Reforming Police Practices by Training?

This article analyses the obstacles that weaken a police academy’s attempts to train police recruits able to resist some of the traditional characteristics of professional culture. Formulated as objectives, the reforms are based on the promotion of relational skills. However, it appears that such objectives are rendered null and void by the interpretations that the recruits themselves make of such relational skills, as well as by the professional doxa leading to contradictory conceptions of professionalism taught by the instructors.