scholarly journals Development of Innovative Technologies to Improve Health and Wellbeing Behavioural Transformation in the Police Force (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Swanston ◽  
Andy Pulman ◽  
Huseyin Dogan ◽  
Jane Murphy ◽  
Fiona Bitters
Keyword(s):  
Behaviour Change ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Police Force ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Officer Attitudes ◽  
Improve Health

BACKGROUND Police officers often work long, unsocial hours in a highly pressurised environment and may experience difficulties when managing their health and wellbeing. Those working in the police face different health issues in comparison to the general public; their job can be highly stressful and feature unusual working hours and multiple shift patterns. A UK police force requested help investigating technologies which could be used to improve health and wellbeing; researching how these technologies could be used to measure and track health behaviour change. OBJECTIVE Research aims were focused on exploring current police officer attitudes to health and wellbeing technology and their use of existing health-related technology, conducted via an online survey for police officers and client meetings. Highlighting existing practice, gathering views about how technology could be used and opinions on what specific areas of health officers would like to see covered in a tailored mobile technological solution. This information would be used as a starting point for future prototyping of a targeted application that aimed to help solve issues that existing technology did not effectively cover. METHODS An online survey was completed by (n=213) police officers during the first period of UK lockdown. The survey was designed to find out what solutions the participants used outside of those supplied by their employer, as well as identifying issues or problems and what they would like a hypothetical application to focus on. Due to challenges arising from COVID-19 restrictions - in terms of logistics and operational pressures on the commissioning force – additional requirements data was captured through client meetings; including discussions concerning previous attempted solutions and those currently in place. A thematic analysis was undertaken to identify key themes. RESULTS Key challenges and opportunities of designing and delivering an integrated digital solution and maintaining user engagement were highlighted. Four key themes were identified for application coverage. These were the four areas of health and wellbeing that participants felt they would benefit from the most. In order of importance these were Activity, Food and Diet, Sleep, and Fluid Intake. CONCLUSIONS Research data suggests there is a requirement for a mobile application which would provide an easily accessible platform for police officers to utilise regardless of current location. One which could provide guidelines on diet, lifestyle habits and behaviour to help the user make informed decisions to assist in personalised behaviour change. Notably one which also aligns effectively with the irregular shift patterns of its users.

Police Officers’ Views of Naloxone and Drug Treatment: Does Greater Overdose Response Lead to More Negativity?

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Murphy ◽  
Brenda Russell
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Drug Treatment ◽  
Drug Addiction ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Emergency Personnel ◽  
Drug Overdoses ◽  
Officer Attitudes ◽  
And Training

Police officers and emergency personnel are on the frontlines of the opioid crisis. This research examines police officer attitudes about naloxone administration, drug treatment, and their role in handling drug-related incidents through an online survey. Although officers view themselves as adequately trained in administering naloxone/Narcan, almost half (43%) believe there should be a limit on how often someone who overdoses receives Narcan and the majority (83%) view naloxone/Narcan as providing an excuse to continue drug use. Officers also view drug treatment as ineffective. Negative attitudes differed as a function of frequency of overdose responses; officers who responded to more overdose calls and administered naloxone more frequently demonstrate more pessimistic attitudes toward drug treatment and the use of naloxone/Narcan. Officers more frequently exposed to drug overdoses need education and training about drug addiction issues to decrease stigma and elicit greater empathy toward people struggling with addiction.

scholarly journals Parents’ Perceptions of Secondary Physical Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Lauren Earley ◽  
Matthew Fleet
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Competitive Nature

There is a large quantity of research (Alguacil, 2018; Ciotto & Gagnon, 2018; McKenzie and Lounsbery, 2014) which states the importance Physical Education (PE) has in pupils’ lives. However, there is a state of decline for the status of the subject (Harris, 2018; Kirk et al., 2013). Parents perception is an under-researched area (Na, 2015; Yilmaz, 2018), especially in the UK, therefore, it is important parents’ beliefs are explored to understand an important stakeholder’s viewpoint. Purpose: To explore and gain an understanding of the perception’s parents have of Secondary PE, investigating what the perceptions are and why they have them. Methodology: This study uses a mixed-methods exploratory design to discover, the perceptions parents have on Secondary school PE, using a quantitative online survey and qualitative semi-structured interviews. 263 parents/guardians completed the survey, which was then followed by 8 parents taking part in the interviews. Results: From the data sets collected 5 themes were identified: Importance of PE; Teacher-Pupil relationship; PE in relation to other subjects; competitive nature of PE and impact PE has on confidence. 50% percent of parents did believe that PE is as important as subjects such Maths, English and Science, but, in comparison to other subjects 61% of parents do not favour PE overall.  With results demonstrating the growing awareness parents have of the crucial role PE plays in health and wellbeing for pupils. Conclusion: Although parents understand the importance of PE, parents perceptions differ on some aspects of the subject. This study is a starting point for other researchers and should be continued to be researched to support PE in the curriculum.  

scholarly journals The Dancing Queen

2017 ◽  
pp. 12-40
Author(s):  
Corinne Jola ◽  
Luis Calmeiro
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Good Effect ◽  
Emotional Involvement ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Potential Risks ◽  
Brain Changes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Improve Health

Dance is a social, creative form of human activity impacting on wellbeing through emotional involvement in active or passive participation at all levels of mastery. Dance as a physical activity can potentially improve health physiologically, psychologically, and socially. Despite a recent surge in dance-related research, the authors believe that this area of human behaviour is still relatively unexplored. Here, therefore, they examine possible mechanisms that may contribute to the ‘feel-good effect’ of dance participation by emphasizing its positive as well as its potentially detrimental effects, taking the physical activity literature as a starting point. They address biochemical, brain neurotransmitters, cognitive–neuroscientific, and psychological mechanisms that are thought to explain the impact of physical activity in wellbeing, and discuss functional and structural brain changes that are linked to participation in dance. They conclude by highlighting the need to increase research to better recognize the potential risks and benefits of dance in improving health and wellbeing.

Policing the British Empire on the Bund: The Origin of the Sikh Police Unit in Shanghai

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-73
Author(s):  
Cao Yin
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Imperial History ◽  
Municipal Police ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
British Colonies ◽  
Modern Shanghai

Red-turbaned Sikh policemen have long been viewed as symbols of the cosmopolitan feature of modern Shanghai. However, the origin of the Sikh police unit in the Shanghai Municipal Police has not been seriously investigated. This article argues that the circulation of police officers, policing knowledge, and information in the British colonial network and the circulation of the idea of taking Hong Kong as the reference point amongst Shanghailanders from the 1850s to the 1880s played important role in the establishment of the Sikh police force in the International Settlement of Shanghai. Furthermore, by highlighting the translocal connections and interactions amongst British colonies and settlements, this study tries to break the metropole-colony binary in imperial history studies.

Empowering Women in Blue Uniforms—Gender and Police in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanta Singh ◽  
Sultan Khan
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Police Work ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
The South ◽  
South African Police Service ◽  
Female Police Officers ◽  
South African Police ◽  
Female Officers

Gender in the police force has received scant attention by researchers, although there are complex social dimensions at play in how male and female law enforcement officers relate to each other in the workplace. Given the fact that males predominate in the police force, their female counterparts are often marginalised due to their sexual orientation and certain stereotypes that prevail about their femininity. Male officers perceive female officers as physically weak individuals who cannot go about their duties as this is an area of work deemed more appropriate to men. Based on this perception, female officers are discriminated against in active policing and often confined to administrative duties. This study looks at how female police officers are discriminated against in the global police culture across the globe, the logic of sexism and women’s threat to police work, men’s opposition to female police work, gender representivity in the police force, and the integration and transformation of the South African Police Service to accommodate female police officers. The study highlights that although police officers are discriminated against globally, in the South African context positive steps have been taken to accommodate them through legislative reform.

The Constitutional Principle of Accountability: A Study of Contemporary South African Case Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuks Okpaluba
Keyword(s):  
Judicial Review ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Constitutional Principle ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Law ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
The Many

‘Accountability’ is one of the democratic values entrenched in the Constitution of South Africa, 1996. It is a value recognised throughout the Constitution and imposed upon the law-making organs of state, the Executive, the Judiciary and all public functionaries. This constitutional imperative is given pride of place among the other founding values: equality before the law, the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution. This study therefore sets out to investigate how the courts have grappled with the interpretation and application of the principle of accountability, the starting point being the relationship between accountability and judicial review. Therefore, in the exercise of its judicial review power, a court may enquire whether the failure of a public functionary to comply with a constitutional duty of accountability renders the decision made illegal, irrational or unreasonable. One of the many facets of the principle of accountability upon which this article dwells is to ascertain how the courts have deployed that expression in making the state and its agencies liable for the delictual wrongs committed against an individual in vindication of a breach of the individual’s constitutional right in the course of performing a public duty. Here, accountability and breach of public duty; the liability of the state for detaining illegal immigrants contrary to the prescripts of the law; the vicarious liability of the state for the criminal acts of the police and other law-enforcement officers (as in police rape cases and misuse of official firearms by police officers), and the liability of the state for delictual conduct in the context of public procurement are discussed. Having carefully analysed the available case law, this article concludes that no public functionary can brush aside the duty of accountability wherever it is imposed without being in breach of a vital constitutional mandate. Further, it is the constitutional duty of the courts, when called upon, to declare such act or conduct an infringement of the Constitution.

“Laying Hands” and Learning to Touch and Grab in the Police Academy

2019 ◽  
pp. 446-468
Author(s):  
Brian Lande
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Police Academy ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Police Recruits ◽  
Hands On

Research on the formation of police officers generally focuses on the beliefs, accounts, and categories that recruits must master. Becoming a police officer, however, is not simply a matter of acquiring new attitudes and beliefs. This article attends to an unexplored side of police culture—the sensorial and tactile education that recruits undergo at the police academy. Rubenstein wrote in 1973 that a police officer’s first tool is his or her body. This article examines the formation of the police body by examining how police recruits learn to use their hands as instruments of control. In police vernacular, this means learning to “lay hands” (a term borrowed from Pentecostal traditions) or going “hands on.” This chapter focuses on two means of using the hands: searching and defensive tactics. It describes how instructors teach recruits to use their hands for touching, manipulating, and grabbing the clothing and flesh of others to sense weapons and contraband. It also examines how recruits are taught to grab, manipulate, twist, and strike others in order to gain control of “unruly” bodies. It concludes by discussing the implications of “touching like a cop” for understanding membership in the police force.

scholarly journals Physicists and Astronomers Use Google as a Starting Point for Specific Queries, but Do Not Intentionally Use It to Search for Articles

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Laura Newton Miller
Keyword(s):  
Search Engine ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Information Seeking Behaviour ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
General Search ◽  
Information Event

A Review of: Jamali, H. R., & Asadi, S. (2010). Google and the scholar: The role of Google in scientists' information seeking behaviour. Online Information Review, 34(2), 282-294. Objective – To determine how Google’s general search engine impacts the information-seeking behaviour of physicists and astronomers. Design – Using purposive stratified non-random sampling, a mixed-methods study was conducted which included one-on-one interviews, information-event cards, and an online questionnaire survey. Setting – Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London. Subjects – The researchers interviewed 26 PhD students and 30 faculty members (23% of the department’s 242 faculty and students), and 24 of those participants completed information-event cards. A total of 114 respondents (47.1% of the department members) participated in the online survey. Methods – The researchers conducted 56 interviews which lasted an average of 44 minutes each. These were digitally recorded, fully transcribed, and coded. The researchers asked questions related to information-seeking behaviour and scholarly communication. Four information-event cards were given to volunteer interviewees to gather critical incident information on their first four information-seeking actions after the interview. These were to be completed preferably within the first week of receiving the cards, with 82 cards completed by 24 participants. Once initial analysis of the interviews was completed, the researchers sent an online survey to the members of the same department. Main Results – This particular paper examined only the results related to the scholars’ information-seeking behaviour in terms of search engines and web searching. Details of further results are examined in Jamali (2008) and Jamali and Nicholas (2008). The authors reported that 18% of the respondents used Google on a daily basis to identify articles. They also found that 11% searched subject databases, and 9% searched e-journal websites on a daily basis. When responses on daily searching were combined with those from participants who searched two to three times per week, the most popular method for finding research was by tracking references at the end of an article (61%). This was followed by Google (58%) and ToC email alerts (35%). Responses showed that 46% never used Google Scholar to discover research articles. When asked if they intentionally searched Google to find articles, all except two participants answered that they do not, instead using specific databases to find research. The researchers noted that finding articles in Google was not the original intention of participants’ searches, but more of a by-product of Google searching. In the information-event card study, two categories emerged based on the kinds of information required. This included participants looking for general information on a specific topic (64%, with 22 cases finding this information successfully), and participants knowing exactly what piece of information they were seeking (36%, with 28 cases finding information successfully). There was no occurrence of using Google specifically to conduct a literature search or to search for a paper during this information-event card study, although the researchers say that Google is progressively showing more scholarly information within its search results. (This cannot be ascertained from these specific results except for one response from an interviewee.) The researchers found that 29.4% of respondents used Google to find specific pieces of information, although it was not necessarily scholarly. Conclusion – Physics and astronomy researchers do not intentionally use Google’s general search engine to search for articles, but, Google seems to be a good starting point for problem-specific information queries.

scholarly journals Examining Australian public perceptions and behaviors towards a future COVID-19 vaccine

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Seale ◽  
Anita E. Heywood ◽  
Julie Leask ◽  
Meru Sheel ◽  
David N. Durrheim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Private Health Insurance ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Multivariable Logistic Regression Model ◽  
Careful Planning ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Public ◽  
Individual Perceptions ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Early Indication

Abstract Background As immunisation program launches have previously demonstrated, it is essential that careful planning occurs now to ensure the readiness of the public for a COVID-19 vaccine. As part of that process, this study aimed to understand the public perceptions regarding a future COVID-19 vaccine in Australia. Methods A national cross-sectional online survey of 1420 Australian adults (18 years and older) was undertaken between 18 and 24 March 2020. The statistical analysis of the data included univariate and multivariable logistic regression model analysis. Results Respondents generally held positive views towards vaccination. Eighty percent (n = 1143) agreed with the statement that getting myself vaccinated for COVID-19 would be a good way to protect myself against infection. Females (n = 614, 83%) were more likely to agree with the statement than males (n = 529, 78%) (aOR = 1.4 (95% CI: 1.1–1.8); P = 0.03), while 91% of those aged 70 years and above agreed compared to 76% of 18–29-year-olds (aOR = 2.3 (95% CI:1.2–4.1); P = 0.008). Agreement was also higher for those with a self-reported chronic disease (aOR = 1.4 (95% CI: 1.1–2.0); P = 0.04) and among those who held private health insurance (aOR = 1.7 (95% CI: 1.3–2.3); P < 0.001). Beyond individual perceptions, 78% stated that their decision to vaccinate would be supported by family and friends. Conclusion This study presents an early indication of public perceptions towards a future COVID-19 vaccine and represents a starting point for mapping vaccine perceptions. To support an effective launch of these new vaccines, governments need to use this time to understand the communities concerns and to identify the strategies that will support engagement.

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