Gathering Research Data Paper
Hayley Lacy
CJA/334
April 11, 2016
Rhonda Grant

Gathering Research Data Paper Police officers are viewed by the masses of Americans that they are sworn to protect as the men and women in blue. They have sworn to protect the innocent and keep them from harm’s way and in turn do much more than that for their community. It takes an extraordinaire person to be a police officer. They are someone who is willing to dedicate their lives, health and safety in order to protect those who depend on them. In this paper we will attempt to address and research an interest that has been voiced concerning police officers and their jobs. In this paper we will state the purpose behind our proposed research. We will inform you of the interview structure we will use and we will inform you as to some of the questions that we would ask. We will give distinct advantages of a qualitative data-gathering strategy, such as participant observation, over more qualitative approaches. We will inform you when conducting survey research the importance of informed consent and confidentiality. It is a common conception that police officers choose their particular career path simply because they are inheriting a family member’s desire. They choose to be an officer because their father or their mother or a relative was an officer. It is a common conception that officers are not chosen they are inherited and expected to be from family. This area of interest is something that would be well suited for that of research and a study. How many police officers performing duties today have had a family member who was also a police officer? We can achieve our results through a survey that will take place the process of doing research and contacting police officers over the internet, over the telephone and doing so by interviewing them. The first question that we will attempt to answer during our interview process is why the individual decided to choose a career in law enforcement. Research has already suggested that many police officers choose to become officers because of a law enforcement connection within their family or due to a family tradition. It may seem simple, but a person with the family values and a desire to make their parents proud by following in their footsteps plays a huge role in the decision to make law enforcement a career. Many are under the opinion that if they refuse to carry on this tradition of their family that they will be frowned upon. They feel they have a responsibility to perform the same task as their parents because they share the responsibility and the burden; they are not unlike the children of farmers who grow up to inherit the farm. Another reason that people feel driven to enforce the law is that they feel a need to gain personal justice for a crime committed against them or someone they love. It is not an act of vendetta but an act to provide security. Those who do suffer from the torment of an event that happened to a person they cared for deterring the crimes that are the cause for their own personal grief is a constant focus. At the beginning of the telephone interview with Police Chief Bradley Harris of the Manchester Police Department in Kentucky we start with very simple questions that we hope will hold information that is enlightening. “Why did you choose to become a police officer?”

Harris responds, “My father was on the state police force and I wanted to be an officer too.” “What occupation would you have chosen if you hadn’t been a police officer?” I ask. “When my father retired he became a small private detective and had his own business. If
I had not become an officer I would have probably joined him in that,” Harris says. The interview continues and Harris is asked what it is about his job that he enjoys the most. Harris responds without hesitation and says that it is his responsibility to protect the community and to serve those who he has sworn to protect.
“What is it about your job that is most challenging?” I ask. “Everything about this job is challenging,” he responds. “As an officer you come to expect challenges and you accept them and then you correct them and then you move on the next one.” “What is the most fearful thing that comes with being a police officer?” I ask. “Like the challenges, there are many things to fear. Things can go wrong at any point in any time. The biggest fear would come with making a mistake that would cost someone their life,” he says. The interview continues, he is asked about his training and he says according to Kentucky state law he must be in constant training. The interview comes to an end with a final question, “If your father had not been an officer do you think you would have still chosen this path?” Harris smiled for the first time throughout the interview, “No.” He answers precise and immediate. “At least not at first. I love my job, I feel I was born to do this job. Without my father showing me that I think it would have taken me longer to understand that. I think that I would have ended up as an officer, but I don’t think I would have chosen this career first. My father helped me see that this was what I wanted without ever telling me that it was what I needed.” After the interview it was obvious the implications that a family member has on current officers. It does not appear to be a negative one but to say that there are no implications on the career decisions would be naïve. Harris was reinforced to become a police officer by his father and feels obligated to do so, but it is an obligation that he embraces and chose on his own. The two are intertwined and connected.
When it comes to the distinction in regards to qualitative research versus quantitative research is that qualitative creates a hypothesis and quantitative tests the hypotheses (Hagan, 2010, Ch. 1 p.15). Qualitative research gives absolute data that is available for people who are looking at it from different viewpoints. Qualitative research generally will depend on the following methods in regards to how the information is attained; participant observation, non-participant observation, field notes, reflexive journals, structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, unstructured interviews, and an analysis of the material and documents obtained. When going over the data collected via this method it is generally obvious within the criminal justice system that this method has been used. All throughout the criminal justice system confidentiality is one thing that is of ever growing importance. This is the same in research. Often when obtaining new information it is a requirement of either or both the interviewer or the interviewee to keep the results confidential, which this admission has grown from simply being something pertaining to ethical boundaries but to that which has become law.

In conclusion, only the officers truly know why they choose to be officers. It has been recorded that here is no denying the influence a family member being in the field has an effect on their decision but through our own investigation there is evidence that the officers believe they chose that career for themselves. It is possible that both a family member and the officer’s personal judgment each played a role in their choice. In fact, we should hope it is that way. We want our officers to feel obligated to protect and serve us as well as feel that it is a decision that they have made for themselves.