Reforming the police in Britain: new public management, policy networks and a tough 'old bill'

Since the late 1970s the public sector in Britain has been subjectto major reforms, which have been consistent with the prominentinternational trend of bringing new public management into government.The police service has escaped significant reform, particularly whencompared with other policy areas. But in 1993 the Conservativegovernment put forward a series of police reform measures, corresponding largely to the tenets of new public management. However, despitepolitical commitment to reform, the implementation of many of the reformproposals has been successfully resisted by the police. Provides anexplanation of the attempt to reform the police service by using apolicy networks approach.