Attitudes of police supervisors: do volunteers fit into policing?

Abstract

Purpose

Early research assumed there was a ubiquitous police culture that resisted change and outsiders. Recent scholarship questions this assumption, but most of the studies focussed on the attitudes of street-level police officers. This study examined the attitudes of police supervisors toward the use of volunteers in policing. The purpose of this paper is to examine general police attitudes held by police supervisors within the context of the use of volunteers in policing.

Design/methodology/approach

Surveys were distributed to over 400 police supervisors attending the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Academy (NA) program. Items used to measure general police attitudes were borrowed from the Project on Policing Neighborhood study. These items were submitted to a factor analysis and three general police attitudes were identified (expectations for citizen involvement, expectations for order maintenance, and expectations for aggressive law enforcement). Other items were constructed to measures several aspects of using volunteers in policing. While the respondents are a convenience sample of police supervisors, they represent police agencies of various size, location, and type.

Findings

Expectations for citizen involvement and order maintenance were significantly related to each of the volunteerism variables in ways that suggest openness if not acceptance to the use of volunteers in policing. These results were seen in the bivariate correlations and were sustained in the regression analysis. Police supervisors with an expectation of aggressive law enforcement, however, were not related to any volunteer measures.

Research limitations/implications

The sample of police supervisors is a convenience sample of supervisors attending the FBI's NA, and it is likely that the results are not what would be expected from a random sample of police supervisors. Also, the survey instrument offered limited space for items, thus restricting the attitude questions that could be included. Still, these data from a nationwide sample of police supervisors lends support to the body of scholarship questioning the existence of a universal police culture where all police officers see the world the same way.

Originality/value

There is a distinct lack of empirical research focussing on police supervisors, and what is available is limited in sample size and generalizability. This study can shed additional light on the salience of a pervasive and singular police culture. Further, an understanding of the attitudes of the police supervisors toward the use of volunteers in policing can be applied to other agencies that want to improve or implement a volunteer program.

Citation

W. Phillips, S. and Terrell-Orr, A. (2013), "Attitudes of police supervisors: do volunteers fit into policing?", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 683-701. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-10-2012-0102