Understanding Police Recruits’ Attitudes Toward Public Interactions: An Australian Example

Abstract

Recent events, particularly in the United States, have highlighted strained police-citizen relations and the importance of citizens viewing police as legitimate and trustworthy. Perceptions of unreasonable police officer conduct, particularly related to demeanor and physical force, are often at the center of public complaints. The present study used survey data to explore the attitudes of 577 Australian police recruits regarding behaving disrespectfully toward, and using force against, citizens. Over all, recruits' attitudes were positive, likely reflecting present screening processes. However, some variation was evident and predicted by selected police culture dimensions, including cynicism and police authority, as well as officer characteristics and background factors. Further, attitudes more supportive of disrespect and force were, in turn, predictive of the code of silence for such behavior, measured through hypothetical unwillingness to report colleagues' behavior. The implications for understanding police attitudes are discussed, as well as attempts to reduce negative attitudes and behavior.

External Procedural Justice: Do Just Supervisors Shape Officer Trust and Willingness to Take the Initiative With the Public?

“…Though direct tests of police views on the public are relatively rare, complementary research demonstrates that a procedurally fair organizational climate protects officers against developing cynical and distrusting attitudes toward citizens (Trinkner et al, 2016), and such negative attitudes have been found to decrease officers' inclination to treat citizens in a procedurally fair manner (C. M. Donner & Olson, 2019). With regard to the specific dimension of respect, Porter and Alpert (2017) showed that police recruits who exhibit more cynical attitudes toward the public are more likely to endorse reacting disrespectfully to the public.…”

Identifying and Unpacking the Role of Social Identity in Moderating Evaluations of Police-Civilian Interactions

“…Police officers who identify more closely with their police in-group experience benefits, such as greater commitment to their organizational goals and methods (Bradford & Quinton, 2014 ), willingness to engage in proactive and community-based policing (Bradford & Quinton, 2014 ; Wolfe & Nix, 2016 ), and less work-related stress (Rose & Unnithan, 2015 ). However, police officer social identity is also accompanied by bias against out-groups, including distrust of and cynicism towards civilians (Bradford & Quinton, 2014 ; Mourtgos et al, 2020 ), disrespectful conduct toward civilians (Porter & Alpert, 2017 ; Silver et al, 2017 ), and decreased proactive policing in the face of perceived threats (Mourtagos et al, 2020 ; Trinkner et al, 2019 ; Wolfe & Nix, 2016 ). As previously discussed, civilians are similarly responsive to social identity in police-civilian interactions (Oliveira & Murphy, 2015 ).…”

“…Scholars have found that civilians are more likely to cooperate with and support police officers when they perceive how they were treated as fair and when they see themselves as part of the same social group as the police officer (Blader & Tyler, 2009 ; Bradford, 2014 ; Oliveira & Murphy, 2015 ; Tyler, 2017 ). Furthermore, police officers rely on one another to cope with the stress of their work and engage in more proactive and fair policing tactics when they see themselves in and trust the communities they serve (Mourtagos et al, 2020 ; Porter & Alpert, 2017 ; Rose & Unnithan, 2015 ; Stein & Griffith, 2017 ). Although extensive social psychological research is dedicated to understanding how civilians perceive and experience police-civilian interactions, we know much less about how police officers perceive and experience police-civilian interactions.…”

“…However, we expected that the specific indirect effect pathways through voice and respect would be present but weaker for police officers than for civilians because indicators of treatment quality—voice and respect—are social-exchange indicators that are sensitive to slight changes in tone, demeanor, and identity (Dai et al, 2011 ; Lowrey et al, 2016 ; Oliveira & Murphy, 2015 ; Voight et al, 2017 ). Additionally, treatment quality provides the decision audience with important information about whether they are a part of the group represented by the decision maker—information police officer participants may not take away from how another officer treats the civilian but rather how the civilian treats the officer (Bradford, 2014 ; Porter & Alpert, 2017 ).

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Police Recruit Training Programmes: A Systematic Map of Research Literature

“…Overall, studies in this theme found very little or no impact on recruit attitudes as a result of training or, in some cases, a negative impact on recruit attitudes. Recruits that began their training with positive attitudes about why they joined the profession, the role of police or high levels of integrity tended to remain stable and training did not alter these attitudes (Alain and Chantal, 2005;Anderson, 2006;Hoshell, 2009;Blumberg et al, 2016;Porter and Alpert, 2017). However, recruit expectations of the profession seemed to adapt when faced with the realities of the profession as a number of studies found evidence of disillusionment when recruits began operational police work and faced a conflict between their initial idealism and the realities of the organisation (Verma, 2001;Alain and Chantal, 2005;Anderson, 2006).…”