Police Quarterly

Rainguet, Fred W.; Dodge, Mary

doi: 10.1177/109861101129197851pmid: N/A

The alarmingly high rates of police chief turnover have created concern in the public and private sectors. The average police chief tenure is discussed in public administration circles as being dangerously short, but there is little evidence of exactly why this is so. The position, in major cities and small towns, has become a virtual “revolving door” that results in numerous expenses for local agencies. This article explores factors related to short tenures for police executives. This exploratory research is based on in-depth interviews with former and incumbent chiefs. The data reveal that health concerns, stress, politics, and personnel issues are related to short tenures.

Slonaker, William M.; Wendt, Ann C.; Kemper, Michael J.

doi: 10.1177/109861101129197860pmid: N/A

Successful recruitment and retention of qualified police officers is a primary concern of departments and supervisors. Employment discrimination is an onerous stress that negatively interferes with success. In this article, the authors discuss the legal concepts of employment discrimination, report the discrimination experiences of the officers in their research database, and make recommendations for confronting and preventing employment discrimination. The database includes numerous descriptive variables taken from employment discrimination claims field in Ohio during a 15-year period. It is the most complete database on employment discrimination in the United States.

Ho, Taiping

doi: 10.1177/109861101129197879pmid: N/A

The application of a battery of psychological tests intends to “weed out” police applicants who are deemed mentally and psychologically unfit in terms of abnormality of personality traits and deficiency in psychometric measures (e.g., intelligence). This study employed various statistical analyses on a battery of psychological tests to analyze the interrelationship between psychologists' recommendations and police departments' recruitment decisions. This study's results showed that the applicant's general intelligence and police-oriented vocational profiling in a variety of social activities or interests demonstrated a significant effect on psychological assessment and hiring recommendation in terms of the applicants' fitness for being a police officer. Another important finding of this study was that the effect of the applicants' race was not statistically significant on police departments' recruitment decisions and psychologists' recommendations of hiring, while controlling for other factors.

Hawkins, Homer C.

doi: 10.1177/109861101129197888pmid: N/A

This study examined police officer burnout and the relationship between emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment on the job. Special attention was given to personal characteristics such as sex, age, religion, marital status, educational level, length of time in a particular job assignment, length of time in law enforcement, and race. To gather data for the study, the Maslach Burnout Inventory was administered to 452 sworn police officers in four departments policing cities with populations ranging from 65,000 to 240,000. There was a strong correlation when emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were correlated individually with personal accomplishment. In addition, these variables in tandem were highly significant when regressed with personal accomplishment via the multiple regression statistical technique. High emotional exhaustion and depersonalization scores meant low personal accomplishment scores. Relationships were also found with some demographic characteristics, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization.

Jiao, Allan Y.

doi: 10.1177/109861101129197897pmid: N/A

Citizen preferences for different police orientations have seldom been studied as a variable that is affected by degrees of urbanism. Although actual police styles are perceived to reflect preferences of local residents, there is no empirical evidence that suggests this is true. The data for this study was collected by surveying residents living in areas with various levels of urbanism to understand whether degrees of urbanism explain differences in preferences for different policing approaches across urban, suburban, and rural areas. The results indicated that urban residents have a stronger preference for community policing, suburban residents have a greater preference for police professionalism, and rural residents have a stronger interest in problem-oriented policing. The findings are explained with various personal, social, and contextual predictors, and their implications for policing are discussed.

Levin, Bernard H.

doi: 10.1177/109861101129197905pmid: N/A