The Call to Research

A desire to improve the institution of policing, and thereby make the world a better place, was the driving force that led Kenneth to the world of scholarly research. When he was 22 years old, he became a police officer with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) due to a deep seeded desire to serve society and protect the public. It was the culmination of a lifelong dream. In the police academy, he was surrounded by young men and women who had the same altruistic motives as him: to help humankind.

Once he graduated the academy, he was assigned to a local precinct in a high-crime neighborhood and was surprised to see how many of his fellow officers viewed mankind through a skeptical lens, at times bordering on contempt. In a democratic society, police power derives from the consent of the governed; however, perhaps because of the intense, stressful nature of policing, officers can lose sight of this fact. Police organizations do little, if anything, to combat this reaction. Ken is driven by his belief that if he can tap into the dimension that drove most officers into the profession, both community satisfaction with the police and officer job satisfaction will grow.