| This quantitative study was conducted in order to explore organizational development (OD) theory and practice by analyzing California law enforcement organizations. The topic focused on the various jurisdictions within the State of California according to police officers responsible for their protection, after the United States was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001. The study evaluated the level of preparedness and need for change by using an OD model to evaluate dominant organizational perceptions shared by California police officers. Questionnaire results from 90 police organizations were examined relative to how police agencies determine their level of preparedness in fighting terrorism and plan pro-active terrorism prevention strategies. Each participant completed a 20-question demographic questionnaire utilizing a modified Likert scale.; A correlational analysis was conducted using scores from the two dependent measures, the Police Unit Assessment of Terrorism (PAT) Scale and the Domestic Assessment of Terrorism (DAT) Scale, to assess regional vulnerability to terrorism. Scores on the PAT and DAT Scales were significantly correlated (r = .56, p < .01). Because the correlation between the two dependent variables was less than .80, multicollinearity was not a serious concern for this study (Gunst & Mason, 1980). A chi-square analysis revealed that participants serving in the north, south, and central regions of California reported serving in a more or less densely populated area. The chi-square analysis also revealed that participants serving in the north, south, and central regions were no more likely to report serving in a city or county with a “large population” of 500,000 or more or a “small population” of 99,999 or less, χ2(4, N = 90) = 7.407, p = .116.; The findings and results confirmed that various ranking law enforcement officers throughout the State of California shared their own personal perceptions in measuring the level of vulnerability for their specific organizations. The findings also incorporate a discussion of the specific results of the hypotheses. Based on documented patterns of terrorism and the devastating events that occurred on September 11, 2001, three hypotheses were stated regarding the vulnerability of future terrorist activity occurring within the State of California and law enforcement's ability to effectively minimize future terrorist attacks. |
