NCJ Number
82781
Date Published
1980
Length
160 pages
Annotation
Survey methodology, statistical analyses, and findings are presented from a study that examined police officer characteristics and techniques related to quality of arrests (arrests that lead to convictions).
Abstract
The discussion of survey design and methodology covers the goals of the surveys, questionnaire development, questionnaire content, interviewer recruitment and training, respondent selection and recruitment, interviewing, protocol, and data preparation and coding procedures. The statistical process by which officers to be surveyed were selected is also described. For each jurisdiction examined using PROMIS data for 1977-78, some police officers demonstrated substantially more skill than others in producing arrests that lead to conviction. Sharp differences still remain after accounting for an officer's unit of assignment and the inherent convictability of his/her mix of cases; moreover, there was little evidence that differences in arrest quality are related to the officer's age, sex, education, rank, marital status, or length of service. Officers with high quality arrests were more likely to focus on locating and dealing with witnesses than were officers with low quality arrests. The more effective officers also tended to use a more direct, factual line of questioning, in combination with a more psychological, indirect approach. Officers with low quality arrests tended to use only the latter approach. The more effective officers appeared to have a greater commitment to and interest in followup investigation. Tabular data and 18 references are provided. For part one of the study. see NCJ 82780, and for a summary, see NCJ 80594.