Police training and the effects of organization on drunk driving enforcement

The effects of training on workers' productivity may depend on the workers' organizational environment. This study explores the effects of training on drunk-driving arrest productivity for 443 officers in six Pennsylvania police agencies. A multiple regression analysis shows that when various other factors expected to influence arrest productivity are controlled, training has a significant positive effect on DUI arrests in agencies that provide a supportive environment, but fails to have an effect in agencies that are otherwise indifferent or hostile to DUI enforcement. A technical/rational model of police organizations can explain these results. The utility of an institutional organizational model, however, is thought to account for the use of training in two of the six agencies studied. In these agencies it appears that although training did not contribute to technical (arrest) productivity, it supported the institutional objective of securing legitimacy for the organization, and that this was accomplished precisely because technical operations were decoupled from street-level arrests.