NCJ Number
226665
Journal
International Journal of Police Science and Management Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 2009 Pages: 54-66
Date Published
2009
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This study explored the influence of people’s general attitudes and experiences from contact with police on public satisfaction with police in Australia.
Abstract
Findings show that public satisfaction with police is shaped by people’s attitudes about how well police perform their job, police legitimacy, and police use of fair procedures. Negative experiences during encounters with police shape people’s dissatisfaction with police, but to a much lesser extent. Satisfaction from citizen-initiated contact with police was found to explain the largest amount of public satisfaction with police. Findings reinforce the value to police of recognizing that people’s judgment of police are not value-neutral; rather, satisfaction with police is shaped by pre-existing attitudes people carry into their encounters with police, as well as by the behavior of individual police officers during encounters with people. Data were collected from a written survey completed by 2,611 residents in an Australian city in mid-2005. 1 table, 29 references, and appendix