657577

research-article2016
CJBXXX10.1177/0093854816657577CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIORJohnson, lafrance / CAREER STAGE AND POLICE WORK

The Influence Of Career Stage On

Police Officer Work Behavior

RICHARD R. JOHNSON
University of Toledo
CASEY LAFRANCE
Western Illinois University

Career stage theory suggested that workers progress through career stages, each marked by unique work attitudes. Little
evidence exists, however, about the influence career stages have on the work activities of criminal justice agents. Using a
sample of 401 police officers from 23 individual police departments, the present study examined the influence of employee
career stage on three measures of work productivity, and the constructs of expectancy motivation theory. The results revealed
curvilinear declines in productivity with progression through the career stages. The predictive values of opportunity, ability,
and instrumentality on work activities varied with career stage and type of work output. Only performance-reward expectancy
retained predictive value across all career stages and outputs. The findings emphasize the importance of intrinsic and informal
extrinsic rewards for the management of experienced criminal justice agents.

Keywords:  career stage; tenure; expectancy theory; police; management; psychology

T he management and control of criminal justice agent work behaviors is an important

issue. Correctional officers, police officers, probation officers, assistant prosecutors, and
lower court judges are the ones who dispense justice to individuals in society and implement
criminal justice policies on a daily basis (Lipsky, 1980). Law enforcement officers wield great
power through their discretionary decisions, decisions that can change, or even end, an indi-
vidual’s life. Effective supervisory oversight and control of officer behaviors in the field are
paramount to ensuring fair and efficient policing. It is extremely important, therefore, that we
understand how best to shape and modify the work outputs of criminal justice agents. Recent
years have seen a growth in the body of psychological literature regarding organizational
influences on criminal justice agent work behaviors (see, for example, Griffin, Hogan, &
Lambert, 2014; Johnson, 2011; Johnson & Dai, 2016; Lambert, Altheimer, & Hogan, 2010;
Lambert & Paoline, 2012), but there is still ample room for additional growth. One such area
needing further exploration involves the influence of criminal justice agent career stages.

Authors’ Note: The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewer’s for their helpful comments that
improved the overall depth of this article. They would also like to thank Managing Editor Dr. Jaime Henderson
and Editor-in-Chief Dr. Emily Salisbury for their patience and assistance with the revisions of this article.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Richard R. Johnson, Criminal Justice Program,
University of Toledo, 2801 Bancroft St, MS 119, Toledo, OH 43606; e-mail: Richard.Johnson4@utoledo.edu.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2016, Vol. 43, No. 11, November 2016, 1580­–1599.
DOI: 10.1177/0093854816657577
© 2016 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

1580
 Johnson, LaFrance / CAREER STAGE AND POLICE WORK  1581

Career stage theory (Super, 1957) suggested that employees progress through various
stages during a career, each marked by work attitudes and behaviors unique to each stage.
There is empirical evidence of a relationship between career stage and employee work atti-
tudes, such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, career commitment, work ethic,
and turnover intent (Adler & Aranya, 1984; Griffin et al., 2014; Kopelman, 1977; Morrow
& McElroy, 1987; Pogson, Cober, Doverspike, & Rogers, 2003). There is less evidence of
a relationship between career stage and actual work behaviors, especially within a criminal
justice setting.
This is unfortunate for several reasons. First, the criminal justice agent’s actual behavior
is as important as the agent’s attitude. What a government employee does, and how she does
it, is as important as how she feels about it. Second, the motivation and management of
criminal justice agents’ work is of paramount interest to the study of criminal justice (Lipsky,
1980; Wilson, 1968). Managing criminal justice employees is difficult due to civil service
regulations that limit the use of external incentives (such as promotions and raises), and the
vague nature of the products government agencies deliver (such as “public safety” or “jus-
tice”). Any knowledge that can assist with managing criminal justice agent work behaviors
would prove useful to practice. Third, as the workforce in the world is aging, with employ-
ees living longer and deferring retirement (Feldman, 2007), how career stage influences
work and motivation is growing in importance.
The present study, therefore, examined a sample of police officers from multiple munici-
pal police departments across two states. First, it explored how career stage influenced
enforcement activities for three specific categories of offenses. Second, it used Vroom’s
(1964) expectancy motivation theory as a framework to examine whether career stage influ-
enced the strength of its theoretical constructs. This study continued to extend the new
criminal justice literature on the influence of criminal justice agent career stages. It expanded
the general literature on employee career stages by adding new work output measures to the
small number of outcomes variables already examined. Finally, it began a new line of
research on expectancy motivation theory by introducing the effects of employee career
stage into the theory.

Career Stage Research

For more than a half century, the influence of career stages on employee attitudes and
behaviors have been examined within organizational research. The idea that employees
progress through various stages, generally delineated by length of tenure, originated with
Super (1957). Career stages are conceptualized as distinct periods of psychological and
behavioral exploration, adaptation, and stabilization in one’s employment (Super, 1980).
According to Super’s (1957) theory of career development, employees experience four
stages during the development of their careers, often conceptualized in 5-year increments of
work experience. First is the exploration stage in which neophyte employees are concerned
with clarifying their career interests and aptitudes in constructing their career. Next is the
establishment stage, in which employees focus on strengthening their career by refining
their basic skills. During the third stage, the maintenance stage, employees strive to hold
onto career successes (reputation, position, etc.) they have established, and may seek
advancement. The final stage, disengagement, involves dissipation of an individual’s energy
for, and interest in, their occupational area (Savickas, 2002; Smart, 1998; Super, 1957).
1582  Criminal Justice and Behavior

While Super (1957) defined each of these career stages as psychological stages with
specific career attitudes, in practice, the research has generally used length of tenure to
delineate each career stage (Aryee, Chay, & Chew, 1994; Cohen, 1991; Conway, 2004;
Griffin et al., 2014; Morrow & McElroy, 1987; Ornstein & Isabella, 1990). These studies
have conceptualized career stages as linear developments over the course of time. Despite
the fact these career stages have not been operationalized exactly as Super had proposed,
this research has still revealed differences across career stages for employee work attitudes
and behaviors (Allen & Meyer, 1993; Pogson et al., 2003; Smart, 1998).
The prior empirical literature regarding employee career stage has emphasized its effects
on employee attitudes, such as organizational commitment, career commitment, job satis-
faction, and work ethic. This research suggested that organizational commitment and career
commitment tend to increase as employees progress through the career stages (Aryee et al.,
1994; Cohen, 1991; Wright & Bonett, 2002), but job satisfaction and work ethic tend to
decline (Adler & Aranya, 1984; Morrow & McElroy, 1987; Pogson et al., 2003). The exist-
ing empirical literature is limited, however, regarding the effects of career stage on actual
employee work behaviors as only a few such studies exist.
Adler and Aranya (1984), surveying 764 accountants in the United States, found that as
they progressed through their career stages, they also shifted from an emphasis on higher
order needs (such as interesting work), to an emphasis on security needs (such as financial
compensation). Employee turnover and absenteeism have also been examined with the
results indicating turnover decreases, but absenteeism increases across career stages (Aryee
et al., 1994; Cohen, 1991; Wright & Bonett, 2002). The performance of salespersons have
also been explored with regard to career stage, revealing that sales performance rises during
the first career stage, levels off during the second stage, then declines across the two remain-
ing career stages (Ornstein, Cron, & Slocum, 1989; Slocum & Cron, 1985).

Criminal Justice Agent Career Stages

Among correctional setting research studies, correctional staff length of tenure has been
explored for a relationship to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job burnout,
attitudes toward rehabilitation, and use of force (Griffin, 2002; Griffin et al., 2014; Lambert
et al., 2010; Lambert, Hogan, & Griffin, 2008; Lambert & Paoline, 2012; Minor, Wells,
Angel, & Matz, 2011). The results have only revealed weak and inconsistent relationships
to correctional staff length of tenure. One study, however, examined the influence of career
stages on correctional staff. Griffin and associates (2014) recently examined the influence
of career stage on the turnover intent of state correctional staff in a prison system in the
Southwestern United States. Their findings revealed that turnover intent was lowest during
the first career stage and increased across each successive stage. They also discovered the
effects work environment variables had on predicting turnover intent varied across each
career stage, indicating correctional staff may need to be managed differently at different
points in their careers. This recent finding suggests the need for further career stage explora-
tion within a criminal justice agency setting.
Regarding law enforcement officers, early qualitative research by Van Maanen (1973)
and Bayley and Bittner (1984) suggested that experience was extremely important to the
development of officer attitudes and behaviors. They suggested that experience on the job
constituted the learning of the goals, tactics, and norms of the police working culture. Barker
 Johnson, LaFrance / CAREER STAGE AND POLICE WORK  1583

(1999), after 18 years of ethnographic research within the Los Angeles Police Department,
suggested the existence of specific career stages for officers on that department. These
career stages were roughly divided into 5-year increments and were characterized by an
evolution in work attitudes and behaviors. As officers progressed through these career
stages, she suggested, their arrest productivity declined and they began to view their work
instrumentally, focusing more on pay and pension than self-actualization needs (Barker,
1999).
Reviews of the empirical literature on the correlates of police behavior (Riksheim &
Chermak, 1993; Sherman, 1980; Skogan & Frydl, 2004) have consistently found officer
tenure negatively correlated with many officer work activities. For example, Brandl,
Stroshine, and Frank (2001) found that officer tenure was negatively associated with arrest
productivity and use of force complaints. Brown (2005) examined arrest decisions in
police–citizen encounters and found higher levels of tenure corresponded with a lower like-
lihood of arrest after controlling for situational factors such as seriousness of offense and
degree of evidence. This same tenure–arrest relationship was also found by Mastrofski,
Snipes, Parks, and Maxwell (2000) when examining citizen requests of officers to arrest
someone. Johnson (2006) found tenure negatively associated with both traffic citation and
drunken driver arrest productivity.
Officer tenure has been found negatively correlated with filing crime reports, making
arrests, and using force. McElroy and Morrow (1999) examined the influence of officer
career stage on officers’ organizational commitment, intention to stay in the profession, job
involvement, and work ethic. Surveying a sample of 164 police officers, they divided the
sample into three career stages and found organizational commitment and intention to stay
in the profession increased across the three career stages. Career stage had no influence,
however, on job involvement and work ethic.
LaFrance and Day (2013) used years of experience, rather than specific career stages, to
examine police officer attitudes toward departmental rules and procedures. Using cross-
sectional data, this examination revealed a curvilinear relationship between tenure and atti-
tudes as officers began their careers perceiving department rules and procedures as very
important, but this attitude quickly declined with experience. Yet, in about their 10th year
of experience, officers began placing more importance on rules and procedures again, a
trend that increased for the rest of their careers.
A dearth of research exists, however, in the scientific knowledge regarding the influence
of career stage on police officer productivity. The present study sought to explore this
aspect. First, it examined the influence of career stage on three work productivity measures.
Second, it examined whether the elements of expectancy motivation theory (Vroom, 1964)
explained employee productivity similarly across career stages.

Expectancy Motivation
As the present study sought to test the influence of career stages on the factors that influ-
ence police officer work productivity, decisions needed to be made about which influences
to examine. Rather than select these work output influences randomly or on a hunch, it was
decided to base the selection of these influences on a well-established framework. The lit-
erature within criminal justice is often accused of lacking a theoretical basis (Bernard &
Engel, 2001; Maguire & Duffee, 2007). Therefore, as we examined the influence of career
1584  Criminal Justice and Behavior

stage on work motivations, we elected to use a theoretical framework from a well-estab-

lished work motivation theory that was already well tested within police agency contexts
(Dejong, Mastrofski, & Parks, 2001; Johnson, 2006, 2009b, 2010b; Mastrofski, Ritti, &
Snipes, 1994). Expectancy motivation theory is a cognitive theory of employee motivation
based on workers’ perceptions of the likelihood of obtaining desired outcomes contingent
on performance (Mitchell, 1982; Porter & Lawler, 1968; Vroom, 1964). Expectancy theory
consists of theoretical constructs that mediate perceptions of the value of increased perfor-
mance: effort-performance expectancy, instrumentality of performance, performance-
reward expectancy, and reward-cost balance (Porter & Lawler, 1968; Vroom, 1964).
The theoretical construct “effort-performance expectancy” suggests that employees must
have the competence to perform at a desired level. In other words, workers must perceive
that they have both the capability and opportunity to perform the assigned task.
“Instrumentality of performance” refers to the behaviors desired by management being per-
ceived by employees as leading to desired outcomes. There are many potential activities to
occupy employees, but only those activities the organization communicates will be per-
ceived as instrumental to the employee. “Performance-reward expectancy” proposes that
rewards must be linked to performance, and employees need to either experience these
rewards themselves or vicariously by observation of others’ rewards. Finally, “reward-cost
balance” is whether the outcome is worth the effort and other costs that might be incurred.
In other words, is the reward worth the effort (Porter & Lawler, 1968; Vroom, 1964)?
Expectancy motivation theory has been tested with many outcome measures in a variety
of work settings (see Mitchell, 1982; Van Eerde & Thierry, 1996). It has recently seen use
in explaining police officer variation in work outputs in terms of traffic citations (Johnson,
2006), arrests (Johnson, 2010b; Mastrofski et al., 1994), community problem solving
(Dejong et al., 2001), and security checks of businesses (Johnson, 2009b). While the theory
can serve as a useful framework for examining the influence of career stage on police offi-
cer work outputs, it is important to note that the present study was not a direct test of expec-
tancy theory. It was simply an application of the framework to organize the analysis of
career stage within the available data.

Hypotheses
Based on the prior literature discussed above, specific hypotheses were developed. First,
regarding productivity, the prior literature suggested police officer tenure was negatively
associated with arrests (Riksheim & Chermak, 1993; Sherman, 1980; Skogan & Frydl,
2004). It was thus hypothesized as follows:

Hypothesis 1: Police officer arrest and citation productivity would be highest in the first career
stage and lowest in the last stage, declining steadily across all four career stages.

Second, Super (1957, 1980) suggested that work skill increases throughout the first two
stages of one’s career, and Barker (1999) suggested the same specifically for police patrol
officers, as most work skills are mastered within the first or second career stage. Workers
who remain in the organization’s entry-level position (such as that of a patrol officer) do not
continue to advance in skill after mastering their job tasks in the first or second career stage.
It was hypothesized, therefore, as follows:
 Johnson, LaFrance / CAREER STAGE AND POLICE WORK  1585

Hypothesis 2: Police officer opportunity and ability become less important in explaining vari-
ation between officers’ productivity as they progress through the four career stages.

Finally, as Adler and Aranya (1984) and Barker (1999) suggested that tenure was associ-
ated with an increased emphasis on financial and security needs, it was hypothesized as
follows:

Hypothesis 3: Instrumentality and performance-reward expectancy increase in importance

across the four career stages.

Method
Data

The present study used data collected through a 2004 management issues survey of 401
police officers representing 23 municipal police departments from two states. The survey
tapped aspects of expectancy motivation theory, which were used to create proxy measures
of constructs from the theory. Each officer’s responses were then compared with specific,
measurable performance outputs for 2003, namely, each officer’s number of traffic citations
issued, arrests made for drunken driving (driving under the influence [DUI]), and arrests for
drug offenses. These comparisons were made by the career stage of the respondents to
examine whether productivity and associations with each of the expectancy theory theoreti-
cal constructs varied by career stage.

Sample

Cooperation was obtained from a convenience sample of 23 municipal (town, village,

and township) police departments: 19 from a Midwestern state and four from a Southern
state. The agencies that participated ranged in size from 10 officers to 119 officers, and
policed communities varying in population from 3,500 to 64,300 residents. Admittedly, this
was not a random sample of agencies, and it is unknown how representative the agencies or
officers surveyed were of the general U.S. population of police officers. Nevertheless, it
comprised mostly smaller suburban agencies, and 90% of the municipal law enforcement
agencies in the United States serve populations of less than 100,000 (Reaves, 2011). Within
each police department, only officers assigned to general uniformed patrol duties were sur-
veyed. All officers were the rank of patrol officer.
To conduct the survey, a memo was distributed by the police chief of each agency notify-
ing officers about the upcoming survey and that participation was voluntary. Next, one of
the researchers attended the roll call briefing sessions of every shift of each police agency
involved in the study. This researcher identified himself as a former police officer and asked
the officers present for their voluntary participation in the survey. The researcher explained
the purpose of the study and discussed how the participants’ individual responses would be
protected from identification. The researcher distributed the survey instruments and com-
pleted survey instruments were returned directly to the researcher in the roll call briefing
room. At no time did agency personnel (other than the individual respondent) see the
responses on a completed questionnaire.
The response rates varied by department and ranged from 54% to 90% of the officers
assigned to the patrol division of each agency. Across the agencies, 453 surveys were
1586  Criminal Justice and Behavior

distributed and 401 useable surveys were returned, for a mean response rate for the entire
sample of 88.5%. It was assumed that this high response rate was the result the combined
effect of several elements. These elements were the endorsement memo from the chief, the
researcher being identified as a former police officer, the opportunity for the researcher to
explain and answer questions about the study, the survey instruments being returned directly
to the researcher, and the measures taken to protect the confidentiality of both the officers
and their agencies. The respondents were assured of both their own anonymity and the ano-
nymity of their agency. Further identity protection was achieved by collecting data on age
and experience in bracketed time spans, and not measuring sex or race at all. Roll calls were
attended on all shifts and on multiple days to catch officers who had been on days off on
previous visits.
In all, 401 usable surveys were returned. Fifty-four percent of the respondents were
under 36 years of age, and 55% had less than 10 years of experience as a police officer.
Thirty-two percent primarily worked the day shift during 2003, 38% worked the evening
shift, and 30% worked the midnight shift.
The survey instrument contained mostly Likert-type scale questions asking the respon-
dents their perceptions about a number of aspects related to the constructs of expectancy
motivation theory. These questions were specifically related to three, quantifiable types of
work outputs: traffic citations, DUI arrests, and drug arrests. The questions examined the
respondents’ perceptions of their work environment related to opportunity, ability, instru-
mentality, and performance-reward expectancy, specific to each of the three work outputs
being measured. Official data on each officer’s arrest activity, and the arrest activity of each
officer’s shift supervisor, were also obtained.

Measures

The endogenous variables were three work outputs recorded for each respondent for
2003: traffic citations, DUI arrests, and drug offense arrests. It is hard to define quantifiable
police work outputs (Lipsky, 1980; Wilson, 1968). Citations and arrests were selected as
work outputs for three reasons. The first was availability. Second, they were easily quantifi-
able. Third, all three were likely to result from officers’ proactive efforts. While arrests for
offenses such as thefts or assaults usually result from dispatched calls from a citizen, cita-
tions, DUI arrests, and drug arrests result most often from proactive stops or investigations.
Thus, these work outputs are good measures of employee work effort. Fourth, proactive
arrest statistics remain the most common metric by which police officer and police agency
performance is measured (Koehle, Six, & Hanrahan, 2010; Lilley & Hinduja, 2006).
Admittedly, these output measures were not ideal, nor did they capture the quality of the
arrests made, but only the quantity. Nevertheless, they served as an effective measure of
work output based on employee effort.
As the respondents came from 23 different communities, each with their own traffic,
crime, and community characteristics, the effects of these characteristics needed to be con-
trolled. For example, one community may be a small village with mostly residential streets,
while another may have a major highway. Officers working on the former police depart-
ment may encounter far fewer traffic and DUI violations than on the latter. The officers’
work outputs needed to be measured in comparison with their peers on the same depart-
ment, rather than in comparison with officers across departments. To do this, each officer’s
 Johnson, LaFrance / CAREER STAGE AND POLICE WORK  1587

raw number of citations and arrests was standardized by converting it to a z score by police
department.
Four independent variables were then crafted for each type of work output. Each exogenous
variable measured a different construct of expectancy theory. These constructs were opportu-
nity, ability, instrumentality (expectation), and performance-reward expectancy (rewards).

Opportunity

Opportunity is described as a combination of circumstances favorable to the achieve-

ment of a work output (Porter & Lawler, 1968; Vroom, 1964). In previous work with expec-
tancy theory and police behavior (Johnson, 2006, 2010b), opportunity was operationalized
with three items: shift, available time in the shift, and sufficient equipment to perform a
task. First, enforcement opportunities may vary by time of day, especially with regard to
DUI enforcement as most DUI offenses occur during hours of darkness (Newstead,
Cameron, & Leggett, 2001). Respondents were asked what shift they primarily worked in
2003, and the evening shift and midnight shift responses were combined to produce a
dichotomous measure of nighttime shift.
Second, the respondents were asked whether they usually had enough time to engage in
enforcement in each of the three specific output areas (one question for each output). For
example, one question stated, “I usually have enough time to engage in proactive traffic
enforcement during my shift.” The officers’ response choices ranged from strongly disagree
to strongly agree on a 4-point scale. Third, the respondents were asked whether they had
enough equipment to engage in enforcement in each of the three specific output areas, with
responses again ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 4-point scale.1
The responses to these three measures were standardized and summed to create one
opportunity index for traffic enforcement, one for DUI enforcement, and one for drug
enforcement. Cronbach’s alpha reliability scores were calculated for each of these three
opportunity indices to ensure content validity. The traffic enforcement opportunity alpha
score was .523, the DUI opportunity score was .472, and the drug enforcement alpha score
was .473, suggesting moderate validity.

Ability

Ability is having the skill, expertise, or talent necessary to perform a task (Porter &
Lawler, 1968; Vroom, 1964). Modeling Johnson (2006, 2009b, 2010b) and Dejong and
associates (2001), ability was operationalized by education and training. Education was
measured by whether or not the respondents held a baccalaureate degree. Training was
measured as the number of hours of formal training the respondent had received in each
specific enforcement area during his or her career. The respondents were asked to indicate
how many hours of training they had received in traffic enforcement, DUI enforcement, and
drug interdiction. While it is reasonable to conceive that both police training and formal
education would contribute to an officer’s ability to perform complex tasks in law enforce-
ment, it is not reasonable to assume that these two measures are correlated with one another.
(In fact, Cronbach’s alpha scores for each “ability” scale were insignificant.) Nevertheless,
while not correlated with one another, they both are assumed to improve ability (Dejong
et al., 2001; Johnson, 2006, 2009b, 2010b) and therefore were joined together in additive
1588  Criminal Justice and Behavior

scales. The education and training responses were standardized and summed to create abil-
ity indexes for traffic enforcement, DUI enforcement, and drug enforcement.

Instrumentality

Instrumentality reflects what the employer has communicated will lead to rewards (Porter
& Lawler, 1968; Vroom, 1964). In other words, it is what the employees think are the pro-
duction priorities of the employer. Again modeling Dejong and associates (2001) and
Johnson (2006, 2009b, 2010b), this construct was operationalized by combining three mea-
sures: immediate supervisor priority, chief executive priority, and immediate supervisor
productivity. Respondents were asked whether each enforcement area was a priority for
their immediate supervisor. For example, one question stated, “DUI enforcement is a top
priority for my immediate supervisor.” The response choices ranged from strongly disagree
to strongly agree on a 4-point scale. The same set of three questions was asked about the
priorities of the chief executive, such as “Drug enforcement is a top priority for my police
chief.” Assuming that some supervisors lead by example more than by verbal direction
(Johnson, 2015), we also measured the number of traffic citations, DUI arrests, and drug
offense arrests each respondent’s immediate supervisor made during 2003.
Cronbach’s alpha reliability scores were calculated for each of these three instrumentality
indices to ensure content validity. The traffic enforcement instrumentality alpha score was
.739, the DUI opportunity score was .744, and the drug enforcement alpha score was .700,
suggesting strong internal validity. Using these measures, three indexes of instrumentality
were created, one for each performance output, by standardizing and summing the measures.

Performance-Reward Expectancy

Performance-reward expectancy, the workers’ belief that a linkage exists between

rewards and work outputs (Porter & Lawler, 1968; Vroom, 1964), was measured as the
perception that each specific work output was rewarded by the organization or brought
intrinsic personal rewards. Johnson (2006, 2009b, 2010b) operationalized this construct by
asking respondents whether they felt specific work tasks were rewarded by their organiza-
tion. Likewise, in the present study, the officers responded to survey statements about
agency rewards for each specific work output, such as “On my department, officers are
recognized and rewarded for making drug arrests.” The officers also responded to state-
ments about their own intrinsic orientation toward each work output, such as “I personally
believe that DUI enforcement should be a high priority.” The responses to the statements
ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 4-point scale.
For each of the three work outputs, the two items were standardized and summed to cre-
ate an index of performance-reward expectancy. The Cronbach’s alpha value for the traffic
enforcement performance-reward expectancy scale was .431, the DUI scale alpha was .520,
and the drug enforcement scale alpha was .713, revealing moderate to high internal validity.
Table 1 reveals the descriptive statistics for all of the variables used in this study.

Procedure

The prior empirical literature utilizing Super’s (1957) four career stages have used tenure
to differentiate each career stage, usually in 5-year increments (Allen & Meyer, 1993;
 Johnson, LaFrance / CAREER STAGE AND POLICE WORK  1589

Table 1: Variable Descriptive Statistics

Variables Description Range M SD

Dependent variables
 Citation Number of traffic citations issued by officer in 2003, −1.74-4.03 0.18 0.97
productivity standardized by department as a z score.
  DUI arrest Number of DUI arrests made by officer in 2003, standardized −1.43-4.20 0.15 0.99
productivity by department as a z score.
  Drug arrest Number of drug offense arrests made by officer in 2003, −2.45-3.64 0.14 0.99
productivity standardized by department as a z score.
Independent variables
 Citations An index created by standardizing and summing three items: −5.31-2.74 0.00 2.02
opportunity night shift assignment, perception of enough time for traffic
enforcement, and perception of enough equipment for
traffic enforcement.
  DUI arrest An index created by standardizing and summing three items: −7.48-1.41 0.00 1.72
opportunity night shift assignment, perception of enough time for DUI
enforcement, and perception of enough equipment for DUI
enforcement.
  Drug arrest An index created by standardizing and summing three items: −5.33-2.21 0.00 1.98
opportunity night shift assignment, perception of enough time for drug
enforcement, and perception of enough equipment for drug
enforcement.
  Citations ability An index created by standardizing and summing two −1.40-7.24 0.00 1.37
items: bachelor’s degree and number of hours of traffic
enforcement training during career.
  DUI arrest An index created by standardizing and summing two items: −7.81-13.25 0.26 1.11
ability bachelor’s degree and number of hours of DUI enforcement
training during career.
  Drug arrest An index created by standardizing and summing two items: −1.22-11.74 0.08 1.57
ability bachelor’s degree and number of hours of drug interdiction
training during career.
 Citations An index created by standardizing and summing three items: −5.58-6.11 0.03 2.12
instrumentality Perception citations are a priority for immediate supervisor,
perception citations are a priority for chief executive, and
the number of citations issued by immediate supervisor.
  DUI arrest An index created by standardizing and summing three −7.06-5.42 0.02 2.26
instrumentality items: Perception DUI arrests are a priority for immediate
supervisor, perception DUI arrests are a priority for
chief executive, and the number of DUI arrests made by
immediate supervisor.
  Drug arrest An index created by standardizing and summing three −5.87-5.92 0.03 2.26
instrumentality items: Perception drug arrests are a priority for immediate
supervisor, perception drug are a priority for chief
executive, and the number of drug arrests made by
immediate supervisor.
 Citations An index created by standardizing and summing two items: −5.02-3.07 0.01 1.37
performance- Perception agency recognizes and rewards traffic citations,
reward and personal belief that traffic enforcement is a personal
expectancy priority.
 DUI An index created by standardizing and summing two items: −3.14-2.89 0.00 1.41
performance- Perception agency recognizes and rewards DUI arrests,
reward and personal belief that DUI enforcement is a personal
expectancy priority.
 Drug An index created by standardizing and summing two items: −4.39-2.84 0.09 1.51
performance- Perception agency recognizes and rewards drug arrests,
reward and personal belief that drug enforcement is a personal
expectancy priority.

Note. DUI = driving under the influence.

1590  Criminal Justice and Behavior

Table 2: Mean Work Output Comparisons by Career Stage

Stage 1; n = 131 Stage 2; n = 90 Stage 3; n = 78 Stage 4; n = 102

Work output M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) F test

Traffic citations 0.207 (0.810) 0.363 (1.127) −0.161 (0.962) −0.443 (0.820) 15.286***
DUI arrests 0.209 (0.760) 0.414 (1.292) −0.137 (1.000) −0.510 (0.739) 18.031***
Drug arrests 0.226 (0.971) 0.378 (1.187) −0.168 (0.797) −0.491 (0.545) 18.723***

Note. DUI = driving under the influence.

***p < .001.

Morrow & McElroy, 1987; Pogson et al., 2003). Barker’s (1999) ethnographic work on
police officer career stages also suggested four stages, each spanning roughly 5 years. Using
four 5-year stages was also appropriate as most public employees operate under a 20-year
minimum retirement system (Grant & Omdahl, 1993). The present study, therefore, divided
the sample into four career stages in a similar manner.
The first stage, containing 131 cases, consisted of all officers with 0 to 5 years of employ-
ment. The second stage, containing 90 cases, included the officers with 6 through 10 years
of experience. The third stage, consisting of 78 cases, contained officers with 11 through 15
years of experience. The final stage had 102 cases and involved all officers with more than
15 years of experience.
Mean work outputs for each of the three outputs were examined by career stage group to
determine whether statistically significant differences were found between career stages.
Next, multiple regression models were estimated for each specific work output, by career
stage group, using the constructs of expectancy as independent variables, to determine
whether the theory constructs varied in influence across career stages for police patrol offi-
cers. Out of concerns about the sufficiency of the sample sizes for each career stage (rang-
ing from 78 to 131 cases), an a priori statistical power analysis was conducted to determine
the minimum sample size needed for each regression analysis. For multiple regression mod-
els with only four predictor variables, a minimum significance level of <.05, and an antici-
pated effect size of .20, the minimum sample size needed was 75 cases. As the lowest
subsample size consisted of 78 cases (the third career stage), we were within acceptable
bounds for using multiple regression analysis.

Results
The first step in the analysis process was to examine whether work productivity changed
across career stages. Table 2 reveals the mean values, by career stage, for each of the three
work outputs examined. Recall that these dependent variables are z scores standardized by
police department, not raw numbers of arrests or citations. They indicate the number of
standard deviations away from each police department’s mean arrests value. As Table 2
reveals, work productivity in all three categories started high in the first career stage,
increased during the second stage, but declined across the last two career stages. The differ-
ences between these mean values were statistically significant, as indicated by an F test
across the four career stages, and in individual t tests conducted between each pair of means
(not shown in the table). While the previous literature suggested proactive enforcement
declines with experience among police officers (Riksheim & Chermak, 1993; Sherman,
 Johnson, LaFrance / CAREER STAGE AND POLICE WORK  1591

Table 3: Ordinary Least Square Regression Models of Expectancy Motivation Constructs on Traffic
Citation Productivity

Stage 1; n = 131 Stage 2; n = 90 Stage 3; n = 78 Stage 4; n = 102

Variable B (SE) Beta B (SE) Beta B (SE) Beta B (SE) Beta

Opportunity .086 (.038) .209* .039 (.056) .061 .027 (.047) .009 −.010 (.043) −.026
Ability .027 (.058) .041 .030 (.081) .032 −.035 (.063) −.061 −.027 (.068) −.040
Instrumentality .051 (.030) .148* .061 (.052) .103* .158 (.070) .271* .026 (.061) .043
Performance- .102 (.052) .176* .491 (.075) .577*** .097 (.086) .135* .100 (.065) .159*
reward
expectancy
(Constant) .213 (.070) .256 (.107) −.119 (.106) −.401 (.089)  
Model F 3.214** 11.767*** 3.776** 0.687  
Model R2 .293 .356 .171 .028  

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

1980; Skogan & Frydl, 2004), the present results suggested the relationship is curvilinear,
increasing across the first two career stages and then declining over the last two stages.
The next step in the analysis was the estimation of multiple regression models. Ordinary
least squares regression models were calculated for each work output by each career stage,
using constructs of expectancy theory as independent variables. Before the models were
created, the potential for multicollinearity among the independent variables was examined
through the calculation of variance inflation factors (VIF). The VIF values ranged from
1.30 to 1.51, never approaching Allison’s (1999) threshold of 2.50, suggesting multicol-
linearity among the independent variables was not a concern. Furthermore, to examine how
the measures of opportunity, ability, instrumentality, and performance-reward expectancy
were distributed across each of your career stages, a table was created and can be found in
the appendix to this article.
The first work output, traffic citations, was examined in Table 3. The first career stage
model revealed variation in citation productivity for officers was predicted by opportunity,
instrumentality, and performance-reward expectancy. In the second model, involving offi-
cers in the second stage of their careers, only instrumentality and performance-reward
expectancy held predictive value, as opportunity lost statistical significance in the second
career stage. The model for the third career stage produced the same results, with only
instrumentality and performance-reward expectancy retaining predictive value. In the final
career stage, however, instrumentality also lost its statistical significance, leaving perfor-
mance-reward expectancy as the sole predictor of traffic citation productivity.
These models suggested that, with regard to traffic citation productivity, during the first
career stage characteristics related to opportunities, perceptions that citations are expected,
and perceptions that citations lead to intrinsic or extrinsic rewards hold predictive value. In
the second and third career stages, only perceptions that citations are expected and the per-
ception that citations lead to rewards held predictive value. In the final career stage, only the
perception that citations led to rewards predicted citation productivity. The weak model R2
value also suggested that the constructs of expectancy motivation theory hold little value in
explaining this behavior in the last career stage. Across the four models, the R2 measure of
variance explained followed the overall curvilinear pattern of productivity previously found
in Table 2. The first career stage model predicted approximately 29% of the variance, while
1592  Criminal Justice and Behavior

Table 4: Ordinary Least Square Regression Models of Expectancy Motivation Constructs on DUI Arrest
Productivity

Stage 1; n = 131 Stage 2; n = 90 Stage 3; n = 78 Stage 4; n = 102

Variable B (SE) Beta B (SE) Beta B (SE) Beta B (SE) Beta

Opportunity .085 (.040) .186* .147 (.069) .168* .230 (.073) .378** .024 (.039) .062
Ability −.039 (.095) −.036 −.067 (.248) −.028 −.038 (.053) −.080 −.150 (.105) −.143
Instrumentality .099 (.028) .030 −.018 (.075) .025 −.080 (.062) .141* .094 (.039) .244*
Performance- .143 (.047) .264** .348 (.088) .420*** .170 (.100) .204* .152 (.053) .197*
reward
expectancy
(Constant) .167 (.070) .379 (.138) −.137 (.130) −.375 (.085)  
Model F 3.904** 4.126** 2.845* 2.587*  
Model R2 .110 .163 .135 .098  

Note. DUI = driving under the influence.

* p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

the second career stage (with fewer statistically significant measures) explained even more
of the variance. The third and fourth career stages, however, revealed marked declines in
explained variance.
Table 4 reveals the results of the analyses of DUI arrests. In the first career stage
model, only opportunity and performance-reward expectancy had predictive value. The
same was the case in the second career stage. In the third career stage, however, instru-
mentality also gained statistical significance. In the final career stage, only instrumental-
ity and performance-reward expectancy retained statistical significance for DUI arrest
productivity. This suggests that increased opportunities to make DUI arrests and the per-
ception that DUI arrests are linked to intrinsic or extrinsic rewards best predict within-
agency variation in DUI arrests during the first two career stages. In the third career stage,
the perception that management identified DUI arrests as a priority also gains statistical
significance, but in the final career stage, only expectation and rewards for DUI arrests
remain important.
The pattern of R2 values across all four DUI arrest models revealed a pattern similar to
that for the traffic citations. The amount of variance explained by the models started at 11%
in the first stage, increased in the second career stage (16.3%), then declined in third and
fourth career stages (13.5% and 9.8%, respectively). These low R2 values also suggest that
the factors most predictive of officer DUI arrest productivity lie outside the framework of
expectancy motivation theory.
Finally, Table 5 contains the four models analyzing drug arrest productivity. As this table
reveals, during the first career stage, ability and performance-reward expectancy predict
within-agency variation between officers in drug arrest productivity. Instrumentality was
also statistically significant, but produced a negative relationship. One possible explanation
for this finding is that officers in their first career stage often made drug arrests while per-
ceiving management did not prioritize such arrests. This might be explained by the empha-
sis of the “war on drugs” in entry-level police training (Hari, 2015), and the importance of
this war metaphor among young officers (Moskos, 2008). Veteran officers in later career
stages, however, often become disillusioned with the war on drugs, and perceive their drug
enforcement efforts as futile against the national drug use epidemic (Barker, 1999; Moskos,
 Johnson, LaFrance / CAREER STAGE AND POLICE WORK  1593

Table 5: Ordinary Least Square Regression Models of Expectancy Motivation Constructs on Drug
Arrest Productivity

Stage 1; n = 131 Stage 2; n = 90 Stage 3; n = 78 Stage 4; n = 102

Variable B (SE) Beta B (SE) Beta B (SE) Beta B (SE) Beta

Opportunity .034 (.040) .066 .044 (.060) .065 −.015 (.040) −.038 .030 (.027) .107*
Ability .105 (.065) .127* .125 (.090) .126* .117 (.033) .374** .019 (.042) .041
Instrumentality −.090 (.035) −.206* .039 (.047) .074 −.015 (.046) −.033 .094 (.034) .279**
Performance- .305 (.053) .457*** .391 (.065) .593*** .130 (.060) .233* .078 (.039) .195*
reward
expectancy
(Constant) .115 (.077) .415 (.109) −.177 (.090) −.439 (.057)  
Model F 10.339** 10.715*** 6.120*** 5.125**  
Model R2 .247 .335 .251 .174  

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

2008). Veteran officers may not focus on drug enforcement unless they perceive they are
being directed to do so.
In the second career stage, ability and performance-reward expectancy continued to hold
predictive value. This was also the case in the model for the third career stage. In the model
for the final career stage, opportunity gained statistical significance, ability lost statistical
significance, performance-reward expectancy maintained statistical significance, and
instrumentality returned to statistical significance with a positive relationship.
These models suggested that the perception that drug arrests are linked to intrinsic or
extrinsic rewards best predict drug arrest activity in all four career stages. Ability to make
drug arrests predicts drug arrest productivity for all but the last career stage, and opportunity
only predicts drug arrest productivity in the final career stage. Interestingly, perceptions
about the instrumentality of drug arrests within the organization are at odds with drug arrest
productivity in the earliest career stage, but actually promote drug arrest activity in the final
career stage. Finally, the R2 values across the four models demonstrated the same curvilin-
ear pattern revealed in the previous analyses. Although the model R2 values were more
robust in explaining the within-agency variation in drug arrests than they were in explaining
DUI arrests, the pattern of initial increase and then decrease in model strength again held
true.

Discussion
This study began with three hypotheses. First, regarding productivity, it was hypothe-
sized that arrest and citation productivity would be highest in the first career stage and low-
est in the last stage, declining steadily across all four career stages in a linear fashion. The
findings here, however, revealed that productivity followed a curvilinear pattern, increasing
before declining. This was the case for all three of the work outputs examined. This trend
may best be explained by Barker’s (1999) ethnographic work with police careers. She sug-
gested that officers began their careers highly motivated to do proactive police work but
were apprehensive as they were still learning how to do the job. As they mastered the skills
of their job by the second career phase, which Barker aptly referred to as “hitting their
stride,” their productivity increased. After having established their workplace reputations in
1594  Criminal Justice and Behavior

the first two career phases, Barker suggested patrol officers became burned out from per-
forming the same tasks for so long, and became disgruntled from experiencing injuries,
lawsuits, citizen complaints, and being passed over for promotions or transfers. Finally, in
the last career stage, Barker suggested that patrol officers began to disengage from the
career, focusing more on outside interests and avoiding any risky situations that might jeop-
ardize their retirement pensions.
Second, it was hypothesized that opportunity and ability would gradually become less
important in explaining variation between officers’ productivity as they progressed through
the four career stages. Recall that Super (1957, 1980) suggested that work skill increases
throughout the first two stages of one’s career. Barker (1999) suggested that police patrol
officers mastered their work skills within the first or second career stage and then do not
continue to advance in skill after mastering their specific job tasks in the first or second
career stage. In the present study, however, opportunity and ability appeared to vary incon-
sistently across career stages and work outputs.
When dealing with traffic citation productivity, opportunity only mattered in the first
career stage. Super (1957, 1980) and Barker (1999) would have predicted this outcome.
Examination of DUI arrest productivity, however, revealed that opportunity mattered in all
but the last career stage. In drug arrests, opportunity only mattered during the last career
stage. Ability was also fickle and inconsistent across career stage and type of work output
measured. These findings suggested that the importance of opportunity and ability vary not
only across career stages but also across types of work activities. The results suggest that
some tasks, such as detecting traffic violations and issuing traffic citations for them, are
mastered very early in an officer’s career and are abundant, making detection easy. Other
tasks, such as detecting drunken drivers appear to take greater skill and are also dependent
upon the availability of drunken drivers to arrest, such as during evening hours when alco-
hol consumption occurs at higher rates.
Third, it was hypothesized that instrumentality (expectations) and performance-reward
expectancy (rewards) gradually increase in importance across the four career stages. This
was only true with regard to performance-reward expectancy. Instrumentality was an incon-
sistent predictor across career stages and type of work output. This may be explained by the
barriers that exist to communicating work expectations to street-level bureaucrats. Lipsky
(1980) suggested that street-level bureaucrats, such as police officers, face a work environ-
ment fraught with contradictory and ambiguous goals, making it difficult to know which
goals to prioritize in any given circumstance. The situation is further exacerbated by the fact
chief executives, in responding to various constituencies, send mixed signals to their subor-
dinates about agency priorities (Lipsky, 1980; Wilson, 1968). Moreover, Johnson (2010a)
found that supervisor priorities for patrol officers varied dramatically across three layers of
managers in police departments. LaFrance, Day, Ewing, and Rohall (2012) also found that
police managers often had different expectations for themselves than they did for their sub-
ordinates, the proverbial, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Perhaps the inconsistent predictive
influence of instrumentality was the result of these communication difficulties.
Despite the inconsistent results of opportunity, ability, and instrumentality, the predic-
tive nature of performance-reward expectancy and the patterns of variance explained by
each of the career stage models remained consistent. Across all four career stages and all
three productivity measures, performance-reward expectancy illustrated the importance of
worker’s perception that specific work activities are tied to rewards. Providing rewards to
 Johnson, LaFrance / CAREER STAGE AND POLICE WORK  1595

public employees, unfortunately, can be very difficult due to the constraints of civil service
regulations. Civil service rules prevent managers from using the same incentives as the
private sector, such as offering vacations, shares in the corporation, or cash bonuses for
meeting productivity or performance goals (Lipsky, 1980; Wilson, 1968). Nevertheless,
informal rewards (such as the approval of time off requests and assignment of tasks, areas,
partners, and vehicles) are still available to public managers. Intrinsic rewards also should
not be overlooked. Public managers can reward employees by assigning them to tasks they
favor, or granting them a reprieve from the tasks they do not (Brehm & Gates, 2008).
The variance explained by each regression model also followed a consistent pattern.
Across all three dependent variables measured, the strength of the models (i.e., variance
explained) increased when moving from the first to the second career stage, then declined
across the third and fourth career stages. If mapped out on a line graph for each independent
variable, the R2 values for each career stage model would produce a curvilinear pattern.
Given the low R2 values of some of the models and the smaller sample sizes in the second
and third career stages, care should be used in drawing conclusions simply on the pattern of
R2 values. Nevertheless, as officer productivity followed a similar curvilinear pattern, this
seems to suggest that productivity was highest when the constructs of expectancy motiva-
tion theory best explained productivity. When productivity was lowest, expectancy motiva-
tion theory explained the least variance. When the conditions of expectancy motivation
theory were optimum, productivity was at its highest.
The findings here suggested specific policy implications for the management of police
patrol officers and criminal justice agents generally. First, the inconsistent influence of
instrumentality on work productivity suggested the need to find better ways to communi-
cate performance expectations and priorities. Johnson (2009a) revealed that supervisor
modeling was one effective way of communicating priorities and expectations. Brehm and
Gates (2008) also found training to be an effective signaler to subordinates of supervisory
expectations. These two methods of communicating work expectations deserve further
examination. Second, both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards may be used to influence patrol
officer productivity. While civil service rules and bureaucracies limit the use of formal
rewards in criminal justice agencies, informal rewards such as approval of a day-off request
or assignment to a choice task are within the authority of most first-line supervisors (Van
Maanen, 1985; Wilson, 1968). These types of rewards should be utilized more often and
future research should examine which specific rewards are the most effective motivators of
officer behavior.
Third, as work productivity appeared to decline sharply in each of the last two career
stages, perhaps it is important to plan novel experiences or tasks for late-career officers.
It would appear that promotion or specialty assignments (such as training or public
relations officer) are crucial to keeping officers from stagnating and declining in pro-
ductivity. Even if these opportunities are unavailable, assigning late-stage employees to
new roles or responsibilities within their current job assignment may prevent produc-
tivity stagnation.
The present study provided a much-needed examination of the effects of career stage on
employee productivity and expectancy motivation. Despite its strengths, there were limita-
tions. First, the inability to determine temporal order is an issue inherent in any cross-sec-
tional, correlational study; therefore, we cannot know for sure whether the attitudes
measured preceded the performance output. Second, as is the case with the vast majority of
1596  Criminal Justice and Behavior

policing research, it involved a convenience sample, making generalizations about the find-
ings to other agencies difficult. Similarly, a lack of gender and race measures further limits
generalizations to female and non-White officers. The rather low R2 values for some of the
models, and the small subsamples in two of the four career stages, are also limitations that
must be taken into consideration.
The emphasis on quantitative analysis rather than qualitative data collection made a
trade-off on the side of breadth rather than depth. This came at the price of a deeper, qualita-
tive analysis that could have accounted for the aggregate findings. The study was not
designed to prove why longer serving officers are less motivated by opportunity and ability
variables; however, this could be the focus of future research on this topic. Another issue is
that police officers do much more than make arrests, so other activities could have been
chosen as measures of productivity. Future research is needed to discern whether alternative
productivity measures share similar relationships to those observed in the present study.
Third, the present study, while examining employees from 23 different agencies, was lim-
ited to only uniformed police patrol officer. It is unknown whether the findings here are as
applicable to probation officers, detectives, correctional officers, or deputy prosecutors.
Future research is warranted in other criminal justice settings as this study could easily be
replicated with other types of criminal justice agents.
In conclusion, the present study examined the influence of career stage on police officer
work behavior. The findings revealed that work productivity was curvilinear across the
career, with productivity dropping in the final two career stages before retirement. The find-
ings revealed that opportunity and ability play inconsistent roles in productivity across
career stages, and instrumentality was also inconsistent as employees struggle with trying
to determine what specific work behaviors are expected. Finally, it appears that employees
focus most on activities that are clearly linked to extrinsic or intrinsic rewards.

Appendix
Descriptive Statistics by Career Stage

Stage 1; n = 131 Stage 2; n = 90 Stage 3; n = 78 Stage 4; n = 102

Work output M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)

Traffic opportunity 0.173 (1.963) 0.653 (1.771) −0.466 (2.301) −0.432 (2.017)
Traffic ability 0.086 (1.365) −0.258 (1.212) 0.247 (1.657) −0.079 (1.245)
Traffic instrumentality 0.178 (2.352) 0.057 (1.897) −0.043 (1.651) −0.117 (1.372)
Traffic performance- 0.205 (1.389) 0.189 (1.326) −0.011 (1.348) −0.443 (1.309)
reward expectancy
DUI opportunity 0.322 (1.663) 0.375 (1.883) −0.025 (1.640) −0.668 (1.884)
DUI ability 0.283 (0.699) 0.084 (0.547) 0.533 (2.106) 0.214 (0.714)
DUI instrumentality −0.379 (2.349) −0.471 (1.806) −0.960 (1.767) −0.848 (1.892)
DUI performance- 0.151 (1.399) 0.144 (1.560) −0.298 (1.196) −0.105 (1.395)
reward expectancy
Drug opportunity 0.231 (1.876) 0.446 (1.781) −0.220 (2.035) −0.726 (1.920)
Drug ability 0.081 (1.177) −0.205 (1.191) 0.594 (2.560) −0.064 (1.201)
Drug instrumentality 0.102 (2.223) −0.044 (2.234) −0.089 (1.776) 0.066 (1.618)
Drug performance- 0.340 (1.456) 0.026 (1.640) −0.499 (1.434) −0.438 (1.358)
reward expectancy

Note. DUI = driving under the influence.

 Johnson, LaFrance / CAREER STAGE AND POLICE WORK  1597

Note
1. A notable limitation to the creation of the measure of opportunity was the inability to control for each officers’ geo-
graphically assigned beat, as opportunities to encounter drunk drivers and drug offenses could be influenced by the part of
town an officer patrols. We do note, however, that the sample was composed primarily of small agencies and each of the agen-
cies in the sample operated out of one centralized police station rather than dispersed precincts. Many of the agencies in the
sample only had two or three beats, and officers may have worked different beats on any given day rather being permanently
assigned to one geographic area. Furthermore, by standardizing the dependent variables by each police department, we were
able to control for geographic variations between agencies.

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Richard R. Johnson is professor of criminal justice at the University of Toledo. A former law enforcement officer in Indiana
and Illinois, he holds a doctorate in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati. His research interests include police–
citizen interactions and police first-line field supervision.

Casey LaFrance is associate professor of political science at Western Illinois University. A former sheriff deputy, he holds a
doctorate in political science from Northern Illinois University. His research interests include public sector accountability,
bureaucracy, and personnel issues.