Police Work Seen by Students in Relation to Police Techniques: A Question of Attitude

This article presents the results of fieldwork done on a cohort of students on a course on police techniques, which was a programme lasting three years leading to admission to the last stage of 15 weeks given at the national police academy in Quebec. The study, which used a questionnaire, looked to establish at which points demographic elements (gender, age, having friends or parents in the police) as well as fundamental elements (applying the law, looking at diversity, principles of behaviour of the police) affected – or not – perceptions that the same respondents had about the way in which the police were policing Quebec, especially on community policing. Our analyses showed that respondents’ attitudes were much more significant than their attributes, indicating the value of a standardised questionnaire on initial attitudes to be answered prior to being accepted on the course.