Abstract
A burgeoning body of literature has demonstrated the relevance of officer appearance for public perceptions of police. Much less research, however, has explored how officer appearance can impact officers’ perceptions of themselves, including with respect to safety. Drawing upon survey data from a sample of sworn police officers (N = 238) from the Queensland Police Service, we empirically investigate the effects of different uniforms and accoutrements on officers’ perceptions of their own safety, comfort, and power. Our results reveal that officers’ perceptions vary as a function of equipment (e.g., shirt color, vest style, headwear). Our results also reveal that officers’ perceptions of safety correlate with the other perceptual outcomes tested as part of our research. We discuss our results with respect to existing literature regarding officer appearance as well as policing policy and practice.
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Notes
- 1.
Given the dearth of scholarly literature in this specific domain, we rely upon a combination of formal and informal sources, including officer narratives as quoted in media, as well as our professional experience discussing uniforms and accoutrements with police from around the world as part of this section. We suggest that rigorously testing these dynamics should form the subject of future research.
- 2.
We collected all images with the assistance of the QPS, and therefore they feature actual police officers and genuine police equipment.
- 3.
Participants were given the following written instructions: “Imagine YOU are wearing this pictured combination of uniform and accoutrements. Using the below scales, please rate how YOU would feel in this capacity.”
- 4.
In this image, the officer’s thigh firearm holster was removed so that they were not wearing two holsters at one time.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Sergeant Amber Muscat, the Performance Inspector Brisbane Region, and our anonymous photography models from the Queensland Police Service for their invaluable assistance with this project. The authors also wish to acknowledge the support and assistance from the Queensland Police Service in undertaking this research. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Queensland Police Service and any errors of omission or commission are the responsibility of the authors.
Funding Statement
This research was funded by a Griffith University Arts, Education, and Law Strategic Grant and the Griffith Criminology Institute.
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Appendix A. Sample images of female and male police officers in different aesthetic capacities, including when wearing the standard uniform, hip firearm holster, forage cap, and civilian attire
Appendix A. Sample images of female and male police officers in different aesthetic capacities, including when wearing the standard uniform, hip firearm holster, forage cap, and civilian attire
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Standard uniform |
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Hip firearm holster |
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Forage cap |
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Civilian attire |
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Simpson, R., Sargeant, E. (2023). Connecting Officer Appearance with Officer Safety: A Survey of Police Officers’ Perceptions of Uniforms and Accoutrements. In: Farmer, C., Evans, R. (eds) Policing & Firearms. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13013-7_17
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