| Policing in the United States is predicated on a social contract between government and society. The social contract provides a relationship between society and their government that society relinquishes certain individual rights and at the same time expects and demands a higher level of morality, integrity, and accountability of its police. Much of the policing in the U.S. is vested in local municipalities, and the policing environment provides for a great deal of police officer discretion. This discretion resides in a minimally police officer supervised environment that is rife for misconduct. Based on society's expectations of higher levels of morality, integrity, and accountability of their police and police officer discretion; law enforcement organizations must utilize preemployment testing processes that will provide the most ethical fit for the police organization at the onset of a police career. This dissertation examines the relationship between preemployment testing of police officer candidates and the number of ethical hearings and terminations that occur after employment. The objective of this quantitative dissertation is to investigate the preemployment processes and outcomes by seeking a) The correlation between ethics testing of police officer candidates and ethical violations of police officers, b) The methods used to screen for ethics in the preemployment process of police officer candidates, and c) The disciplinary and termination events of a police organization. This study data is collected through a researcher-designed survey administered to the agency head of police departments within the membership of a Notable Police Chief's Organization (NPCO). The survey yielded N = 545 participants. The correlational results in this study were insufficient to reject the null hypotheses but did however provide counter results in a positive direction, further adding to existing literature. |
