| This purpose of this dissertation was to explore the use of citizen satisfaction results by municipal police departments in the United States that serve cities with populations between 10,000 and 249,999 citizens. A sequential mixed-methods research design consisting of both quantitative and qualitative elements revealed that 71.6% of all municipal police executives placed importance on the results of such survey results; however, the extent to which agencies used such results for achieving legitimacy varied widely. One-way analysis of variance testing reflected no significant difference among municipal police agencies regarding the extent of use of such survey results for legitimacy according to census location (Northeast, South, Midwest, and West), citizen population served, type of jurisdiction (urban, suburban, or rural) or Part 1 Uniform Crime Rate. Municipal police executives ranked the importance of survey results significantly lower than other sources of feedback present in policing. Municipal police executives also ranked survey results significantly differently than other outcomes of policing. Content analysis of telephone interviews with municipal police executives revealed three distinct themes affecting the use of such survey results toward legitimacy. Those themes were continuous municipal police executive tenure, the degree of ambivalence present within the police agency toward the use of such results, and organizational biases toward the use of such results. Review of both the quantitative and the qualitative analyses reflected that while survey results may be held in high importance by municipal police executives, the use of survey results for legitimacy varied among individual law enforcement executives rather than at the broader overall organizational level of municipal police agencies. |
