scholarly journals Badges and Bongs: Police Officers’ Attitudes Toward Drugs

SAGE Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401880535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cody Jorgensen
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Drug Use ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Education Attainment ◽  
Punitive Attitudes ◽  
Metropolitan Police ◽  
Drug Activity ◽  
Control Drug

For unknown reasons, the research investigating police officers’ attitudes toward drug use is underdeveloped. One study, by Wilson, Cullen, Latessa, and Wills, has directly investigated police officers’ perceptions toward general vice crimes (including drug use) and perceived appropriate sanctions for committing these offenses. This article built upon that study. A survey measuring officers’ attitudes toward drugs was developed and used to gather data from a large metropolitan police department in the South. Responding officers displayed fairly serious and punitive attitudes toward drug offenses. In addition, they reported an interventionist attitude, believing that more can and should be done to control drug activity. Individual officer characteristics, such as education attainment and political ideology, were more strongly associated with drug attitudes than law enforcement indicators, such as rank and experience with the vice/narcotics unit.

Shift work and overtime across a career in law enforcement: a 15-year study

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-212
Author(s):  
Samantha M. Riedy ◽  
Desta Fekedulegn ◽  
Bryan Vila ◽  
Michael Andrew ◽  
John M. Violanti
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Shift Work ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Night Shift ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Long Work Hours

PurposeTo characterize changes in work hours across a career in law enforcement.Design/methodology/approachN = 113 police officers enrolled in the BCOPS cohort were studied. The police officers started their careers in law enforcement between 1994 and 2001 at a mid-sized, unionized police department in northwestern New York and continued to work at this police department for at least 15 years. Day-by-day work history records were obtained from the payroll department. Work hours, leave hours and other pay types were summarized for each calendar year across their first 15 years of employment. Linear mixed-effects models with a random intercept over subject were used to determine if there were significant changes in pay types over time.FindingsA total of 1,617 individual-years of data were analyzed. As the police officers gained seniority at the department, they worked fewer hours and fewer night shifts. Total paid hours did not significantly change due to seniority-based increases in vacation time. Night shift work was increasingly in the form of overtime as officers gained seniority. Overtime was more prevalent at the beginning of a career and after a promotion from police officer to detective.Originality/valueShiftwork and long work hours have negative effects on sleep and increase the likelihood of on-duty fatigue and performance impairment. The results suggest that there are different points within a career in law enforcement where issues surrounding shiftwork and long work hours may be more prevalent. This has important implications for predicting fatigue, developing effective countermeasures and measuring fatigue-related costs.

Social Climate Change and the Modern Police Department

2017 ◽  
pp. 296-313
Author(s):  
Adrienne C. Bradford ◽  
Heather K. McElroy ◽  
Rachel Rosenblatt
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Body Art ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Organizational Challenges

The advent of social media, blogs, smartphones, and the 24-hour all access news channels make information available to us constantly on the television, the internet, and even while mobile. This chapter highlights contemporary social and generational trends including the arrival of the Millennial generation into the workforce, legalization of marijuana, the mainstream acceptance of body art as a form of self-expression, and the influence of mass media on the lives of police officers, particularly in officer-involved shootings. These emerging factors challenge law enforcement managers to consider complex issues in the workplace while maintaining the core values, camaraderie, and professional standards inherent in policing. The public safety psychologist's role is also evolving with new technology, social developments, and organizational challenges. This chapter aims to encourage dialogue between mental health professionals, law enforcement managers, and policy-makers.

Addressing tent cities: an example of police/non-profit collaboration

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 931-943
Author(s):  
Brittany Solensten ◽  
Dale Willits
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Non Profit Organizations ◽  
The City

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine a collaborative relationship between non-profit organizations and a Midwest police department to address issues of poverty and homelessness. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative interviews were conducted with five non-profit organization workers along with three police officers about social problems in the city between September and December of 2017. Findings The collaboration between non-profit organizations and law enforcement was largely helpful and successful in integrating residents of tent city into existing housing programs within the city, limiting future law enforcement calls addressing latent homelessness issues. Research limitations/implications This qualitative study was exploratory in nature and data were drawn from a single city. Although key stakeholders were interviewed, results are based on a small sample of police and non-profit social service workers. Also, individuals who lived in the tent city were not interviewed. Practical implications This study demonstrates how an approach in addressing tent cities through non-profit organizations and law enforcement collaboration are arguably effective in humanely moving residents of tent cities into housing for a long-term solution to homelessness. Originality/value There is limited research about tent cities especially the long-term effectiveness of dismantling them with various methods. This paper demonstrates one city’s approach to combat homelessness by dismantling a tent city, with a follow-up a few years later showing the effectiveness of a more humane approach, which can set an example for future cities also combating homelessness.

Social Climate Change and the Modern Police Department

2019 ◽  
pp. 34-51
Author(s):  
Adrienne C. Bradford ◽  
Heather K. McElroy ◽  
Rachel Rosenblatt
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Body Art ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Organizational Challenges

The advent of social media, blogs, smartphones, and the 24-hour all access news channels make information available to us constantly on the television, the internet, and even while mobile. This chapter highlights contemporary social and generational trends including the arrival of the Millennial generation into the workforce, legalization of marijuana, the mainstream acceptance of body art as a form of self-expression, and the influence of mass media on the lives of police officers, particularly in officer-involved shootings. These emerging factors challenge law enforcement managers to consider complex issues in the workplace while maintaining the core values, camaraderie, and professional standards inherent in policing. The public safety psychologist's role is also evolving with new technology, social developments, and organizational challenges. This chapter aims to encourage dialogue between mental health professionals, law enforcement managers, and policy-makers.

MOVE

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Kent Evans
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Police Department ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
States Government ◽  
Tear Gas ◽  
History Of ◽  
Improvised Explosives

This book is a religious history of MOVE, a small, mostly African American religious group devoted to the religious teachings of John Africa that emerged in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. MOVE is perhaps best known for the MOVE Bombing. In 1985, the Philadelphia Police Department—working in concert with federal and state law enforcement—attacked a home that MOVE people shared in West Philadelphia, involving hundreds of police officers and firefighters and using tear gas, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, and improvised explosives. Most infamously, a police officer dropped a bomb containing C-4 explosives, which he had acquired from the FBI, from a helicopter onto the roof of the MOVE house. The bomb started a fire, which officials allowed to spread in hopes of burning MOVE people out of the house. Police officers fired upon MOVE people who tried to escape the flames. Eleven MOVE people died in the attack, including John Africa. Five of those who died were children. Based on never-before-seen law enforcement records and extensive archival and ethnographic research, MOVE: An American Religion reinterprets the history of MOVE from its origins in the late 1960s, its growth in the early 1970s, its conflicts with the United States government from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, and its presence today. It is the first full-length academic study of MOVE since 1994 and is the first book to consider MOVE as a religion.

Spatial risk factors of felonious battery to police officers

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 823-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel M. Caplan ◽  
Phillip Marotta ◽  
Eric L. Piza ◽  
Leslie W. Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Dense Area ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Calls For Service ◽  
Spatial Risk ◽  
Chicago Police

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the spatial influence of features of the physical environment on the risk of aggression toward law enforcement. Design/methodology/approach – The spatial analytic technique, risk terrain modeling was performed on felonious battery data provided by the Chicago Police Department. Findings – Out of the 991 batteries against law enforcement officers (LEOs) in Chicago, 11 features of the physical environment were identified as presenting a statistically significant spatial risk of battery to LEOs. Calls for service within three blocks of foreclosures and/or within a dense area of problem buildings pose as much as two times greater risk of battery to police officers than what is presented by other significant spatial factors in the model. Originality/value – An abundance of existing research on aggression toward law enforcement is situated from the perspective of characteristics of the suspect or officer. The research advances the field of violence studies by illustrating the importance of incorporating physical features of the environment into empirical studies of aggression.

Perceptions of Victim Advocates and Predictors of Service Referral Among Law Enforcement Personnel

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 611-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Goodson ◽  
Alondra D. Garza ◽  
Cortney A. Franklin ◽  
Alexander H. Updegrove ◽  
Leana Allen Bouffard
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Victim Advocates ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Domestic Violence Survivors ◽  
Service Referral

Limited research exists on police officers’ service provision for sexual and domestic violence survivors after they formally report. This study used surveys from 452 commissioned officers at an urban police department in one of the five largest and most diverse U.S. cities to examine police perceptions of victim advocates, self-reported frequency of referral, and predictors of service referral among police. Findings revealed officers were relatively likely to provide referrals and held somewhat favorable attitudes of advocates. Knowledge of services and positive perceptions of advocates increased the frequency of service referral to victims. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Transportability of Validity of the National Police Officer Selection Test for a Large Eastern Metropolitan Police Department

1994 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 707-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred M. Rafilson ◽  
Steven P. Allscheid ◽  
Joan G. Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Content Validity ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Job Analysis ◽  
Metropolitan Police ◽  
Validity Indices ◽  
Selection Test ◽  
National Police ◽  
Police Officer Selection

This study compared the position of police officers in a large eastern U.S. metropolitan police department to the sample of police officers ( N = 250) used originally to develop and validate the National Police Officer Selection Test (POST). A method was used which provided a basis for conducting studies of the transportability of validity, i.e., studies which demonstrate that test evidence on validity developed in a particular location can be effectively used as evidence of validity in an entirely new location, with other examinations validated using a content validity strategy. Content Validity Indices from the new sample's job analysis ( N = 115) correlated highly ( r = .89) with the original job analysis data ( N = 250). Further analyses indicated no significant differences between samples with regard to ratings of importance of skills identified as essential for successful performance of the police officer's position. Finally, a multivariate approach was used as a more conservative means of comparing job profiles. A discussion of the implications of these findings for making decisions about the transportability of validity is provided.

Puttin’ on the Sting: Women Police Officers' Perspectives on Reverse Prostitution Assignments

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Dodge ◽  
Donna Starr-Gimeno ◽  
Thomas Williams
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Women Police Officers ◽  
Exciting Opportunity ◽  
Female Police Officers ◽  
Women Police ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Female Officers

Reverse police prostitution stings, which target men by using female police officers as decoy prostitutes, are becoming a common method in some United States cities for controlling the problem of solicitation for prostitution. The role of policewomen as decoys has received scant attention by scholars, though critics and traditional feminists view the practice as further evidence of the subjection and degradation of women in law enforcement. This article presents participant field observations of how reverse prostitution operations are conducted in Aurora, Colorado Springs, and Denver, Colorado and qualitative interview data from 25 female police officers who discuss their experiences as prostitution decoys. The findings indicate that female officers view the decoy role as an exciting opportunity for undercover work, despite the negative connotations of acting like a whore. According to the officers who work as decoys, it adds excitement and variety and offers potential for other opportunities for advancement within the police department in contrast to the rather mundane duties often associated with patrol.

Modern aspects of anti-corruption behavior of law enforcement officers

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
Малик ◽  
Vladislav Malik
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Law Enforcement Officers ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Behavior Of Law ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Internal Affairs

The article deals with modern aspects of anti-corruption behavior of police officers. Unquestioning execution of governmental commitments, adherence to the principles of duty, oath of professional honor and dignity should be referred to such behavior. The author outlined the main factors that determine the relationships of corruption in the police department. Specificity of corruption in the system of internal affairs bodies is shown, which is reflected in the behavior of employees. The author assigns limitations of corruption component to control of power on the part of citizens and civil society organizations.

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