"It just looks bad": the effects of police officers' perceptions of public opinions

Thesis (M.A., Sociology)--California State University, Sacramento, 2012.The data for this study was collected during the course of 99 interviews with sworn officers from seven Northern California police departments. Thirty-nine of the 99 officers interviewed made comments which related to this study and a total of 65 statements were analyzed for this project. Officers report that they consider how the public will respond when deciding how to behave on-the-job, and public perception takes precedence to issues of legality in some cases. The concerns for and responses to perceptions of public opinion about the behavior of police officers illustrates the reciprocal nature of the relationship between the public and law enforcement.Sociolog