A Strategic Analysis of the Quality in Police Investigation : Comparing Police Investigators’ to Investigation Trainers’ Responses in Qualitative Interviews, With a Brief Discussion of Educational Consequences after July 22

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to statistically investigate whether there were any differences between police investigators and investigation trainers with regard to how they reflect upon quality in police investigation. The samples consisted of 27 investigation trainers from the Norwegian Police University College and 90 police investigators from all of the 27 police districts in Norway. Data were collected through open-ended interviews based on the SWOT paradigm, and coded on SWOT and IGLO. MANOVA analyses were conducted in order to explore the variations between and within the sample groups. The results showed that the investigation trainers had a significantly lower amount of spoken units on SWOT and IGLO, with M = 90.56 and M = 88.44 compared to the police investigators who had a total mean of M = 188.26 and M = 205.77 respectively. The results could indicate that police investigators are more concerned with explicit knowledge than what was initially assumed. It could also mean that the investigation trainers lack the appropriate tools to engage in knowledge-sharing within their group. Future studies should focus upon factors that separate the in-group members and possibly affect their thinking, such as professional background or length of service in the police.