Extremely limited. Police officers are not legally permitted to join a conventional trade union, because of the risk to public safety that would be posed by ind

Extremely limited. Police officers are not legally permitted to join a conventional trade union, because of the risk to public safety that would be posed by industrial action. Rank-and-file officers are represented by the Police Federation, which has many of the functions of a trade union but none of the legal recognition. More broadly, the British police are a service, not a force. A British officer would never refer to a member of the public as a "civilian", because our police are civilians in uniform. They have powers granted to them by Parliament, but their right to use those powers comes from the consent of the public that they serve. It's a radically different attitude that colours every interaction between police and the public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Federation_of_England_and_Wales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Federation_of_England_a... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles