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23 Police Prac. & Res. 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/gppr23 and id is 1 raw text is: POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH Routledae 2022, VOL. 23, NO. 1, 1-19 https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2021.1984913 Taylor & Francis Group ARTICLE A legitimacy crisis? Exploring the relationships between police self-legitimacy, employee engagement, and civic engagement Mary I Wuestewaldab aDepartment of Criminal Justice, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, Fort Smith, USA; 'School of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, USA ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY Researchers have recently started exploring the antecedents and out- Received 6 June 2021 comes of police officers' confidence in their own authority, a concept Accepted 13 September 2021 termed self- legitimacy. Investigation into officer self-legitimacy is rela- KEYWORDS tively new, but it has been linked to a number of desirable behaviors, Police self-legitimacy; including organizational commitment and democratic policing styles. The employee engagement; civic current study examined the relationships between officer self-legitimacy, engagement employee engagement, and civic engagement. Such associations are important because greater employee engagement is associated with higher motivation and better work performance. Civic engagement, in particular, may be critical for effective policing. These relationships were investigated using survey data from four police departments in Arkansas and Oklahoma (N = 132). Results from multivariate models revealed officers with greater self-legitimacy reported more employee engagement and attitudes supportive of civic engagement. In combination with exist- ing literature, findings underscore the likelihood that maintaining police self-legitimacy is associated with additional benefits for officers, organiza- tions, and communities. As chants of 'defund the police' resonate across the streets, it is a critical time for American law enforcement. Claims of police bias and excessive force against marginalized groups, along with media attention to these accusations, have prompted intense scrutiny of police and a phenomenon of de-policing (Morin et al., 2017; Shjarback et al., 2017). Police have become less proactive on the job for fear of a wide spectrum of repercussions (Mac Donald, 2016). Indeed, a 2017 survey of almost 8,000 officers across the U.S. by the Pew Research Center found a significant number of officers were more concerned about their safety, less likely to use force when it would be appro- priate, and more reluctant to stop and question suspicious persons (Morin et al., 2017). Changes in police work performance in response to public antagonism may, in part, reflect officer uncertainty about the legitimacy of their authority. Legitimacy is traditionally examined from the viewpoint of citizens, yet developing research indicates citizen perceptions of police authority influence how officers perceive their own power (Bradford & Quinton, 2014; Nix & Wolfe, 2017; Tankebe & Mesko, 2015; Tyler, 1990; Tyler & Huo, 2002). Self-legitimacy (SL), or the confidence officers have in their authority, is undermined, in part, by actions that signal a lack of public support, such as the riots and demonstrations that recently occurred in U.S. cities (Bradford & Quinton, 2014; Tankebe & Mesko, 2015). Weakened SL is problematic because officers lacking a strong sense of legitimacy are less likely to engage in behaviors that are CONTACT Mary I Wuestewald ® Mary.Wuestewald@uafs.edu O Department of Criminal Justice, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, Fort Smith, USA; School of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, USA 0 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group