Sworn Law Enforcement Officers Research Articles

Understanding Personality Changes in Law Enforcement Officers

Do law enforcement officers experience personality trait changes over the course of their careers? In Challacombe, Ackerman, and Stones (in press), the researchers found US-based officers had personality differences based on their lengths of service and career stress levels. The current study explores this topic by using a grounded theory approach to better understand these changes over the course of the officer’s career. We are analyzing data collected from an anonymous survey offered to sworn law enforcement officers across the United States. Initial interviewing included open ended questions that explored the participants’ experience and concerns. These individual interviews are compared and coded to identify focused categories for subsequent interviews. Theoretical sampling is being used to conduct further interviews until saturation was reached around our grounded theory categories. Officers are reporting changes in communication styles, increases in cynicism, general mistrust, and increased hypervigilance. Possible protective factors may include mastery and increased confidence as well as positive relationships within their department. The results of the study to date will be provided along with suggestions for future research.

Feeling Blue: Officer Perceptions of Public Antipathy Predict Police Occupational Norms

Recent protests against law enforcement have spurred claims by practitioners and editorialists that public antipathy toward the police may influence police occupational norms. A number of classic police ethnographies also suggest a link between perceived public antipathy and police culture, but limited empirical research has examined this claim. Using a sample of 12,376 sworn law enforcement officers who participated in the National Police Research Platform, and a series of ordinary least squares regressions, this study examines whether officers’ perceptions of public support predict their cultural orientations. Results reveal that officers perceiving greater public antipathy report higher levels of social isolation, work-group solidarity, cynicism toward the public, and coercive attitudes. We identify practical implications and potential organizational remedies to address these perceptions, and situate these findings within theoretical arguments of early police ethnographers and contemporary claims of the “Ferguson Effect.”

To protect and collect: a nationwide study of profit-motivated police crime

ABSTRACTThis study is part of a larger research project on police crime in the United States. Police crimes are those criminal offenses committed by sworn law enforcement officers who have the general powers of arrest. Profit-motivated police crime involves officers who use their authority of position to engage in crime for personal gain. This study reports the findings on 1,591 cases where a law enforcement officer was arrested for one or more profit-motivated crimes during the seven-year period 2005–2011. The profit-motivated arrest cases involved 1,396 individual officers employed by 782 state, local, special, constable, and tribal law enforcement agencies located in 531 counties and independent cities in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Our data is the first systematic study of profit-motivated police crime. The study describes the nature of this form of police misconduct in terms of several dimensions, including the characteristics of police who perpetrate these crimes, where it occurs, the specific criminal charges, and the contexts within which profit-motivated police crime is punished through police agencies and the criminal courts.

Abstract P484: Improved Heart Rate Variability, and Symptoms of Insomnia and Stress, With Use of a Closed-loop, Allostatic Neurotechnology in Law Enforcement Officers

Background: Law enforcement officers have decreased life expectancy, attributed to work-related exposure to traumatic stress and circadian disruption. Autonomic dysregulation is reported with traumatic stress, and chronic insomnia. Closed-loop therapies with real time monitoring for modulation of biological function offer a precision-guided, patient-centric strategy for brain-based therapies. High-resolution, relational, resonance-based, electroencephalic mirroring (HIRREM®) is a noninvasive, closed-loop, allostatic, acoustic stimulation neurotechnology using software generated algorithms to identify specific brain frequencies, and translate them in real time into audible tones, to support self-optimization of brain rhythms. Objective: To evaluate benefits for autonomic function, and symptoms of insomnia and stress, in a relatively healthy cohort of law enforcement officers, who enrolled in an IRB-approved, open label feasibility study evaluating HIRREM for diverse neuropsychological disorders. Measures done before and after HIRREM included symptom inventories for insomnia (ISI), depression (CES-D), traumatic stress (PCL-C), anxiety (GAD-7), and perceived stress (PSS). Ten minute recordings of heart rate and blood pressure allowed analysis of baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) and heart rate variability (HRV). Results: 7 participants (1 female), mean (SD) age 47 (4.5), received 10.7 (2.6) HIRREM sessions over 11.3 (4.6) days (7.3 in office days). Data were collected before, and 22.6 (1.8) days after HIRREM completion. Use of HIRREM was associated with significantly increased HRV measured as rMSSD [from 25.3 (7.0) to 43.1 (13.0) ms, p=0.02]. BRS measured by high frequency alpha index improved [from 11.3 (8.0) to 20.1 (11.0) ms/mmHg, p=0.03]. All symptom inventories improved significantly (p<0.05), even with the small cohort. There were no adverse events or drop outs. Conclusion: These pilot data provide the first report of significant autonomic cardiovascular benefits, and associated symptom improvements, with use of a closed-loop, allostatic therapy for a cohort of sworn law enforcement officers. Further studies are warranted to test the efficacy of this technology in a larger law enforcement cohort

School resource officers and students’ rights

The safety of students at American schools has become a national priority. With every incident of lethal violence, public fear swells and the demand for effective violence prevention methods increases. School resource officer (SRO) programs that assign sworn law enforcement officers to schools are frequently identified as one straightforward and popular strategy for making schools safer and more secure. However, the placement of these officers at schools raises complex issues and poses new challenges to students’ rights, including the risks of unreasonable search and seizure, the inappropriate sharing of confidential information, and students’ decreased feelings of safety. In this paper, the authors will provide the reader with a review of these students’ rights issues and the possible consequences to students and schools when these rights are not respected. The authors then provide the reader with a review of the relevant literature on the relationship between SROs and students and outlines specific recommendations for the successful implementation and operation of SRO programs that foster positive and respectful connections with students and school officials.

Police Sexual Misconduct

Police sexual misconduct is often considered a hidden crime that routinely goes unreported. The current study provides empirical data on cases of sex-related police crime at law enforcement agencies across the United States. The study identifies and describes incidents where sworn law enforcement officers were arrested for one or more sex-related crimes through a quantitative content analysis of published newspaper articles and court records. The primary news information source was the Google News search engine using 48 automated Google Alerts. Data are analyzed on 548 arrest cases in the years 2005-2007 of 398 officers employed by 328 nonfederal law enforcement agencies located in 265 counties and independent cities in 43 states and the District of Columbia. Findings indicate that police sexual misconduct includes serious forms of sex-related crime and that victims of sex-related police crime are typically younger than 18 years of age.

The Growth of American Security System in Risk Society : Its Implications for Korea

In modern risk society, private security must play a greater role in the prevention and control of crime than ever before. Private security guards have outnumbered police officers since the 1980s, predating the heightened concern about security brought on by the September 11, 2001, attacks. The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U. S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. Private security includes those self-employed individuals and privately funded business entities and organizations providing security related services to specific clientele for a fee, for the individual or entity that retains or employs them, or for themselves, in order to protect their persons, private property, or interests from varied hazards. The crime prevention is not sole responsibility of police. It is the joint responsibility of all members including local residents and local society as well as police. Especially, private security has superior manpower, device and program for preventing crime. The close cooperation between public police and private security is essential for preventing crime of local society. The future of security is positive and bright. The more the educated person becomes a part of security occupation, the greater the professional development of that occupation. Professionalism is being pursued, large sums of money are being sent to improve security and loss-prevention operations. Crime-related private security forces in the U. S. are vast and growing. The number of jobs is expected to grow in the U. S. with 175,000 new security jobs expected before 2016. The number of jobs is expected to grow in the U. S., with 175,000 new security jobs expected before 2016. The employment of private investigators is expected to grow 21 percent from 2010 to 2020, faster than the average for all occupations. Increased demand for private detectives and investigators will stem from heightened security concerns and the need to protect property and confidential information.

Tactical Emergency Medical Support Programs: A Comprehensive Statewide Survey

Background. Specially trained tactical emergency medical support (TEMS) personnel provide support to law enforcement special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams. These programs benefit law enforcement agencies, officers, suspects, and citizens. TEMS programs are increasingly popular, but there are wide variations in their organization and operation and no recent data on their prevalence. Objective. We sought to measure the current prevalence and specific characteristics of TEMS programs in a comprehensive fashion in a single southeastern state. Methods. North Carolina emergency medical services (EMS) systems have county-based central EMS oversight; each system was surveyed by phone and e-mail. The presence and selected characteristics of TEMS programs were recorded. U.S. Census data were used to measure the population impact of the programs. Results. All of the 101 EMS systems statewide were successfully contacted. Thirty-three counties (33%) have TEMS programs providing medical support to 56 local law enforcement agencies as well as state and federal agencies. TEMS programs tend to be located in more populated urban and suburban areas, serving a population base of 5.9 million people, or 64% of the state's population. Tactical medics in the majority of these programs (29/33; 88%) are not sworn law enforcement officers. Conclusions. Approximately one-third of county-based EMS systems in North Carolina have TEMS programs. These programs serve almost two-thirds of the state's population base, using primarily nonsworn tactical medics. Comparison with other regions of the country will be useful to demonstrate differences in prevalence and program characteristics. Serial surveillance will help track trends and measure the growth and impact of this growing subspecialty field.

Betwixt and between: the perceived legitimacy of campus police

PurposeThe literature on campus police (CP) is not as developed as mainstream or municipal police (MP). While there are several studies discussing the perception of CP, there are, however, no empirical studies investigating the perception of CP based on their legitimacy. Through the theoretical framework of liminality, this paper aims to address the literature gap by examining the perceived legitimacy of CP compared to MP.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through the use of survey instruments distributed among 593 college undergraduates at a doctoral extensive land grant institution in the Pacific Northwest. Since the purpose of the study was to determine student perceptions of legitimacy between MP and CP, two surveys were utilized to capture those perceptions, one for each police group respectively. The two sets of surveys were equally administered in each selected class.FindingsThrough the framework of liminality, this research demonstrates the marginalization of CP as sworn law enforcement officers, especially when compared to their MP counterparts.Research limitations/implicationsAs this is the first study addressing the perceived legitimacy of the CP there needs to be further research in this area before substantial conclusions can be reached. Future research in this area should address the opinions of minority students, faculty and staff. Additionally, CP and MP officers themselves should be assessed to determine any potential legitimacy concerns based on perception.Originality/valueThe theoretical framework reveals that the CP are trapped in a liminal state and are unable to transition into perceived legitimate police officers.