The Impact of Public Support and Scrutiny on the Retention and Recruitment of Law Enforcement Officers

Last registered on July 28, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Impact of Public Support and Scrutiny on the Retention and Recruitment of Law Enforcement Officers
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011799
Initial registration date
July 22, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
July 28, 2023, 10:57 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Arizona

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-07-24
End date
2023-08-25
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Recruiting and retaining talented employees is important for organizational success. Scholars have examined various individual factors (e.g., demographic characteristics, employee work attitudes, employee motivation) and organizational factors (e.g., human resource management practices, job characteristics, work environment) that affect (i) incumbent employees’ retention and turnover intentions and (ii) prospective employees’ likelihood of applying for and accepting certain jobs. However, most of these studies have focused on careers in the private sector, which are not often impacted by perceptions of public support or scrutiny. In this study, we examine the impact that perceptions of public support and scrutiny have on one’s willingness to pursue or continue a career as a law enforcement officer. Public support for law enforcement is a highly polarized topic in the United States, making this the ideal setting to determine whether the public’s perception of a group of workers impacts the recruitment and retention of those individuals.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Sandvik, Jason. 2023. "The Impact of Public Support and Scrutiny on the Retention and Recruitment of Law Enforcement Officers." AEA RCT Registry. July 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11799-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We will conduct two surveys. Survey 1 will be administered among sworn law enforcement officers in the state of Arizona. Survey 2 will be administered among working-age adults in Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico who are not law enforcement officers. In both surveys, respondents will answer questions about their demographic characteristics, their own work experiences, and their preferences over alternative work experiences.
Intervention (Hidden)
In addition, respondents of both surveys will be randomized into one of six different treatment cells, which will vary the information they receive about the public’s level of support for law enforcement officers. After being exposed to this information, respondents of both surveys will be asked to indicate how much support/scrutiny they feel law enforcement officers receive from certain groups of people (e.g., citizens in their local area, citizens in their state who are outside of their local area, and citizens in the United States outside of their own state). Respondents of Survey 1 (who are all sworn law enforcement officers) will then be asked several questions about their intentions with respect to their own retention/turnover. Respondents of Survey 2 (who are not sworn law enforcement officers) will be asked several questions about their interest in pursuing a career as a law enforcement officer.
Intervention Start Date
2023-07-24
Intervention End Date
2023-08-25

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Retention/turnover intentions among sworn law enforcement officers.

Recruitment intentions among people who are not sworn officers (i.e., their interest in pursuing a career as a law enforcement officer).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Retention/turnover intentions of law enforcement officers will be measured as Likert scale responses to three questions: (1) “To what extent do you currently have a desire to pursue a career outside of being a law enforcement officer?”; (2) “To what extent do you currently have a desire to pursue a career as a law enforcement officer in another department?”; and (3) “Please indicate how likely it is that you will be working as a law enforcement officer in Arizona in the future?” The first question gauges one’s overall retention/turnover intention. The second question gauges whether one wants to stay in the profession, albeit in a different location. The third question gauges the temporal nature of one’s retention/turnover intention (e.g., one might be very certain they’ll still be in the profession a year from now, but they might think it is very unlikely that they’ll still be in the profession five years from now).

Recruitment intentions of people who are not sworn officers (i.e., their interest in pursuing a career as a law enforcement officer) will be measured as a Likert scale response to the question: (1) “To what extent do you currently have a desire to pursue a career as a law enforcement officer?” In addition, we will also ask the following question: (2) “Based on your responses to the questions above, we can send you a curated list of law enforcement officer job postings in and around your zip code. If you would like to receive information about these job postings, please provide your email address in the box below.” The first question gauges one’s overall interest in pursuing a career as a law enforcement officer. The second question/prompt provides respondents with a binary prompt (either input their email address or not), which will gauge their immediate interest in learning about the available job opportunities in their area.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Heterogeneous responses across demographic groups (e.g., by age, race, gender, and sexual identity/orientation).

Survey 1: Responses to questions about burn-out, career ambitions, and department culture.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
In both surveys, we will ask respondents about their demographic characteristics. We will estimate whether the treatment effects on the primary outcomes of interest differ based on the age, race, gender, or sexual identity/orientation of the respondents.

Survey 1: We will ask the following questions, which will be responded to using a five-point Likert scale. “I feel emotionally drained from my work.”; “Working with people all day is really straining for me.”; “I feel burned out from my work.”; “I worry that this job is numbing me emotionally.”; “I feel that I am positively influencing other peoples’ lives through my work.”; “I feel very committed to protecting and serving citizens in my jurisdiction.”; “Most of my social interactions outside of work are with other law enforcement officers.”; “I aspire to earn a promotion in a more senior position within my department.”; “I aspire to work in a specialty position within my department (e.g., detective, drug unit, traffic unit, etc.).”; “I would forcibly remove a fellow officer from a situation if their behavior violated policy (e.g., using excessive force).”; “I feel comfortable calling out fellow officers if they do not adhere to protocol.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
All details of the experimental design are in the "(Hidden)" response box below.
Experimental Design Details
Respondents of both surveys will be randomized into one of six different treatment cells, which will vary the exposure they receive to information about the public’s level of support for law enforcement officers. This will be done automatically via the Qualtrics block randomization feature. The treatment and control group details are as follows:
(1) Control Group - No information provided at all (i.e., a blank block).
(2) Treatment, Neutral Support - Provides information that highlights both support for and scrutiny of law enforcement officers.
(3) Treatment, High Support by Country - Provides information that highlights both support for and scrutiny of law enforcement officers. Also describes factual survey results that indicate high levels of support for law enforcement officers nationwide.
(4) Treatment, Low Support by Country - Provides information that highlights both support for and scrutiny of law enforcement officers. Also describes factual survey results that indicate low levels of support for law enforcement officers nationwide.
(5) Treatment, High Support by State - Provides information that highlights both support for and scrutiny of law enforcement officers. Also describes factual survey results that indicate high levels of support for law enforcement officers nationwide, with an emphasis on the respondent’s state.
(6) Treatment, Low Support by State - Provides information that highlights both support for and scrutiny of law enforcement officers. Also describes factual survey results that indicate low levels of support for law enforcement officers nationwide, with an emphasis on the respondent’s state.
Randomization Method
Qualtrics Block Randomization Feature
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Survey 1 will be distributed among all law enforcement officers in Arizona (N ~ 16,000). We anticipate a completion rate of about 20% (N ~ 3,200).

Survey 2 will be completed by ~2,000 Arizona adults; ~1,000 California adults; ~1,000 Nevada adults; ~1,000 Utah adults; ~1,000 Colorado adults; and ~1,000 New Mexico adults.
Sample size: planned number of observations
Survey 1 will be distributed among all law enforcement officers in Arizona (N ~ 16,000). We anticipate a completion rate of about 20% (N ~ 3,200). Survey 2 will be completed by ~2,000 Arizona adults; ~1,000 California adults; ~1,000 Nevada adults; ~1,000 Utah adults; ~1,000 Colorado adults; and ~1,000 New Mexico adults.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Respondents will be randomized into one of 6 treatment cells. So, we anticipate a roughly equal number of individuals from each group in each of the 6 treatment cells.

For Survey 1, with an expectation of 3,200 respondents, that would be 533 individuals per cell.

For Survey 2, with an expectation of 7,000 respondents, that would be 1,167 individuals per cell.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
For responses made on five-point Likert scales. With a control group mean of 3.0, a standard deviation of 1.0, a power of 0.80, N per cell of 533, the minimum detectable effect size is 0.172.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Arizona Human Subjects Protection Program
IRB Approval Date
2023-07-13
IRB Approval Number
STUDY00003169

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials