The project examines prosecutorial investigative leadership as practice and analyses how it is enacted through concrete investigative practices. Leadership-as-Practice (LAP) offers an analytical lens and understands leadership as emerging through concrete practices. Leadership-as-Practice Development (LaPD) adds a developmental orientation by focusing on how practice can evolve through reflection and experience.
The study follows a qualitative case study design that combines observation, interviews, and document analysis. Data collection occurs in three police districts, within the settings of the Joint Criminal Case Intake (FSI), the Joint Intelligence and Investigation Unit (FEE), and the Geographical Operating Unit (GDE). The project explores how leadership identity takes shape in prosecutorial investigative leadership, how relational competence influences the enactment of the role, how practitioners interpret and manage complex situations through sensemaking, and how psychological safety may shape bias in investigative work. These four thematic areas form the basis for the project’s four articles.
The project aims to generate practice-oriented knowledge that deepens the understanding of prosecutorial investigative leadership and its significance for the quality of police investigations.
