NCJ Number
214467
Journal
Journal of Crime and Justice Volume: 29 Issue: 1 Dated: 2006 Pages: 21-44
Date Published
2006
Length
24 pages
Annotation
In an attempt to narrow the literature gap, this study provides data concerning the work routines and citizen interactions of small town and rural local municipal police officers and offers a comparison of the work of these small town and rural local officers to the more-often studied large, municipal officers.
Abstract
The presentation of the activities that small town and rural local officers performed when they were not in direct contact with citizens indicates that the deputy sheriffs may have a good deal in common with their small town municipal counterparts, at least in terms of how they spend time alone on their shifts. Differences identified between the street-level behavior of the deputy sheriffs and the local officers included: deputy sheriffs spent an extremely large percentage of time handling crime-related problems with citizens and the degree to which they engaged citizens casually or personally, small town municipal officers tended to engage citizens much more informally than did the deputy sheriffs. Since the vast majority of research literature concerning the street-level behavior of police has focused almost exclusively on the work of officers employed by large, municipal police agencies, this study through observation of deputy sheriffs and a group of comparison officers employed by five small town and rural municipal agencies located in an Ohio county, examined the activities and citizen interactions of both the deputy sheriffs and the five local agencies. Figures, tables, notes, and references