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Criminal Justice Review
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Explaining Police Officer Discretionary Activity

Brad W. Smith

Wayne State University

Kenneth J. Novak

University of Missouri-Kansas City

James Frank

University of Cincinnati

Christopher Lowenkamp

University of Cincinnati

Existing research on the activities of police officers has examined a range of police behaviors and decision processes. The present article attempts to delineate factors that influence the daily discretionary choices of officers concerning the activities they undertake on a daily basis. By empirically examining the contribution of officer and community factors on decisions to engage in a variety of typical police activities, this article provides a more complete understanding of factors that influence the work-related decisions of street-level police officers. Using systematic social observation data on both community-oriented and traditional beat officers, multivariate models are developed to explain officers’ daily activities. The findings reveal that neighborhood-level and attitude variables influenced community and traditional police officers differently. Overall, the individual-level attributes of officers did not influence activity choices of either type of officer. These findings are discussed in the context of community policing within the city studied.

Key Words: police activities • workload • police discretion

Criminal Justice Review, Vol. 30, No. 3, 325-346 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0734016805285260
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