Abstract:

Covert policing is a specialised field characterised by limited research and a lack of research-based teaching. At the same time, it involves complex forms of judgement, interaction, and identity work that may be challenging to formalise and teach. This article examines how professional identity is formed in covert policing education through a reflection-based learning design at the Norwegian Police University College. The empirical material consists of daily reflection notes written by 14 students during a two-week course in covert policing. The analysis follows a stepwise deductive–inductive (SDI) approach inspired by Tjora (2018), allowing themes to emerge through close and iterative engagement with the empirical material. The findings show that professional identity is developed through three interrelated forms of competence central to covert policing. First, students cultivate situational awareness and self-regulation, particularly through recognising how stress affects cognitive capacity, decision-making, and interaction. Learning to manage these reactions becomes central to maintaining operational control. Second, students develop relational competence, where trust, credibility, and the strategic use of self are understood as core resources in covert work. Students come to recognise that both personal traits and interactional skills can be mobilised as professional tools, learning to use aspects of their own personality alongside communication strategies to build trust, influence others, and manage interactions. Third, students acquire an emerging understanding of operational identity work, including the construction, maintenance, and enactment of credible legends across physical and digital contexts. This involves balancing consistency and flexibility while responding to uncertainty, confrontation, and shifting interactional demands in both physical and digital contexts. These learning processes are shaped by a pedagogy that integrates practical exercises, continuous reflection, and collective learning dynamics, while also drawing on theoretical perspectives on covert policing. Reflection notes function as a mechanism for making tacit, embodied, and context-dependent forms of knowledge visible, helping students become more aware of their own learning while also allowing instructors to follow their development. Further, the group context plays a crucial role, as students learn not only from their own experiences but from observing others’ successes, failures, and coping strategies. Together, this creates an intensive learning environment characterised by emotional engagement, self-awareness, and a gradual development of professional judgement. The article contributes empirical insight into how reflection-based training can support the formation of professional identity in covert policing, a field marked by secrecy, risk, and limited transparency. More broadly, it offers insights into how complex and high-stakes police practices, where knowledge is often tacit, situational, and relational, can be taught, articulated, and critically examined within formal educational settings.

Keywords:

Covert policing, police education, professional development, reflective practice.