This study examines how police recruits’ adherence to the police code of silence changes during attendance of training academy.
This study examining the nature of the code of silence among police recruits found that recruits' willingness to report a fellow officer is reduced by the end of the training academy and that several individual and organizational factors impact recruits' code adherence attitudes over time. This study contributes to the policing literature by exploring changes in recruits' code adherence attitudes over time and aims to provide recommendations to reduce it. Data analyses are performed on a multi-agency sample of 645 police recruits in the United States. Specifically, analyses are conducted on pre- and post-academy panel data to assess changes in recruits' perceptions of code adherence over time as they begin their immersion into the police culture. (Published Abstract Provided)