What’s race got to do with it? Factors influencing urban officers’ off-duty participation in Black Lives Matter protesting

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to explore police officers’ beliefs regarding the value and validity of the underlying causes of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and to explore the factors that influence their desire to participate in BLM protesting off duty. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with sworn police officers from an urban police department in Virginia. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to discover similarities and differences in the officers’ responses. Findings suggested variability in officers’ support for BLM and protest organising, with unwritten department rules, neutrality, rank promotion, and locality of the incident all influencing officers’ desire to participate in BLM protests. Overall, findings suggested that cognitive dissonance may explain the non-participation of Black officers in BLM protesting during their off-duty time. There are implications provided for police agencies regarding their policies governing officers’ off-duty participation in protests. Also, implications for officer training regarding BLM and protest policing.

KEYWORDS:

• Black Lives Matter
• protests
• urban
• police
• off duty

Acknowledgements

I thank Dr. Delores Jones-Brown for reviewing this manuscript before its submission. Her feedback was invaluable during its drafting stage. I also thank the Racial Democracy, Crime and Justice Network for its development.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).