Locus of emotional intelligence among oklahoma law enforcement officers

Abstract

Emotional intelligence has community positive value for the profession of policing, and knowledge about which police officers within an agency have the highest levels of emotional intelligence is of significant management value within law enforcement agencies. The focus of this study was to determine whether differences in emotional intelligence (EI) levels among binary categories of small-agency Oklahoma law enforcement officers were statistically significant. Three research questions guided the study, involving statistical comparison of actual EI scores across varying levels of career longevity and promotion within the law enforcement profession by the study participants. The Assessing Emotions Scale (AES) was used to scale the EI levels of the 86 participants. A self-report survey was used to classify participant longevity or promotion. The application of inferential statistics to the data, in the form of multiple t-tests, revealed statistically significant differences in average EI levels, with the higher mean distribution of EI levels present among those with more than 10 years of longevity, a history of rank promotion, and a history of promotion to supervisory status. The study provides analysis and implications for law enforcement leadership and future research.