Is the troubled Police Federation of England and Wales now holed below the waterline? Along with two other national Federation officials, CEO Mukund Krishna was arrested today on suspicion of corruption by detectives from City of London Police. Krishna, the Fed’s first non-police head, was brought in to clean up the organization after a series of controversies. Accused of having an overbearing management style, he also raised eyebrows for awarding himself an extravagant £700,000 salary package and unlawfully firing representatives for alleged “racism”.

The Federation — the “police union” — has long been dogged by scandal. Why, and how, did it become riven by infighting and allegations of wrongdoing? More importantly for the Government, does its possible demise herald a new era of police militancy? After all, the body was founded in 1919 after police took industrial action over pay and conditions. A thousand officers were sacked, and a subsequent Act of Parliament established the Police Federation to represent officers’ interests.

Crucially, the Act reiterated that police had no right to strike. The Federation, therefore, is the only official mechanism for representing officers’ interests, a purpose it is widely seen as having failed. Increasingly seen as a paper tiger by the rank and file, the Federation’s role is one of “advocacy and persuasion” rather than industrial heft. Most officers pay their £25-a-month subscriptions for its legal cover, not least because forces seem ever keener to throw employees under the bus for relatively trivial misdemeanors.

Although the Federation is far from being a trade union, it has nonetheless demonstrated the same tendency for infighting, power struggles and dodgy dealing. The organization has long held a “jobs for the boys” reputation. When it opened a luxurious HQ in leafy Surrey, complete with hotel and conference center, many officers shrugged — such behavior, it seemed, had become par for the course. Full-time officials were viewed as serial conference attenders and yes-men, rather than tribunes of operational cops. At the coalface, local part-time federation members carried the burden of casework.

The Federation’s structure also causes friction, its powerful center in a seemingly never-ending struggle with local branches representing each of England and Wales’s 43 police forces. Then there’s the sheer heft of the Metropolitan Police Federation, whose 30,000 members often have significantly different interests to officers serving in rural constabularies.

These latest problems, though, began when the Federation was found wanting during the David Cameron-era police reforms, particularly over cuts to pensions. Additionally, the Government, already targeting policing for cuts, was incensed when Federation officials embroiled themselves in the Andrew Mitchell “Plebgate” saga. A subsequent review in 2014 clipped the organization’s wings, along with wide-scale changes to governance. Officials were arrested for fraud as the stables were cleared, leading to the appointment of Mukund Krishna — who, it appears, has become afflicted by the same curse.

Now, a younger generation of officers, who’ve suffered a 20% cut to pay and conditions since 2012, are agitating for a representative body with teeth. This includes, if not the demand, then at least consideration for officers to enjoy full industrial rights. The new National Police Association will watch today’s arrests with interest, no doubt feeling they vindicate its campaign to replace the Federation. Younger officers, who no longer see policing as a “job for life”, are likely to be more transactional in their attitude to service. Whether or not this translates into future militancy — bearing in mind that “causing disaffection” among police remains a criminal offense — remains to be seen.