Date

2-29-2024

Department

Helms School of Government

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice (PhD)

Chair

Evaristus Obinyan

Keywords

policing, post-secondary education, use of force, critical decision-making, police turnover rates, communication skills

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Municipal policing in the United requires a complex array of skills for police officers to perform the duties of their jobs effectively. At any given time, a police officer may act in the role of a warrior in confronting an armed assailant in a school or deliver a death notification to a family whose life has just been shattered by a tragic car crash. That same officer will be asked to perform CPR on a heart attack victim, counsel a suicidal individual on the edge of a bridge, and deliver a presentation to a group of business owners. Each of these tasks requires a specific and individualized set of skills generally associated with a particular occupation. On any given day across our nation, we expect a police officer to perform a variety of tasks at the same level as an educated soldier, paramedic, counselor, statistician, social worker, urban planner, lawyer, minister, or MBA graduate. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the perceptions of police chiefs and police officers relative to the effects of post-secondary education on the job performance of municipal police officers. Through interviews with police chiefs and anonymous online surveys with police officers, this study qualitatively assessed the perceptions of the two groups on the benefits of post-secondary education as it relates to development of interpersonal skills, use of force decision-making, critical thinking skills, job satisfaction, and intent to leave a police department.

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