Kimberly Burke will present findings from her recent mixed-method study, which provides new evidence about the impact of institutional prioritization of procedurally just and community-oriented policing tactics on officer well-being and occupational stress. Specifically, this research speaks to a body of knowledge evidencing that patrol police officers experience routine occupational discontent emergent from failed or poorly drafted attempts to improve police-community relationships. While these top-down institutional efforts to build trust and mutual respect between officers and the communities they serve are ostensibly admirable, many fall short in part because they are built absent the input of the very workers charged with implementing and enforcing those mandates. Thus, this research relies on survey and interview data to explore police officer accounts of why working in the context of community-oriented policing, engenders deep and chronic tensions with their civilian communities.

About the Speaker

Kimberly C. Burke is a doctoral student in UC Berkeley’s Department of Sociology. Her mixed-method research agenda focuses on understanding intergroup dynamics between police officers and civilians, police officer occupational well-being, and public safety outcomes.