5

Identifying the characteristics of high performers has been a continuous challenge for

those who hire, train, and supervise, especially for the job of peace officer (Detrick et al.,

2016; Inwald, 1984).

The literature review conducted as part of this study revealed ongoing efforts by

researchers in the field, but work is needed to enhance and add to that research. Existing

research that has previously identified character traits in police officers identified

character traits in police officers is insufficient to meet the new demands for officers who

possess compassion, open-mindedness, sensitivity, courtesy, patience, and decisiveness.

Police agencies require a mechanism to identify officers and candidates who possess

these and other traits, and possibly more importantly, those who do not. Moreover, there

is a disconnect between what appears on the standard employee performance evaluations

and the true measures of an agent’s performance for things such as promotion and

training opportunities (Government Accountability Office, 2018).

Walden Library databases, Google, Google Scholar, and Psych net were searched

using term as police or law enforcement. I then joined the search with leadership,

performance, standard, excel, exceed, morale, substandard, fail and others. One

dissertation was found that addresses the performance of investigators through the prism

of confirmation bias (Wallace, 2016). The Walden University student conducted a

narrative study, interviewing investigators searching to determine the effect of

confirmation bias in criminal investigative decision making (Wallace, 2016).

Other literature is available to researchers that speaks about job performance and

training and the substance of what we seek (Mourtgos, et al., 2020). This will allow