| Throughout a police officer's career, the volatile nature of many altercations between officers and citizens can result in citizen complaints against officer actions and behaviors. The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to examine police officers' experiences with citizen complaints, employing Tittle's control balance theory to help explain these phenomena, and to provide a clearer understanding, for citizens and for officers, of these socially and personally destructive interactions. A purposive sample of 20 retired veteran police officers from a major urban police department were interviewed, and content analysis resulted in five major and two minor themes. Data analysis used the inductive utilization of codes and categories, and the conduct of thematic analysis of participant responses. Findings regarding participant experiences with complaints depicted, in part, that officers: (a) maintained positive attitudes toward the public regardless of citizen complaints against them, (b) continued to perform their assigned responsibilities in a professional fashion, (c) rejected citizens investigating officer behaviors, (d) generally disregarded the punitive actions and consequences of citizen complaints, (e) viewed many complaints as citizen retribution, and (f) reported that the negative effects resulting from citizen complaints lasted for only a short period of time. Recommendations in this research study might assist police administrators with a better understanding of appropriate hiring criteria and requisite education and training needs for police officers, provide citizens a clearer and more supportive awareness of police officer actions and behaviors, and thereby could improve citizen/police relationships.;Recommendations for future research included: (a) research that focuses on active police officer experiences with citizen complaints; (b) studies that expands officer demographic characteristics to include education, gender, race, age and the nature of citizen complaints; and (c) research that focuses on smaller versus larger police departments and possible citizen complaint variations against officers. |
