The alcohol-related workload of patrol officers

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to detail the prevalence and nature of patrol officers' alcohol-related workload. Design/methodology/approach - A systematic social observation (SSO) methodology was used to collect data pertaining to the alcohol-related activities and encounters of patrol officers. A fully randomized sampling procedure was used to select the days, times, and geographic areas of observation sessions. Observational data were obtained for 65 separate observations sessions - totaling approximately 650 hours, 480 police-citizen encounters, with 766 citizens, and 2,009 non-encounter activities. Findings - Approximately 26 percent of encounters and 10 percent of non-encounter activities involved citizen alcohol use. Roughly 15 percent of patrol officer time is dedicated to alcohol-related encounters and their associated activities. Alcohol-related encounters were of a substantively different type than those in which there was no alcohol involvement. In sum, alcohol-related encounters were more likely to involve a crime, occur in emotionally volatile situations, elicit a multiple-officer response, and to take place out of the public sphere. Practical implications - The paper demonstrates the utility of police-researcher collaboration. The findings can make a direct contribution to academy and in-service training. Originality/value - Unlike previous SSO studies, this research used data obtained from a representative sample of police patrols. The use of a SSO protocol provides a level of detail about the nature of police-citizen interactions within the context of alcohol-related encounters not previously seen in the literature.