Motivations for becoming a police officer: Re-assessing officer attitudes and job satisfaction after six years on the street

Few studies had examined the stability of motivations for becoming a police officer over time, especially among minority and female officers. Moreover, research had not explored the links between original motivations and job satisfaction, a likely proxy measure of motivation fulfillment. The current research was a follow-up to Raganella and White (2004) who examined motivations among academy recruits in the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Using the same survey and analysis, this study re-examined motivations among officers from the same NYPD recruit class after six years on the job, and explored both motivation stability and the relationships among motivations and job satisfaction. Results suggested that motivations have remained highly stable over time, regardless of officer race/ethnicity and gender. Findings also suggested that White male officers were most likely to report low job satisfaction, and that there is a link between low satisfaction and unfulfilled motivations. Moreover, dissatisfied officers were much less likely to have expressed strong commitment to the profession through their original motivations, suggesting that low commitment up front may lead to low satisfaction later on. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for police departments, particularly with regard to recruitment and retention practices and efforts to achieve diversity.     

The West German social democrats in opposition 1982–86

Entering opposition, political parties face tasks of renewal and regeneration, the success of which is usually a prerequisite of their return to government office. For the SPD (1982–86), these tasks were: programmatic renewal, the consolidation of internal party cohesion, the restoration of relations with organised labour and élite regeneration. In addition to these tasks of structural renewal, opposition parties must evolve a parliamentary strategy and undertake a realignment towards key groups in the electorale. It is argued here that the SPD embarked on the exercise of renewal and regeneration with more emphasis on continuity than on change. Adopting a short‐term perspective on a return to government, the party looked to makeshift expedients instead of long‐term solutions, postponing change and sidestepping controversial or divisive questions. Consequently, in the wake of its electoral defeat in January 1987, the party faces a ‘crisis of opposition’ as acute as in 1983, if not more so.