Changing Uniforms
| Author | Stanley Shernock |
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0887403414565173 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
research-article2015
Article
Criminal Justice Policy Review
2017, Vol. 28(1) 61 –86
Changing Uniforms: A Study
© 2015 SAGE Publications
Reprints and permissions:
of the Perspectives of Law
sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0887403414565173
journals.sagepub.com/home/cjp
Enforcement Officers With
and Without Different
Military Background on
the Effects of Combat
Deployment on Policing
Stanley Shernock1
Abstract
Most academic attention regarding military influence on policing has focused on
critiques of the military model of policing and police militarization and has neglected
to examine the relationship between the two institutions and the transferability of
attributes and skills from the military to police. Military service itself, when examined,
has been treated as an undifferentiated concept that has not distinguished the effects
of organizational structure, leadership, and myriad roles and experiences on policing.
This study, using data from a survey of law enforcement officers throughout a New
England state, compares and analyzes how law enforcement officers and supervisors
with and without military background and with and without deployment experience
differ in their perspectives regarding both the positive as well as negative aspects of
combat deployment on policing. As such, it has significant implications for both the
reintegration and recruitment of combat-deployed veterans into police organizations.
Keywords
combat deployment of police, military service and police, combat veterans and police
In 2000, Thomas Cowper, in a very provocative critique, directly challenged the so-
called military model of policing as actually patterned after the real military and called
1Norwich University, Northfield, VT, USA
Corresponding Author:
Stanley Shernock, Norwich University, 158 Harmon Hall, Northfield, VT 05663, USA.
Email: sshernoc@norwich.edu
62
Criminal Justice Policy Review 28(1)
for a rethinking of the military influences on policing. Although he believed that “con-
ceptually military and police missions and objectives are strikingly similar” (Cowper,
2000, p. 243), he contended that the prevailing model “based on authoritarian, central-
ized control of mindless subordinates conditioned to shoot first and ask questions
later” includes false assumptions about military leadership, structure, doctrine, and
practice; and that a correct understanding and application of military concepts and
methodologies could have potential benefits to policing (pp. 228-229). He argued that
the military encourages “creative thinking, individual initiative, and audacious inde-
pendent action on the part of subordinates in combat” (Cowper, 2000, pp. 232, 237)
and “has developed operational doctrine based on decentralized and participative deci-
sion making and action” (p. 234). According to him, the military can bring to policing
a critical understanding of leadership development and “unit and organizational mis-
sions” (Cowper, 2000, p. 235); “correct use of military operational principles such as
combined arms, command and control, and commandership” (p. 240); and an active
and integrated “Lessons Learned” program that incorporates existing doctrine with
detailed and open after-action critique (p. 243). As an iconoclastic critique, Cowper’s
essay was valuable as an initial impetus to reexamine empirically the conventional
wisdom regarding military influences as they apply to policing today.
Significantly, the resonance of Thomas Cowper’s critique was not only attributable
to his substantive argument and challenge to conventional wisdom but almost equally
to the credibility of his experience as both a captain in the New York State Police and
a former Marine officer (Cowper, 2000). Although much has been written about the
purported effects of the military model and militarism on police organizations and
training, there has been very little examination of the effects of actual military social-
ization and experience in the form of military service. Those with military background,
and particularly combat deployment experience, certainly may very well embody a
military ethos (unless they compartmentalized their military background) whether the
police organization adopted an abstract military organizational structure or model (that
may be more bureaucratic than military).
Effects of Military Service on Police
In fact, until some recent research on the effects of military deployment on policing,
only two scholarly articles by Patterson (2002) and by Ivie and Garland (2011) have
actually examined the effects of military service on policing. In one of those articles,
Ivie and Garland (2011) state that “although the military model is rather pervasive in
law enforcement and police agencies actively seek recruits with military backgrounds,1
empirical evidence that military-experienced officers can outperform and better han-
dle police work demands is seriously lacking” (p. 52). They first cite scholars who
have argued that military experience does not translate well into policing as soldiers
presumably follow strict orders, are constantly supervised, and function in large units,
whereas police officers operate outside supervisory purview, by themselves or in pairs,
and have wide discretion in how to deal with a variety of situations (Ivie & Garland,
2011). Nevertheless, they go on to suggest that
Shernock
63
the more extensive assimilation to the military ideals of order, accountability, and
attention to detail may be the foundation for an emotional strength that serves former or
active military staff well when faced with challenging events in the police work
environment. (p. 53)
Patterson (2002) had published the only scholarly article on the effects of prior
military service experience on work events performed by police officers. Significantly,
he distinguished between organizational work events and field-work events.2 Relevant
to the reintegration into police departments of deployed combat veterans, he predicted
that officers with more military service experience should be familiar with the organi-
zational characteristics of such paramilitary organizations and consequently perceive
such events as being less stressful than officers without prior military experience; but
because the field-work events and situations performed by police officers are different
from combat service activities, police officers with more military service experience
may report that these events are more stressful than police officers with no prior mili-
tary experience. He went on to state that although both military and law enforcement
agencies have a rigid chain of command structure and both are trained to use deadly
force, police officers are not engaged in warfare activities but instead emphasize main-
tenance of social order. However, he found that more military experience did not sig-
nificantly predict fewer organizational work events and lower perceptions of stress or
more field-work events and greater perceptions of stress. Given his findings, he con-
cluded that further research investigating the effects of functioning within a paramili-
tary law enforcement work environment is needed to support assertions that the
military model is an inappropriate management model for law enforcement agencies.
More specifically, he stated that based on his findings, he would question the assump-
tion that it is difficult for military personnel trained in combat to abandon these skills
and function as police officers.3 Ivie and Garland (2011) found that levels of stress and
burnout were similar regardless of one’s exposure to military life, but that military-
experienced officers were able to handle the impact of negative events in policing
more effectively than their counterparts.
Effects of Combat Deployment on Policing
When discussing the effects of military experience, and even when examining the
differences in veterans’ reactions to organizational and field-work events, military
service has been treated as an undifferentiated concept, particularly regarding the
effects of combat deployment versus organizational structure and other forms of mili-
tary experience. Recent literature on the effects of combat deployment on police has
been published mostly in trade journals4 rather than scholarly journals, and most of it
has focused on the needs of the returning veteran. Most of the more scholarly litera-
ture has been by police psychologists on the psychological reintegration and success-
ful transition from combat to police work, and even more specifically on post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD; e.g., Webster, 2008). Some of the literature does little more
than alert police departments about PTSD and other psychological problems of
64
Criminal Justice Policy Review 28(1)
combat veterans (e.g., Curran, 2008). Although there has been considerable research
on the stress and PTSD effects from combat on soldiers in general, little has been
known about the effects of combat zone deployment on police officers or police orga-
nizations specifically (Webster, 2008). Webster (2008) predicts that “it is far more
likely that police officers will be exposed to or involved in work-related trauma than
will veterans who return to or enter many other occupations” (p. 25). But then she
concludes that
we do not fully understand the ways in which police officers may be different from others
who serve...
To continue reading
Request your trial