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Active shooter incidents have risen considerably in recent years, elevating public and law enforcement focus on improving response to these incidents. The contemporary policy for reacting to an active shooter event is for the officers who first arrive on the scene to move quickly to engage and neutralize a shooter, prioritizing victim safety and minimizing loss of life. This study provides a preliminary understanding of the police view regarding their role in active shooter events and their experiences with active shooter training.

We conducted a survey of 413 sworn personnel across three US cities. Analyses examine differences in officers’ training experiences across the agencies and predictors of a sense of duty to prioritize victims’ lives over that of officers.

Officers’ training experiences differed by agency, yet most officers supported a duty to sacrifice their lives to prioritize victims’ safety during active shooter incidents. Officers with more years of experience have lower odds of supporting a duty to sacrifice their lives to save victims during an active shooter situation relative to less experienced officers. Respondents who recall officer safety among the top three most memorable topics from their recent active shooter training also have lower odds of supporting a duty to sacrifice.

The authors add knowledge about police officers’ experiences with active shooter training and officers’ opinions about their role in responding to active shooter incidents. We discuss implications of the findings relative to police culture and training and suggest directions for future research.

Internationally publicized cases of police violence against unarmed black men have led to calls for accountability in policing. Increased footage of police–public interactions, specifically through the form of police body-worn cameras (BWCs), is encouraged and considered an innovation that can improve the policing profession. However, BWC adoption is likely more feasible in big city departments than in small and rural departments, who respond to many of the same issues as their larger counterparts. The purpose of this study is to explore perceptions of BWC among leaders of small and rural police departments.

Using a mixed methods approach, the authors surveyed 349 chiefs of small and rural Pennsylvania police departments and conducted qualitative follow-up interviews with 53 chiefs.

The results indicate that both adopters and non-adopters esteem BWC in a positive light, particularly toward the ability to improve professionalism and police–community relations. Other findings and implications of these results will be discussed.

This study focuses on small and rural police departments, which make up the majority of police departments but are often understudied.

We present the results of one of the only in-depth studies of a police agency’s internal and external response to the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 (COVID-19). This study emphasizes the importance of law enforcement agencies conducting comprehensive case studies and after-action assessments to prepare, prevent and respond to prolonged public health crises and showcases the profound (and lingering) effects of COVID-19 on police organizations.

This multi-method case study combines document analysis, a workforce survey, a community survey, interviews and analysis of administrative data to detail and assess the agency’s internal and operational responses to the pandemic and the reactions of employees and community members to those responses.

Despite agency strategies to mitigate the pandemic’s effects, employees cited very high stress levels one year after the pandemic and a third of sworn officers considered leaving the policing profession altogether during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several policies intended by the agency to protect employee health and maintain staffing needs kept workforce levels steady but may have increased feelings of organizational injustice in both sworn and non-sworn individuals, with variation across racial and gender groups. A jurisdiction-wide community survey indicated general support for the police department’s responses but a preference for in-person rather than telephone-based responses to service calls. Officers, however, preferred continuing remote responses even after the pandemic subsided.

To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the only in-depth case studies that examine a police agency’s internal and external responses to COVID-19 and the sworn, non-sworn and community reactions to those responses.

The study examined rural police culture in one Kansas police agency.

This study used a qualitative ethnographic approach using in-depth interviews and non-participant observations to construct and interpret the culture of rural police through the lens of officers working in one rural police agency.

Five themes were found that described the complexities rural police officers face at this research site, including the law being at the center of officers’ actions, the nature of crime, officers serving as jack of all trades, community relationships and enforcement of crimes by teenagers, and how outside pressures from the community and increased concern for citizens' safety affect officers' daily lived experiences.

There is a dearth of scholarly literature addressing rural and small-town policing. This study is the first known qualitative study to be conducted on rural Kansas police, allowing a snapshot of the workings of rural Kansas police.

Prisonersare at disproportionate risk of suffering substance-related harms. The administration of naloxone is essential to reversing opioid overdose and minimizing substance-related harms in prison and the community. The purpose of this study is to examine how naloxone administration is practiced and perceived in prison settings.

The authors conducted surveys with correctional workers in Manitoba, Canada (n = 257) to examine how they understand and feel about the need for and practice of administering naloxone in their everyday work with criminalized populations.

Respondents reported feeling a great need to administer naloxone, but most did not feel adequately trained to administer naloxone, creating the perception that criminalized populations remain at enhanced risk.

Findings provide emerging evidence of the need for training and accompanying policies and procedures for correctional workers on how to access and administer naloxone.

Public safety (communicators; e.g. 9-1-1, police, fire and ambulance call-takers and dispatchers), like many other public safety personnel (e.g. police, paramedics), (re)suffer operational stress injuries (OSIs) that are too often hidden and at a prevalence higher than the general population. Unfortunately, there are very little data for OSI rates in Canadian communicators. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the only pan-Canadian study focusing on organizational culture, and its potential influence on OSIs, within the communicator context.

The authors conducted a 179-item online survey of Canadian communicators comprising 17 validated screenings for occupational stress injuries and symptoms and four open-ended questions relating to their agency's organizational culture. The authors thematically analysed participants' open-ended responses and their screening scores.

A semi-grounded thematic approach revealed that managers and supervisors were significant contributors to negative perceptions (n = 165) of organizational culture, potentially resulting in or worsening existing OSIs. Specifically, leadership was viewed as ineffective, inconsistent, unsupportive, abusive and toxic, with limited understanding of communicator roles. Communicators described feeling devalued, particularly when leaders fail to recognize communicator OSIs, which can perpetuate stigma. Conversely, positive leaders (n = 24) were described as supportive, communicative and encouraging.

The findings suggest that while leadership behaviours are a key factor in employee well-being, it varies considerably across agencies, impacting treatment-seeking behaviours. The authors’ new understandings of leaders' roles in OSIs may help reduce the frequency and severity of communicator OSIs, helping ensure that emergency services are delivered to Canadians.

Safety professionals' primary job is to execute safety control measures towards frontline personnel, and previous studies focus on the effectiveness of such controls. Rare research efforts, however, have been devoted to the effectiveness of management control measures towards safety professionals themselves. This study aimed to fill up this knowledge gap by examining whether safety professionals under differing management control configurations differ in their work attitudes, including affective commitment, job satisfaction, career commitment and intention to quit.

Drawing on a holistic view of control, five forms of management control, i.e. outcome control, process control, capability control, professional control and reinforcement, were investigated. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey targeting at construction safety professionals was conducted. The latent profile analysis approach was employed to identify how the five forms of management control are configured, i.e. identifying the distinctive patterns of control profiles. The Bolck–Croon–Hagenaars method was then used to examine whether safety professionals' work attitudes were different across the identified control profiles.

Seven distinct control profiles were extracted from the sample of 475 construction safety professionals. The overall test of outcome means showed that mean levels of affective commitment, job satisfaction and intentions to quit were significantly different across the seven profiles. The largest that was also the most desirable subgroup was the high control profile (n = 161, 33.9%). The least desirable subgroups included the low control profile (n = 75, 15.8%) and the low capability and professional control profile (n = 12, 2.5%). Pairwise comparison suggested that capability, professional and process controls were more effective than outcome control and reinforcement.

In theory, this study contributes to the burgeoning literature on how to improve the effectiveness of control measures targeted at safety professionals. The results suggested that effective management controls involve a fine combination of formal, informal, process and output controls. In practice, this study uncovers the ways in which managers leverage the efforts of safety professionals in achieving safety goals. Particularly, it informs managers that the control configurations, instead of isolated controls, should be executed to motivate safety professionals.

Occupational safety issues among employees remains a contemporary and omnipresent concern. In developing countries, safety-related problems are amplified, resulting in higher incidences of serious accidents and occupational diseases. This study aims to evaluate employees’ knowledge and attitudes toward occupational health and safety, and how these influence overall occupational health and safety compliance. Ghana’s oil and gas industry provides the contextual backdrop for this research, given it is characterized by high rates of injury.

A positivist and deductive research strategy was used to quantitatively analyze both primary and secondary data sources. A structured survey was administered to industry employees, and multiple linear regression was used to establish the effects of employee’s knowledge and attitude toward occupational health hazards on overall health and safety compliance.

The findings indicate that most employees had both a high level of knowledge and positive attitude toward mitigating occupational health hazards. Moreover, the study reveals that most employees complied with occupational health safety practices. However, the study also reveals that the effect of employees’ knowledge and attitude toward occupational health hazards does not translate into deployment of comprehensive safety practices. Interestingly, female employees were found to be more knowledgeable and compliant with occupational health and safety practices than their male counterparts.

Premised upon the findings, the study recommends: implementation of relevant education and training programs encompassing the proper usage of machinery and equipment, tailored hazard safety training appropriate to specific employee job requirements, effective dissemination of risk information and governance initiatives that enforce strict adherence to correct safety procedures.

The study uniquely examines the influence of employee’s knowledge of health and safety to overall compliance within the oil and gas industry. Cumulatively, the study’s findings and recommendations contribute to improving the occupational health and safety outcomes within the industry.

The purpose of this study was to test a four-variable research model using organizational behavior, social and technical systems, and leadership theories. This study set out to determine how different leadership philosophies, such as transformational leadership and empowering leadership, affected innovation. In addition, the model’s mediating role for psychological empowerment was quantified.

This study used a quantitative approach, which is primarily a questionnaire, to gather information from 320 health-care sector workers at four public hospitals in the Basrah Governorate.

The majority of the relationships in the research model were shown to be positive by data analysis outcomes. The findings also showed how crucial the mediating variable was in preserving the link between the independent and dependent variables. Discussions were made on the theoretical and practical ramifications and suggestions for additional research.

This study concentrated on the application of contemporary leadership styles, gathered information on them and combined them into a single model to boost innovation. This study, which was conducted in the setting of the Iraqi health-care industry, stands out from previous studies because it used a large sample to provide conclusive and significant results, making it a valuable resource for academicians who seek to cultivate innovation.

Discussions about progressive gender reform across Melanesia highlight the need for more gender-inclusive policies and improved conditions for women and girls throughout all sectors. However, for many of these countries, attempts to address the problems are marred by insufficient resources and low prioritization of the issue and traditional, cultural and religious perspectives about gender and gendered roles. This article discusses how police responses are coordinated to address domestic and family violence (DFV) and provides a critical reflection on both internal responses and the complexities of multi-partner operations beyond urban spaces.

This article draws on the findings from a stakeholder engagement focus group with 20 participants from four Melanesian countries – Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu – to provide insight into policing innovations in rural contexts.

There is a need for improved multisector partnerships, increased police presence and greater reliance on indigenous strategies to improve responses to DFV in resource-constrained contexts.

The article provides insight into an under-researched area and makes recommendations for improving responses to DFV in rural areas in small-island developing states.