Municipal Police Officer Job Satisfaction in Pennsylvania: A Study of Organisational Development in Small Police Departments

Abstract

Current policing literature indicates that the retention rate of patrol officers is in steady decline. On the whole, various policing factors that include fatigue, stress and workload appear to be major reasons for high turnover rates. In order to substantiate patrol officers' views of contemporary policing, we examined their perceptions of issues related to overall job satisfaction and correlating factors. Municipal police officers from 14 south central Pennsylvania police departments located in one mid-size county were surveyed to determine if there were any significant differences or correlations between perceptions of overall job satisfaction and previous research related to satisfaction with administration, shift work, equipment, community support, department morale and policies and procedures. Results indicate that there is an apparent connection between stress and overall job satisfaction. Most notably, higher stress levels, faster rotating shifts and officers' perceptions of department morale were shown to impact the levels of overall job satisfaction.

Four Ways Forward

“…Many smaller agencies (presumably offering lower salaries and lesser benefits) lose their officers not to other professions but rather to larger, moreresourced agencies [6,8]. This, in turn, has been said to offer evidence that compensation can be determinative in officer retention [4].…”

“…Police officers are often called to work irregular hours in long shift blocks of 8, 10, or 12 hours at a time. In fact, 12-hour shifts are becoming the more popular choice [4]. This is not necessarily a bad trend, however, as 12-hour shifts have been shown to be more beneficial than 8-hour ones, for instance [4].…”

“…In fact, 12-hour shifts are becoming the more popular choice [4]. This is not necessarily a bad trend, however, as 12-hour shifts have been shown to be more beneficial than 8-hour ones, for instance [4]. Whatever the shift length, frequent rotations in shift times have also been shown to decrease satisfaction in one's job.…”

“…The lack of opportunities to advance has oft been cited as a motivation for officers to leave an agency [4,5]. In fact, possession of greater opportunities for promotional advancement is a common selling point for larger agencies where supervisory and specialized positions are greater.…”

“…There are several ways that this message may be communicated, not the least of which is the employee's relationship with his or her direct supervisor. In fact, of all the predictors association with job dissatisfaction, poor employeesupervisor relations is the "number one" with regard to its strong influence on the occurrence of attrition [1,4,5,10]. [1] found, in their study, that one's relationship with her supervisor is an even better direct predictor of job satisfaction than whether they had experienced sexual harassment.…”