Police Officer Job Satisfaction and Community Perceptions: Implications for Community-Oriented Policing

Abstract

Much of the current interest in community-oriented policing seeks to overcome tension between police officers and community residents, as a symbolic component of this new policing strategy. Similarly, many community-oriented policing programs seek to improve individual police officer attachment to the police occupation, generally by improving job satisfaction through some form of job enlargement or job enrichment. The current analysis examines a sample of 210 Philadelphia police officers participating in a program of police and community education as to components of job satisfaction and attachment, and their effects on perceptions of the quality of community and police interaction. Assessments of job satisfaction using job diagnostic instruments are examined in relation to perceptions of community conflict and support for the police, and greater police and community interaction. The implications of these findings for community-oriented policing are then discussed.