NCJ Number
156680
Journal
American Journal of Police Volume: 13 Issue: 4 Dated: (1994) Pages: 47-72
Date Published
1994
Length
26 pages
Annotation
The research reported in this article is the initial phase of a two-phase study designed to examine environmental and judgmental conditions at the time police pursuit decisions are made, with attention to the opinions and perceptions of officers who engage in pursuits and their failure to report pursuits they have undertaken.
Abstract
The survey, a self-administered General Opinion Questionnaire, was administered to 2,220 sworn officers of a midwestern State police agency. The questionnaire consisted of 64 questions and was limited to pursuits as defined by departmental policy. Seven categories of variables emerged through the use of confirmatory factorial analyses of questions designed to solicit officers' opinions and behaviors regarding police pursuits: policy, training, supervisory, liability, operational, perceptual, and external factors. Because this paper focuses on policy reporting requirements and liability, the operational factor was not included in the analysis. A total of 880 questionnaires of road patrol officers and investigators were used in the analysis. The bivariate-level analysis shows that fear of discipline, liability issues, lawsuits, knowledge of fellow officers involved in lawsuits, previous disciplinary experiences, pursuit policy restrictiveness, pursuit discouragement, a perception of paperwork as a pursuit deterrent, and seldom reporting successful pursuits were positively correlated with failure to report pursuits. On the other hand, clarity of pursuit policy, capacity of policy to guide pursuit decisions, pursuit policy training, knowledge of policy, risk to others, supervisory-level adherence to the policy, equitableness of the policy, and more detailed pursuit reports were not associated with failing to report pursuits. The implications of these findings for departmental policy and training are discussed. 3 tables and 34 references