NCJ Number
97156
Date Published
1985
Length
39 pages
Annotation
Measures of job satisfaction were compared for foot and motorized patrol officers in Flint, Mich., with attention to sense of job significance, opportunities for career advancement, and attitude toward work.
Abstract
Interviews were conducted during 1984, 5 years after the experimental Neighborhood Foot Patrol Program began and over 1 year after the expansion of foot patrol to the entire city. All 64 foot patrol officers were interviewed, as were 50 randomly selected motorized officers. Officers ranked their responses to a series of questions on Likert-type scales. T-tests were used to compare responses. To a statistically significant degree, foot officers, more than motor officers, felt they were doing an important job in the Flint Police Department and in their patrol areas, keeping up with problems in their patrol areas, improving police/community relations, performing the job the police department views as important, and working as part of a police team. Both foot and motor officers felt, to a significant degree, that foot officers had more difficulty communicating with headquarters and other police units, and motorized officers had more difficulty maintaining high morale and achieving job satisfaction. To a significant degree, foot patrol officers felt their present assignments had good to average impact on their chances for career advancement and were more enthusiastic about their positions compared to when they entered the police department. Job satisfaction was dependent upon the type of patrol in which officers were engaged rather than the variables of age, gender, race, military experience, or years of police experience. Tabular data and 18 footnotes are provided. National Neighborhood Foot Patrol Center publications are listed.