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Police training is in a period of transition, requiring new recruits to already have, or work towards, a policing degree. However, recruitment procedures have not significantly changed in the past few decades. With psychometric testing commonplace in North America and Australasia to help ensure the right recruits are selected, this research seeks to understand if police trainers feel there is scope for a similar process in the United Kingdom (UK).

Twenty-five police training staff across four different police forces took part in a total of six focus groups to discuss views on this and other areas of recruitment.

Results indicated that police trainers are concerned about the quality and aptitude of recruits. Support was given for the introduction of formal psychometric testing to prevent unsuitable candidates from successfully joining and/or to give trainers better insight into the personalities of their students.

There was general concern from female trainers that the police environment new recruits entered still bore elements of covert sexism. Trainers' views on reforms to police recruitment, the implications of this and areas for future study are discussed.

Police officers are frequently confronted with moral dilemmas in the course of their job. The authors assume new police officers need guidance, and need to be taught at the police academy how to deal with these situations. The purpose of this paper is to obtain insight into the impact of socialization on police recruits’ knowledge of the code of ethics and their moral reasoning skills.

The study applied a longitudinal mixed methods design, using two methods. The first method was a qualitative observation of integrity training sessions at five police academies in Belgium. The second method was a quantitative survey-measurement of recruits’ knowledge of the code of ethics and their moral reasoning skills at three points in time: the beginning of their theoretical training, before their field training and afterwards.

The analyses show differences between the police academies in their integrity training sessions. Some of these differences are reflected in different levels of knowledge of the code of ethics. As for the development pattern of recruits’ moral reasoning skills, the study found almost no differences between the academies. Perhaps this is because recruits already have relatively high scores when they start, leaving little room for improvement during the one year training program. This suggests an important role of the police selection procedure.

Previous research on socialization and police culture has focussed on recruits being socialized in a negative police culture where misconduct is learned. This is a negative interpretation of police integrity. A positive one refers to ethical decision making generally, and moral reasoning specifically. The impact of the socialization process on recruits’ moral reasoning is empirically understudied.

The purpose of this study is to examine the nature of the code of silence among police recruits in an effort to provide recommendations to reduce its occurrence and harm to society.

Data analyses are performed on a multi-agency sample of 645 police recruits in the United States. Specifically, analyses are conducted on pre- and post-academy panel data to assess changes in recruits' perceptions of code adherence over time as they begin their immersion into the police culture.

Results demonstrate that police recruits' willingness to report a fellow officer is reduced by the end of the academy and that several individual and organizational factors impact recruits' code adherence attitudes over time.

This study contributes to the policing literature by exploring changes in recruits' code adherence attitudes over time.

Police recruits need to be prepared the moment they graduate from the police academy for any type of situation. It is during the initial recruit training phase at the police academy where police recruits need to learn about terrorism and how to respond to a terrorism incident. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the Emergency Response Week portion of the Chicago Police Academy's recruit curriculum was adequate and provided Chicago Police Department recruits with adequate knowledge of terrorism awareness and the skills necessary to respond to a terrorism incident.

Descriptive research was used with a non‐experimental fixed design, along with quantitative survey research.

The results indicated that the Chicago Police Department recruit curriculum in Emergency Response Week was perceived as above adequate by Chicago Police Department recruits. Additionally, the Chicago Police Department recruits perceived their knowledge concerning terrorism awareness and their skill levels concerning responding to a terrorism incident as above adequate following completion of Emergency Response Week.

Previous researchers mostly examined the breadth of police recruit curricula, which has left a need for an in‐depth knowledge base. This research paper probed deeply into the satisfaction of the Emergency Response Week curriculum at the Chicago Police Department Recruit Academy and narrowed the focus from previous studies.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if a police academy using adult learning techniques instills higher levels of perceived competence in recruits than an academy using traditional pedagogical methods.

The study took advantage of a timeframe when two academy models using different approaches to learning were employed in Massachusetts. Recruits (N = 97) were surveyed before entering the academy and just prior to graduation to assess their levels of perceived competence across three domains of training topics (i.e. “Policing in Massachusetts,” “Investigations” and “Patrol Procedures”).

Results were mixed in terms of the academy model's effects on recruit competence levels. In terms of investigations, participants experienced a greater level of growth in an adult-learning setting. Regarding general topics grouped into the “Policing in Massachusetts” category, such as constitutional law, recruits taught with traditional pedagogy experienced more growth. For patrol procedures, taught using similar hands-on methods, results showed comparable levels of growth for all recruits over time. Overall, recruits in both the traditional and adult-learning-based academy experienced similar growth trajectories in self-perceived levels of competence. Findings suggest that a mixed approach to training may provide optimal results for police recruits.

Prior research on academy curricula has been limited to cross-sectional analyses. Further, little effort has been made to analyze the impacts of academy training from an andrological and/or “adult learning” theoretical lens. This study evaluated the effects of a new, overhauled recruit academy curriculum over time to expand the literature in both of these areas.

Police recruit training has come under scrutiny recently by both practitioners and academics who question the quality of education recruits receive prior to beginning their jobs. Past researchers have questioned whether the training adequately prepares recruits to be effective police officers. This study analyses the content of one police academy to determine if the training is sufficient. This was done by actually attending an academy training program as a recruit to determine what occurs within the academy setting. By comparing the content of this academy to the required elements identified in academic and practitioner’s literature, it was determined that this police academy is providing quality training to potential officers within time and budgetary constraints.

The reality of policing in the twenty-first century is that most officers identify as white, heterosexual and cisgender (or identifying with the sex assigned to them at birth) and outnumber officers from diverse groups. Whilst many diverse officers are employed by police organisations, there is a lack of evidence to suggest transgender people seek employment in policing or (following strategic recruitment drives) are actively recruited by police organisations. This raises questions regarding the factors which constrain or facilitate employment of transgender people into policing and whether strategic recruitment drives targeting transgender people work. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Following a recruitment drive targeting diverse community members, an online survey was administered to police recruits in one of Australia’s smaller state based police organisations (n=742) to determine if recruits self-identity as transgender or cisgender, and whether or not self-identified cisgender or transgender recruits would be willing to work alongside one another.

The results indicated that all the recruits in this study identified as cisgender. Whilst transgender recruits may have participated in the research, none of the recruits identified openly as transgender in the survey. Consequently, there was a significant association between the recruit’s gender and sexuality, and their perceptions of working alongside transgender officers, with almost all recruits stating that they would prefer to work with cisgender officers.

The findings of this research contribute original knowledge to the extant body of policing literature regarding police recruit perceptions of working alongside transgender officers.

This type of research has not been conducted in an Australian context before.

The article aims to report on an examination of South African Police Service (SAPS) recruits for indicators evincing the presence of the police culture theme of isolation. The research also seeks to determine if the presence of isolation as characteristic of SAPS recruits is gender neutral as well as whether indicators of social isolation change over the period of basic recruit training as well as during the first period of encounter, field training.

Using a survey format, the research employs a quasi‐experimental pre‐test/post‐test repeated measures research (longitudinal) design: a pre‐test at the beginning of SAPS recruit basic training; post‐test at the end of the SAPS basic training; and a second post‐test upon completion field training.

Although there is significant variance among the police recruits, overall there are indicators of police isolation already present among the recruits upon arrival at the police training colleges. These indicators became stronger during the period of basic training but appeared to weaken during field training. However, upon closer observation this change was true only for female recruits. Indicators of isolation were also stronger among female recruits at all three times despite the decrease following field training.

The findings suggest that the basic training be evaluated for its differential, and somewhat negative, impact on female recruits. That attitudes evincing isolation from the public are present among police recruits also raises a serious question regarding community policing as the preferred mode of police service delivery.

This paper reports on a preliminary investigation of the police culture theme of isolation among South African Police Service recruits entering basic police training in January of 2005 and changes that may have occurred in these attitudes over the period of the six‐month basic training and the subsequent six‐month field training experience.

The purpose of the study was to provide greater understanding of the policing recruitment crisis by exploring if and how recruit decisions to become an officer were influenced by negative media publicity, As police recruits are a viable source for recruitment data.

Basic law enforcement (BLE) candidates attending a southeastern state police academy were surveyed (N = 395) on perceptions of danger and current officer motivation (i.e. the “Ferguson Effect”), as well as motivation variables for entering police work.

Results found little to no influence of negative media on decisions and career motivations, despite respondents acknowledging agreement to Ferguson Effect variables.

Findings suggest negative media publicity was not a contributing factor for the studied sample; however, further recruit-based research is advocated to understand contemporary law enforcement recruitment strategies.

As police organizations continue to face difficulty in hiring and retaining qualified candidates, understanding the next generation of officers has never been more crucial. This study provides a model for police organizations to incorporate recruit data into evidence-based procedures.

As findings suggest the acknowledgment of Ferguson Effect variables to be present, social implications include the possible long-term impacts of these perceptions on officer career progression and the police culture.

At the time of this study, no known work has examined police recruit motivations against the backdrop of negative media. This study is the first known research to explore the potential impact of Ferguson Effect variables on police academy recruits in the United States.

The widespread acceptance of community policing necessitates the need for training of recruits into its philosophy and practices. We provide a suggested curriculum for such training after describing its three basic premises. This is followed by discussions of the rationale for the curriculum, and a promising training method that can be used in its implementation. All of the above are summarized in our conclusion.