Public Perceptions of a Police Strike in a Southern City

• NCJ Number: 89716
• Journal: Journal of Police Science and Administration Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1983) Pages: 90-96
• Author(s): F J Ritchey; M Wilson; R Hamby; B Trigg
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Earlier draft of this paper was presented to the Mid-South Sociological Association Annual Meeting, 1979, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Annotation

Study findings show that a large majority of the residents of Birmingham, Ala., supported the police right to strike, contradicting the traditional image of the South as anti-union and anti-strike.

Abstract

Data were obtained in a telephone survey of 237 Birmingham residents during the week following a police strike. The response rate was 76 percent. The sample was selected using a modified version of the random digit dialing technique developed by Sudman (1973). The interview schedule was designed to gauge five things: (1) whether respondents believed the police department had a right to strike; (2) respondents' opinions about the substantive issues that precipitated the strike; (3) whether respondents took safety precautions during the strike and, if so, what kinds; (4) their feeling about their relative safety before and during the strike; and (5) demographic information. Demographic variables were age and sex of the respondents, sole versus multiple occupancy based on size of households, elderly versus nonelderly households based on occupant family structure, average neighborhood income, and proportion of black household occupancy in the neighborhood. Although a significant number of public services were curtailed during the strike, many considered essential to the safety and livelihood of many area residents, both residents who considered themselves liberal and those who considered themselves conservative supported the right to strike. It appears that support of the strike was independent of safety-fear considerations; however, the fact that a large proportion of respondents thought crime would increase if the strike lasted a week, together with the fact that those who believed a large increase would occur were less supportive of the strike, suggests that public support for a police strike might decline with an increase in fear over time. Seventeen references are provided.