SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This study examined associations established to serve the interests of law enforcement officers. The purpose of this examination was to assess the perceptions of members of law enforcement officers associations of the activities and policies of such associations.
A summary of the study, including the major findings of the research performed, is presented in this chapter. Additional study findings developed through the use of an open-ended questionnaire item also are addressed. The study findings are discussed, and the conclusions drawn from these findings are stated. Lastly, two sets of recommendations are presented in this chapter. The first set of recommendations is related to the application of the study findings by law enforcement officers and law enforcement officers associations. The second set of recommendations is directed toward future research in the area investigated.
Data for this study were collected from a sample of active duty public law enforcement officers in Cook County, Illinois. While the population from which the sample included law enforcement officers from all 129 public jurisdictions in Cook County invested with policing powers, 98 percent of the 254 subjects included in the research sample were members of municipal (counties, cities, and townships) police departments.
The population of public law enforcement officers in Cook County approximated 17,500 persons at the time data for this study were collected. Random procedures were applied to select 1,250 of these officers to whom data collection questionnaires would be provided for self-administration. A total 254 (1.5 percent) usable questionnaires were returned, and the 254 officers returning the questionnaires became the research sample for this study. Respondent mean age was 39.3 years. Respondents belonged to an average of 1.6 police organizations. Most respondents (86.7 percent) belonged ...