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Police workforce retention has become a persistent managerial concern. The public response to recent events of police misconduct have fuelled the perception that police may be seeking other career paths following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Despite growing evidence, current research has been unable to ascertain what conditions may prompt officers to voluntarily separate from police work following Floyd's murder, or whether the impact varies across demographic groups. Drawing upon a survey of over 600 police officers across eight police departments in the United States, the current inquiry examines what percent of officers reported reconsidering their career following the George Floyd incident, and whether demographic information and occupational attitudes could predict whether officers reconsidered their careers. Findings indicated that female officers were more likely to strongly agree that it made them reconsider their careers, and that instrumental concerns (i.e., public support, personal liability, localized fallout, and concern over media attention) were also influential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depolicing is a behavior that occurs when law enforcement officers disengage from proactive police work. Despite the term's more recent popularity, these behaviors have been identified in policing literature for decades. Scholars have primarily tried to quantify the depolicing phenomenon through the lens of public scrutiny and the Ferguson Effect. However, there are currently no quantitative studies that have attempted to examine the multitude of reasons as to why depolicing behavior could potentially occur. The current inquiry uses survey data retrieved from eight municipal law enforcement agencies to further examine potential predictors of depolicing. The predictor variables consisted of public scrutiny, liability concerns, organizational unfairness, burnout, physical danger, COVID-19, and years of experience. Our results indicate that public scrutiny, liability concerns, COVID-19, and years of experience are all significant and positive predictors of depolicing. We also found that agency location and rank significantly impacted depolicing behavior. The findings and limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, a great deal of confusion and misinformation surrounds the authority (and therefore potentially wider discretion) that conservation officers possess to search private property, vehicles, and residences. Utilizing a survey of approximately 1,600 officers employed in 15 state-level conservation agencies in the United States, the current inquiry examines conservation officer perceptions of their search authority. Findings indicate there is substantial state-level variation in statutory authority granted to conservation officers relative to their search and seizure capabilities. A substantial percentage of conservation officers believe that they possess authority to search private property beyond that granted to other law enforcement officers. Findings indicate that this perception is less common for vehicles or private residences. The findings from this study have implications for conservation officer training, policy, and procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is among the first to examine the degree to which law enforcement officers tasked with protection of natural resources feel prepared for specialized and general tasks by their academy training. Drawing upon a survey of over 900 conservation officers across 13 states, the current inquiry examines whether officers who attended a conservation-specific academy feel better prepared for their work than those who attended a conventional police academy. Findings suggest conservation officers feel well prepared for their general policing duties by their academy experience, but fewer than half of the officers surveyed felt that their academy experience prepared them to handle nuisance wildlife calls or consult with landowners on habitat needs. Officers who attended a conservation academy held greater perceptions that their academy prepared them for specialized duties. These findings help inform state conservation agencies about the topics which are well covered or need additional attention in their pre-employment training curricula, as well as recruitment strategies for varying academy types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policing as an institution has been under immense pressure to increase the representation of women as police patrol officers. As the representation of women in policing has plateaued, increasing research has focused on barriers to women entering patrol work but has not examined the salience of these barriers with respect to males or reliably determined which barriers are most influential to desire to enter a police patrol career prior to employment. Drawing upon survey responses from more than 640 students enrolled in criminal justice courses across five universities (i.e., University of Southern Mississippi, Illinois State University, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Indiana University-Purdue University Indiana, and Missouri State University), the current inquiry examines the degree to which female and male students differ in their perceptions of barriers to entering a patrol career frequently listed in the literature. The findings indicate that female students view many of these obstacles differently than male students and that these perceptions influence interest in patrol careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing concern among university professors and students alike is the image that students project through their social media accounts, particularly when future graduates seek employment in fields such as policing and other criminal justice careers. Despite this common concern, little research has examined the degree to which criminal justice (CJ) students accept employer use of social media searches as a screening tool, or whether there is variation among students based upon characteristics commonly associated with employment discrimination. Drawing upon a survey of over 630 students in criminal justice courses at five public universities, the current inquiry finds that criminal justice majors' opinions of social media searches do not differ from non-majors taking criminal justice courses. However, African-American, Latino, and students of other races all have less acceptance of the use of employer searches of social media than do white students. Implications for policy and future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police workforce management has persisted as a major organizational concern. Numerous compelling historical and organizational factors have contributed to smaller numbers of qualified or even interested applicants for police agencies to choose from, and disrupted police career longevity and even police services overall. To address their staffing needs, a growing number of organizations have increasingly shifted their focus to recruiting existing sworn and experienced officers from other departments. While there is increasing concern about officers transferring across organizations, little research has examined officer intentions to move laterally within the police profession, why officers choose to stay or leave, and the implications for staffing. Using theories of cross-organizational turnover from career psychology and a robust sample of more than 600 officers from 8 police agencies, this paper explores the impact of compensation, organizational values, perceptions of supervisors, and career advancement opportunities on officers' intentions to pursue lateral transfers. Results indicated that compensation had limited influence on intentions to leave and that organizational characteristics exhibited much stronger relationships. Suggestions for keeping officers and assisting recruits in finding their potential organizational fit, impressions of the trajectory of this trend, and implications for theory and practice are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police departments are increasingly becoming the primary entity for managing incidents involving persons with mental illness, thereby leading to calls for additional research. Drawing on a multicity use-of-force research project, the current inquiry examines whether citizens displaying signs of mental illness are subjected to higher levels of police use of force, and whether they are more likely to be injured, controlling for a host of relevant predictors. The findings show that officers use higher levels of force on persons with mental illness, but such citizens are not at an enhanced risk of injury. The policy and research implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing fiscal crisis has resulted in substantial challenges for many police departments, not only in terms of how administrators staff and manage operations, but with respect to how street-level officers go about handling their daily tasks. Using data collected as part of an observational study (i.e. the Flint Twenty-first Century Policing Project), the present inquiry assesses how street-level officers deliver service to the public and respond to citizen requests in a city experiencing substantial socioeconomic challenges. While concerns regarding the changing reality of policing have merit, the findings indicate that the basic nature of street-level policing, in terms of service delivery and responsiveness, can still be achieved with substantial success. The implications of these findings and potential future research avenues are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Policing research has generally focused on easily measured outcome factors such as response time, force usage, and arrest. Empirical studies examining outcomes important to public legitimacy, such as police responsiveness, are less prevalent in the literature. Using observational and interview data from two medium sized cities (Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida), the present inquiry examines how officers respond to noncoercive citizen requests for service during encounters, and the impact that situational and officer characteristics have on their willingness to comply with requests. Results indicate that officers comply with a majority of citizen requests, and even when they do not comply they often provide an explanation why. Encounters involving respectful citizens, wealthier citizens, White officers, and St. Petersburg officers were all more likely to result in compliance, while officers were less likely to comply with requests from younger and older citizens. Moreover, encounters involving White citizens, a greater number of citizen bystanders, and officers with a higher level of education all reduced the likelihood that officers would provide an explanation for denying citizen requests. Policy implications and recommendations for future research and theoretical development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since their emergence within the field of policing, the use of conducted energy devices (CEDs) has produced a great deal of debate. However, few empirically rigorous studies have shed light on the extent to which CEDs (e.g., TASERs) are actually successful at gaining citizen compliance. As such, we examine 918 TASER cases collected from three police agencies to assess effectiveness in relation to citizen compliance. Findings demonstrate that officers generally classify the TASER as effective, but the level of effectiveness varies depending on whether it was used in probe or drive-stun mode. Multivariate regression models also identify a number of significant variables related to TASER effectiveness, including citizen (e.g., height, weight, gender, impairment) and officer (e.g., gender) characteristics. We discuss the findings in relation to those found in prior studies, as well as implications for research, policy, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing police research has produced mixed results regarding the benefits of college education on the outlooks of officers. In addressing many of the well-documented methodological concerns of prior research, the current study augments the existing police education-occupational attitudes literature by examining the impact of varying levels of education (i.e. high school, some college, and bachelor’s degree and higher) on officers’ job satisfaction, views of top management, and role orientation(s). In addition, among those with a bachelor’s degree, the relevance of degree major on officers’ occupational outlooks is assessed. Our results address and inform advocacy efforts to make college education a bona fide occupational qualification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]