‘This isn’t what I signed up for When police officer role expectations conflict with the realities of general duty police work in remote communities

Although some insight into the sources and scope of occupational stress among rural police officers exists, historically, researchers have focused largely on their policing styles, rather than the relationship between what officers do and how they feel about their work as police in rural jurisdictio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of police science & management Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 194 - 203
Main Authors Huey, Laura, Ricciardelli, Rose
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2015
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Law enforcement
Occupational stress
Police
Policing
Remote areas
Role theory
Rural communities
Social workers
Task performance
Canada
law enforcer
social worker
rural policing
Role strain
peacekeeper
knowledge worker
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Although some insight into the sources and scope of occupational stress among rural police officers exists, historically, researchers have focused largely on their policing styles, rather than the relationship between what officers do and how they feel about their work as police in rural jurisdictions. To address this lacuna in knowledge and literature, we draw on data collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 active police officers, each of whom is presently assigned to one of seven rural police detachments in a province in Eastern Canada and field observation of police working in a rural detachment in this same province. In adopting a role theory perspective, we first reveal how officers operationalize their roles as law enforcers, peacekeepers, social workers and/or knowledge workers. We then examine their experiences of role strain as a result of mismatches between their desired versus actual occupational role(s). The majority of officers aspired to hold either the law enforcement or social worker role, which they saw as being most closely associated with their perceptions of what it means to be a ‘police officer’. However, most felt they performed tasks related to less desirable roles, which was tied to role strain. Training recommendations are discussed for officers recruited for rural policing.
ISSN:1461-3557
1478-1603
DOI:10.1177/1461355715603590