The research study analyzes the police force and the nature with which the police conduct their job. The research is based on police job satisfaction and the risks they go through in the process of implementing public safety. It will also look at the police perception towards their actions and duties in the process of conducting their duties. The researcher will conduct a random sample survey. The sturdy targets 80 respondents to answer a structured questionnaire. 55 will be junior officers and 25 will be higher ranked officers. In this research, primary and secondary sources of data collection will be used. Conducting interviews and administration of questionnaires will provide primary data while secondary data will be attained from books, journals, and internet search engine. In order to compile information for the sturdy, tables, graphs and charts will be used. These methods will assist in coming up with reliable theoretical implications and policy recommendations.
Police Job satisfaction and Hazards Encountered during Their Work
`A police officer is a warranted employee of the police force responsible for detection and prevention of crime, apprehension of criminals and maintaining public order (Gary H., et al, 2004). With advancement in technology, they can now manage informative intelligence hence successfully able to prosecute suspects. They are a citizen-focused force that attends to the needs of both individuals and the community at large. Their duties vary from country to country and include maintaining law and order, investigating crimes, countering terrorism and reducing robbery.
Of late police services have been transformed from a proactive to a policing based on intelligence but this transformation is also reflected on organized crime. This brings about a problem in their work but perhaps the greatest problem are the public’s perception and negative attitudes of the same people they are sworn to protect (Gary H., et al, 2004). The perception of the public is crucial to the police force ability to complete their tasks effectively. Problems faced in their duties and salaries will influence the level of satisfaction a police officer derives from their job. Therefore, job satisfaction is a dependent variable influenced by explanatory variables such as salaries, work hours, and working hazards.
This research paper aims at identifying the correlation between job satisfaction and problems that police officers go through in terms of risks and negative attitudes from the public. The sturdy aims at strengthening the relationship between the public and the police force which will assist in formulating the right strategies that will help in bridging the negative attitudes a and perception of the public and police
Literature review
The police force is an important organization in ensuring public safety, restoring sanity and order and protection of property. Research done by Oyesoji and Adeola (2003) observed that the police fail to meet the public expectation because bringing back order is a difficult task. The public believes that the police should conduct patrol on foot rather than patrolling in cars as the latter is attributed to rising crime rates, rapes, theft and increase in drug use (Oyesoji, and Adeola, 2003).
The police were observed to have a defiant attitude, which made one feel ill treated. They were also found to be discriminating especially to immigrants and lacked integrity ( Deborah and Sarah, 2003). The young generation negatively perceives the police as being intimidating and unfriendly. In addition, police misconduct such as corruption, negligence of duties and involvement in crimes brings about mistrust.
Perhaps some of these misconducts are because of insufficient remunerations or could sometimes be accelerated by the negative attitude of the public. In an effort to defend the police negative attitude, Gary, et al, (2004)) observes that the negative public perception is largely influenced by the media who concentrate on few irresponsible officers ignoring the numerous positive achievements of the police force. Police officers job satisfaction is largely influenced by these problems and risk associated with their job. Risks involved include the possibility of loss of life in the line of duty especially when combating crime. Risks will thus negatively contribute to job satisfaction.
Main Question
The research sturdy wishes to know whether the police officers are satisfied with their job and the hazards they encounter in the process of attending to their responsibilities of promoting public safety.
Sub questions
Specifically we wished to know:
1) What are the problems police officers encounters from the public?
2) Are the police satisfied with their current salary scales?
3) What are the risks associated with police work?
4) What is the relationship between the police and the public?
Research design and approach
This research will consider both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative research will create a controlled environment allowing inductive observation while qualitative research is necessary for data that cannot be quantified. The benefits of using qualitative research in this proposal include the ability to produce insightful and clear information on the problem under study, the application of subjective information in the problem description, and improved chances of interaction (Rana and Chad, 2006). Furthermore, the researcher is capable of delivering a comprehensive description of the problem under study. Both primary and secondary data will be collected. For primary data, sample survey will be undertaken through self-administered questionnaires in various departments of the force. Self-administration offers a higher rate of response and allows identification of a representative sample therefore, it is preferable. In surveys, utmost confidentiality is important and should be emphasized to the respondents so that they may not fear participating in the exercise. This will give us quantitative data whereas qualitative data will be obtained through conducting interviews.
This will be done through active participation allowing for probing thus the researcher will be able to capture more information. Interviews allow for capturing of rich data that cannot be provided by surveys (Rana, and Chad, 2006). The questionnaire design will include close-ended questions in accordance to the objective of our study and because they are easy to answer. Simple random sampling will be done targeting a population with the information we want. 80 questionnaires will be administered 55 to junior officers and 25 to ranked officers.
After gathering data charts and data, comparison will be our analysis tools. Statistical analysis will be based on our survey results. According to Rana, and Chad (2006), we need to consider using statistical software to determine a respondent’s stand in respect to questions sin the survey. From this research there is an expectation of a moderate job satisfaction response especially about the level of salaries. In addition expected also is a high correlation coefficient between job satisfaction and risks and problems associated with police work.
References
Debora, J. and Sara, V. (2003). Factors that influence public opinion of the police U.S
Department of Justice
Gary H., et al, (2004) "Inter-domain work-
family, family-work conflict and police work
satisfaction,” Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management,
27 (3),
pp.380 – 395
Oyesoji A., and Adeola A., (2003) "Job commitment, job satisfaction, and gender
as
predictors of mentoring in the Nigeria Police,” Policing: An International Journal
of Police Strategies & Management, 26 (3), pp.377 – 385
Rana S., and Chad P., (2006). "Research design and data analysis in realism research,”
European Journal of Marketing, 40 (11/12), pp.1194 – 1209
