Police Quarterly

Adams, Ian T.

doi: 10.1177/10986111241241750pmid: N/A

This study focuses on police profanity, with a particular interest developing reasonable policy to regulate the use of the word “fuck.” Officers employ “fuck” as a linguistic tool to accomplish a range of goals, such as establishing authority, fostering solidarity, and diffusing tension. However, “fuck” can also be used derogatorily, and negatively impact public assessments of police actions. Policy in this area is either absent, overly broad, or inappropriate to its intended use. Following brief, unstructured interviews with line and executive officers, I propose a novel policy theory of profanity, deriving target and intent. I test the theory with a pre-registered experiment administered to a national sample of police and human resources executives (n = 1492), with each respondent evaluating multiple vignettes (n = 5280 observations). Results support the proposed theory and generate useful recommendations for practitioners interested in strengthening the ability of agencies to constrain professionally inappropriate use of profanity in the police workplace.

Huff, Jessica; White, Michael D.; Malm, Aili E.; Katz, Charles M.

doi: 10.1177/10986111241241751pmid: N/A

Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are intended to promote transparency and accountability. However, officer failure to activate BWCs remains a concern. Research has identified types of incidents associated with activation failure, but has not examined activation as a measure of performance. We examine BWC activation as an officer-level decision-making process, assessing the influence of demographics, assignments, and performance (e.g., proactivity) on activation rates over time. Negative binominal and multinomial logistic regression were used to analyze data from 149 officers assigned to wear BWCs during a randomized-controlled trial. Activation rates ranged from 0–88% of calls-for-service. Group-based trajectory modeling identified three activation trends: decreased, increased then decreased, and increased and tapered off. Limited relationships between officer-level predictors and activation were identified. Findings suggest officer characteristics and performance are not primary drivers of BWC activation. Departments should use supervision, retraining, and policy intervention to ensure BWCs are implemented as intended.

Workman-Stark, Angela

doi: 10.1177/10986111241246311pmid: N/A

The study of identity work has grown exponentially in the past decade; however, little research has been undertaken in challenging occupational contexts, such as policing. Existing studies have focused on tensions between personal and work identities, such as being a woman in a male-dominated workplace, or how officers have responded to threats to their occupational identities. Using data collected from interviews with 32 Canadian police officers, this study examines the circumstances that compel officers to engage in identity work and the processes undertaken to alleviate these identity conflicts or threats. The findings illustrate that police officer identity work is prompted by four primary triggers, defined as: (1) identity strain; (2) work-identity stigma; (3) identity maturation; and (4) organizational indifference. The findings also suggest that these triggers are influenced by police culture and the related socialization processes that continue to emphasize traditional masculine attributes (e.g., aggression, physical strength and toughness).

Mumford, Elizabeth A.; Liu, Weiwei; O’Leary, Meghan S.

doi: 10.1177/10986111241253851pmid: N/A

The current study examined reports of perceived stress, job satisfaction, and job performance ratings in a longitudinal study of 684 officers participating in the Officer Safety and Wellness (OSAW) Initiative. Structural equation models were estimated to examine direct effects and, in subsequent analyses, the moderating effects of officer resilience and agency wellness programming on both the stress-job satisfaction association and the job satisfaction-job performance association. Surveys were administered annually, with job performance assessed both in terms of a self-rating and a self-report of supervisory rating at each officer’s last performance review. Officers’ stress (wave 1) was negatively associated with job satisfaction (wave 2), which in turn was positively associated with supervisory ratings of job performance (wave 3). These associations remained significant among officers reporting low to moderate baseline resilience but the association between job satisfaction and performance dissipated among officers with high resilience. Stress was negatively related to job satisfaction for officers who had easy access to agency-based wellness programs, whether they had concerns about stigma or used the programs, or not. The association between stress and job performance varied according to program access, use, and concerns about stigma associated with use. Administrators and policymakers striving to retain a high-performance police workforce may consider these results in recruiting as well as academy and in-service wellness training and program decisions.

Ward, Kristin J.; Yoo, Jane; Liu, Weiwei; Sheridan-Johnson, Jackie; Taylor, Bruce G.

doi: 10.1177/10986111241257879pmid: N/A

The problem-oriented policing (POP) and hot spots literatures have more recently noted the need for implementation studies to understand what and how implementation could be improved to ensure the greatest impact of these policing approaches. However, there are limited empirical studies on implementation of POP and/or hot spots policing, and there appears to be limited empirical evidence of factors that facilitate or hinder implementation of such policing approaches. Therefore, this study is timely for contributing to the understanding of implementation drivers that help ensure proper installment of policing approaches for desired impact, sustainability, and spread. Our analysis of qualitative data resulted in an empirically derived model that identifies multiple factors within five levels: society, system, community, organization and individual. Each level contains a set of factors that either facilitated or hindered implementation of the interventions that we tested. These factors include but are not limited to society’s perceptions of police officers (police legitimacy), justice systems’ diversion policies, community support of police agencies, leadership/supervisor support of POP and hot spots policing, organizational resources, and individual characteristics of police officers. Our model describes that these factors interact to ultimately influence patrol officers’ motivation to implement POP in crime hot spots, and that their motivation leads to varying degrees of implementation. As a result of this study, we offer implementation science-informed practical actions for police agencies to achieve stronger implementation of nontraditional policing practices. These actions can be tested to understand if they have significant and positive impact on crime and other outcomes.