Operational knowledge of patrolling police officers in Sweden: management implications

Byline: Stefan Holgersson, Petter Gottschalk, Geoff Dean Patrolling police officers need a solid knowledge base working in different locations and situations. Inductive and deductive research identified 31 descriptive statements, which represent knowledge categories for police officers on the street. In this paper, the 31 categories are classified into three cluster sets for knowledge dimensions. The clusters are labelled cognitive dimensions, technical dimensions and social dimensions, respectively. From a police management perspective, developing police officers along these very different dimensions represents a substantial challenge.