Police culture and decision-making

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study

Introduction

Having a single definition for culture is an accomplishment that researchers have

not achieved. But one of the ways it is defined is the unspoken communication in an

organization (Guiso, Sapienza, & Zingales, 2015, p.4). Each organization and institution

has a unique culture that influences an individual (Linton, 1938, p. 425). In my research, I

sought to define police culture as understood and experienced by street-level officers and

to learn how it influences the decision-making of officers (Brough, Chataway & Biggs,

2016). Culture influences every individual, but there is no single culture (Woody, 2005,

p. 525). Instead, humans consist of layers of culture influenced by family, religion,

occupation and human interactions (Brough et al., 2016). Subcultures in a police

organization are always evolving and are structured according to rank, units, work hours,

and historical context (Duckham & Schreiber, 2016; Glover & Friedman, 2014). Each

new generation and technology advance modifies and changes the existing culture. Each

unit in a police department has its unique cultural worldview (Woody, 2005) that varies

among different shifts and assignments (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015; Ingram, Paoline

& Terrill, 2013; Myhill & Bradford, 2013). These views and variations are called

subcultures (Rose & Unnithan, 2015).

The focus of this study was street-level uniform patrol officers and their

experiences in the law enforcement environment to achieve a deeper meaning of police

culture. There are many facets to culture, but at least in Western culture a social system

consists of social structure and culture structure (Piquero, 2015, p. 247). The street and

community have a culture that plays a role in police responses (Mears, Stewart, Warren,

& Simons, 2017). But the focus of my research was on the street-level police officers’

perspective of the worldview of police culture and how cross-cultural dilemmas occur

(Glover & Friedman, 2014). Figure 1 displays some of the structures that comprise the

cultural worldview of individuals.

Figure 1. Elements of culture.

Police officers experience social and cultural interactions, but the focus of this

research was the cultural aspect. Adversarial encounters between citizens and police

officers are at the highest level in American history, with a high cost in injuries and

property damages in addition to the loss of trust, respect, and legitimacy. Police culture

shapes the decision-making of street-level officers and is at the center of adversity

between officers and the community. Changing police culture through training and

Social

Culture

Traditions

Family

Religion

Groups

School

Experiences

Institutional

Culture

Military

Colleges

Business/

Industry

Organizations

encouragement for officers to be a part of the community instead of apart from the

community creates positive social change by restoring trust and respect in law

enforcement and establishing the legitimacy of the officers to enforce the law.

Subcultures are not unique to police departments but exist in any occupational or

organizational group (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). Culture is a key to an

organization or police agencies’ success or failure (Aamodt, 2012; Warrick, 2017).

Culture can divide or unite people and form structures that subconsciously directs

decision-making (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). Police officers must deal with a

barrage of emotions every day. How officers handle these feelings is determined by the

layers of culture in an officer’s life because “people desire emotions that are consistent

with their core values” (Tamir et al., 2016, p 68). Culture can be changed by training,

though the most prevailing beliefs of an individual will remain (Douglas, 2000;

Greitemeyer, 2014). However, not all officers conform to every aspect of the culture

because of individual demographics and cultural influences (Ingram et al., 2013), which

means training will need to address this.

Technology can dramatically change cultural structures and beliefs. In the future,

human decision-making may be more integrated with computer assistance that can

improve or diminish cultural decisions (Leidner & Kayworth, 2006). The military created

much of the technology used by police departments today (e.g., night vision, body

cameras, tactical vehicles, and other things). Much of the technology used by the next

generation of a police officer is now in prototype, but no plans are being developed to

control how this technology will impact decision-making. But the decisions officers make

may be more pragmatic and programmed because the technology “will be the seamless

integration of human and machine decision making” (Kott et al., 2015, p. 11). Another

technological influence on decision-making is social media, which affects the

relationship between citizens and officers and is not only changing police culture but

social culture (Wickersham, 2016).

This study is relevant to government leaders, community leaders, trainers, and

police commanders who want to understand how and why trust, respect, and legitimacy

have diminished between some communities and police officers (Rosenbaum, Lawrence,

Hartnett, McDevitt, & Posick, 2015). The views from researchers in sociology,

psychology, anthropology, and industrial/organizational psychology were examined to

formulate an understanding of culture and its influence on individuals and organizations.

Technology was also examined because of its increasing impact on cultural change due to

greater use by officers.

Background

Much of the research of police culture is from an ethnographic or case study

approach using longitudinal studies (Loftus, 2010), but few involve a phenomenological

approach and are centered on street-level officers. There is also a gap in literature

covering changes in demographics and advancement of technology and a framework to

explain how the culture develops and evolves (Paoline, 2003). The past and current

research has included investigations on police culture in crime fighting or disorder

management (Squires, 2015). My research was focused on street-level officers’

explanation of how police culture is acquired and affects decision-making.

A pioneering study of police culture emerged in 1950 by William Westley

(Greene, 2010; Paoline, 2003); Westley’s work was influenced by the “Chicago School”

of thought and laid the groundwork for investigating police culture, decision-making, and

ethics. Two recurrent themes in the literature are that police culture is not monolithic and

that it is a coping mechanism (Brough et al., 2016; Rose & Unnithan, 2015; Paoline,

2003). There are other areas in police culture, and all must be recognized because the

culture influences all levels of a police organization (Cockcroft, 2012). Additionally,

there is a direct link between the performance of an organization and the behavior of

people in the organization (Warrick, 2017).

Trust and respect for police officers continue to deteriorate as demonstrated by

increasing violent confrontations between police officers and citizens. A loss of trust,

respect, and legitimacy leads to a diminishment view and acceptance of the criminal

justice system (Fischer, 2014). The legitimacy of authority is the foundation of a police

department’s ability to enforce the law with the desired concept of procedural justice.

Legitimacy, trust, respect, and procedural justice combine in the operation of an

organization (Tyler, Goff, & MacCoun, 2015). Therefore, I conducted this study to

examine how to reestablish trust, respect, and legitimacy of police that has been eroding

over the past few years by understanding the cause of that erosion.

Problem Statement

The problem is a lack of scholarly research in determining how police culture

affects the decision-making of street-level officers and how the culture is acquired,

evolves, and is sustained. Adverse aspects of police culture are suspicion of minorities, us

versus them attitudes, resistance to training, and lack of accountability (Brough et al.,

2016; Mears, Stewart, Warren, & Simons, 2017; Paoline, 2003; Rose & Unnithan, 2015).

These negative aspects cannot change until it is understood how the culture is acquired

and perpetuated. Once the culture is identified, methods for change such as training can

be developed to institute reforms that officers will accept. Restoring trust and respect

between officers and the communities they serve creates a more tolerant and

understanding environment that improves police effectiveness and public acceptance and

support of legitimacy. The events in Ferguson, Missouri illustrate how a breakdown of

trust, respect, and legitimacy evolves into violent behavior in minority communities. A

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI; 2015) report identified the culture of the Ferguson

Police Department as the primary cause of the situation.

The decisions police officers make in the streets during encounters with members

of the public can have a profound effect on the relationships between law enforcement

and citizens. The culture guides the decisions made by officers encountering various

scenarios (Brough et al., 2016; Cockcroft, 2012). Every human association has a culture,

and each person is subject to many cultural assimilations (Sagi, 2015). Police culture is

another layer of culture of police officers that is strengthened or weakened by an officer’s

cultural experiences before becoming a police officer.

Uniform patrol is the largest, entry-level unit in a police agency and is the first

contact citizens have with law enforcement in most cases. The first introduction an

officer has into the police culture after graduation from a police academy is on the streets.

Negative views of the police are more significant in minority communities (Drakulich &

Crutchfield, 2013) because of more adversarial encounters by the community with police.

Officers tend to view minority communities with suspicion and consider policing these

communities more dangerous than other communities (Barrick, Hickman, & Strom,

2014).

Police culture is a product of the culture of the police department and the

individual (Van Steden, Van Der Wal, & Lasthuizen, 2015) and both are instrumental in

the decisions and actions taken by officers on the street. An individual’s organizational

identity is related to organizational culture (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015, p. 40),

indicating that police culture has an impact on how an officer identifies and behaves. The

major problem causing hostile encounters between the community and police department

is the culture, as suggested in an FBI (2015) report on the culture of the Ferguson Police

Department. Current research is focused on police deviant behavior and the results of that

behavior (Antrobus, Bradford, Murphy, & Sargeant, 2015). In my study, I identify the

problem areas of police culture and recommend methods for changing the culture to

implement positive social change between officers and the community.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to learn how culture influences a police officer’s

decision-making. The explanation and analysis of this study included an adaptation of

Akers’s (2011) social structure social learning theory built on Sutherland’s (1947)

differential association theory. Akers first described his approach as differential

association reinforcement. Social learning theory is symbiotic with other methods in

sociology (Akers, Krohn, Lanza-Kaduce, & Radosevich, 1979). Decisions made by

officers can calm an adversarial encounter with hostile and angry citizens or exacerbate

the situation. The problems of overcoming a culture in making effective choices can be

resolved or diminished by training, but culture is a layered phenomenon (Cockcroft,

2012) that is a challenging and a continuing process that requires input from many people

in the organization (Hacker, 2015).

Mitigating the adverse effects of police culture and strengthening the positive

aspects can create better community relations and reduce adversarial encounters. A long-

standing culture is sustained by “belief perseverance” (Greitemeyer, 2014; Savion, 2012),

and overcoming that obstacle is another purpose of this research. Approaches used in

industrial/organizational psychology have been shown effective in changing corporate

cultures to produce more productive and positive relationships (Aamodt, 2012). The

purpose of this research was to learn the meaning of police culture to street-level officers,

how culture affects decision-making, and gain guidance in structuring training that is

supported by officers in overcoming cultural differences between officers and minorities.

The officers’ support of a training initiative may produce a positive social change through

officers making more appropriate and compassionate decisions by understanding the

influence of police culture and the cultures of the people with whom they interact.

Trainer’s developing and presenting training accepted and supported by officers also

overcomes cultural resistance to training. Finally, trust and respect can be strengthened

between officers and the communities, improving the legitimacy of law enforcement,

increasing safety, and improving community relations.

Research Questions

The research questions were designed to define police culture and how it is

acquired. Variables of sex, race, age, education, the level of experience and technology

advances were investigated to determine how they shape and change the culture. The

significance of these variables is depicted in a report on personnel issues in 2020 by

Jensen and Graves (2013) identifying changes in workforce demographics and evolving

technology. The interview questions consist of the central question, RQ1, and five

subquestions (see Appendix D).

RQ1: What does the term police culture mean to you?

RQ2: How does police culture affect your decisions on the job?

RQ3: How were you first introduced to police culture?

RQ4: How do the differences in generations affect the culture?

RQ5: Describe how technology has changed police culture.

RQ6: How comfortable/competent are you with the technology in your

department?

Theoretical Framework

Akers’s (2011) social structure social learning theory is the framework I used to

explain police culture and the influence it has on decision-making. The social learning

theory extended Sutherland’s (1947) differential association theory, and both are used to

examine behavior based on human associations and bonds. I spoke with Dr. Akers on the

appropriateness of his theory for my research, and he replied by e-mail “the theory is

highly applicable to and does a good job of explaining police behavior that includes both

conforming and deviant police actions” (personal communication, February 2017). The

theory can be used to look at imitation, normative learning, and coercive regulation

(Akers & Jensen, 2006), helping researchers explain how culture is acquired, maintained,

and changed (p. 2). My research was centered on conforming behavior rather than

deviant behavior, which may occur when conforming to the accepted cultural behavior of

a group or organization if that behavior is deviant. Introduction to police culture begins

on entry to the police academy and is continued by field training officers. Consistent

(differential) association with officers furthers adaptation to the culture.

Akers’s (2011) social structure social learning theory was adapted for this

research and using Colaizzi’s (1978) 7-step method for analyzing descriptive

phenomenological data. Social learning has been used most frequently to explain police

misconduct or deviant behavior. Dr. Allison Chappell (Old Dominion University) is a

former student of Akers and has written several articles about the police using the social

learning theory. I corresponded with Dr. Chappell about the effectiveness of using social

learning to examine police culture and decision-making, and she agreed that using the

theory from a view of conforming behavior instead of deviant behavior was plausible and

had made this argument in her dissertation (personal communication, May 1, 2017).

Culture is a tenant of moral and ethical reasoning employed in decision-making

(De Schrijver & Maesschalck, 2015), but little time is devoted to ethics and moral

reasoning skills in police training. According to Whelan (2016), “culture is to an

organization what personality is to an individual” (p. 583). This statement establishes the

relationship between the actions of street-level officers and the culture of the

organization. The four variables in social learning theory—differential association,

definitions, reinforcement, and modeling (Akers, 1979)—help determine the proclivity of

an individual to conform to the culture. The research questions were designed to draw out

the feeling and experience of officers with police culture.

In addition to using Akers’s social structure social learning theory, I used a

phenomenological approach. Phenomenology relies on inductive reasoning gained from

in-depth, open-ended interviews (Thorne, 2000). A challenge to phenomenology is the

bias and preconceived notions of the researcher which denigrates validity of the research.

Overcoming this problem is a method called “bracketing,” a term coined by Husserl

(1913), or epoche (Moustakas, 1994). This process is used to set aside bias, experience,

and past knowledge by a 5-step method suggested by Patton (2015). In writing a

bracketing statement the researcher writes about personal or past experiences with the

phenomenon (Creswell, 2013, p.216). Chapter 3 includes a discussion of this research

conceptualization in greater detail.

The central question of my research is focused on how police culture affects

officers’ decision-making, which I answered through semi structured interviews with

street-level officers with questions designed to expand data into the phenomenon. Semi

structured interviews are the most common in qualitative research because they are

flexible and provide the ability to pursue emerging ideas (Doody & Noonan, 2013). The

results of the data can then be explained in a narrative form (Maxwell, 2012). An

interview protocol guide (Appendix A) kept the interviews focused on collecting relevant

data and pursue emerging information.

Akers’s (2011) social structure social learning provided a basis for analyzing both

social and institutional learning of culture. The elements involved in conforming behavior

of a personal and professional culture frames decision-making. Generations are in the

social culture whereas technology is in institutional culture. These features were found in

the literature. MAXQDA assisted in analyzing data by locating significant recurring

statements and developing clusters of meanings and creating themes.

Nature of the Study

I used qualitative methods incorporating a phenomenological approach. An

interpretative approach provided meaning and understanding from officers living the

culture. Open-ended interview questions with 12 officers purposively collected from a

demographic representation of the population of officers in Tennessee provided data on

the topic. A phenomenology sample size can vary from three to 15 participants (Creswell,

2013), or grow larger due to the emergent nature of qualitative research (Patton, 2015). I

used MAXQDA data analysis software to analyze data and identify themes from the

interviews, literature review, and journal notes. Phenomenology helped gain a descriptive

meaning to police culture on how the officers became involved with the culture and how

it changed with experience and the influence of technology and generations. I also used

Colaizzi’s (1978) 7-step process for analysis in this phenomenology study:

1. read and re-read transcripts to obtain a general sense of the content

2. look for significant statements that pertain to the phenomenon under study

3. formulate meanings from the statements

4. sort into categories, clusters of themes, and themes

5. integrate into an exhaustive description of the phenomenon under study

6. describe the fundamental structure of the phenomenon

7. validate the finding with the participants

This research can lead to positive social change by providing information to

improve and evolve trust and respect between officers and citizens. The FBI report

(2015) on the Ferguson Police Department shows examples of the influence of police

culture on officer’s decisions and behavior. A consistent theme in the report is a lack of

trust and respect for officers and suspicion of the law enforcement system from the

minority communities caused by the culture of the Ferguson police. Recruit selection,

training, and retraining was recommended to change the existing culture in Ferguson. My

research defines police culture and the barriers it creates in relationships between officers

and communities, and it provides information on how to develop training to mitigate the

negative aspects of the culture that is accepted and supported by officers.

Definitions of Key Terms

Police culture: Has varied meanings due to different police departments, the

demographics of the officers, the areas where officers serve, and the natural evolution of

culture. However, many researchers agree on some basic tenets described as widely

shared attitudes, values, and norms. The broadest definition presents police culture as a

means to cope with the strains of the occupation based on experience, structural cultural,

and perceptions of the meaning of being a police officer (Ingram et al., 2013).

Organizational culture: The norms, shared values, traditions, and attitudes

particular to an organization or workplace shared by members of the organization and

shapes acceptable and unacceptable standards (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015;

Cockcroft, 2012).

Industrial/organizational psychology: The study of human behavior in the

workplace (Aamodt, 2012).

Subculture: A culture within a broader culture that may deviate in some aspects

from the broader culture and influences daily decisions (Greene, 2010; Herbert, 1998).

Legitimacy: Belief in the right of authority, acceptance, and recognition of the

authority of a person or organization and associated with procedural justice linking a

relationship of cooperation and compliance between officers and citizens (Antrobus et al.,

2015).

Procedural justice: People believe law enforcement is being conducted fairly

showing respect and dignity to citizens equally (Fischer, 2014).

Assumptions

I assumed that there is a significant influence of police culture on the decision-

making of street-level officers. Interviews represent the experience, thoughts, feelings,

and opinions of the participants but do not clinically and empirically prove the influence

of police culture or its existence. There is an extensive amount of research covering

police culture from many different aspects, but all agree it shapes decisions made by

officers. The responses from participants were assumed honest, considered, and

representative of real feelings. Purposeful selection of participants was believed to mirror

the national demographics of police provides a more representative measure of officers’

views on culture. Changing the negative influences of police culture requires supervisors

and trainers to decide on the desired culture, mitigating the old culture, and gaining

support from officers for a new culture (Aamodt, 2012).

Scope and Delimitations

I conducted this study to understand the role police culture plays in decisions

officers make during interactions with citizens and provide officers with better tools to

use during their daily duties. A purposeful sampling of uniform police officers from five

different agencies in Tennessee was conducted by using a list obtained from the

Tennessee Police Officers Standards and Training Commission of P.O.S.T. certified

officers (Appendix E). This method provided a broad participant selection representing

agencies across the state to demonstrate the similarities of the phenomenon among the

general population of street-level officers from departments of varying size. A letter of

cooperation was sent to the chiefs of police of the respective departments selected for the

research.

The study was limited to street-level uniform patrol officers because this is the

area with the most interaction between police and citizens. The culture of street-level

officers forms a cultural subgroup that differentiates from supervisors, detectives, and

command officers (Ingram et al., 2013). Much of the research of police culture has been

ethnographic and focused on the collective experiences of a group over an extended

period as a participant/observer (Creswell, 2013). Phenomenology is used to examine the

phenomenon in the present to learn how words, emotions, and experiences shape the

thoughts and attitudes of individuals living in the phenomenon (Patton, 2015).

Ethnography does not provide the deep meaning and perception of life events found in a

phenomenological study. Akers’s (2011) social structure social learning theory supports

the belief that it is possible to change a culture through environmental (structure) and

individual behaviors. Social learning links structure and personal behavior (p. 322).

In this study, I relied on organizational culture and interpreting it through

industrial/organizational psychology. This approach allowed the transfer of the results of

the police culture to organizational culture and cultural studies of other subcultures in a

police agency. Validation of the transferability relies on the generalizability of results to

other groups (Elo et al., 2014, p. 2).

Limitations

A significant limitation to the research of police culture is that the culture is

changing with each new generation and technological advance. Technology prototypes

exist now that can dramatically change decision-making such as computer implants that

could augment human senses and cognitive capabilities (Kott et al., 2015, p. 7). The

culture will evolve with each new generation and technology advance (Kempe &

Mesoudi, 2014). This constant evolution limits research to the moment, but the methods

may be viable in the future. The transferability and dependability of the current study are

limited by the speed of technology and cultural changes in each succeeding generation. A

strong effort was made to keep the literature to the most current time and circumstances

and update the research questions with new information. Another limitation is the bias to

my research through my experiences as a police officer. However, this may have made

participants comfortable due to my past professional association and the ability to

understand their challenges. Credibility was strengthened when several of the participants

related overlapping themes, shared emotions, and shared similar professional

experiences. I confined myself to asking questions and not making statements or relating

personal experiences, which is a method to avoid influencing a participant’s account of

experience (Sorsa, Kiikkala, & Åstedt-Kurki, 2015).

Significance

This study will contribute to expanding the knowledge of police culture, which is

a significant factor in the decision-making of officers. My research places emphasis on

how the officers living the phenomenon view and understand it. The focus of the research

was on the street-level officer and how demographics and technology shape and evolves

the culture. Much of the existing research is focused on the supervisory or leadership of

police organizations (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015) and takes an ethnographic

approach. I used a phenomenology approach to learn the feelings and experiences of the

participants; whereas ethnographic research is focused on the collective experience of a

group. Previous work on police culture shows a gap in researching the individual, street-

level officer’s lived experience in this phenomenon. Interviews and observations of the

participants through a heuristic lens led to a better understanding of the phenomenon

under study (Patton, 2015, p.119). This study provides a direction for improving the trust,

respect, and legitimacy of police in the community producing a positive social change in

the harmony and peace of neighborhoods.

Summary

Values have a significant influence on behavior (Tyler & Jackson, 2013) and an

emotional impact on decision-making (Tamir et al., 2016). The research questions were

designed to learn the values of street-level officers and the emotions involved in making

decisions when engaged with citizens. Culture is a combination of traditions, beliefs,

values, feelings, and associations with numerous groups and experiences in life events.

Knowing the implications of culture involved in an officer’s decision-making is the most

efficient tool supervisors and managers have for understanding and changing behavior

and attitudes (Linton, 1938).

Loss of legitimacy, respect, and trust from the community has precipitated an

unprecedented level of violence against and by the police. The result has been an

oversight by external agencies of local police departments and has led to “de-policing,” a

term coined by the media meaning officers actively disengaging in active police work

(Rushin & Edwards, 2016). The slow down, or de-policing, of law enforcement, is also

referred to as the Ferguson Effect (Wolfe & Nix, 2016) relating to numerous deadly force

encounters by police involving Black suspects that began in 2014.

Trust, respect, and legitimacy from the community for the police is in decline, and

a significant catalyst for the reduction is police culture as found in the FBI (2015)

investigation of the Ferguson Police Department. The consensus of scholars is that police

culture is developed in the street and continues throughout an officer’s career (Terrill,

Paoline, & Gau, 2016). Variables that shape police culture are age, race, sex, experience,

education, military service, and social structures experienced by an individual’s life

frame. Community policing and procedural justice have been suggested as resolutions for

solving disharmonious relationships between police officers and citizens (Fischer, 2014).

Training in these areas will be difficult without changing the police culture that resists

training (Squires, 2015).

Chapter 2 will include information on culture, police culture, and the effects of

technology and generations on culture. The literature included exploration on culture

through psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, sociology, and criminal

justice. Chapter 2 addresses the beginning of the study of police culture with the

pioneering works of Banton (1964), Bittner (1967), Skolnick (1966), Van Maanen

(1975), and Westley (1953). The existence of a police culture is endorsed by many

previous works (Brough et al., 2016; De Schrijver & Maesschalck, 2015; Schlosser, Cha-

Jua, Valgoi, & Neville, 2015; Terrill et al., 2016). The effects of technology have also

been shown to be important in police culture (Kott et al., 2015; Lum, Koper, & Willis,

2017; Mason, 2015; Yüksel, 2015). Generations are the third component of my research

and have been investigated to determine the effects on police culture from Gen X, Y,

Millennials, and others (Côté-Boucher, 2017; Lang, 2017; Parry & Tamkin, 2016;

Pollock, 2014).

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

The degeneration of trust, respect, and legitimacy for police has created violent

adversarial encounters between officers and citizens in some communities. This has

historical significance, as excessive police force was usually the spark of violence in

1960s race riots (Skolnick, 2008, p. 39). Studies and reports indicate that police culture

has a culpable role in a communities’ response to law enforcement (Antrobus et al., 2015;

FBI, 2015; Fischer, 2014). The problem is that decisions made by uniform patrol officers

are influenced by negative aspects of police culture. The purpose of this study was to

understand what police culture means to uniform patrol officers and how generations and

technology change and shape the culture (Brough et al., 2016). Police culture inspires

resistance to training and suspicion of people not involved in the daily challenges of a

street-level police officer (Paoline, 2003; White & Robinson, 2014). Understanding how

police culture is acquired, perseveres, and evolves provides methods for overcoming

officers’ resistance to training that can improve trust, respect, and legitimacy of the police

in the community.

The study of police culture requires examining social and organizational culture

(Brough et al., 2016). The terms organizational culture and police culture are

interchangeable when a police department is recognized as an organization (Cockcroft,

2012; Smircich, 1983). A review of cultural studies in psychology, anthropology,

sociology, criminal justice, and other fields contributes to a comparison of police culture

to different cultural layers. A person has layers of culture and life experiences; culture

always has historical context (Glover, & Friedman, 2014, p. 83). I examined the historical

works on the evolution of understanding culture in societies, organizations, and police

agencies. The influence of technology and demographics of officers are included to

provide a complete understanding of how police culture exists and changes. Individual

emotions and temperament affect decision-making, “but in most situations, the cultural

factors will be dominant” (Linton, 1938, p. 432). An individual’s culture is a limiting

factor in my research, because that culture is in constant change.

Evolution is a genetic and cultural process (Morgan, Cross, & Rendell, 2015) and

both will change and evolve. Knowing how culture evolves contributes to predicting, in

some degree, what culture will be in the future. This gene-culture coevolution (Lumsden

& Wilson, 1981) is associated with social learning. An individual’s thinking and learning

processes are shaped by culture (Hornik & Tupchiy, 2006) and associations with

individuals, groups, and organizations, making culture a product of the individual and

institutions.

Industrial/organizational psychology began to develop at the turn of the 20th

century in the United States (Aamodt, (2012). Industrial/organizational psychology is

used to study human behavior in a work environment. In the 1980s the study of

organizational culture began to take shape. There are strong similarities between

organizational culture and police culture. Both have a strong influence on its members

and encourages resistance to change (Whelan, 2016).

Technology is rapidly becoming more significant in shaping police culture. The

implementation of body and dashboard cameras, license plate readers, computerized

records systems, drones, and a host of other technology has increased the efficiency and

accountability of police officers (Lum et al., 2017). Technology is greeted with

apprehension and suspicion by senior officers and with enthusiasm and support by

younger officers creating a subculture within police culture. Acquiring new technology

and training officers in its use adds additional burden to many police department budgets.

The technology must be simple and easy to use to be useful (Mason, 2015).

Generations present another world view of culture. The differences in worldview

not only affect generational responses to police culture but create difficulties in

departments (Parry & Tamkin, 2016, p. 8). New generation officers are more

technologically astute than their older colleagues and disagree on how police work should

be done. These differing views dispel the notion of police officers being a homogenous

group. The more technology incorporated into a police agency, the greater the break with

the past (Côté-Boucher, 2017). Generational changes in the public is also a noted variable

in the reaction of contact with police. Race, gender, age, criminal history, and

socioeconomic status of citizens are predictors of police contact outcomes (Pollock,

2014). This is a form of social structure social learning from the public culture influence.

Chapter 2 will include a review of literature involving organizational culture,

social culture, and the effects of technology and demographics of individuals and groups

on culture. It is only since 1967 that attention has been given to the relationship between

organizational culture and police culture. Organizational factors influence police

practices and actions in addition to environmental factors (Klinger, 2004, p. 124). For

example, the influx of more significant numbers of military veterans into law

enforcement introduces a warrior culture that affects not only the police but first

responders (Malmin, 2013).

Literature Search Strategy

Literature was retrieved from databases found in the Walden Library, Thoreau

multi-database search, the Bureau of Justice, Pew Research Center, Google Scholar,

psychology database, criminal justice databases; policy, administration, and security

databases; Sage journals; military and security databases; Boolean Internet searches; and

personal correspondence with social learning theory researchers. I also collected

information from textbooks, articles from professional journals, the Tennessee P.O.S.T.

Commission, personal contacts with active and retired law enforcement officers, and the

U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Keywords for searches were police, cultures, traditions,

social cultures, organizational cultures, cultural influences, cultural evolution, cultural

decision-making, gender cultures, generations and culture, technology and culture, and

psychology of culture.

Theoretical Framework

Akers’s (2011) social structure social learning theory guides the research into

police culture. It is an adaptation of Sutherland’s (1947) differential association theory

that is used to examine conforming and deviant behavior. Akers’s theory is not an

alternative to Sutherland’s differential association but a reinforcement. When Akers and

Burgess formulated the social learning theory in 1965, it was called differential

association-reinforcement (Akers, 2011). In a personal correspondence with Dr. Akers

(2017), he advised that his theory is “highly applicable” in explaining police officers’

conforming behavior related to police culture. The theory helps explain that the same

learning process through social structures and interactions leads to conforming and

deviant behavior (Akers, & Jensen, 2006, p. 1). Westley (1953) explains the culmination

of the learning process in this context: “He [the officer] begins to recognize emotionally

that his interest lies with those of his fellow officers and he begins to differentiate himself

from nonpolicemen by defining them as enemies” (p. 160). Officers’ social learning of

the police circle has become complete incorporating culture, traditions, and policies of

the department.

Figure 2. Cultural circle.

Another expression for social learning is differential reinforcement, meaning

contemplating the consequences of behavior in the group (Akers & Jensen, 2006). If an

officer’s behavior is acceptable to the norms of the group, the officer is in, if not the

officer is out. Practicing acceptable behavior is often accomplished by imitating or

modeling the behavior of an officer considered professional or admired. Continued

tradition

culture

policy

participation in the group teaches the officer what behavior is acceptable or unacceptable

by the comments and actions of others in the group (Burgess & Akers, 1966). The social

structure social learning theory is focused on deviant behavior that contributes to crime.

Some parts of a police culture are deviant behavior, but the focus of my research was on

conforming behavior, or why officers conform to the positive aspects of the culture.

Police Culture Research Origins

Researching police culture is deficient if the work of William Westley is not

consulted. His book published in 1953 is primarily his dissertation completed in 1950.

Westley found that public hostility, public pressure, and political influence was

instrumental in shaping police culture (p. xii). Westley provided the only empirical

research on the police before 1960 and was an influence on the pioneers of police

research— for example, Michael Banton, Jerome Skolnick, and Egon Bittner (Reiner,

2015).

Since Westley’s work, the research of police culture has progressed through four

stages. The consensus stage began in 1960 and supported the police. The controversy

stage in the late 1960s and early 1970s was critical of police. The conflict stage into the

early 1980s saw the immersion of policing and politics, and the contradiction stage in the

1980s introduced new policing initiatives (Thomas, Rogers, Gravelle, 2014). Although

much of the research on police has been focused on deviant behavior and generally

ignoring conforming behavior, a common observation of police culture is that officers are

resistant to change (Cordner, 2014). To overcome this resistance the culture must be

changed.

Social learning theory has been used in investigating conforming and deviant

behavior of groups in industry and organizations. The theory’s use in studying the police

historically has looked at deviant and not conforming behavior (Chappell & Piquero,

2004) and generally focused on police misconduct. The social learning theory is the most

practical choice for investigating police culture and has been used consistently in social

behavior research (Akers, 2011). Social structure is an extension of social learning by

Akers that views the environment and links to social learning to produce an individual’s

behavior (p. 322). Akers argued that applying social learning to a culture’s deviant or

conforming behavior can be changed through the environment of the individual’s belief

(p. xxxviii). Variables associated with social structure social learning are “peer

associations, parental models, prosocial and deviant attitudes, informal social sanctions

and reactions to deviant” (p. 112) or conforming behavior. Prior research shows that sex,

race, age, education and military experience are variables that affect the perception and

opinion of an individual on issues.

The research questions were crafted to collect meaningful data to learn how the

culture influences decision-making, behavior, and relationships between the officers

concerning these issues. Each question represents the learning process in acquiring the

culture by the social structure social learning theory.

RQ1: What does the term police culture mean to you?

This establishes the officer’s awareness of a police culture and invites support or

criticism of the various aspects of police culture.

RQ2: How does police culture affect your decisions on the job?

This question is designed to evoke thought from the officer on how the culture is

involved in decisions made during an interaction with the public.

RQ3: How were you first introduced to police culture?

This is to determine when an officer first experiences police culture and to provide a

point of interdiction to change negative aspects of the culture.

RQ4: How do the differences in generations affect the culture?

Answers to this question seek to determine how to effectively and positively bridge

generational gaps.

RQ5: Describe how technology has changed police culture.

Responses to this question reflect generational and demographic gaps in accepting

technology and administrative changes in a department.

RQ6: How comfortable/competent are you with the technology in your

department?

Responses to this question will display exceptions to competency with technology with

older officers, and the level of comfort all officers have with technology.

These research questions are related to prior research employing social structure

social learning theory except focusing on conforming behavior instead of deviant

behavior. The generational, demographic, and technological knowledge of the officers

are variables that have been used in past research into police behavior and are the main

strength of the social structure social learning theory.

Belief perseverance discussed earlier, is a significant block to changing an

individual’s beliefs, and creates resistance to training and change. Using social structure

social learning provides a holistic examination of culture and instituting positive changes.

The culture of the police is changing and evolving because “policing itself has

experienced a comparable need to explain and understand a growing demand to account

for itself, to scientifically validate its working practices and to professionalize” (Squires,

2015, p. 2). Understanding and working through police culture is a method of accounting

and professionalizing the police.

Organizational Culture and Officer Subculture

Much of the research in police culture is ethnographic meaning close personal

contact with the study group from observation. My research is a phenomenological emic

approach, to study police culture from the perspective of the people who live it by

personal interviews and surveys. Akers’s (2011) social structure social learning theory

can be applied to many sociological theories and is supported by empirical laboratory

experiments (Akers, Krohn, Lanza-Kaduce, & Radosevich,1979). Cochran, Maskaly,

Jones, & Sellers (2017) tested Akers social structure social learning theory and through

structural equation models were highly supportive of the theory. Learning deviant or

conforming behavior is by the same process and the most marked difference in behavior

among the group will be age and sex (Akers, 2011).

The study of the culture should not be affected by our values (Cockcroft, 2012)

but by assessing it from the people who have lived the phenomenon. Setting aside, or

suspending, personal experience and biases are called bracketing, which is engaged from

the beginning of the research to neutralize personal values and biases. Bracketing is a

concept from Husserl’s view of phenomenology that a researcher can suspend personal

experience to only essentials to understand the phenomenon. In contrast, Heidegger

believed it is impossible to suspend preconceptions (Sorsa, Kiikkala, Åstedt-Kurki,

2015).

Organizational culture is an element that must be recognized in police culture.

The police department is an organization and possesses many of the characteristics of

other organizations. The notion of organizational culture has two views. Some think of it

as something an organization has, and others that it is something an organization is

(Whelan, 2016). In the book, The smartest guys in the room: The amazing rise and

scandalous fall of Enron (McLean & Elkind, 2013), the concept of organizational culture

being both are and has is clearly demonstrated. The culture of the police department

equates to organizational culture. The culture of police officers in the street is a

subculture. It is clear that to change police culture both the organizational culture and the

officer subculture must be changed. A police department has many of the components of

organizational culture found in other organizations and industries, but “what

differentiates police culture from other organizational cultures is the constant potential

for life-and-death encounters combined with the unique stresses and strains that originate

in the policing environment (White & Robinson, 2014, p. 260).

Police Culture Literature

Cochran, Maskaly, Jones, and Sellers (2017) tested Akers social structure social

learning theory and through structural equation models were highly supportive of the

theory. Learning deviant or conforming behavior is by the same process and the most

marked difference in behavior among the group will be age and sex (Akers, 2011). The

expanding literature on policing and procedural justice have focused primarily on the

promise of securing public cooperation and compliance through building the legitimacy

of the police. Far less attention has been focused on how police officers might be

encouraged to display consistently the types of attitudes and behavior that might foster

legitimacy (p. 349).

Changing the negative aspects of police culture requires an organizational change

involving administrators, managers, supervisors, and trainers. Changes in organizations

usually fail because organizational leadership did not consider the culture of the

organization. The importance of culture in an organization and how these aspects

transfer to police officers is highlighted by Alvesson, and Sveningsson (2015).

Training plays a significant role in changing police culture. Training in many

police departments is structured in a military type environment, which is a behavioral

approach. Changing police culture through training necessitate a different method, and an

andragogy structure is better suited for this task (Ozuah, 2016). Changing an organization

and its culture is done by education and training. Andragogy is the way adults learn and

is self-directed, which is the way to change the culture. The changes are bound for

failure if the learning environment and curriculum are not designed to achieve and

support changes.

The study of the culture should not be affected by our values (Cockcroft, 2012)

but by assessing it from the people who have lived the phenomenon. Controlling for

personal values is done by bracketing (Chan, Fung, & Chien, 2013). Considering my own

experience in law enforcement, the interpretation, and analysis of officers’ perceptions

may contain some pro-officer bias that must be minimized. This limitation is mitigated by

coding and journaling procedures (discussed in detail in Chapter 3) were designed to

impart the data collection and analysis phases with the essence of participants’ meanings

while simultaneously providing the transparency requisite to establish trustworthiness.

My prior experience in the field of law enforcement helped build rapport with the

participants so they could “disclose detailed perspectives about” their personal

experiences (Creswell, 2013, p. 154). This experience also aided in the analysis and

comparison of participant interpretations with contextual and environmental variables

affecting the contacts.

Understanding police culture can only be correctly understood by examining the

culture through the experiences of police officers, or through a cultural lens. Which is the

only way police behavior can be understood (Crank & Crank, 2014). Many influences

create a culture, and personal interviews with officers living the experience are the

primary methods of understanding the personal and individual culture of the participants

and how it developed. Learning of life experience, the cultural development of the officer

is essential because “the individual is never familiar with the whole of the culture in

which he participates nor conscious of it as a distinct entity” (Linton, 1938, p. 426).

Belief systems are the foundation that shapes the thinking of culture.

Understanding how an individual may respond to a situational incident requiring

interaction with other people is critical. A person reacts to specific stimuli according to

cultural influence, and it does not matter if the response is right or wrong as long as it

adheres to the cultural belief of the individual. The implications of cultural roots for

decisions made by police officers based on culture is identified as “belief perseverance”

(Douglas, 2000; Greitemeyer, 2014). Overcoming belief perseverance is the first

significant step in changing police culture.

There are many facets of police work that mirror the experiences of soldiers in

combat, and this is referred to as a warrior ethos (Malmin, 2013). Many soldiers seek out

law enforcement jobs after separating from the military because of the similarities

between the two organizations. The aggressiveness of an experienced soldier transfers

easily into police work and fits with the organizational structure, wearing uniforms, and

carrying of weapons. However, law enforcement is an entirely different mission. A police

officer’s job is to protect property and save lives, including the lives of criminal

perpetrators. Retraining for military members is imperative for the transition from warrior

to a police officer.

Stoughton (2016) defines soldiers as warriors and police officers as guardians. An

idea that warriors and police officers share is “Warriors serve others, not themselves and

do so only for honorable ends. Warriors pursue justice—the triumph of right over

wrong—and they seek to defend the weak from those who would take advantage of

them” (Stoughton, 2016, p. 632). Police officers more frequently assume the guardian

role to build trust and lasting community partnerships (p. 667). The police-warrior

concept began with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) after riots in South

Central Los Angles resulting in thirty-four people killed, over a thousand injured and

$200 million in property damage (Stoughton, 2016). The LAPD was not equipped or

trained to handle an incident of this magnitude, and it took the California National Guard

to restore order. Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) units were organized, equipped,

and trained to counter any other incidents on the scale of the riots, negating the need for

military troops. The further militarization of police was advanced by President Nixon’s

“War on Drugs” and President Bush’s “War on Terror,” which was intended to be a

homeland police responsibility.

Critics of police acquiring military equipment and training are abundant. Dansky

(2016) uses the police response to riots in Ferguson, MO and racial disparity as examples

of police militarization, and criticizes the lack of oversight in the use of SWAT units. The

use of weapons depends on the mindset of the user. A warrior’s mission is to take lives

and destroy property. A guardian’s mission is to save lives and protect property. Military

type weapons and training used by police have all evolved from critical incidents

experienced by police departments. The Bank of American Shootout in North Hollywood

(Botched LA bank heist, 1997) proved the need for police to have military grade weapons

and armored vehicles. L.A.P.D. 9mm pistols and shotguns were no matches for two

heavily armed bank robbers wearing bulletproof equipment. Wounded people were lying

exposed to gunfire in the street and officers commandeered a civilian armored car to

extract the wounded. There is a long and continuing series of incidents involving police

that emphasizes the need for military-grade weapons and equipment, which precludes the

necessity of involvement by the military. The difference in culture between warrior and

guardian determines how these arms and equipment are used.

Military technology is often adapted for use by civilian police agencies.

Technology in the mid-point of the 21st century will bring challenges and changes not

only to police culture but societies culture. However, technology will be ineffective if

officers do not believe it is related to their work (Lum, Koper, & Willis, 2017). Older

officers are often intimated by new technology and suspicious of its implementation by

the department. The millennial generation matured in the computer age and are

enthusiastic about the introduction of new technology (Harvey, 2014).

Cultural differences between police and the public can be utilized to improve

relationships and establish better communication lines. The diversity of communities

increases with the global migration to the United States (Moran et al., 2014), and with

more diversity more cultural differences arise between law enforcement and the

community. New skills and attitudes for the established law enforcement system are

needed to find a way to cope with these cultural changes. Changing and adapting police

culture is a significant move to meeting these new cultural challenges.

Stone and Travis (2013) explore the new professionalism of police in the areas of

accountability, legitimacy, innovation and national coherence. The author's term "New

Professionalism" includes police culture and its ever-evolving meaning. Much of their

work is a modern perspective on legitimacy and authority. The people subject to police

gives authority and legitimacy to the authorities. Stone and Travis discuss community

policing as a tool to achieve the new professionalism, but it requires officers to change in

their way of life and their view of the relationship with the communities they serve. It is

necessary to modify the resistance of police culture to change to be more acceptable to

training, and this is the second part of the research.

Tyler and Jackson (2013) examine the legitimacy of police in the minds of the

public and equates fairness with the exercise of authority. Bad decisions and overreaction

by uniform patrol officers can abrogate the legitimacy and authority of the police. The

study of police culture and how to make a positive consequence of decision making

through a cultural lens will increase the legitimacy and public confidence in the police.

Tyler and Jackson (2013) state that the police need to project their authority by

incontestable force, but the public’s reaction can be expected to be both compliance and

defiance. The research of police culture will investigate the appropriate and acceptable

use of force through developing a more compassionate method of decision making

viewed through a cultural lens.

Two variables influence officer-based decisions. The race of the officer and

involvement in the community (Barrick, Hickman, & Strom, 2014). The most important

part of their study determined that how officers conduct themselves in the day to day

encounters with the community is more important than the race of community

involvement. An officer’s daily conduct is responsive to the officer’s culture, and the

police culture. The report emphasized training for recruits and re-training for veteran

officers in a well-planned community policing program.

New people joining a group, or a culture new to them, will adopt the views of the

culture to be assimilated into the group and will change their behavior to reflect the group

culture (Morgan, Cross, & Rendell, 2015). The problems in a culture are never

definitively solved, which requires changing the minds and behaviors of many people

(Hacker, 2015).

A recognized use of Akers social structure social learning theory was by Chappell

and Piquero (2004) studying police misconduct. It has also been employed by Nissen

(2013) examining police use of force, Proctor (2010) investigating formalization of

micro-level criminological theories, but none regarding police decision-making.

However, there is vast support for the increasing use of the theory for the study of officer

behavior (Maskaly & Donner, 2015). Chappell and Piquero (2004) used the theory to

examine police misconduct and how officers became participants in deviant behavior.

They found peer pressure a significant catalyst in the conduct. Chappell was a student of

Akers and references him many times in the article. I contacted Chappell about the

feasibility of using social learning for conforming behavior in my research. She

responded: “Akers, like Sutherland, believes that social learning theory explains any type

of learning, not simply the learning of criminal/deviant behavior” (Chappell, personal

communication, May 1, 2017).

Research has demonstrated that police culture affects officer behavior and their

interactions with citizens and is well documented (Brough et al., 2016; Rose & Unnithan,

2015). Individual and organizational culture is learned (Akers & Jensen, 2006; Mead &

Métraux (Eds.),2000) and the learning process in police culture begins with entry into a

police academy (Rose & Unnithan, 2015). Social Structure Social Learning theory links

individual behavior, social structure, and culture to the conforming behavior of the

individual officer (Akers, 2011). Since my research is about how culture affects an

officer’s decision-making social structure social learning theory is the most appropriate

for my research.

Westley (1970) was apparently discussing police culture in his dissertation and

later book publication in Violence and the Police. His research questions were (1) isolate

and identify significant social norms, (2) obtain an interpretative understanding of these

norms, (3) and analyze the effects of these norms on officers (Westly, 1970, p. 11). The

norms researched by Westley are also examined by Akers (2011) in his theory of social

learning to explain how the norms direct an officer’s conforming behavior in a police

culture. My central research question is what does the term police culture mean to you?

What is the meaning of police culture is a question asked from Westly (1970) to Terrill,

Paoline III, & Gau, 2016) and the works of many other authors in between. The social

structure social learning theory is one of the most widely and empirically tested theories

of crime and deviance [conforming] behavior (Akers, 1970). My research will build on

this approach focusing on conforming behavior of officers to police culture.

Police culture has been studied extensively since Westley’s (1953) dissertation.

The significant portion of the research has been ethnographic centered on police

misconduct or lack of legitimacy among citizens. This study produced the same views

that police culture consists of a us vs. them, code of silence, thin blue line, a coping

mechanism, and a deviant producing behavior (Brough, Chataway, & Biggs, 2016;

Chappell, & Piquero, 2004; Cockcroft, 2012; Crank, J., & Crank, J. P. ,2014; Ingram,

Paoline, & Terrill, 2013; Myhill, & Bradford, 2013; Skolnick, 2008; Van Craen, 2016).

The ethnographic method of the research presents an etic approach that precludes

valuable insight into the phenomenon. A phenomenological method is an emic approach

that produces a clearer understanding of police culture by having it defined and explained

by people living the culture.

It is not crime rates that create problems between citizens and police officers, but

interactions between them that cause a loss of trust (Rosenbaum, Lawrence, Hartnett,

McDevitt, & Posick, 2015). The police become ineffective without the trust and respect

of the community they serve. Chappell & Piquero (2004) studied police misconduct using

Akers social learning theory. Chappell had been a student of Akers and recognized early

the effectiveness of the theory in studying police behavior. Ethnography and deviant

behavior is the most used approach to explore police conduct, and most studies focus on

deviant police behavior. Social learning also has a conforming behavior context often

overlooked when considering how and why police make decisions that cause an

escalation in citizen animosity toward officers. Some researchers believe influence from

the culture is one of the most powerful forces in an officers’ actions (Maskaly & Donner,

2015).

Major Literature Themes

Since the mid-twentieth century the most frequently researched group in business

and industry is the police (Squires, 2015), Studies in sociology, psychology,

organizational structure, and numerous other organizations and disciplines investigate

police behavior. In the beginning, police culture was deemed to be monolithic, or a

culture shared by all officers. Current and later research refutes the concept by finding

uniqueness in various police departments and officers (Alpert, Roject, & Porter, 2012).

The importance of culture in a police officer’s decision making and an agency’s public

image is significant to the identity of both. Because “culture is arguably the product of

organization and management as much as it is the product of one’s inherent personality”

(Van Steden, Van Der Wal, & Lasthuizen, 2015, p. 223).

Studies on the police are often from the perspective of culture (Andersen, &

Papazoglou, 2014; Bayerl., Horton, Jacobs, Rogiest, Reguli, Gruschinske., …& Elliott,

2014; Paoline, 2003). A common theme is the misconduct of police (Chappell, &

Piquero, 2004), or the militarization of police (Dansky,2016; Malmin, 2013). The

organizational culture and psychology of both the organization and officer are frequently

researched (Loftus, 2010; Tyler, Goff, & MacCoun, 2015). Police culture is often

presented as unique from other professional cultures, which results in “virtually no

research on the differences and similarities between the police’s and other professional

groups’ patterns of interaction with the public (Loyens & Maesschalck, 2014, p. 3). Some

recurring themes are adapting officers to community policing (Cordner, 2014), and

relating police culture to organizational culture (Crank, J., & Crank, J. P., 2014). Most of

these studies center on the behavior and attitudes of police toward the public shaped by

deviant behavior acquired in police culture. Many cultural influences shape an officer’s

conduct. The police culture is unique because many consider being a police officer a

calling and not an occupation (Brough, Chataway, & Biggs 2016). Studying culture is an

intricate work because “culture…is an abstract concept, an elusive entity that is

experienced as much as witnessed” (Cockcroft, 2012, p.8) and is in constant change.

Nearly all the studies of police culture focus on the officers’ deviant behavior and

Akers (2011) social structure social learning theory is frequently used to describe officer

behavior. The conforming of officers to the culture has mostly been neglected and

overlooks the importance of understanding the process of conforming to the culture to

institute positive changes in the culture. An individual’s worldview and mindset are at the

core of culture (Hacker, 2015) and is where cultural change begins. Belief modification

starts with overcoming the biases and unsubstantiated beliefs, or belief perseverance

(Douglas, 2000; Savion, 2012) of an individual making acceptance to change difficult.

The major themes in the literature is that police misconduct is the result of police culture

and that continuing (differential) association in the culture produces deviant behavior and

instills resistance to change or to train in new police methods. The culture isolates

officers from the community they serve with an “us vs. them” attitude. Research shows

that police culture affects deviant behavior and decision-making in officers. What is not

known is how conforming behavior can be a method for changing negative behavior to

positive and how to use this tool to improve trust, respect, and legitimacy for officers in

the community.

Akers (2011) states that “conforming and deviant behavior are learned in the same

way” (p. 328) and most research purports individuals conform to deviant behavior as a

learning process. My study looks at the positive factor of conforming to positive

behavior, or if the structure of the group is positive members of that group will conform

to the expectations of that group. Knowledge in developing positive and constructive

behavior in police culture adds a tool to improve trust, respect, and legitimacy of officers

and police departments. If community policing is chosen to improve police and citizen

relationships my research provides direction in gaining officer support for that program.

The culture of the organization is as important as the culture of the individual officer and

guides behavior of both organization and officer not recognizing this factor dooms

change to failure (Alvesson, & Sveningsson, 2015).

Most of the research on the effectiveness and problem-solving ability of police are

compounded by problems with trust, respect, and legitimacy of street-level officers by

citizens in minority communities (Antrobus, Bradford, Murphy, & Sargeant, 2015).

Culture is a significant factor in how citizens and police view each other and have social

circumstances for actions from both sides (Fisk & Taylor, 2013). Police culture is the

focus of much research, but mostly are ethnographic studies with a view of culture as

monolithic or encompassing all ranks and duties as one (Ingram, Paoline, & Terrill,

2013). Many researchers focus on the deviant behavior of police officers and disregard

the importance of conforming behavior. “Conforming and deviant behavior are learned in

the same way…[and] the general process is the same for both” (Akers, 2011, p. 328).

Using a phenomenological method collecting data with interviews will explore the

conforming ability of social structure social learning in police culture. Details of the

methods for achieving this goal are in Chapter 3.

Chapter 3: Research Method

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how culture, both

social and institutional, shape the decision-making of street-level police officers. Leaders

must first recognize that a culture exists in an organization and is an active force in the

success or failure of that organization (Warrick, 2017). This qualitative research was

designed to provide leaders, police commanders, and trainers with an understanding of

how police culture is acquired and evolves through demographics, generations, and

technology. My research can provide information on the methods for changing the

negative aspects of the culture to positive aspects and is based on previous research in

sociology and psychology.

Chapter 3 includes the theory and design chosen to interpret my research. Data

collection consisted of open-ended semi structured interviews from a pool of Tennessee

P.O.S.T. certified police officers. Akers’s (2011) social structure social learning theory

guided the research combined with Colaizzi’s (Morrow, Rodriguez, & King, 2015) seven

steps to analyze the collected data. Participants in the study were not identified by name

or organization, but by a researcher code, sex, race, age, and size of the police department

where they are employed. This method was used to protect the confidentiality of the

participants and to mitigate any possible ethical issues. MAXQDA was used to assist in

analyzing data to identify themes and recurring patterns (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana,

2014) on research questions. All the research methods are reviewed and summarized at

the conclusion of Chapter 3.

Research Design

There are many studies on the deviant behavior produced in a police culture, but

there is a gap in the literature on the conforming aspect of behavior. The social structure

social learning theory gives equal credence to conforming and deviant behavior.

According to Akers (2011), the learning process through social structures and interactions

leads to both conforming and deviant behavior (p. 50). The research questions were

designed to probe the essence of police culture from people currently living in the

culture. The data for this research was gained by the following questions:

RQ1: What does the term police culture mean to you?

RQ2: How does police culture affect your decisions on the job?

RQ3: How were you first introduced to police culture?

RQ4: How do the differences in generations affect the culture?

RQ5: Describe how technology has changed police culture.

RQ6: How comfortable/competent are you with the technology in your

department?

Generations and technology affect changes in police culture and is therefore necessary to

explore questions on these issues.

The central concept of the study is that police culture influences the decisions

made by officers and therefore affects the relationship between officers and the

community. Police culture and the culture of the community have equal effect on the

relationship between the two. The way people or social circumstances are held

responsible for actions has implications for law and morality (Fisk & Taylor, 2013, p. 26)

The research tradition is a phenomenological, nonexperimental, cross-sectional

design with participants selected from a purposeful pool. Husserl’s (1931) views on

transcendental phenomenology guided me in bracketing my personal experience and

purposefully selecting participants with experience in the phenomenon (Creswell, 2013)

of police culture. Husserl identified the term “intentionality” as a core element of

phenomenology:

In the transcendental phenomenon, the intentionality has two dimensions, noema,

and noesis. Noema is the object of experience or action, reflecting the perceptions

and feelings, thoughts and memories, and judgments regarding the object. Noesis

is the act of experience, such as perceiving, feeling, thinking, remembering, or

judging. (Yüksel & Yıldırım, 2015, p. 6)

The core, or intentionality, of my research, is the street-level officer’s experience and

perceptions of police culture. The noema and noesis of intentionality provide the essence

of the experience of police culture and its relationship to officers.

The rationale for choosing Akers’s social structure social learning theory is based

on the use of the theory by other researchers exploring police behavior, and it is widely

recognized and used in criminal justice research. Social structure social learning is used

to investigate the development of conforming or deviant behavior from consistent

(differential) association with a group or groups. My research was focused on why

officers conform to police culture and how the variables of generations and technology

affect and change the culture. In a personal correspondence with Akers, he advised that

social structure social learning is adaptable to the study of conforming behavior.

Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) was considered for my research. In

the social identity theory, an individual identifies with a group, and the group gives the

individual an identity and self-esteem. It is a social psychology theory based on the idea

that individuals define, protect, and strengthen their identities around social groups

(Islam, 2014, p. 1781).

Role of the Researcher

I had the role of a participant/observer because of my experience in law

enforcement and familiarity with the socialization of police officers. This allowed me to

be open to discovery (Patton, 2015, p. 333). The participant/observer role provided the

opportunity to interact with the participants and observe the culture in a personal context

and to look for things that may have been overlooked in previous research. Observational

notes and thoughts were written down using an observational protocol with descriptive

and reflective notes (see Creswell, 2013).

I have no personal relationships with any of the participants who were chosen by

a demographic equation from a pool of volunteers. Discriminant sampling provides

additional information about the culture and support from knowledge gained in

interviews. I had no previous contact with the participants.

Phenomenological qualitative research requires the researcher to become involved

in the study and develop a rapport with the participants. Without empathy and sympathy,

the researcher cannot understand the phenomenon (Patton, 2015). Experience in the

phenomenon could introduce biases of the researcher, which requires bracketing or

setting aside personal experience. Bracketing is the process of a researcher discussing his

or her experience with the phenomenon (Creswell, 2013, p. 78). However, bracketing or

setting aside personal experience may not be completely possible (Heidegger, 1962;

Koch, 1995). But reflexivity helps identify possible personal bias influence in data

collection and analysis of the project and keeping a diary during the research keeps the

researcher focused on the threat of bias (Chan et al., 2013). I answered my research

questions to compare to the collected data searching for signs of bias.

Methodology

The participant population is from a pool of certified law enforcement officers

obtained from a list provided by the Tennessee P.O.S.T. Commission. Officers were

selected to match the national demographics from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (see

Reaves, 2015). The participants were purposefully selected from street-level officers. The

officers work in five different police departments across Tennessee with a range of 15 to

231 officers.

Organizational culture varies among organizations (Shafritz, Ott, & Jang, 2016)

and selecting officers from different departments separated organizational culture from

police culture. My sampling strategy filtered out organizational and prior social cultures

to identify police culture. The answers to some interview questions showed similar

responses, or themes, whereas some questions led to different responses. The answers

with similarity are police culture and dissimilar answers are organizational culture.

Demographics and department size were the criteria used in selecting participants.

The demographics consisted of officers’ sex, race, age, education, military and police

experience. A demographic form was completed by participating officers. Officers were

chosen for interviews based on the national demographics of police officers (see Reaves,

2015). The demographics for police officers in Tennessee was computed by information

on national demographics acquired from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice

Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Washington, DC and is displayed in Table 1.

These demographics were used as a guide in selecting officers for interviews. The

Tennessee P.O.S.T. Commission did not have a demographic breakdown of Tennessee

Officers; therefore, the demographics were calculated using national percentages. All the

officers interviewed are P.O.S.T. certified law enforcement officers at the rank of patrol

officer. The certification is verified by attendance at in-service training at TLETA, and

rank determined from a demographic heading. The interviewees were selected from five

police departments across the state according to the size of the department. Interviewee

represented departments employing from 15 officers to 231 officers, or from a small to a

large police department in Tennessee.

Table 1

Tennessee Police Demographics

Male

White

Female

White

Male

Black

Female

Black

Male

Hispanic

Female

Hispanic

64.2%

12.0%

8.8%

3.4%

10.0%

1.60%

8,719

1,629

1,195

462

1,358

217

Note. Numbers represent total certified Tennessee Officers 13,581

A phenomenological approach is centered on a phenomenon experienced by a

mostly heterogeneous group. There is no specific number of interviews required in

qualitative research, but three to 10 individuals is the norm (Creswell, 2013; Patton,

2015) and more can be selected depending on the research. I selected 12 participants

based on national demographics of police officers published in a report by the Bureau of

Justice Assistance (see Reaves, 2015). The Tennessee P.O.S.T. Commission provided a

list of the number of certified officers in Tennessee, but it was not broken down by

demographics. The list showed 13,581 certified officers in Tennessee. The number of

officers interviewed provides a number of participants to represent the total community

of Tennessee’s certified officers. This is the rationale for the selected number of

participants.

Interviewees were selected from small, medium, and large departments ranging in

size from 15 to 231 officers. A letter of cooperation was obtained from the chiefs of

police of the selected agencies asking for permission to distribute a letter of invitation to

officers to find participants matching the research criteria. The chiefs were advised the

demographic of the officers selected would consist of the sex, race, age and experience

level needed of the interviewee. The interviewees were chosen after reviewing the letters

of invitation demographic heading to determine if they fit the requirements of the

research. Contact information for the interviewees is known only to me, and that

information is stored on a master list kept in a locked safe not accessible to anyone other

than myself.

Data saturation and sample size depend on the research method and approach.

There is much discussion on what is the best sample size for qualitative research. The

sample size in phenomenology can range from three to 15 or more, and data saturation is

reached when no new information is being gained (Creswell, 2013; Fusch & Ness, 2015;

Marshall, Cardon, Poddar, & Fontenot, 2013; Patton, 2015). Triangulation is an excellent

method for knowing when saturation has been obtained and improves the reliability of

the data (Fusch & Ness, 2015).

Instrumentation

The interviews conducted with participants were recorded on a cassette tape

recorder and then transcribed and saved in MAXQDA for analysis. Notes were taken

during the interviews for follow-up questions and coded to extract the most rich and

descriptive responses. Table 2 demonstrates the purpose of the questions.

Table 2

Purpose of Research Questions

Research Questions

Purpose

1. What does police culture mean?

Establish awareness of the culture and

gain officer definition of the phenomena

2.How does police culture affect

decisions?

Determine the level of effect from the

culture on decision-making

3. How were you introduced to the

culture?

Learn a starting point to initiate

retraining emphasizing positive effects

4. How do the differences in

generations affect the culture?

Discover how to bridge gaps in

generational differences to improve

communication and training

5. Describe how technology has

changed police culture.

How much influence does technology

have on the culture and prepare officers

for technological advances

6. How comfortable/competent are you

with the technology in your

department?

Show relationship between generations

and competency with technology and

identify need for technology training

Interviews provided the primary data for the research. Triangulation increases

depth and understanding in addition to establishing validity and confidence (Hussein,

2015). The interviews were member-checked for accuracy, credibility, and any additional

input from interviewees (Weyers, Strydom, & Huisamen, 2014; Creswell, 2013, p.252).

Triangulation is accomplished by a, “mix of interviewing, observation, and document

analysis” (Patton, 2016, p. 316).

I developed an interview protocol to guide the interview (Creswell, 2013). The

interview protocol has several advantages. The protocol ensures the continuity of

fundamental questions during the interview, establishes a checklist to cover the central

subject, and facilitates a comprehensive method for interviewing a number of people

(Patton, 2015) I created all the instruments in the data collection following guidelines

established by Creswell (2013), Maxwell (2013), O’Sullivan, Rassel, and Berner (2008),

and Patton (2015). Transcriptions of recorded interviews were used as a measure of

trustworthiness through a process of member-checking (Harvey, 2015).

The social structure social learning theory has been used in a number of research

projects on police behavior, criminal deviance, juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol

abuse, academic dishonesty, and numerous other areas. According to Akers (2011), “it

is…one of the most widely recognized theories of crime and deviance and has been the

object of a number of empirical studies and critiques” (p. xvi). Social Learning Theory

has been used by Cochran, Maskaly, Jones, and Sellers (2017) in the study of intimate

partner violence. Capece. Lanza-Kaduce (2013) applied the theory to binge drinking

among college students. Bates, Watson, and King (2016) examined learner driver

compliance with road laws with the theory. And Chappell and Piquero (2004) used social

structure social learning theory to explore police misconduct.

Akers Social Structure Social Learning Theory is the most appropriate theory for

exploring the conforming behavior of police culture. Dr. Chappell advised “Akers, like

Sutherland, believes that social learning theory explains any type of learning, not simply

the learning of criminal/deviant behavior,” and that using the theory in my study can also

“explain the learning of conforming behavior rather than deviant behavior” (personal

communication, May 1, 2017). Dr. Akers also confirmed the use of social structure social

learning in my research, “the theory is highly applicable to and does a good job of

explaining police behavior that includes both conforming and deviant police actions”

(personal communication, February 2017).

Validity is a term more appropriate in quantitative research. Qualitative research

uses the terms trustworthiness, authenticity, and credibility (Creswell, 2009) rather than

validity. In my phenomenology, qualitative research validity refers, “to the integrity and

application of the methods undertaken and the precision in which the findings accurately

reflect the data” (Noble & Smith, 2015). A method for checking the accuracy of the data

is through content analysis. There are three approaches to content analysis, conventional,

directed, and summative (Yuen, Knight, Dodson, Ricciardelli, Burney, & Livingston,

2014). The advantage of Conventional Content Analysis is extracting information

directly from the participants through interviews using open-ended questions. Directed

Content Analysis is to validate a theoretical framework or theory. Summative Content

Analysis is more aligned with a quantitative method (Yuen et al., 2014). Triangulation

and member-checking give my research “creditability, authenticity, transferability,

dependability, and confirmability” (Creswell, 2013, p. 246; Harvey, 2014).

Police culture and its effect on decision-making is the central research question in

my project. The context of my research is examining how generations and technology

shape and change the culture. The literature supports the concept of a police culture being

a closed society where members are secretive and suspicious of others outside the culture

(Wickersham, 2016). My experience in law enforcement set a level of trust among the

participants, and a written assurance of confidentiality was instrumental in overcoming

the trust issue. Understanding the unwritten codes of police culture from my own

experience provides a cultural interpretation of the group and phenomenon being

explored (Creswell, 2013).

The literature on studies involving police culture was the impetus for a project

examining the conforming aspects of the culture. Prior research focuses on deviant

behavior. The social learning theory “produces both conforming and deviant behavior”

(Akers, 2011, p. 50). Discussions with colleagues in law enforcement and education

suggested that demographics, generations, and technology have strong influences on the

development and evolution of the culture. These suggestions became a part of the

research to derive a richer, deeper understanding of the police culture phenomenon.

Ingram, Paoline, and Terrill (2013) supported the variable nature of police culture in

writing on the limitations of prior research. The culture is shared by officers with

differing views depending on the shift and assignment officers work. Akers (2011)

suggest that social, structural, and institutional cultures of the individual play a role in

how an individual conforms, or resist, elements of a culture.

The data collection instruments were interviews, observations, and literature

review. Triangulation is used in qualitative research to corroborate findings and test for

validity by using multiple sources (Patton, 2015). Some of the ways to triangulate are

coding different sources, member checking, bracketing, and external audits (Creswell,

2013). Interviews were analyzed for recurring themes and validation of results content.

Additional research was done on aspects of dissimilarity in the responses of the

interviews “identifying and analyzing discrepant data, and negative cases is a key

part…of validity testing” (Maxwell, 2013). These methods established the sufficiency of

the data collection instruments.

I contacted the Tennessee P.O.S.T. Commission for a list of certified police

officers in the state of Tennessee. The P.O.S.T. Commission sent me an excel spreadsheet

of certified officers in each municipality, the number of officers in each municipality, and

if the agency is authorized by the Tennessee Post Commission. There is a total of 13,581

certified officers in the state. The commission did not have this number broken-down in

demographics. I then went to the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs,

Bureau of Justice Statistics and obtained the demographics of officers nationwide. These

statistics were used to establish demographics for Tennessee, and interview participants

were selected representing these demographics. An expert review was done by colleagues

in law enforcement and education examining the interview questions and methods of data

collection and analysis.

The purpose of the expert review was to check the appropriateness of the

instruments to collect the desired data. Reviewers made suggestions to clarify questions,

delete some questions, and add others to improve the quality of the research instruments.

An expert review can provide a researcher with the best method and use of instruments,

and the potential results of the research.

Data were collected from interviews conducted by me. Interviews were conducted

in a location determined by the interviewees who are employed at different law

enforcement agencies across the state. The frequency of the data collection events was

dictated by the availability of officers and their work schedule. Data collection occurred

in January 2018. Interviews were recorded on small cassette tape recorder and later

transcribed. The transcriptions were contained in a computer file. There are over 13,000

certified police officers in Tennessee and if the data collected is insufficient additional

officers will be recruited from a list provided by the Tennessee P.O.S.T. commission.

The participants exited the study by reviewing the consent form that provided

information on how to contact me and/or Walden University if there were any additional

questions, concerns, or complaints. Participants were advised they would be contacted

after the interviews were transcribed so they may review their responses and give any

clarification or additional information concerning their interview. This is one step in

member-checking. The participants in this study were not from a vulnerable group and

were advised from the beginning of the process of my prior law enforcement experience.

A letter was written to each participant thanking them for their participation and

emphasizing the importance of their contribution to the study (Morrison, Gregory, &

Thibodeau, 2012). Participants were advised they would be contacted when their

interviews were transcribed for their review and clarifying questions.

The central research question on police culture was specifically asked at the

beginning of the interview. Sub-questions were designed to identify variables that effect

police culture, e.g. generational differences and technology use. The interviewees

provided demographic information indicating sex, race, age, and police experience.

Participants were selected in part by race and sex representing the national percentages.

Data Analysis Plan

The specific research question is how police culture effects decision-making.

Colazzi’s (1978) seven-step method of descriptive phenomenological data analysis was

used to analyze the data. In the first step, the interviews are read several times and the

researcher’s own experience with the phenomenon is considered and noted in a reflective

diary. Significant statements and phrases locations are noted, coded, and formulated into

meanings. Structures begin to appear as formulated meanings display themes. Findings

were refined as redundant, misused, or unrelated data is deleted but filed for possible use

later. Member checking was then used to validate the findings (Shosha, 2012).

Coding is the engine for analyzing qualitative data. The number of codes is

unlimited and can become difficult to manage if there are too many codes. Coding is

more manageable using computer software, and I chose MAXQDA to assist in my

research. Codes are identified by categories, words, or colors. Some of the codes I used

were culture, generations, technology, impact, theory, and a few others. I can view and

print selected text from any or all codes in an excel spreadsheet that provides a quick

visual of how the codes are interacting.

Discrepant or outlier data is more often associated with quantitative research but

has an established foundation in qualitative research (McPherson, & Thorne, 2006).

Some of the reasons for discrepant or outlier data is the research question was possibly

faulty or unclear, an error in transcription, or sampling error. Patton (2015) uses the term

“negative cases” and advocates searching for these cases. “They may broaden

understanding of the pattern, change the conceptualization of the pattern, or cast doubt on

the pattern altogether” (p. 654). Negative cases should be investigated to learn how and

why they occurred. Negative cases and discrepant data can be treated by member

checking, examining how great the distance is from the data point to the outlier, and

triangulation. In most cases, the outlier is discarded after careful examination. I created a

code for discrepant/outlier data and retained it for possible revaluation later.

The terms to describe accuracy in qualitative research differs from those in

quantitative research. Trustworthiness in qualitative research is equated to rigor,

credibility to internal validity, transferability to external validity, dependability to

reliability, and confirmability to objectivity (Patton, 2015). Triangulation is a common

method for proofing qualitative research. Triangulation in my study is achieved by

experts in education and law enforcement working together reviewing the study.

Identifying my position in the research by bracketing or epoch and describing my

experience as a police officer with the police culture. Member checking by revisiting the

interview participants to review and critique the transcriptions of their interview.

Identifying and investigating negative cases, or outliers.

Transferability

Transferability is akin to external validity (Patton, 2015). Sampling affects the

external validity and generalizability of the research (O’Sullivan, Rassel & Berner, 2008).

Transferability and external validity are accomplished if the methods of a research project

can be replicated or transferred to other groups (Krupnikov, & Levine, 2014). My

research included many aspects of Industrial/Organization Psychology and organizational

culture and can be easily transferred to organizational subgroups. Substituting the word

for police for any organization and my methods can be transferred to the research of other

organizational cultures. Technology and generations are also applicable for studies of

other organizational cultures. Strategies for establishing transferability include prolonged

engagement, triangulation, peer review, member checking, bracketing, thick description,

and external audits (Creswell, 2013).

Dependability

Dependability is used in qualitative research instead of the quantitative term

reliability (Chowdhury, 2015). Consistency is another term for dependability.

Triangulation is one method to establish dependability by, combining interviews,

observations, and purposeful sampling (Patton, 2015). The use of triangulation and the

multiple ways involved provides a deeper, richer understanding of the phenomenon.

Confirmability

Confirmability is used to mitigate researcher bias, or in quantitive terms to show

objectivity. Triangulation is one strategy to establish confirmability. Another is creating

an audit trail of the research by journal notes or diagrams, or any method that would

allow an uninvolved party to follow the development of the study (Shenton, 2004).

Coding

Coding is “the heart of qualitative analysis” (Creswell, 2013, p. 184). Emergent

and priori coding was used in establishing an analysis process for my research in addition

to keeping a journal and memos. I was the only researcher coding the data (Intracoder),

and reliability is achieved by multiple observations of the intracoder. The first step in

Colaizzi’s seven-step method is to read and re-read each transcript. The seventh step is

having research participants read transcripts of their interviews and compare their

statements with the researcher’s descriptions (Colaizzi, 1978), or member-checking and

confirms the accuracy of the data. “Conformability of findings means that the data

accurately represent the information that the participants provided, and the interpretations

of those data are not invented by the Inquirer” (Elo, Kääriäinen, Kanste, Pölkki,

Utriainen, & Kyngäs, 2014, p. 5).

All the research participants were advised verbally and by written document

(consent form, letter of invitation) of the purpose and method of the research, why they

were being asked to participate, how their identity is protected, the nature of any potential

risk, and the ability to withdrawn from the research at any time without cause and have

their information and replies destroyed in their presence (Patton, 2015). All research

instruments and their application were presented overtly ensuring all participants had a

complete understanding of the process in compliance with Withdrawal from the

Research.

Ethics

Ethics were considered through each phase of the research beginning with an

email to the Tennessee P.O.S.T. Commission requesting a list of certified officers. An

informed consent form and letter of invitation fully stated the purpose of the research, my

prior law enforcement experience (bracketing), and central questions to be asked. The

Informed Consent Form provides several forms of protection for the participants. The

form shows respect for the participant, informs about the nature of the research before

consent, and assures no coercion is involved in participating and all association with the

study is voluntary. These assurances are continually made throughout the study and the

issues of risk, reward, and benefit are clearly stated (Halai, 2006).

Participants were advised in the consent form that they may withdraw from the

research at any time without cause, explanation. A web-based training course in

“Protecting Human Research Subjects” conducted by the National Institutes of Health

was completed on 17 Jan 2017 (Appendix C). Some possible steps to see and respond to

adverse events are checking for representativeness, checking for researcher effects,

triangulating, weighing the evidence, checking rival explanations, and member checking

(Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2013).

Interview data is stored on a USB, and the recordings of the interviews are on

individual cassettes for each participant. Transcripts of the interviews are also in a paper

file with the participants identified only by a code and demographic. All of this data is

locked in a combination safe and only I have the combination. All the data will be

destroyed after five years in compliance with Walden University instructions “Students

are required to maintain all raw data—interview tapes, spreadsheets, questionnaire

results, and so forth—for no less than five years upon completion of their dissertation”

(Walden University, 2016, p. 16).

Summary

The purpose of my research is to determine the influence of police culture on an

officer’s decision making, and how generations and technology affects the culture. The

theory, design, data collection instruments, and data analysis of my research is discussed

in Chapter 3. Akers (2011) Social Structure Social Learning theory guided the research

and analysis combined with Colaizzi's (Morrow, Rodriguez, & King, 2015) seven steps

method to analyze the collected data. These two processes are frequently used by

researchers to explore questions about police. Exploratory in-depth interviews were

conducted with participants selected from a purposive sampling pool.

Akers (2011) social structure social learning theory focuses on the deviant

behavior of police, but it can also highlight the conforming behavior of officers. My

research is centered on conforming behavior. Phenomenology is the approach used to

gain knowledge about police culture from the people who are living in the culture

through stories of events making decisions. Sample size, data collection and analysis, and

bracketing are phenological methods used in my research (Creswell, 2013). Credibility,

transferability, dependability, and confirmability achieved the internal and external

validity of the study (Patton, 2015).

Ethical standards and protecting the participants was a constant concern, and the

guidelines in the Belmont Report (1978) of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice

were followed before, during and after the course of the research. Understanding the

concepts and meanings of the Belmont Report was demonstrated by completing an online

program by the National Institutes of Health (2017). The primary directive of social

science research of do no harm guided every contact with participants. The

confidentiality of the participants and the security of the data provided is expressed in

consent forms. The choice to withdraw from the research is explained in the consent form

and assurance to the participant of no consequences for withdrawing as stated in 45 CFR

46.116.

Transition

Interviews were transcribed and entered in MAXQDA for analysis. Priori codes

culture, generations, and technology were established with the opening of the software.

Research literature and interviews were coded during and after the acquisition of the data.

Colaizzi’s (1978) seven-step method for analysis was used in addition to MAXQDA and

Aker’s (2011) Social Structure Social Learning to extract the most accurate meanings of

the data. The methods and processes are fully explained in Chapter 4.

Chapter 4: Results

Introduction

The culture of an organization is an integral and important characteristic of that

organization’s members. Organizational culture influences the occupational decisions

made by members and sets standards for expectations of behavior in the organization.

Alvesson and Sveningsson (2015) explain,

Culture does not refer to social structures and behaviour but in contrast to mental

phenomena such as how individuals within a particular group think about and

value the reality in similar ways and how this thinking and valuing is different

from that of people in different groups. (p. 36)

This qualitative study of police culture was designed to provide insight into the influence

on decision-making shaped by police culture, and the impact of technology and

generations on the culture. The significance of police culture on officers is best

ascertained from people living in the culture. because “Culture is shaped by history

(and)…people’s experiences” (Whelan, 2016, p. 591). A phenomenological approach

was determined to be the best method of learning the intricacies of the composition of

police culture and “recovering the living moment of the now” (Patton, 2015, p. 115). This

was achieved by interviewing 12 officers who are currently living the phenomenon.

Setting

Settings for the interviews varied because the interviews took place in different

locations with different departments. Interviews were done at a police station in a

conference room or private office. The room could be locked to prevent interruption or

distraction. The choice of locations was made by the participants. There were no outside

influences or traumatic events that could impact the study during the time of the

interviews. All participants were off-duty at the time of their participation and advised

they were comfortable and secure in the interview location.

Table 3

Data Source Agencies Population and Demographics

Agency

Commissioned Officers

Demographics

Agency A

231

1MW, 1MB, 1MH, 1FB

Agency B

2MW, 1FW

Agency C

2MW

Agency D

1MW, 1FW

Agency E

1MW

Agency A employed the largest number of officers of the five agencies

participating. Four officers were selected from Agency A because all the demographic

scale was covered in that agency. The purpose of interviewing four officers from one

agency was to determine if the sex, race, and age of an officer in the same agency

influenced the views about police culture. Officers’ responses to the research questions

were similar with the vocabulary of the individual officers’ being the only noticeable

variation. I attempted to gain the participation of larger departments, but the invitation

was declined without explanation. This difference between large and small departments,

or organizations, influences the community’s impression of the department. Large and

small police departments and the operational culture may differ and “impact the

existence of negative aspects of police culture” (Anderson & Papazoglou, 2014, p. 183).

My research showed that the smaller the department the more involved officers were with

the community, the more accessible the chief, and the more positive the relationship.

Demographics

The participants consisted of 12 officers at the rank of patrolman. The

demographics are male White 64.2%, female White 12.0%, male Hispanic 10.0%, male

Black 8.8%, and female Black 3.4%. These numbers represent the national demographics

of police officers. Female Hispanics comprise 1.6% of nationwide officers and were not

included in my research because of an even lower percentage in Tennessee. Seven male

Whites were selected for this research to represent the national average of 64.2% in

addition to two female Whites, one male Black, one male Hispanic, and one female Black

to represent the other percentages. The experience level ranged from 5 to 26 years. The

educational level of the participants spanned from one semester of college to one PhD,

and four bachelor’s degrees. All participants had some level of college education. Two

participants had military experience. The number of officers in the responding police

departments extended from 15 to 231 officers. All the respondents had worked nonpolice

jobs before becoming police officers. Those jobs consisted of construction, apartment

maintenance, corrections, military, college professor, factory worker, dispatcher, and golf

course manager. Two officers became involved in law enforcement in college and

through a police department explorer program and have not held any other jobs. All the

participants are married with children and one officer’s spouse is a federal agent.

Data Collection

Data collection was begun after receiving approval from Walden’s IRB (approval

number is 02-21-28-0562795). Phone calls and e-mails were sent to approving authorities

to acquire participants. A schedule for interviews with volunteers meeting the research

criteria was established and data collection began on Wednesday, March 7, 2018 and

continued through Monday, April 9, 2018. Twelve officers from five police agencies

were interviewed during this time. Interviews were conducted in-person using a semi

structured interview guide to focus on the research questions, facilitate new information,

and follow up on questions (see Patton, 2015). I assigned each participant an alpha

numeric code to maintain their confidentiality. This code was used to identify the

recorded interview and transcripts of the interviews.

Gaining approving authority assistance from law enforcement agencies was

essential in locating participants for the research. Initial contact with a potential police

agency’s approving authority was made by phone. I identified myself as a retired police

officer and briefly explained the theme of my research and requested an in-person

meeting. An e-mail was sent to the approving authority consisting of the research

questions, letter of cooperation, letter of invitation, and individual consent form, and the

desired demographics of volunteer participants. After meeting with the approving

authority, a letter of cooperation was obtained. The meetings were concluded by leaving

letters of invitation to be distributed among officers in the cooperating departments. The

letters of invitation contained my phone number and e-mail contact. The letters were

distributed among officers in the cooperating agencies. Approving authorities knew the

pool of potential participants but did not know who was selected to participate or their

responses to the research questions. Officers considering participating in the research

contacted me by phone. I collected demographic data from the potential participant,

discussed the research, and answered any concerns the officer might about participating.

Twelve officers were selected from the pool of volunteers and the determination of how

many officers from each agency was made according to the size of the agency and the

demographic composition.

The interviews began with participants reading the consent form and the interview

questions (Appendix D). Participants agreed to the interview being recorded on a cassette

recorder and me making written notes during the interview. Each interview lasted

approximately 30 minutes. I used in-vivo codes, or exact names (see Creswell, 2013)

during the interviews to alert me to emerging themes. The recorded interviews were

transcribed, and each participant read the transcript of their interview, made changes or

corrections if needed and approved the transcript. The transcripts were entered into

MAXQDA and color coded for analysis. Transcribing the interviews myself provided the

opportunity to hear the participant’s responses several times, which is the first step in the

Colaizzi (1978) method of reading and re-reading the transcript. During the interviews

while making in-vivo notes themes were noted being repeated by several of the

participants. Table 4 depicts the most common responses to the research questions.

Table 4

Research Question Recurring Themes

Research Question

Interview Response

Frequency Rank

1. What does the term

police culture mean to

you?

Family

Looking out

for each

other

Outsiders do

not

understand

police

2. How does police culture

affect your decisions on the

job?

Makes me more

suspicious of people

More alert to my

surroundings

Minimal effect on

decisions

3. How were you first

introduced to police

culture?

First day in the

academy

Field Training

Officer

Working the streets

4. How do differences in

generations affect the

culture?

Focused on goals and

advancement

Less confident of

their ability

Impatient, do not

listen to older officers

5. Describe how

technology has changed

police culture.

Is changing the “us

vs. them” mentality

Is challenging the

“code of silence”

Gives advantages to

younger officers

6. How

comfortable/competent are

you with the technology in

your department?

Very comfortable

Comfortable

Pretty good

Data Analysis

Data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s (1978) 7-step method and using a software

program in MAXQDA. Interviews and literature were entered in MAXQDA and color-

coded according to subject matter or theme. The codes covered general culture, police

culture, organizational culture, generations, technology, interviews, and memos. The

software arranged the information in spreadsheets that could be compared and

incorporated into a master spreadsheet. This permitted a ready reference to the collected

data and analysis by the Colaizzi method. I began a tertiary analysis while taking notes

during the interviews and continued analyzing responses while typing the transcripts.

Common themes, words, and phrases began to appear during this process and was very

useful when actual analysis began.

I had read each interview transcript several times while doing the transcriptions

but read each one again several times according to Colaizzi’s Step 1. The transcripts were

read again when the participants reviewed the transcript of their interview (member-

checking) and some very minor corrections were made in a couple of the transcripts, but

most were approved by the participant as it was written. The transcripts were entered in

MAXQDA where significant statements and/or recurring themes were coded under

“Interviews.” This is the second step in the Colaizzi method and adds strength to the

credibility of the research. The themes and statements were posted in one or more of the

codes “Police Culture,” Organizational Culture,” “Generations,” and “Technology.”

These are the third and fourth steps in the Colaizzi method of locating significant

meanings and formulating meanings into categories and themes (Creswell, 2013).

Colaizzi’s fifth and sixth step in data analysis is exhaustive description by coding

topics, comparing themes and bridging meanings (Wojnar & Swanson, 2007). Statements

were taken from interview transcripts and coded according to the research questions and

entered in MAXQDA. Repeated word and phrases were located that were common in

each transcript and entered in MAXQDA. A spreadsheet was developed combining all

this data with associated data from the literature. The spreadsheet illustrated the

“essence” of the data and the fundamental structure of the phenomenon of police culture.

There were no changes in the final description of the essence of the phenomenon by any

of the participants (Colaizzi’s seventh step), but some grammatical and repeated

sentences (typographical) errors were corrected. These corrections did not add or change

the meaning of the phenomenon.

Evidence of Trustworthiness

In qualitative research terms used to achieve trustworthiness differs from those

expressed in quantitative research. The words, credibility, transferability, dependability,

and confirmability in qualitative research are used in place of validation, generalizability,

reliability, and objectivity in quantitative research (Creswell, 2013). Achieving validity

for a qualitative researcher is finding “grounds for distinguishing accounts that are

credible from those that are not” (Maxwell, 2012, p. 122) and is accomplished by

triangulation, member-checks, and rich thick descriptions (Creswell, 2013).

Credibility

Credibility is the first step in establishing trustworthiness and confidence in the

data. A method to establish credibility is triangulation, which consist of interviewing,

member-checking, observation, and document/literature analysis (Patton, 2015). The pros

and cons of triangulation are “strong similarities could be viewed as a validation of the

data or conclusions, while incongruencies would be indicative of either one or more

faulty procedures or data sets” (Weyers., Strydom., & Huisamen, A. 2014). Establishing

confidence in the research is the primary purpose of credibility and assesses the strength

of the data to the intent of the research (Elo, et al, 2014). Rigor is a word that relates to

the credibility of the research and can be achieved by triangulation, or by using several

sources for data collection. One method is clarifying researcher bias, or epoch, meaning

the researcher addresses past experiences, biases, or prejudices that may affect

interpretation of the data. Member-checking is returning to the participants for an

assessment of the accuracy of their information (Creswell, 2013). Using Colaizzi’s seven-

step process for analyzing data incorporates many of the steps for acquiring credibility in

the data. Constantly reviewing the data strengthens the researcher’s understanding of the

content of the data and the trustworthiness of the research.

The questions in Table 5 were not the focus of this research but are found in the

literature and by participants during their responses to the main questions and are

presented as an example of a triangulation method. This table is the result of doing the

transcriptions myself and re-reading the data several times finding additional information.

Table 5

Similarities Between Interviews and Literature

Culture

Literature

Interview

Agree

Interview

Disagree

“us vs them”

Rose, T., & Unnithan, P.

(2015).

Wickersham, E. (2016).

Terrill, Paoline, & Gau

(2016).

Brough, P., Chataway, S.,

& Biggs, A. (2016).

Squires, P. (2015)

P112

P416

P454

P566

P11

P209

P388

P186

P231

P350

P515

P602

brotherhood, family

Stoughton, S. (2016)

Skolnick, J. (2008)

Malmin, M. (2013).

Scaramella, G., Cox, S., &

McCamey, W. (2010)

P11

P112

P186

P209

P350

P416

P454

P566

P602

P231

P388

P515

not a job, a calling

Stoughton, S. (2016).

Loftus, B. (2010).

Squires, P. (2015).

Westley, W. (1953).

P602

P566

P11

P112

P186

P209

P231

P416

P350

P388

P454

P515

code of silence

Skolnick, J. (2008).

Morin, R., Parker, K.,

Stepler, R., & Mercer, A.

(2017).

Schlosser, M., Cha-Jua, S.,

Valgoi, M., & Neville, H.

(2015).

Myhill, A., & Bradford, B.

(2013).

P11

P350

P454

P566

P112

P186

P209

P388

P416

P515

P602

Literature supports the concept of “us vs them” only 33.3% of the officers agree,

while 66.7% disagree. The literature supports the view that officers see their group as a

brotherhood or family and 75.0% of officers agree with 25.0% disagreeing. Literature

favors officers thinking of the job as a calling, but only 16.6% of officers agree while

83.7% disagree. Finally, literature believes the “code of silence” exist and 33.3% of

officers agree with 66.7% disagreeing. The officer’s views show similarity with

agreement or disagreement on each question. The disagreement with the literature

indicates a shift in cultural values in the 21st century.

Transferability

Transferability means “emphasizing how things that are learned in one context

can be applied to another context” (Rudestam, & Newton, 2014, p.61). Transferability is

accomplished if the methods of the research can be replicated in other research as

explained in Chapter 3. The questions on police culture can be transferred to

organizational culture because the police are essentially an organization based not only

on industrial/business models but military organizations. Technology and generations are

also applicable for studies of other organizational cultures due to the advancement in

technology and cultural shifts in generations. Using my research design and methods can

be transferred and utilized in similar organizational research.

Dependability

Consistency is another term for dependability. Triangulation is one method to

establish dependability by, combining interviews, observations, and purposeful sampling

(Patton, 2015). These overlapping methods contributed to the dependability of the

research. The data were tracked by a spreadsheet in MAXQDA, review of the transcripts

by the participants (member-checking) and coding cross-referencing. I was the intracoder

for all data minimizing complications with interpretations.

Confirmability

Qualitative confirmability equates to quantitive objectivity and to ensure the

findings are of the participants and not the bias of the researcher (Shenton, 2004).

Confirmability of my research was achieved by bracketing (epoch), member-checking,

and reflective notes during and after data collection. Colaizzi’s seven-step data analysis

method reinforced confirmability.

Results

There were six research questions in a semi-structured format presenting the same

questions to twelve volunteer participants selected from five police agencies and

matching national demographics. Semi structured interviews are versatile, flexible and

enables follow-up questions to gain additional information and insight of the question

(Kallio, Pietilä, Johnson., & Kangasniemi, 2016). Participant responses to the research

questions are displayed in Table 6.

Table 6

Participant Responses to Research Questions

Question

Participant Code

1. What does police culture

mean to you?

• P11. When I think of police culture, the word “brotherhood” immediately comes to mind.

• P112. There is this general sense of we in the occupation have to band together, lean on each other, and

get ourselves through all that negative weight that we carry to a fault.

• P186. Police culture would be things that you would basically have to be a police officer to know and

understand. The way we think. And you have to basically be a badge carrying member to understand,

or a family member, to understand.

• P209.Establish a set of norms that guide expected behavior in most circumstances and encourage

certain types of decision-making while discouraging others.

• P231. We share a common interest and common understanding.

• P350. I don’t know really. Is that like the culture of us, the brotherhood?

• P388. The way you do things and people that do it know where you’re coming from. They know what

I’m experiencing, and the general public doesn’t understand that or your thinking of things.

• P416. When I go out to eat I always set with my back against the wall. I constantly play scenarios in

my head.

• P454. That would be the overall ideas and attitudes that police officers share in common. It’s kinda of

like a fraternity or sorority, we share certain common ideas and beliefs about, just about everything.

• P515. It’s not the same as it used to be. Now everything has to be handled by a supervisor.

• P566. I think of a family, it is very family orientated as far as we all try to look out for each other. The

culture is try to have each other’s back on the road.

• P602. Family. I look at the other officers as part of my family. It is one of those things that you make

sure you back everybody up, even if you don’t like him, you make sure you are there, you know if they

call for help you get there.

(table continues)

Question

Participant Code

2. How does police culture

effect your decisions?

• P11. I did not begin my law enforcement career until I was 31 years old. I think my career has minimal

effect, if any on my decisions.

• P112. I would probably say very little. Reason being is you have policies and procedures and how you

are supposed to react to various situations or address various problems and that's how me personally I

approach things and what is expected of me in my job.

• P186. I would say so, cause you have to second guess yourself sometime. You want to make a decision,

but you also have to look at the big picture.

• P209. There are societal expectations of us that are almost constantly evolving there is a base level of

expectation. Anyone who does this job has immediate superiors and there are constant reminders every

day of not only being careful as we do our jobs, but to do our jobs professionally and to do them well.

• P231. I have seen more, I’ve done more than I had then, so, to answer that and say no would be a lie.

Yes, I’ve changed but only because I know more.

• P350. I think that’s where the public’s perception of us is really bad is that they think that we enforce

laws that we break when we are not working. And don’t get me wrong a lot of police officers do get

arrested for breaking the law. Back in the old days they used to cover each other there ain’t nobody up

here doing that now.

• P388. I try to communicate with people on their level, I don’t try to belittle nobody, I try to talk to

everybody on the same wave length.

• P416. Every call you got to play a scenario to make you well aware of your surroundings when you get

there.

• P454. I try to treat everybody with fairness and respect, until they give me a reason not to. You ask

somebody nicely, then tell them to do it, and if at that point they still don’t want to then you physically

have to make them, basically make them respect your authority.

• P515. I don’t think it does.

• P566. I think that not everybody is suspect or out to harm us, but you always have to be on your guard

and know that at any moment someone can turn and want to hurt you.

• P602. Each situation is different, but if they have to go, then they just have to go. If it is something

small and they are honest about it and they tell you up front, I might be able to let them go.

(table continues)

Question

Participant Code

3. How were you introduced

to the culture?

• P11. A recruit is introduced to police culture at some level on day one. Field Training Officers (FTO’s)

have the most influence on police culture.

• P112. For each person its different. I don't know that you really get a full concept of what you got

yourself into till well after you been through your training, and you've been through the academy, and

you're out on you own, and you're just out doing the work on a daily basis.

• P186. I would say through the police explorer program, because they had us in the cars with the cops.

• P209. A friend of mine who had been involved in law enforcement for many years approached me

about the reserve deputy program. I got to work with the guys and see what they see on a daily basis.

• P231. When I was a rookie the first day it was like if I put my hands on somebody, you better put your

hands on. It was my first day in the car with my field training officer.

• P350. I think it was when you were first hired it is a kind of give me that if they get in a scrap you

better be in the scrap too.

• P388. My step-father was in law enforcement and he was probably the biggest influence on me.

• P416. When I first got hired, when I was in my FTO program.

• P454. I did a ride along and the more I rode with them I learned that if an officer called for help you

help, and if this happens you do this, and this is how us guys bond together.

• P515. Probably once I got on the street. It was probably once I already got cut loose.

• P566. My mom has always worked in and around juvenile services and there were male judges,

sheriff’s deputies and officers and growing up I always knew all of them because my mom worked

with all of them.

• P602. Police culture was first introduced when I started in corrections. I didn’t ride with anybody

before I went to the academy, but you kinda talk and hear things from other in the academy but as soon

as you come back that all goes out the window.

(table continues)

Question

Participant Code

4. How do differences in

generations affect the

culture?

• P11. Younger officers with less experience tend to be focused more on individual goals and advancement. Many

younger officers are not skilled in the art of using informants. They tend to be stat driven and competitive.

• P112. I think to whether you are in police work or not if you grew up the 50s, 60s, 70s, just your upbringing in general is

different than a person like me who was born in the 80s, and maybe didn't experience the harder times that the older

generation did. I have seen exceptions to that, both ways, but I think it could go either way.

• P186. They are not reliable.

• P209. Some of the younger guys I have seen come in choose this career for themselves it is something they want to do

but their norms and standards are guided more by a different culture when they grew up than the one I grew up in. So,

they just naturally have different attitudes not about the work we do, but the work itself and priorities in life.

• P231. I think they’re less respectful. The newer generation when they come in (is different) than when I came in if you

see another officer and he is senior to you, whether he had stripes or bars you respect them. Now it’s different the newer

generation generally they don’t care if you have been here twenty-years if you don’t have sergeant strips you’re nobody.

• P350. They’re just like the rest of what we call the snowflakes. They think everything should be handed to them. They

don’t have any respect.

• P388. To me the younger guys handle it differently. The younger generation does not take criticism that well. That’s my

perspective with the ones I have had to deal with.

• P416. It’s one of those things these younger officers are going to end up getting another officer hurt or hurt themselves.

A lot of these officers are very skittish. There are of couple of officers out there that I would not want to be on a call

with. I think a lot of these younger officers are too passive.

• P454. When I first started I had a lot of older officers and I felt like I had to prove myself and show them I could handle

myself and I could handle the call and make my own decisions…for good and bad reasons they (new generation) have

developed some different social skills. They are more about talking through things and socializing, where the older

generation was showing their authority by talking things out.

• P515. They are different when I came on, but at the same time I think that is a society thing as well. I think a lot of

officers before me lived to work and not work to live. I think a lot more guys come in here and it’s just a job, and this is

a job, but it’s more than a job.

• P566. I think officers from an older generation had, I don’t know if I want to use respect, they had a different way of

showing respect to people. Younger generations that are coming into law enforcement treat people differently than I

have seen with older generation officers… (they are) less polite and less civil it is more matter of fact and to the

point…there is still some respect just given what we do we want to show respect to the general public.

• P602. Some of them (millennials) come in with the entitlement (attitude) like, oh, I want to have the best car, and I

should have the best car, and I should have this, and I should have that. And it one of those things you just go, no that’s

not how that stuff rolls.

(table continues)

Question

Participant Code

5. Describe how

technology has changed

police culture.

• P1. This new technology challenged the code of silence that once existed. Officers are instantly held accountable for

their actions. Another way in which technology has impacted police culture is the misinterpretation of cell phone videos.

As the negative social media gains steam, police officers feel hated and the “us vs. them” mentality grows.

• P112. I just try to operate the same no matter who I'm around or whether they are recording me or not, but I can

definitely see how you would hesitate during some decision-making if you knew that decision was going to be

documented even if you decided to go back and reassess later.

• P186. I don’t use social media. What I use on my work phone is the criminal justice portal.

• P209. They can cause the culture to adapt. In some ways it encourages us to change the culture more to a level of

consciousness that we didn’t have before in terms of the actions that we choose. It can also mold the culture in terms of

our being aware of the need to look out for each other in a different way than we did before.

• P231. It has made a big difference in how police officers respond. A lot of the other guys second guess a lot of stuff.

Some of the older guys you know, you just do what you need to do to get the person, to make the arrest, whatever, to

resolve the issue.

• P350. I think technology is getting a bunch of officers killed, that’s my opinion. I was just in an incident last Monday

where I almost got myself killed because of this camera (body camera). I was so worried what this camera was going to

show later that I really didn’t take care of business, and I almost let a 6’7”, 304 pound, twenty-five-year-old kill me.

• P388. I remember an incident where me and another officer here a couple years back (responded) to a burglary of a

house…I look down the road and I see a bunch of cell phones out people videotaping me with my gun out. I did what I

had to do to make sure I go home to my family, that’s all I worry about. Everything can be explained at a later time. Its

aggravating to a degree.

• P416. In a way it’s a good thing, but also a bad thing. Sometimes some officers are too aware of their surroundings

instead of dealing with what’s in front of them then they start playing how am I going to approach this.

• P454. I rely technology significantly more than some of the older officers. I can check to see if there are warrants even

before I even make a traffic stop, so if the computers go down I have to get back to basic policing in making traffic

stops.

• P515. I think it has. Not that they are doing anything wrong, but you get a camera stuck in your face you are

unconscientiously probably second judge yourself…. I think, not so much cameras, but social media has had a huge

effect on law enforcement probably in a more negative way.

• P566. I think it can have an effect on people… I think it makes you aware that you really need to study up and know the

law that you are enforcing. I think it makes us as officers more aware of what we are doing. It kinda can be an inhibiter

as far as your decision making, I think it slows our decision-making process down a little bit because we’re trying to

second guess how it’s going to look on camera.

• P602. It actually hasn’t changed anything that I’ve done.

(table continues)

Question

Participant Code

6. How

comfortable/competent

are you with the

technology in your

department?

• P11. I have no problems with it. I use my personal computer all the time and text-messaging on the cell

phone and several other aps. All our reports are on the department computer and I use it several times a day.

• P112. Fairly competent I would say for what we have, our video cameras and what not.

• P186. When I got here they were just doing baby steps starting out. In the department I came from everyone

had issued computers and all its tools. Since I got here they’ve got everything up to national standards.

• P209. In terms of operation very comfortable. We get well trained on everything we do.

• P231. I’ve actually gotten pretty good with it.

• P350. I love the computers, we have live real time computer stuff. It’s kinda a double-edged sword we have

this technology and it’s great, but when it doesn’t work then you are automatically presumed as somethings

wrong.

• P388. I wish the computer was more up-to-date than what we have. I would like to see more technology in

here I think it could be beneficial and make more time for doing things pertaining to patrol.

• P416. Very comfortable. It keeps officers on the street.

• P454. I am more comfortable than a lot of other people.

• P515. Comfortable, we have the online web-based reporting, but there are certain aspects of it that if you

don’t use every day, but as far as doing the report I feel comfortable.

• P566. Comfortable and competent.

• P602. Yeah, I wish we had some more. We just got computers in the car just last year I think and I’m glad we

got them.

The core question to my research is What does police culture mean to you?

Participants used a variety of expressions to explain what the culture means but the most

frequently used word was family followed by brotherhood, the way things are done,

leaning on each other, the way we think. During my time as a police officer I never

thought about a police culture but understood an expectation of behavior. There was no

verbal or written explanation of the expected behavior but failing to back up an officer or

avoiding a dangerous call quickly lead to being ostracized by other officers. Drinking on

duty or stealing resulted in other officers refusing to ride with that officer. The concept

was more a code of conduct than a culture. In explaining organizational culture Aamodt

(2010) said, “this (organizational culture) establishes workplace norms of appropriate

behavior, what’s right and wrong, and defines roles and expectations” (p. 522). Most

officers agree with this definition. This question establishes the officer’s awareness of a

police culture and invites support or criticism of the various aspects of police culture.

• P11. When I think of police culture, the word “brotherhood” immediately

comes to mind.

• P112. There is this general sense of we in the occupation have to band

together.

• P186. The way we think. And you have to basically be a badge carrying

member to understand, or a family member, to understand.

• P209. Establish a set of norms that guide expected behavior in most

circumstances.

• P231. We share a common interest and common understanding.

• P350. I don’t know really.

• P388. The way you do things and people that do it know where you’re coming

from.

• P416. When I go out to eat I always set with my back against the wall. I

constantly play scenarios in my head.

• P454. It’s kinda of like a fraternity or sorority, we share certain common ideas

and beliefs about, just about everything.

• P515. It’s not the same as it used to be. Now everything has to be handled by

a supervisor.

• P566. I think of a family.

• P602. Family. I look at the other officers as part of my family.

The second question, How does police culture effect your decisions, was designed

to determine if and to what extent a police culture effected the decisions made by

officers. Aker’s (2011) theory of Social Learning Social Structure suggest the

socialization of an individual is social learning “from parents, peers, and others, and take

on as their own concepts of the right and wrong things to say and do in given contexts”

(p. 73). Responses from participants to this question show a stronger influence from prior

socialization than from association with officers. The wide range of answers from the

participants strengthens this assumption.

• P11. I did not begin my law enforcement career until I was 31 years old. I

think my career has minimal effect, if any on my decisions.

• P112. you have policies and procedures and how you are supposed to react to

various situations.

• P186. You want to make a decision, but you also have to look at the big

picture.

• P209. there are constant reminders every day of not only being careful as we

do our jobs, but to do our jobs professionally and to do them well.

• P388. I don’t try to belittle nobody, I try to talk to everybody on the same

wave length.

• P454. I try to treat everybody with fairness and respect, until they give me a

reason not to.

• P515. I don’t think it does.

• P566. you always have to be on your guard and know that at any moment

someone can turn and want to hurt you.

• P602. Each situation is different, but if they have to go, then they just have to

go.

Decisions made by officers is determined more from policies and procedures, situations,

experience, and prior social structure than by a police culture. This also demonstrates an

expected behavior according to the rules, law, and policies and procedures, which

produces a conforming behavior for doing the right thing.

The third question How were you first introduced to police culture, showed

similarity of experiences and acknowledgement of a police culture; although what

officers are describing is actually expected behavior. This question was to determine

when an officer first experiences police culture and to provide a point of interdiction to

change negative aspects of the culture. Changing the culture should begin with the first

day of training and continue throughout the probationary period.

• P11. A recruit is introduced to police culture at some level on day one.

• P112. You've been through the academy, and you're out on you own.

• P186. through the police explorer program.

• P209. I got to work with the guys and see what they see on a daily basis.

• P231. When I was a rookie the first day.

• P350. I think it was when you were first hired.

• P388. My step-father was in law enforcement.

• P416. When I first got hired, when I was in my FTO program.

• P454. I did a ride along and the more I rode with them I learned.

• P515. Probably once I got on the street.

• P566. My mom has always worked in and around juvenile services and there

were male judges, sheriff’s deputies and officers and growing up I knew all of

them.

• P602. Police culture was first introduced when I started in corrections.

The fourth question How do differences in generations affect the culture, showed

a very distinct difference is perceptions of police work and responsibility. One recurring

theme is the younger generation has a lack of respect for other officers and citizens. Older

officers view the new generation as self-centered and impatient.

• P11. Younger officers with less experience tend to be focused more on

individual goals and advancement.

• P112. If you grew up the 50s, 60s, 70s, just your upbringing in general is

different than a person like me who was born in the 80s, and maybe didn't

experience the harder times that the older generation did.

• P186. They are not reliable.

• P209. They just naturally have different attitudes not about the work we do,

but the work itself and priorities in life.

• P231. I think they’re less respectful.

• P350. They think everything should be handed to them. They don’t have any

respect.

• P388. The younger generation does not take criticism that well.

• P416. A lot of these officers are very skittish…I think a lot of these younger

officers are too passive.

• P454. For good and bad reasons they (new generation) have developed some

different social skills.

• P515. I think a lot more guys come in here and it’s just a job, and this is a job,

but it’s more than a job.

• P566. Younger generations that are coming into law enforcement treat people

differently than I have seen with older generation officers… (they are) less

polite and less civil.

• P602. Some of them (millennials) come in with the entitlement (attitude).

Question five, Describe how technology has changed police culture, Produced

responses in accordance with the age and education of the officer. Officers are now more

aware of their interaction with citizens and careful about their responses. Older officers

have a negative view of technology, while younger officers embrace it’s use and are

enthusiastic about newer and coming technology.

• P1. This new technology challenged the code of silence that once existed.

Officers are instantly held accountable for their actions.

• P112. I can definitely see how you would hesitate during some decision-

making if you knew that decision was going to be documented even if you

decided to go back and reassess later.

• P186. I don’t use social media.

• P209. In some ways it encourages us to change the culture more to a level of

consciousness that we didn’t have before in terms of the actions that we

choose.

• P231. It has made a big difference in how police officers respond.

• P350. I think technology is getting a bunch of officers killed, that’s my

opinion.

• P388. Its aggravating to a degree.

• P416. In a way it’s a good thing, but also a bad thing.

• P454. I rely technology significantly more than some of the older officers.

• P515. Social media has had a huge effect on law enforcement probably in a

more negative way.

• P566. It kinda can be an inhibiter as far as your decision making,

• P602. It actually hasn’t changed anything that I’ve done.

The final question, How comfortable/competent are you with the technology in

your department, illustrates how technology bridges generational gaps, but it’s use, and

acceptance varies with the age and education of the individual officer.

• P11. I have no problems with it.

• P112. Fairly competent I would say for what we have.

• P186. Since I got here they’ve got everything up to national standards.

• P209. In terms of operation very comfortable.

• P231. I’ve actually gotten pretty good with it.

• P350. I love the computers, we have live real time computer stuff.

• P388. I would like to see more technology in here I think it could be beneficial

and make more time for doing things pertaining to patrol.

• P416. Very comfortable. It keeps officers on the street.

• P454. I am more comfortable than a lot of other people.

• P515. Comfortable, we have the online web-based reporting.

• P566. Comfortable and competent.

• P602. I wish we had some more. We just got computers in the car just last

year I think and I’m glad we got them.

Summary

Chapter 4 detailed the findings of the research and the relationships between the

research questions and participants responses. The participating officers are employed in

agencies that have from 15 to 231 commissioned officers. There is no agreed upon

definition of a large or small-town police department but communities with a population

under 25,000 are considered small, and cities with a population over that number as large

(Falcone, Wells, & Weisheit, 2002). Three of the cooperating agencies would be

considered small and two as large, although the “small” departments are nestled in the

metro areas of large communities. The recruiting requirements vary among large and

small departments. Large department requirements usually have higher personal and

physical standards and seek recruits with higher educational background from two years

of college to a bachelor’s degree, and in many instances recruit on a national level.

Smaller departments tend to hire from the local community and do not have the funding

or benefits to compete with large departments. Higher standards do not necessarily

acquire better personnel but does have an effect on the culture of the department because

of the diversity of the recruits. Smaller departments tend to have less diversity than larger

departments, therefore “one should also expect differences in culture across different

departments, e.g. big, small, low bureaucratic, high bureaucratic, etc.” (Paoline III, 2003,

p. 209). The responses of the officers from the cooperating agencies were generally in

agreement in context expressed by different verbiage evolved from the individual’s social

structure.

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