Abstracts Category : Other

The Relationships Among Law Enforcement Education Standards,Training, and Social Media Use

by John Paul McIntyre

Criminal justice professionals and policy makers arecontinually looking at ways to improve the quality of policeofficers in the U.S. The purpose of this thesis is to identify andcompare several managerial decisions law enforcement face such aseducation standards, annual community policing training, and socialmedia use by police departments. Moreover, this thesis examined theinfluence these standards of practice have on each other with thehope of encouraging police department agencies to revisit theirdepartmental policies with respect to community policing. Thisthesis involved a secondary analysis of a 2013 data set from theLaw Enforcement Management andAdministrative Statistics (LEMAS)program. A total of 2,822 agencies were examined (N= 2,822).Results from the study revealed a strong, positive relationshipbetween departments maintaining a higher education standard andutilizing forms of social media. Other relationships were tested;however results tended not supportive of the respective hypotheses.These findings are important and may be helpful in discussing thefuture for law enforcement standards, as well as allow agencyadministrators to use the results as a benchmark for comparison.Future research should involve examining other variables such aspolice performance, age, gender, race, and department region. Thesefindings may provide insight on how departments compare to oneanother, as well as strengthen the argument for higher standards inpolice education and training.Advisors/Committee Members: Bellas, Christopher (Committee Chair).