labour’, also serves to protect police officers themselves. Ehrlich-Martin argues, for example, that an act of emotional labour, specifically the suppression of the racially motivated ‘hate’ emotion infamously directed by Los Angeles police department officers toward African-American motorist Rodney King, would serve to ensure the delivery of good, professional policing. Ehrlich-Martin also notes that officers not only engage in emotional labour by suppressing their own feelings but also actively work to suppress the emotions of citizens when citizens are angry or frightened, or even when they are too joyful, in order to preserve law and order. She goes on to argue that it is the very strict suppression of almost every emotional expression that sets police officers apart from other ‘emotional labourers’ in other professions and indeed from policed citizens. She argues specifically that a kind of police family is formed because of it: