The Impact of Policing Strategies on Officer Job Satisfaction

• In Event: Police Officer Stress and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Police officers experience tense community relations, high stress, and dangerous situations on a daily basis as a result of their occupation. Understanding police officer job satisfaction is important because it is related to critical problems such as absenteeism, attrition, low productivity, stress, and other negative health outcomes. Additionally, dissatisfied police officers could potentially affect the delivery of services in adverse ways, resulting in a negative view from the public. Unfortunately, research on police officer job satisfaction lags far behind that of other occupations and has often been limited to studying individual officer characteristics. Recently, focus has shifted toward understanding the impact of organizational-level characteristics. Since the 1970s, a variety of policing initiatives have been introduced, including, but not limited to, community-oriented policing, hot spots policing, and COMPSTAT. However, little is known about whether these various types of policing strategies affect police officer job satisfaction. Using data from patrol officers in an urban police department in the Southeast, the current study aims to explore this possibility. Policy implications are discussed.

Authors

• Chrystina Y. Hoffman, Georgia State University

• Josh Hinkle, Georgia State University