WORKLOAD RATES AND POLICE OFFICER ATTITUDES - AN EXAMINATION OF BUSY AND SLOW PRECINCTS

This article examines how police work load influences a set of officer attitudes concerning their role, their police department, and their c ommunities. An anonymous survey was distributed to patrol officers in two police departments with a total of 761 participants. Officers were asked a series of attitude questions, from which nine scales were cre ated, and they were asked a set of questions concerning their demograp hics and work experience. A variety of work-load rates were created, b ased on official data, reflecting the average number of Part I, Part I I, and total Calls for Service incidents that each officer engaged in during a one-year period for each precinct in the total sample. Analys es indicate that officers who are assigned to work slower precincts te nd to see their role, their police department, and their communities i n a more positive light than do their counterparts who work busier are as. Some demographic differences also emerged in the comparison of wor k-load rates by precinct.