Being a Blue Blood: A Phenomenological Study on the Lived Experiences of Police Officers’ Children

Abstract

There has been speculation by researchers regarding the potential fears, concerns, and difficulties experienced by children of police officers, such as fears about their parent being injured or killed while on duty, ridicule and bullying, or being personally assaulted. More disheartening are the increased potential stressors facing police officers’ children due to increased community hostility across the country over the last few years, particularly among the African American community, stemming from a series of police involved shootings of unarmed African American males. Yet, there remains scant research that has examined the lived experiences of police officers’ children. To address this gap in the policing literature, this study used semi-structured interviews of police officers children in a southern state using a phenomenological methodology to explore the lived experiences of being a child of a police officer. Findings and policy recommendations are discussed.

Keywords

children of police officers police families post-Ferguson policing community hostility

Recent inquiry into police-community relations has focused on decreased police legitimacy and increased community hostility toward the police, particularly within minority communities (A. S. Lee et al., 2018; Terrill, 2016). In particular, growing concerns have emerged on officer attitudes toward their official duties (i.e. “Ferguson Effect”) and their overall emotional well-being and health (Oliver, 2017; Shjarback et al., 2017; Torres et al., 2018). There has been speculation by media and researchers regarding the potential fears, concerns, and difficulties experienced by children of police officers; including concerns over their parent(s) being injured or killed while on duty, potential ridicule and bullying, or being personally assaulted (Abernaty et al., 2007; Stone, 2001). For example, a daughter of a police officer described her fears for her father’s safety after the death of an undercover NYPD officer in 2007 when she stated, “it was always nerve-racking; sometimes he would work at night and we wouldn't know until the morning if he was coming home because it was a dangerous job” (Abernaty et al., 2007, para. 5).

More disheartening are the increased potential stressors that police officers’ children may be confronted with due to increased community hostility across the country directed toward police in response to a pattern of police use of force incidents against African Americans that resulted in death. Yet, there remains scant research that has examined the lived experiences of police officers’ children and also how recent media attention on policing has shaped their daily experiences and perceptions of how they view their parents’ occupation and their daily interactions and concerns.

To address this gap in the policing literature, this study used semi-structured interviews of police officer children in a southern state using a phenomenological methodology. This approach allows the researchers to explore the lived experiences of being a child of a police officer in the United States. The benefit of using this qualitative approach was it provided researchers a way to derive meaning and themes out of past events by capturing the essence of lived or shared experiences (Creswell, 2013; Fischer, 1984; Reynolds & Hicks, 2015). The primary research questions guiding this research are: 1) How do police officers’ children describe their lived experiences? and 2) How have current events shaped their perceptions, if any?

Emerging police research has used this methodology to examine other types of police phenomenon such as: challenges of being a police mom (Ellis, 2018), police officers’ reactions to perceived mistreatment (Reynolds et al., 2018), and police officer’s lived experience of the use of deadly force (Broomé, 2014). Thus, this methodology provides a sound approach to this topic of interest as a platform for children of police officers to voice their feelings and beliefs about their lived experience using their own words without researcher bias (Creswell, 2013; Fischer, 1984).

Review of Relevant Literature

Policing is viewed by many as a highly stressful occupation. These stressors can stem from the dangerous and unpredictable working environment, bureaucratic characteristics (Hall et al., 2010; Shane, 2013), and the perceived lack of peer-support, particularly among female and minority officers (Ellis, 2018; He et al., 2002; Youngcourt & Huffman, 2005). Similar to other first-responders (e.g., firefighters and paramedics), policing places excessive demands on family life due to shift rotations, changing schedules, unplanned over-time, promotional practices, and the pecuniary lure of extra-jobs (Hall et al., 2010; He et al., 2002). The culmination of these stressors can hinder the quality of life for family members and potentially harm relationships with their spouse/partner and children (Miller, 2007; Stone, 2001). Furthermore, the continued daily grind and pressures of police work, including exposure to traumatic and catastrophic events can lead to psychological and physiological issues (Benedek et al., 2007; Hall et al., 2010).

A meta-analysis conducted by Amstad et al. (2011) showed that work related stress was associated with many types of work-related outcomes (e.g., work satisfaction and performance), family-related outcomes (e.g., family-stress and marital satisfaction), and domain unspecific outcomes (e.g., health, substance use, and psychological strain). Police strain can arise from many job-related (e.g., answering calls for service) and organizational factors (e.g., abusive supervision) in policing (Adams & Buck, 2010; Shane, 2013). In the last few years, police in the United States has experienced an increase in community hostility and a decrease in police legitimacy (Terrill, 2016). Since the deaths of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 and through the in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May, 2020, the public expectation for police accountability and transparency has led to increased tension within police organizations and with the public (Nix & Wolfe, 2016; Oliver, 2017).

Not only have officers been confronted with new challenges and stressors from the community, they also experience stress within their agencies. Perceived mistreatment (abusive supervision) and lack of support from their administration can lead to detrimental work-related behaviors and attitudes (Reynolds et al., 2018), but could also increase work-family conflict (WFC) as officers’ stress may be displaced onto family members (Eby et al., 2005; Hoobler & Hu, 2013; Miller, 2007).

Police Work and Work–Family Conflict

Research supports that work strains can extend into other parts of a person’s life and can create WFC if not managed carefully (Eby et al., 2005; Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) defined WFC as “a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect” (p. 77). WFC conflict can be multidirectional and flow from work to the family or from the family to work (Allen et al., 2012; Carlson et al., 2000). Furthermore, prior research supports that work on family conflict can stem from different facets, such as time-based-conflict, behavior-based conflict, and strain-based conflict (Allen et al., 2012).

Miller (2007) noted that internal family conflict in police families can surface as a result of schedule and shift changes, the law enforcement culture, divided loyalties between job and family commitments, over protectiveness, suspiciousness, and hypervigilance (pp. 22-23). Of importance to police administrators, occupational research supports that WFC is associated with individuals withdrawing from their profession. Individuals who perceive their occupational stress as harming or interfering with family life may leave the job as a way of coping (Eby et al., 2005; Hur, 2013). This may be more prominent among female officers with children, as women have traditionally held the primary role of caretaker. Additionally, this exacerbates their role commitment resulting in increased WFC (Day & Chamberlain, 2006). Thus, the result of increased community hostility may contribute toward police officer resignations because WFC supersedes their desire to be a police officer or in the reduction of potential applicants. In fact, 66% of agencies responding to a recent survey reported a reduction in applicants as a main concern for policing today and in the future (Police Executive Research Forum [PERF], 2019, p. 9). There are numerous reasons individuals pursue a career in law enforcement, such as the opportunity to help others, job security, or the opportunity to serve their community (Morrow et al., 2019; White et al., 2010). However, policing historically has been a profession where the desire to serve has transcended generations. The recent focus on media accounts of police accountability and community hostility may lead officers to direct their children away from a career in policing.

While studies have examined the impact of occupational strains on marriages and spouses of first responders (Brough, 2004; Regehr et al., 2005) and police families (Kirschman, 2018; Miller, 2007), there remains limited research directly focused on police officers’ children. Most of the existing research focuses on the impact of natural disasters and terrorism (e.g., September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks or the Boston Marathon Bombing) on families of first responders (Benedek et al., 2007; Perrin et al.,2007; Prati & Pietrantoni, 2010). This line of research, along with studies on military families of deployed soldiers, provides two primary insights on potential stressors and fears that impact police officers’ children.

First, police officers and their families experience an array of health and mental health problems (Benedek et al., 2007; Kirschman, 2018; Prati & Pietrantoni, 2010; Walker et al., 2016). It is estimated that police officers experience PTSD symptoms almost double to the general population in the United States (Violanti et al., 2018). Furthermore, daily work experiences suggest stronger emotional and psychological impact on officers than singular traumatic events (Larsson et al., 2016). This may also suggest that daily stressors of being the child of a police officer may also be more concerning than if the child was exposed to a singular event caused from the safety concerns regarding their parent(s) (Abernaty et al., 2007). For example, children whose relatives participated in the search following the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013 were linked to PTSD symptoms, emotional symptoms, and hyperactivity/inattention due to fear about parental safety (Comer et al., 2014). Also, extraordinary events such as hurricanes and riots in response to police use of force incidents could create PTSD related symptoms in children. Similarly, military parents reported constant worries about their children’s well-being during a parental deployment, and this can contribute to psychological distress (e.g., increased anxiety) even after the parent returned safely home (Chandra et al., 2010; Lester et al., 2010).

Second, research supports that job-related stressors can be transmitted from the parent to their family members (Brough, 2004; Regehr et al., 2005). For example, the ability for children to cope and adjust is mediated by caregivers’ depression and stress (Kelley et al., 2003). This is consistent with the developmental literature that suggests a connection between children’s distress and parental distress (Lester et al., 2010). According to Miller (2007), studies suggest that more than a third of spouses report some degree of stress directly linked to their spouses’ jobs. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that increased strain due to increased community hostility and scrutiny can impact the fears and anxiety of the children of police officers.

Difficulties of Being a Blue-Blood Child

Children of police officers may have additional stressors placed on them as they navigate their social and family life as police-citizen relationships break down and community hostility increases. “Children, especially older kids and adolescents, are often caught between feelings of loyalty and pride in their parent’s work and anxieties about peer rejection because of common pejorative attitudes toward authority ﬁgures such as police ofﬁcers” (Miller, 2007, p. 29). In general, attitudinal surveys on the perceptions of police vary by age, gender, place of residence, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Pertinent to this study, research supports that youth are indifferent to police and often hold unfavorable views of the police in general (Taylor et al., 2001) and are distrustful of the police (Friedman et al., 2004). Thus, being identified as a police officer’s child could lead to harassment, bullying, or physical harm (Abernaty et al., 2007; Stone, 2001). Furthermore, intense public scrutiny regarding officers’ behavior both on and off duty inevitably trickles down to the children of police officers whose actions may be more strictly monitored. The order maintenance and law enforcement functions of the police result in officers having a high level of public accountability (Levenson, 2007). In rural communities, this may be more pronounced as community members are more familiar and knowledgeable of their neighbors’ occupation and public perceptions on police families may have a greater impact (Page & Jacobs, 2011).

Methods

This study used a qualitative approach to examine the primary research questions concerning the perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes of police officers’ children. Phenomenology can be described as the study of phenomena. In this case, the unique lived and shared experiences of children of police officers’ were examined using a phenomenological framework. This approach was used for three main reasons. First, only police officers’ children can express what their experiences are like. Using actual experiences are necessary to fully capture the essence of a specific phenomenon (Fischer, 1984). Second, this approach allows for researchers to identify thematic commonalities among the individuals and differences in how meanings attached to these experiences are internalized (Creswell, 2013; Reynolds et al., 2018). Third, a phenomenological framework allows researchers to describe the children’s experiences through an individual lens and using their own words which reduces researcher bias (Creswell, 2013).

Conducting research on police officers can often be problematic for two primary reasons. First, police officers are often skeptical and suspicious of outsiders by nature of the job. For this reason, it is often difficult for researchers to gain access to officers through police administration or without having a personal connection to officers (Broomé, 2014; Reynolds et al., 2018). Secondly, it is often difficult to obtain officer participation in research because of potential negative consequences within the organization based on their answers. Thus, police surveys often suffer from lower response rates (Nix et al., 2019). Moreover, this study had to overcome an additional obstacle because the focus of the study was on the children of police officers. Parents are naturally protective of their children and police officers, due to the nature of their work, may have a heightened level of protection. Police officers often are suspicious of outsiders and it is reasonable to assume that they would be more protective toward their children (Kirschman, 2018; Miller, 2007).

For these reasons, researchers used their personal connections to solicit participation for this research. This study included a sample of 19 children that have at least one parent working in law enforcement at either the municipal, county, or state level, utilizing a snowball sampling technique. The corresponding author began the study by contacting an acquaintance, who was a police officer, and inquired if the individual would permit his child to be interviewed for a study about the experiences children of police officers have as a result of one or more of their parents being a police officer. This also resulted in the researcher asking if there were other officers the acquaintance knew that had teenage children that would be willing to be interviewed. There was a 47.5% response rate for the officers the researchers contacted that allowed their children be interviewed for the study. This supported the aforementioned research that indicated officers are protective of their children and hesitant to participate in research.

The criteria for inclusion in the study was as follows: 1) being the child of a police officer, 2) being between the ages of 13 and 17 years old, 3) parent and child being willing to sign a consent form to participate in a recorded interview, and 4) willing to discuss personal experiences that are the result of being the child of a police officer. The interviews were conducted between September 15, 2019 and January 15, 2020. The demographics of the children interviewed were as follows: 11 were male and 8 were female, 16 were White and 3 were African-American, 15 were non-Hispanic and 4 were Hispanic. The mean age of the children was 15 years of age (mode was 16 years of age). The distribution ranged from 13 year of age (n=3) to 17 years of age (n=5). All but two of the children attended public school (two were homeschooled), with nine unique agencies include in the sample. All the children resided in a rural part of a southern state in the United States. The closest metropolitan area was 45 miles away from where the closest child resided to 120 miles away from the furthest child’s residence.

Prior to the interviews, a parent was required to read and sign a consent form indicating they were voluntarily allowing their child to be interviewed. Then the child was required to read and sign the consent form acknowledging they would voluntarily be interviewed and that their identity would remain anonymous in any subsequent article. Each parent and child was also informed they would not be compensated for participating in the research.

To maintain the confidentiality of the child, each participant was provided a pseudonym (e.g., Child #1, Child #2, etc.). During each interview the child was asked if they preferred to have their parent present during the interview. No child requested their parent be present during the interview and were interviewed alone.

Data Collection

Data collection commenced after the study was approved by the Institutional Review Board affiliated with one or more of the authors. The approved protocol involved semi-structured interviews and each interview was conducted in person. As mentioned above, prior to each interview the child’s parent read and signed a consent waiver allowing his or her child to voluntarily participate in the research. The child was then asked if he or she would prefer to have their parent present in the interview. All children declined having their parent present, but were advised their parent would be nearby if they wished their parent's assistance. The child was then taken into the interview room and provided the child’s assent form. The child was provided a summary of the research and asked if he or she understood the form. The child was allowed to ask any questions about the form and the purpose of the study. Once any questions were asked and answered, the child was asked to sign the form acknowledging their willingness to participate in the interview; knowing that their participation was voluntary and their responses would remain confidential and anonymous. Consistent with interview procedures in phenomenological research, all interviews were audio recorded and then transcribed verbatim within 48 hours of the interview (Anderson & Spencer, 2002; Creswell, 2013). The interviews lasted between 16 and 46 minutes with a mean time of 31.7 minutes.

The interview protocol was pre-tested by researchers to insure the validity of the interview questions. Interviews continued until researchers began to recognize that saturation of information was occurring. In other words, no new knowledge from respondents’ perspective was occurring. These numbers are typical of other phenomenological police studies in the literature (Broomé, 2014; Reynolds et al., 2018). The number of interviews conducted was toward the higher end of responses when saturation is reached in phenomenological studies that mention a lower bound of 5-6 interviews and an upper bound of 25 interviews (Broomé, 2014; Creswell, 2013; Morse, 1994).

The interviews began with the interviewer asking the child two “ice-breaker” type questions to lower any anxiety. The questions were “have you ever heard the word blue-blood?” and “what is the funniest story about your mom/dad being a police officer?” After each question the researcher asked one or two follow up questions depending up the initial response. After those preliminary questions, the researchers asked questions about the benefits and problems of having a parent in policing, how it has influenced friendships, any experiences of being bullied or hurt because their parent was a police officer, the type of comments they hear about police officers from friends or get from social media, their concerns about their parents job, whether they are considering a career in policing, and what they would want other kids and adults to know about being the child of a police officer.

Data Analysis

Upon completion of the interviews, each recording was transcribed into Microsoft Word. The transcriptions were then compared to the recordings to ensure they were accurate. The transcripts were read and re-read several times, using an open coding approach to identify patterns that appeared in the text. This study focused on participants’ perceptions and beliefs about their lived experiences. Therefore, researchers make the assumption participant statements are truthful. However, the focus of this research is on the participant’s subjective experience and perceptions of their objective experience (Creswell, 2013; Reynolds & Hicks, 2015). The researchers during the interviews and post-interviews ensured the comments the children stated were consistent with the message they wanted to convey by reviewing the information with each child. To maintain inter-reliability, researchers read through and coded transcripts jointly during the entire process. Furthermore, the researchers had another policing expert read through the transcripts to validate the researchers’ interpretation of the information provided by the children.

Next, axial coding was used to allow the words to be categorized and to identify patterns/themes from the transcripts. The primary themes that were identified were: parents are protective and police officers’ children worry about their parents. Each transcript was then coded for these themes and also for secondary themes. The secondary themes for parental protection were children having their freedom restricted and being a resource. The secondary themes for worrying were fear of parent getting hurt, people making negative comments/being harassed/picked on, unfair treatment about the police, and parents not actively encouraging children to consider law enforcement as a career choice.

Results

Protective Parenting

When the children were asked about the benefits of being the child of a police officer, 84% of those interviewed believed they had a heightened level of being protected. In general, this is not a surprising finding as parents are protective of their children with some claims suggesting parents are overprotective that could hinder their ability to cope with negative situations as they grow up (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2018). However, due to the hypervigilant nature of police officers (Gilmartin, 2002), it is not surprising that when officers are in the parental role they will do everything to keep their children safe (Miller, 2007).

Child 6: There are some benefits and one is that police officers know what they are talking about. They know what they are doing. They are protective of their kids because they have seen the outside world. My dad is more protective of me because he knows what he is talking about; he has been there and seen it.

Child 7: He watches over me more closely than my friend’s parents watch them (my friends).

Child 12: She watches out for me a lot more and helps me make the right decisions. I kind of know the path to stay on and not get into bad crowds.

Child 16: Umm, well a lot of people recognize him and that draws attention to us. I guess mainly it is just having the feeling of protection because he is a police officer.

Child 17: I just feel safer because I think I know more ways to be aware of what is around me. My friends’ parents just don’t know. I think he also keeps me safe by asking a lot of questions.

Restricts Freedom

While most of the children perceived the protection as a benefit, 39% of the children interviewed found the protection restricts their freedom. Children, especially in their pre-teen and teenage years, develop their identity and the home environment is crucial for a child’s development (Prioste et al., 2020). This is also a finding that can explain the personality and/or behavior of police officers’ children. Furthermore, this is consistent with previous research that suggested officers are over protective which can lead to family conflict (Miller, 2007).

Child 1: I just get watched over way more than my friends do. That isn’t something I like. I understand why my mom does it, but I don’t like it. I just don’t have as much freedom.

Child 6: The negative side is I have less freedom. I see my friends doing things and then my dad tells me “no” because he sees things and knows bad things happen. He says teenagers are basically blind to things—teenagers just care about what is going to happen in the moment. They don’t care about the after effects. I just don’t have as much freedom because my parents care what I do.

Child 13: He is always checking our phones (referring to all siblings) making sure we are safe.

Child 14: I can’t really be like my friends because I can’t even have social media. Always asking so many questions about what I am doing that it intrudes on who I am and want to be.

Great Resource

Research suggests that parental relationships with children in terms of mentoring and providing guidance is crucial to the development of social competences among youth; particularly during teen years (Agarwal & Agarwal, 2018). Of the children surveyed, 63% believed having a police officer for a parent was a great informational resource for them and helped them become more knowledgeable about their rights and legal processes. Participants noted they are often asked questions relating to criminal justice among their close peers. As a whole, children of police officers appear to recognize and appreciate their parents as a positive resource to building social competences as they transition through adolescence.

Child 1: If anything happens to me they can help get it taken care of. They know people. They know the law.

Child 4: If I have a question, I can ask my dad. He knows the law so this helps me be more informed. I also find out things about police procedure just by asking him questions. I also get questions from my friends and I can just clarifying things for them.

Child 8: My friends ask me all kinds of questions such as “they will say hey—that kid hit me in the face over there, does that count as abuse? Can’t he go to jail for abuse now? Or if I cuss someone out, I can’t go to jail can I”? I feel like I’m on the spot to answer. Everyone thinks I’m a lawyer.

Child 9: My brothers and I become more familiar with the law. I get to know better what I can do and can’t do. My dad helps us know things that we should know, like little minor law things and these are things I can pass along (to friends).

Child 17: I kind of get used as a resource. So when something comes up they ask me what I think. Whether it is one of those media type stories or if they get stopped by a cop. Or if something happens to someone else they know. You know they think that since my dad is a cop I know what he does or what the law or how things happen. I ain’t a cop and I ain’t a lawyer.

Worry

When children were asked about the pitfalls of being a child of a police officer, 90% mentioned they have an overall worry about their parents because of the job they perform. Stress and worry is known to be detrimental to one’s health. And, police officers are not any different than other parents in wanting their children to be healthy and successful. So naturally, family members will worry about the dangers associated with police work (Kirschman, 2018), but police officers need to be more diligent that they can comfort their children as officers have become the focus of media stories. This is important as civilian journalism has increased because most people have a readily accessible camera and recording device at their disposal (Brown, 2016).

Child 4: You know there is always that thought that you never know what is going to happen. So I worry a bit—no, ahhhh, (laugh) I do worry.

Child 5: There is that constant worry if he is going to come home. It isn’t as bad now though because he works in a smaller town. Where he used to work….he got hurt and that caused me to worry.

Child 7: It is a little scary—the job you know. It is scary because it is my feeling….it is that feeling that I don’t know he will be coming home. I do have a feeling that everything will be ok, but you….you never know.

Child 10: Worrying is the worst thing. I know my dad can take care of himself—at least that is what I tell myself that he can handle anything, but I worry.

Child 18: Just the overall worrying about his safety. I don’t really think about what is bad about his work or how it affects me. But if there is something it is just not knowing what is out there. Not like my friends’ parents that work a regular job. Police officers are just different because of the hours they work and what could happen.

Several subthemes were developed from worrying that involved more than just an overall concern. There was the specific fear that the child’s parent could get hurt (100%), people talk bad about the parents work that results in children being teased or singled out (53%), unfair treatment “comments” directed toward the police (89%), and also their police officer parent not talking to them about policing—-directing them away from considering police for their career (42%).

Parent Getting Hurt

This subtheme was unanimous and it resurfaced throughout each interview suggesting that the imagery of media reporting (mainstream and social) may be inflating the probability of an officer being injured. However, children of police officers are concerned for the welfare of their parent while on-duty. The norm has been altered as today, citizens’ voices are being heard in an effort to enhance transparency and accountability of police actions (Dawson, 2018).

Child 1: I worry that she will get hurt. Every now and then, she doesn’t come home when she is supposed to and my mind goes to the worst—that she is hurt.

Child 2: My mom works the night shift and that is when more crazy people are out there—just people doing stupid shit. It is scary because I know she can get hurt.

Child 6: It is a dangerous job so there is always that thought that he might get hurt.

Child 8: Luckily, my parents don’t work patrol officer duty. It is those officers that can get hurt the worst. Then it just gets worse for those in bigger cities. Even though my parents don’t work in a real big city, I still worry about all officers. They are heroes doing an honorable job.

Child 13: It is such a dangerous job, you can’t help but worry that he may get hurt.

Child 15: The ambushes we have heard about is really scary. You just have cops out there minding their own business and get shot just because they are cops.

Children Being Harassed

We found that 53% of children have been harassed or picked on because of their parents’ job. When this occurred they had comments directed toward them in a serious and a playful manner. Prior research has alluded to children of police officers being bullied as a possibility (Abernathy et al., 2007; Stone, 2001). Additionally, Adolescence can be a time of struggle for many children and with the pressures of being teased or harassed because of something (parent’s occupation) beyond the control of a child can be problematic. Jantzer et al. (2019) suggest when adolescents are harassed it contributes to a reduction in their quality of life.

Child 3: Some kids think just because my mom is a police officer that I automatically am going to run to her and tell her about something they are doing. They call me a snitch when I have never told my mom anything about their parties. They just assume. I could care less what they do, but I am not going to hang myself out there by ratting on them. It’s a nuisance, like being harassed.

Child 5: I have been made fun of because this one kid’s mom got arrested. Like I was the one to blame? I didn’t do anything, but I have been picked on because the police are just out there doing their job. It’s only happened a couple times. Most kids don’t say anything to me—maybe because their parents haven’t been arrested. It just those that I guess hear bad stuff about the police at home and then want to tell me how bad the police are.

Child 6: I do get comments like from someone that goes to parties or uses drugs. They say I can’t because my dad is a cop. I don’t even talk to those people, but I hear it like when I walk by or at lunch. They think I am going to tell him what they are doing—I’m not a snitch and I don’t do drugs. It isn’t my thing. It’s like I get singled out, picked on, or harassed because of what he does for a living.

Child 11: I get teased and told that I’m a “goody goody.” I’ve been called a racist because my dad is a cop and cops are harassing Mexicans. My dad doesn’t work at the border. He just does his job. It’s just annoying when I hear comments like that.

Child 12: I did have a teacher that singled me out—her husband was arrested after killing a guy in a drunk driving accident. This was last year. The teacher just hated me and was just mean to me. One day when I was late to class I got in trouble and got a detention. Other kids never got a detention. I was singled out. She kept asking me a bunch of questions about my mom and what my parents did for a living. She knew what my mom did.

Child 15: It happens, but I can tell when they (other students) are playing or being serious. Generally I just blow it off. Sometimes, most of the time, it is just comments to get me agitated. It’s just words, but it’s harassment.

Unfair Treatment

Another subtheme that was developed from “worry” was worrying because of unfair treatment that the police receive from the public that was generated through mainstream and social media reporting of police incidents. Of the children interviewed, when asked about what they hear about the police, 89% reported that people directed unfair comments toward the police. There are many complexities individuals confront throughout one’s lifetime and perceiving being treated unfairly is going to occur. Police officers work in an occupation that requires officers restrain the liberty of others. When the police stop, issue a traffic ticket, or arrest a motorist, even when the officer is professional and behaves in a procedurally just manner, the contact will not necessarily overcome the individual’s negative perception of the police (Sahin et al., 2017). It takes repeated procedurally just contacts to have a positive impact on the individual’s perception of the police. This perception is reflective of the police having a history of engaging in unfair police among persons of color (Mack & Mack, 2018).

Child 2: From what I see they are just doing their job. I don’t see what people are talking about. I see and hear kids call them (the police) names.

Child 4: I hear people saying the police just want to hurt people and they don’t want to protect anyone. But, obviously those people aren’t very educated on what the police do. I bet they have never even had something go on with the police. They watch these things and think all police are out there to hurt someone. It is all kind of irrational.

Child 6: There is a lot of negative stuff out there. You know, fuck the police, the police are bad. When people summarize an organization because of the acts of one person is totally discriminatory—just like when someone from one race does something wrong or bad you condemn the whole race and that isn’t right.

Child 8: In general, people just don’t like the police. They say all of them are racist, they are brutal, and against minorities—but that isn’t really the case. It is just them doing their jobs. People are pre-judging the police. They take the one action, versus the entire career and they really don’t know what the police are supposed to do. The police are enforcing the law. People just talk bad about them when they really don’t know what happened and why the officer did what he did. Most probably just get this from their parents and what they say and then the kids are going to think and behave a certain way and say bad things about the police. It is just hatred on the police.

Child 9: There is some in a historical fashion that may create it. People bring a lot of that on themselves. They are told how to think, feel, and act.

Child 11: I agree there are some law enforcement that don’t need to be in the job, but that is not the majority. That is a small minority of them. They are trying to say all law enforcement is out to get black people is not right. It upsets me.

Child 12: A lot of time people are saying the police are too rough or killing people for no reason. But what I have seen is they are not doing anything too wrong they tell people to stop multiple times. They are just hating on the police and not doing any justice and making the world more wrong. It just bugs me because I know that police are there to help out and the more you push the cops away the more trouble you will get in. And I can’t think what I am trying to say. Um, there is really nothing because I know that every cop is trying to help and under pressure they are to deal with it. It’s unfair what is said. People really don’t know what the issue really is.

Child 16: Ummm, you know the protests that go on. Police officers getting shot and killed because people don’t like the way they are doing their job. The BLM come together as a group and some in the group ends up shooting a bunch of police officers.

Child 19: Once in a while I hear the police are just bad. But that’s not right. I hear the police beat everyone up for no reason at all. If you are black you are going to get shot and killed by the police. That’s about it—it is almost all bad.

Parents Not Overly Supportive of Policing as a Profession

Policing is known as a dangerous profession, but when put into perspective it is not one of the most dangerous jobs (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). Most of an officer’s time is dedicated to routine tasks, such as driving around “patrolling” (Kelling et al., 1974) or tasks not thought of as being police related such as engaging in high risk activities (Capsambelis, 2009; Famega et al., 2005). There were 42% of children that mentioned they are discouraged from pursuing policing as a career. This also provides support from a recent PERF (2019) survey that found police agencies are suffering from a reduction in applicants. This is important for policing because if those in the profession no longer advocate for policing as a career, then having a satisfactory pool of qualified applicants will continue to be a challenge.

Child 8: They (parents) never bring it up. When I do they tell me to go the direction of forensic science or law. They say do not go into law enforcement. Maybe they are joking, but I feel deep down they do not want me to do it. They do not want me to go through what other officers are going through.

Child 9: Talking about it—not me, but my brother talked about it and they swayed him away from that. My dad loves his job, but he doesn’t want us to do that type of job. I think it’s about when you first start you have to be on the street.

Child 13: My guidance counselor mentioned it because we do career tests, but when I mentioned it–my dad said he didn’t want me to do that. There are things happening to police right now and he said it is not a good career choice.

Child 18: We don’t really discuss it and they certainly don’t discuss law enforcement as a career with me.

Summary Analysis

Many of the themes and subthemes from the analysis supported previous research. We found that the stress of the job may be transferred to the children (Brough, 2004; Regehr et al., 2005) in their worry about their parents getting hurt at work and downplaying the comments from others. For example, Child 6 mentioned that he has “had to develop a tough skin as others make comments that I just cannot let affect me. Kids are going to make comments and talk down about the police, but I was raised right and know I have to blow some things off.” Also, children of police officers have to be aware that other children may not want to be associated with them (Miller, 2007). This was illustrated by Child 2 that stated “as I have gotten older some of my good friends from middle school are no longer my friends. They do stupid stuff like drinking and smoking marijuana. I can’t do that, I know what I want to do with my life” and by Child 3 that stated “I lost some friends along the way, mainly because I just couldn’t do the stuff they wanted to. If I got caught doing something illegal it would be much worse for me than them. So we just drifted apart.” Thus, the unfavorable views and distrust adolescents have of the police was supported by the findings in this study (Friedman et al., 2004; Taylor et al., 2001).

Discussion

Policing is a unique profession that has been glamorized in popular culture through television and movies. It is a profession that is not accessible to everyone because of the rigorous hiring standards that accentuate character. The culture of policing insulates police officers from the wider society due to the complexity of the profession and the manner the police perceive society treating them. Thus, the daily experiences police officers have provide them a unique perspective into societal behavior that the wider society does not experience. These experiences create stressors that can ultimately have a negative impact on officers’ families (Gilmartin, 2002; Kirschman, 2018).

In recent years, there have been calls for enhanced government transparency and police accountability. Media stories have responded with reporting police events with a focus on police performance which in turn molds public perception (Choi et al., 2020; Deuchar et al., 2020; Gauthier & Graziano, 2018; Moule, 2020; Nix & Pickett, 2017) and the officers’ perception of the public’s support. This has resulted in the police becoming concerned about their safety and may lead to them desisting from pro-active job tasks. The publicized incidents have created controversy in communities and society at large because some support the actions of officers and others are concerned officers are not held accountable. Therefore, since work related stress can be transferred from officers to family members (Brough, 2004; Miller, 2007; Regehr et al., 2005), gaining insight into how children of police officers cope with the recent attention on police accountability and being a child of a police officer is important for us to gain a better understanding of this class of citizens.

This study, to the authors knowledge, is the first to gain access and ask children of police officers how their parent’s occupation as a police officer impacts their lives. Overwhelmingly, the authors found the children were torn between appreciating their parents because the job helps the children be safer than others, and the feeling of losing out on something in their childhood due to a loss of freedom. But, the emotional and psychological impact was apparent. Teenage children have many stressors and the bullying literature is replete in the negative impact it has on them (Chervonsky & Hunt, 2018; Garnett & Brion-Meisels, 2017; Glassner & Cho, 2018). Furthermore, research has suggested being a child of a police officer may lead to bullying on the part of other children not associated with policing (Abernaty et al., 2007; Stone, 2001).

We were not surprised that children worry about their parents safety, but this research provides evidence the environment their parents work in is concerning to children. Research has suggested that worrying can be detrimental to a child’s emotional and psychological development (Galla et al., 2020; Kar & Prakash, 2019). Thus the amount of worrying the children experience (in this study) due to their parents’ job should be a primary concern not only to police officers that are parents, but also police and educational administrators, and society at large. So, are the worries justified or based upon perception? Many types of incidents (e.g., police shootings) that have proliferated mainstream and social media are not common occurrences in policing (Shane et al., 2017; Son & Rome, 2004). The illusion that has been created, due to media reporting to bring awareness to police accountability, is that misconduct is widespread which has resulted in apprehension by children of police officers because they obtain conflicting information. Their parent(s) provide a positive perspective on police behavior, but their social environment provides a negative perspective that accentuates police misbehavior is widespread. The reality of police work is that it is often mundane and the majority of a police officer’s time is undirected (Capsambelis, 2009; Famega et al., 2005). This disconnect between the message from parents and the one from children’s’ social environment may be negatively affecting them and contributing to worry.

Distracted thinking can and does impact attention (Forster & Lavie, 2014). Whether the worrying from the children interviewed is compromising their educational achievement is unknown, but that was beyond the scope of this study. However, it is an area of further research. Additionally, this worrying can be related to other emotional or behavioral concerns among the children. As mentioned above, teenagers, without being a child of a police officer, already have a significant amount of stress and societal attention toward the police may be an additional layer of stress on children of police officers.

The media has a responsibility to society to report the news, and officers are respectful of this responsibility. However, within police circles, the perception is the media is biased and is not supportive of the police (Chermak et al., 2006; Nix & Pickett, 2017) and according to the Pew Research Center survey about “eight-in-ten officers (81%) who work in departments of 100 or more sworn officers perceive the media treat the police unfairly” (Gramlich & Parker, 2017, para. 2). This reinforces the perception among the police that no one understands the police, except the police. Thus, they are resistant to community oversight. Furthermore, the media also has a responsibility to the emotional health of society in regard to their reporting and this is related to the experiences of police officers’ children.

The finding that children believe people are uninformed and do not understand police action through derogatory comments was also anticipated. Today, a majority of people obtain their awareness about the “news” from short soundbites, headlines on websites, and/or social media stories (S. K. Lee et al., 2017; A. S. Lee et al., 2018). This type of awareness is bound to provide a superficial understanding of any issue. Newspaper readership and subscriptions have been decreasing, leaving news sources in an environment where they must be creative to generate revenue (Chyi & Tenenboim, 2017). The proliferation of cable news to attract people to the source based upon personal and/or political ideology has increased the polarization of the American society (Sobieraj & Berry, 2011). Thus, the children interviewed believe people are ill-informed about the reported police incidents. They espouse people do not understand police procedures and make rash judgements based upon an ideology about how the police should perform their duties, without being knowledgeable about police procedure.

It is inherent in a parent to be protective of their children, regardless of a parent’s occupation. This protection is magnified with police officers. Consistent with prior research on police families (Miller, 2007), the children interviewed identified their parents are being more protective than others that are not police officers, if not over protective. This could be categorized as an “occupational hazard.” Even though police work does not lend itself to continuous negative experiences, police officers are exposed to incidents that most people never experience (dead bodies, child abuse, sexual assault, interviewing victims and hearing their pain, etc.) and these experiences may cause them to be hypervigilant (Gilmartin, 2002) and become over protective to ensure their children do not become victims. Thus, keeping their children safe, even though the child experiences less freedom than others, is the trade-off parents are willing to take. Examples of this would be allowing a child to hang out in a mall, go to the movie theater with friends, or congregate in a parking lot at night. The probability of a child or any person being victimized is a rare event, but police officers have observed harm occurring to innocent children in their communities. Therefore, they must do everything to keep their children safe. They are aware that if the pattern where an individual occupies their time is reduced or negated, then removing a pillar of victimization reduces the likelihood that an individual will be victimized (Schreck & Fisher, 2004).

Even though children wished they had at least the same freedom as non-police officer children, the benefits of being more knowledgeable about what occurs in society is appreciated. The children are not as naïve as other “non-police” children and this may better prepare them for the uncertainties of adult life. As one child alluded to in the interviews, “being a child of a police officer helps being more aware of ones surroundings.”

One unfortunate finding was that children are not being encouraged to enter the policing profession, which would end a blue blood line of police officers in the family. Police work is a noble profession and very rewarding. Police officers may be feeling unsupportive by society. They may be appreciated in their local communities, but as a whole, they perceive the profession as being disrespected and under assault (Mac Donald, 2017). This is consistent with public opinion polling that indicates the public has higher satisfaction for local police than the police as a profession (Taylor et al., 2001). Recent community hostility toward the police may have a detrimental impact on police recruiting today and in the future. Policing has relied on personal contacts such as friends and families to help recruit officers in the profession (Wilson et al., 2010). Police administrators have been reporting concerns that they are unable to recruit a sufficient number of quality recruits (McCafferty, 2003; Morrow et al., 2019; PERF, 2019; Whetstone et al., 2006; White & Escobar, 2008). Now if current police officers are not encouraging their children to follow in their occupational path, the numbers of potential applicants in the next decade will also be reduced. Professional policing in a democratic society requires police officers uphold the standards and morals of the profession and society (Delattre, 2011). Departments have to be proactive to ensure that even though locating qualified officers is important, relaxing standards can be problematic and thus they must be diligent to ensure only quality officers transgress through training (White, 2008). Therefore, encouraging children to pursue a career in policing is necessary for the American society to maintain its civility. While it is very difficult to ascertain the true nature and extent of police misconduct, Harris (2009) purports that only a small percentage of officers in the profession are problematic. This is an important point to emphasize in discussions surrounding policing. The children of police officers recognize this, but are not encouraged to pursue a career in policing possibly due to their socialization experiences and communication from their parents.

Conclusion

Ever since the tragic events in New York and Ferguson, MO in 2014 through the recent death of George Floyd in May, 2020, there have been increasing and justifiable concerns about police performance and accountability. There have been numerous studies about how the police have responded to civil unrest (Rushin & Edwards, 2017; Shjarback et al., 2017; Wolfe & Nix, 2016) and the need for police administration to be cognizant about how the police treat their officers (Reynolds & Helfers, 2018; Rosenbaum & McCarty, 2017; Torres et al., 2018). However, this was the first study that considered how societal reaction to the incidents in a post-Ferguson era have impacted children of police officers. This study helps fill in the literature gap in knowing how children of police officers cope with the stressors their police officer parent(s) experiences and how they navigate through their environment. Even though the children interviewed appreciated one or both of their parents being police officers because it provides a protective factor for them, the worrying the children experience has negative implications. Not only should parents be concerned, but also school administrators because the stress the children are feeling may be impacting their educational achievement and could be associated with behavioral concerns. Additionally, this research highlights an area of focus for police administrators because they are naturally concerned in protecting and enhancing the mental health of their officers. For the betterment of policing, the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing Reform (2015) recommended the promotion of officers’ mental health through providing support and resources to assist officers have the ability to perform at optimal levels. However, this research extends this focus by suggesting police administrators should also consider the development and implementation of mental health initiatives for children of their officers (Kirschman, 2018; Miller, 2007; Tucker, 2015). The children reported their parents are reluctant to talk about their jobs, but to ensure the mental health of children of police officers, agencies may consider ways to help children of their officers better understand the demands and complexities of their parents’ profession.

Children are resilient and often can adapt to stressors if provided proper coping mechanisms. Just as social support is important to reduce stress among police officers and other first responders, it may be just as critical to help police children (Miller, 2007; Page & Jacobs, 2011; Prati & Pietrantoni, 2010). For instance, findings from a study on deployed military families shows that having support from friends with similar experiences help with coping and mitigating personal fears (Chandra et al., 2010). However, unlike military dependents that have more opportunities to interact with children experiencing similar circumstances (e.g., deployments) due to living on base or family support groups, police children’s social circle and support network are often not fellow police children. Thus, police children may be more dependent on their family support system versus their peers. For this reason, it may be beneficial for departmental leadership to enhance support opportunities and resources to police officers that focus on children. This research is a first step in better understanding how the current environment surrounding policing is affecting the children of police officers.

This study had two limitations the authors must acknowledge that future research on this topic should consider; a heightened sampling scheme and a more diverse population. First, as researchers work to replicate these findings, researchers should enhance the methodology, particularly the sampling scheme. This study used a snowball sampling scheme due to the difficulty of gaining access to interview children of police officers. An enhanced sampling scheme may enhance the generalizability of the findings if researchers could gain access to children of police officers. Second, since this study interviewed children of officers associated with rural police departments, future research should interview children who have parents employed in agencies in larger metropolitan areas. There may be a difference in their perceptions as one child mentioned “I am not as concerned about my dad getting hurt because he doesn’t work in a big city.” Most of the high profile police incidents have occurred in or around large metropolitan cities, thus future research should focus on interviewing children of police officers in urban and suburban police agencies to further our knowledge on this important topic.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Richard C. Helfers

Author Biographies

Richard C. Helfers, PhD, is an associate professor of criminal justice and public administration at The University of Texas at Tyler. He is a retired police officer who worked in municipal policing for over 25 years that included various assignments and roles of responsibility. He retired at the rank of Captain. His research interests include police officer decision-making, criminal justice education, and organizational justice. His recent publications have appeared in the American Journal of Criminal Justice, Criminal Law Bulletin, Criminal Justice Review, International Journal of Police Science and Management, Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, and Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society.

Paul D. Reynolds, PhD, is an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of North Texas at Dallas. He is a former police officer and his research interests includes organizational justice and police organizational work-related behaviors and attitudes. His recent publications have appeared in the Police Quarterly, Criminal Justice Review, American Journal of Criminal Justice, International Journal of Police Science and Management, and Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society.

David M. Scott, PhD, is an assistant professor of criminal justice and public administration at The University of Texas at Tyler. He has over 20 years of police experience. His research interests include domestic violence, sexual assault, mental health, and strangulation investigations. His recent publications have appeared in Law Enforcement Executive Forum and Technical Interface International Journal.

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