Targeting sexual harassment to ensure sustainable work in the police. Finalizing and testing the effect of a police specific bystander intervention

Sustainable working life is a mean to ensure work life participation. In the police, this is actualised in political decisions that aim for more employees to
work longer periods of time during the lifespan. Research has documented some police employees (e.g., women) have a higher turnover than others. Sexual harassment (SH) is one intraorganizational factor known to
potentially drive police employees to leave. Addressing factors that determine whether individuals can and want to participate in working life is a crucial part of ensuring a sustainable working life. UISH responds to this challenge by exploring how the police can successfully prevent and intervene against SH. The overall aim is to ensure that the police is a workplace able to both retain and attract the personnel and competence that the police and society requires and requests.

Methods
The first work package (WP1, Norwegian Police Service/Norwegian Police University College) is based on results from the Norwegian part of SUSH, a previous practitioner-based research project (Bjørkelo et al., 2023; Pedersen et al., 2023). In detail, WP1 adapts “Intervene SH” (Mikkelsen et al., 2021; Stampe et al., 2025) to include an intersectional focus, as well as suitable for a police setting, and test its effects.

Results
Preliminary results from the piloting of the Norwegian police version of the bystander intervention “Intervene-SH” among police employees (Størdal et al., 2024) and police leaders (Størdal et al., 2024) indicate that the intervention can generate discussions, both in groups of employees’ and groups of leaders, that stimulate and facilitate constructive bystander behaviour.

Conclusions
Based on the preliminary results, plans for the further implementation and empirical testing of the effects of “Intervene-SH” in a police setting will be outlined.