Police Productivity and Performance Over the Career Course: A Latent Class Growth Analysis of the First 10 Years of Law Enforcement

• Author: Bradford W. Reyns,Billy Henson,Charles F. Klahm IV,Jillian S. Desmond,James Frank
• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1098611120907555
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Police Productivity and

Performance Over the

Career Course: A

Latent Class Growth

Analysis of the First

10 Years of Law

Enforcement

Jillian S. Desmond

1

,

Bradford W. Reyns

2

, James Frank

1

,

Charles F. Klahm IV

3

, and

Billy Henson

4

Abstract

The present research investigates the productivity and performance of a large sample

of police officers, beginning in the police academy and through their first 10 years of

policing. Using longitudinal data and latent class growth analyses, we examine meas-

ures of productivity and performance over this time. Findings indicate that officers’

academy performance did not influence officer trajectories, but selected demograph-

ic variables were significantly related to performance across the career course.

Among these, female and non-White officers were consistently rated lower in

their performance evaluations. Overall, results suggest that factors predicting

1

School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, OH, USA

2

Department of Criminal Justice, Weber State University, Ogden, UT, USA

3

Department of Criminal Justice, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

4

Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Mount St. Joseph University, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jillian S. Desmond, School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, PO Box 21002, Cincinnati, OH

45221, USA.

Email: jillian.shafer@uc.edu.

Police Quarterly

2020, Vol. 23(3) 333–367

!The Author(s) 2020

Article reuse guidelines:

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DOI: 10.1177/1098611120907555

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productivity and performance are dynamic, and there is no single combination of

characteristics that predicts who will be a “good” officer.

Keywords

policing, productivity, hiring, arrests, complaints

Introduction

Hiring is one of the most consequential activities undertaken by police depart-

ments, and many police agencies are facing staffing issues due to a number of

related factors. Retirements, turnover, problems recruiting qualified applicants,

the evolving demands of police work, and fiscal issues have all combined to limit

the number of available officers in many jurisdictions (Wilson, 2012; Wilson &

Heinonen, 2012; Wilson & Weiss, 2009). In addition, it is important for agencies

to retain quality officers, as success—or “good” policing—is believed to be a

function of experience and sound decision-making (e.g., Orrick, 2002; Wilson,

2012). Further, there are high costs associated with selecting and training new

officers (Switzer, 2006). In an effort to improve the selection and retention

process, there is a need to identify and assess those selection and hiring criteria

that are most related to police officer productivity.

Given the complexity, demands, evolving nature of the police role, and the

importance of police work, identifying applicants and recruits who will ultimate-

ly be successful as police officers is a high priority for police administrators and

other policy makers. Although researchers have investigated this issue (e.g.,

Forero, Gallardo-Pujol, Maydeu-Olivares, & Andr

es-Pueyo, 2009; Henson,

Reyns, Klahm, & Frank, 2010; Reaves & Hickman, 2004; Sanders, 2008;

Sarchione, Cuttler, Muchinsky, & Nelson-Gray, 1998; White, 2008), there is

still no firm answer to the hiring question. In part, this is because it is difficult

to measure officer success objectively, empirical data useful to this purpose are

generally not available to criminal justice scholars, prior methodologies have

inhibited a full understanding of the phenomenon, and the studies that have

been published use cross-sectional research designs or provide a limited/short-

term view of officer careers (Sanders, 2008; White, 2008). In short, more

research is needed to better understand the factors associated with officer pro-

ductivity and performance—particularly in the long-term. The present study

represents an effort to address this question in a developmental way by using

latent growth analyses.

The purpose of the present study, then, is to use latent class growth analysis

(LCGA) to assess how groupings of officers may differ in their development

over time (e.g., McGloin, Sullivan, Piquero, & Bacon, 2008; Piquero, 2010;

334 Police Quarterly 23(3)

Weisburd, Bushway, Lum, & Yang, 2004). In particular, these growth analyses

allow us to consider the career course of recent police academy graduates as they

begin their careers as patrol officers. To this end, officer performance and pro-

ductivity are operationalized in four ways. That is, the analyses provide latent

class growth trajectories for misdemeanor and felony arrests—two dimensions

of productivity—as well as a latent growth curve model for performance eval-

uations and citizen complaints. Further, we identify factors that are associated

with these productivity and performance outcomes. Therefore, the primary

research questions guiding this study are (a) are there distinct trajectories for

officers during the first 10 years of law enforcement related to productivity and

performance? and if so, (b) what factors are related to membership in these

groups? Of particular interest is the effect of police academy performance on

later performance as an officer.

Police Hiring, Training, and Officer Performance

Hiring and training are not taken lightly by police agencies, as these early stages

in the police career course impact not only the path on which officers begin a

career in law enforcement but also the success of the agency and the vitality of

the community. In the United States, there are thousands of law enforcement

agencies engaged in hiring and training of new officers every day, with no uni-

form standards for how to do so. Despite differences in candidate selection and

training practices across these agencies, the typical approach to selecting a can-

didate who can be trained and ultimately become a productive officer with a

successful career has been to screen out unqualified candidates (Alpert, 1991;

Gaines & Falkenberg, 1998; Malouff & Schutte, 1986; Metchik, 1999). Often,

there are multiple hurdles that candidates must clear in this process before

a positive hiring decision is made, including meeting given standards for

physical, psychological, and mental readiness for the job (Metchik, 1999;

Reaves & Hickman, 2004).

The inherent difficulty in this process is that making a hiring decision based

on whether a candidate meets a baseline qualification standard does not guar-

antee that the candidate will be a quality officer throughout his or her career,

especially when the training is not closely related to what officers will experience

in the field (Bayley & Bittner, 1984; Burkhart, 1980; White, 2008). To overcome

the weaknesses in hiring approaches that “screen out” the unqualified rather

than “screen in” the best-qualified, law enforcement agencies send their new

recruits through training academies that teach officers the essentials of the law

(e.g., state laws, liability), practical police skills (e.g., firearms, driving), criminal

investigations, patrol work, and more. Following this, field training with a

senior officer further prepares new officers for the rigors of police work.

However, a lingering question for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers

Desmond et al. 335