NCJ Number
181489
Journal
Policing Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: 1999 Pages: 589-617
Date Published
1999
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This study attempts to determine the extent to which job satisfaction and perceptions of supervisory support vary within a national police force officially committed to community policing.
Abstract
This survey of 440 New Zealand police officers (approximately 6 percent of the New Zealand Police’s sworn personnel) focused on their personal values, interpersonal relationships and work situations. Rural policing units and minority officers believed their superiors were supportive. Traffic officers as a group were less satisfied with their work than general duty officers. As tenure increased, perceptions that superiors support their subordinates decreased. Female officers, compared to their male counterparts, believed that their superiors were not fair in making decisions or in the way they treated people. Community service officers, or those with the skills normally associated with community policing programs, did not believe they were as well supported by their superiors as other officers. The article suggests that, rather than looking solely at external forces to understand the lack of support for community policing, future research should look internally at, for example, supervisor-subordinate dynamics. Tables, notes, references, bibliography