What’s on the What Police Actually Do poster
A definition and 5 facts worth remembering.
Most police time goes on order maintenance, welfare and vulnerability rather than crime investigation.
- A large share of calls involve no criminal offence
- Mental health and missing persons take real time
- Only a minority of recorded crime is detected
- Patrol is mostly available time, not incident time
- The role widened as other services contracted
- Frequent call types — Welfare · disorder · traffic · missing
- Detection rate — Varies hugely by offence type
- Domestic abuse calls are among the largest single categories of demand.
Educational reference. Demand profiles differ by force and country; any figure quoted should name its source.
Questions about the What Police Actually Do poster
- What’s on the What Police Actually Do poster?
- A definition and 5 facts worth remembering. Most police time goes on order maintenance, welfare and vulnerability rather than crime investigation. A large share of calls involve no criminal offence; Mental health and missing persons take real time; Only a minority of recorded crime is detected; Patrol is mostly available time, not incident time; The role widened as other services contracted; Frequent call types — Welfare · disorder · traffic · missing; Detection rate — Varies hugely by offence type; Domestic abuse calls are among the largest single categories of demand.. Educational reference. Demand profiles differ by force and country; any figure quoted should name its source.
- Who is the What Police Actually Do poster for?
- What Police Actually Do belongs to the Criminal Justice section rather than to a school year, because law & society is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning policing can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the What Police Actually Do poster?
- Use it before arguing about policing priorities from television or headlines. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so What Police Actually Do belongs on the wall where that law & society work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with What Police Actually Do?
- The Broken Windows Debate, Body-Worn Cameras and Hot Spot Policing sit alongside What Police Actually Do in the Criminal Justice section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.The Broken Windows DebateBody-Worn CamerasHot Spot Policing
- Is the What Police Actually Do poster free to download and print?
- Yes. What Police Actually Do downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Criminal Justice section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the What Police Actually Do poster print at?
- What Police Actually Do is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of What Police Actually Do loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside What Police Actually Do on the same wall.
Browse every Criminal Justice poster, or start from the full catalogue.