The role of police in society: A survey of attitudes toward this role among civilians and police patrol officers in Kuwait

The purpose of this study is to assess the attitudes of Kuwaiti community residents towards the role of police patrol units and the attitudes of patrol officers themselves towards their jobs, their management, management's interaction with them, and their overall environment. Officers' attitudes towards management have to do with such factors as management's fairness towards them and the initiative that management allows them. Interaction with management relates to management's accessibility to officers and its responses to their suggestions and complaints. The term "environment" relates to the officers' working conditions, their relationships with other officers, community reception, and family attitudes towards their work. The attitudes of both community residents and officers are measured by means of two surveys conducted in January 1990 through March 1990, one for the community residents and one for the officers, which attempt to establish relationships between attitudes and such factors as age, level of education, marital status, length of police service and number of children (for officers), and occupation level and gender (for community residents). Among community residents, younger respondents are more inclined to hold negative attitudes towards the role of the police patrols than older ones. Married civilians are more favorable towards the patrols than single ones. Citizens are less favorable towards the patrols than non-citizens. No significant relationship exists between civilian attitudes towards the police patrols and gender, occupation, and level of education, however. Among the patrol officers, older respondents are more favorable towards both their jobs and towards management. This is also true of married officers as compared with single ones. Length of time on the force also corresponds positively with job satisfaction. However, patrol officers with three children or more are less favorable towards their jobs, management, and police-management interaction than officers with fewer children. In contrast, no statistically significant relationship exists between level of education and any of the dependent variables.