Policing as a Career

Police Stereotypes
Stereotypes refer to images or attitudes
about people or groups of people that
reflect preconceived ideas.
- Public perceptions of the police are
both positive and negative.
- Sinners/Saints

Self-Perceptions of the Police

 Worldview
 The Manner in which a culture sees the world and its own role
and relationship to the world (Benedict 1934; Redfield 1952,
1953).
 Police officers often struggle with their own sense of self.
 Public Servant
 Order Maintenance
 Crime Fighter
 Many officers become uncomfortable with civilians.
 Thin Blue Line
 Police Subculture
 Us versus them mentality
 The public as “symbolic assailants

Police Recruitment
 Although practices vary by department, most share common
recruitment standards.
 Age
 21 is a common minimum age standard
 Height and weight
 These tend to be “symbolic”
  Hispanic and Japanese officers have successfully challenged
height requirement.

 Education
 Most departments maintain a high school diploma or GED as
their minimum educational standards.
 Many offer wage increases for educational achievement
including tuition reimbursement programs.
 Criminal Record and Residency
 Most departments will not hire persons with adult or juvenile
felony convictions.
 About one-quarter of all departments require the officers to live in
the cities where they work.
 Homes for Peace Officers and Firefighters Program

Policing as Career
The decision to become a police officer
is influenced by multiple considerations.
Public Service
Non-routine Activities
Tradition
Job Prestige
Money

Who Will be “Good” Cops?

There is no known method of predicting
which recruits will make “good officers”.
Officer testing is a multiple phase
process.
 Written Exam
 Physical Exam
  Oral Interview
 Psychological Assessment

Hiring Issues
The police are equal opportunity
employers.
Subject to equal opportunity and
affirmative action laws.
Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications.
Qualifications established by employers
whereby they can refuse to hire and
applicant due to specific aspects of the
job.

Race Diversity on the Force

 Historically, white males have dominated police
organizations.
 In 1965, African Americans represented 3.6 percent of all
sworn officers.
 African Americans represented 10 percent of all sworn
officers.
 African American officers tend to be highly concentrated in
the South and metro areas of the U.S.
 The proportion of Hispanics has also increased in recent
years.
 The proportion of Hispanic sworn officers has doubled in
the last ten years
  According to the 2000 census Hispanic is the fastest
growing minority in the U.S.
 Language aspects of patrolling Hispanic communities.

Gender Diversity on the Force

 More women are choosing policing as a career
than ever before.
 The proportion of women has increased from 2 to 9
percent of all sworn officers.
 History of maltreatment of female officers.
 1964 Civil Rights act
 Federal law eliminating discrimination on the
basis of gender and race.
 Discrimination due to child care and childbearing.
 Pregnancy Discrimination Act
 Federal law eliminating employment
discrimination on the basis of pregnancy,
child-birth, or any pregnancy related
condition.

Affirmative Action and the Police

 Presidential Executive Order 11246
 1965 order establishing affirmative action.
 Requires employers to “take positive steps to
remedy past discrimination”.
 Initially applied to federal contractors only.
 Requires employers to conduct a census of
current employees; identify underutilization of
women and minorities; develop a recruitment
plan to address underutilization.
 Quotas
 Many affirmative action plans entail court ordered
quotas for minorities and women.
Police Training
 Professionalization
 The process by which norms and values are internalized as
workers learn from their occupation (Alpert and Dunham
1997).
 Completion of a state or department training academy is part
of the formal hiring process.
 First year probationary period.
 Ranges from 6 months to 2 years.
 Academy serves as formal training and proving grounds for
recruits.
 Much of an officers training is “on the fly” in the field.
 Learning by doing method.
 The field is argued as the primary source for officer
socialization.
 Jaundicing effect of policing

Trying it on
 There are often wide differences in the
perceptions of police work and the actual
realities of the job.
 Paper work
 Court
 Public Reactions
 Levels of officer burn-out are among the
highest of any profession in the
Lying Low and Covering Your Ass
 A major aspect of field training is learning
“how” to do police work.
 The rookie “gung-ho” phenomenon.
 New recruits are often criticized by their save the
world attitudes.
 The thin blue-line
 Never “rat” on a fellow officer
 Moderation in all things.
 Working to hard is often viewed as causing officers
by problems in the public and with command