APPA Institute Workshop (Winter 2016): Enhancing Community Supervision: Research Results on Perceptions of Police-Probation/Parole Partnerships
While several studies exist concerning law enforcement perceptions of police-probation/parole partnerships, few have examined probation/parole perceptions. For those studies that do include such perceptions they have been local and qualitative in nature. This workshop will cover the results of a nationwide study examining probation/parole perspectives of partnerships with law enforcement. The study used a survey to determine favorableness to partnerships with law enforcement in relation to a variety of important concepts including partnership typology, respect for officers’ role, benefits to the officers’ and department’s operations, crime reduction potential, mission distortion, mission creep, leadership support, stalking horse incidents, rehabilitative ideology, barriers to partnership (e.g., funding), training needs, and a variety of individual and organizational demographics. In addition, a separate study conducted in Pennsylvania examining perceptions of partnerships by Police Chiefs, compared to that of Probation/Parole Chiefs, will also be discussed.