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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]

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]