The Fairfax County Police Department is teaming up with George Mason University and the National Policing Institute to better understand how officers navigate their careers.
The long-term research — called a “longitudinal study” — will look into recruiting, why people join the force, why they stay or leave, the mental and physical tolls the job takes, and much more.
“We have a lot of challenges in front of us,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said at a news conference last week. “And one of the challenges that we faced as a profession is, what does success look like for a police applicant, a police recruit, and a police officer? What determines success over the course of a person’s career in policing?”
Davis held up a framed photo of his police academy class.
“I look at people who went on to become police chiefs, plural, I look at a fraternal order of police president twice over, I look at homicide detectives, I look at SWAT officers. … But then I also look at people who ended up being fired, or ended up going to jail after being charged with crimes, and ended up committing suicide. So all of those things happen in this picture frame.”
He said he defines an officer’s success as serving the community, maintaining physical and mental health, and leading a life outside the department. However, “our divorce rates, or our rates of suicide, and alcoholism, and even domestic violence, in policing have been much higher than the national norm for decades,” Davis said.
The police study comes as departments nationwide, including in Northern Virginia, struggle with staffing levels.
Davis said the department is excited to have the opportunity to take part in the study, which is expected to take years, if not decades. It is being touted as a first of its kind in the nation.
“We think over time, and hopefully over many years, we’ll learn a lot more about who wants to become part of this profession, and why, and once they enter into our ranks, what determines their trajectory for success,” David said. “No one else is doing this. We’re happy to do it on behalf of policing.”
George Mason’s Cynthia Lum, a professor and director the university’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, said during the news conference that they hope to “continue this work over the next 10 to 20 years” — as long as there’s money to fund the research.
“This is really exciting from a scientific standpoint,” Lum said. “Many agencies right now are really suffering from understaffing from shortages. … We’re in a very serious situation, I think, right now with policing.”
Lum said there’s a lot of “guessing” about why people join and leave policing “because we don’t have these types of studies.”
She’s hoping to change that.
National Policing Institute President Jim Burch said it’s important to invest, both in terms of funding and officers.
“That’s what this study is about: investing in those who step up to serve in their communities, just supporting them just in the way that other professions would support,” Burch said. “This is a concrete step in the right direction toward supporting policing as a profession, as opposed to a vocation.”
Lum said the police study project is already underway.
“We’ll be collecting data … six months yearly, yearly, yearly, all the way hopefully, if we can, fingers crossed, get enough funding for this for the next 20 years,” she said.
Featured photo courtesy Fairfax County Police Department
For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine’s News newsletter.
