Changing Uniforms

Abstract

Most academic attention regarding military influence on policing has focused on critiques of the military model of policing and police militarization and has neglected to examine the relationship between the two institutions and the transferability of attributes and skills from the military to police. Military service itself, when examined, has been treated as an undifferentiated concept that has not distinguished the effects of organizational structure, leadership, and myriad roles and experiences on policing. This study, using data from a survey of law enforcement officers throughout a New England state, compares and analyzes how law enforcement officers and supervisors with and without military background and with and without deployment experience differ in their perspectives regarding both the positive as well as negative aspects of combat deployment on policing. As such, it has significant implications for both the reintegration and recruitment of combat-deployed veterans into police organizations.

Hazardous Duty: Investigating Resistance to Police at the Point of Arrest Among Incarcerated Military Veterans

“…8 Although counterintuitive, this could be reflective of the lower likelihood of recidivism found more generally among violent offenders, but further study is needed (Moore & Eikenberry, 2021). Lastly, policing is an increasingly popular career choice for returning veterans (Hartley et al, 2013; Ivie & Garland, 2011; Reingle Gonzalez et al, 2019; Shernock, 2017), namely because of the aforementioned overlap between military service and police work. To the extent that suspects are aware of the possibility or likelihood that a responding officer has a military background, they may be more likely to cooperate during an arrest (Villanueva & Sherin, 2019).…”

The protective effects of prior military service on burnout in criminal justice professions: A multiagency comparison.

“…Second, Logan and colleagues allude to the fact that the extant literature on the “veteran effect” among criminal justice practitioners focuses almost exclusively on occupational stress and burnout in police work. Indeed, police agencies across the country are facing similar difficulties in recruitment, retainment, and turnover, and the logic that prior military service serves as an asset has been explored (Hartley et al, 2013; Ivie & Garland, 2011; Shernock, 2017). Yet it is unclear as to whether the effects of military experience are uniform across similar outcomes (e.g., job burnout) for individuals employed by different criminal justice agencies (e.g., police officers vs. correctional officers).…”