Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore how Swedish police officers describe occupational knowledge. By learning more about how officers describe occupational knowledge, the study gives more insight about the types of information that they may be more likely to adopt in their occupational tasks.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the author conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with Swedish police officers. I asked officers several open-ended questions about their everyday work life and professional experience.

Findings

Swedish officers divide knowledge into two categories, which are theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. Theoretical knowledge is learned in the academy and is described as “black and white,” meaning that it is considered static and not applicable to what happens out in patrol. Practical knowledge is learned in the field from colleagues.

Research limitations/implications

Police officers around the world have a wide range of requirements and training to become police officers. However, empirical studies have found that officers tend to use different types of information when performing policing tasks. Depending on how information is perceived and is taught, officers may respond differently to different types of knowledge, due to their evaluation of the validity of the knowledge.

Originality/value

The findings in this study support previous empirical studies on the area of policing and knowledge in two ways; first, this study argues that there is a categorization of knowledge among police officers. Second, this study suggests that officers view one occupational knowledge type as more theoretical and one as more practical.

中文翻译：

---

“黑、白、灰”——关于瑞典警察如何描述职业知识的定性研究

目的

本研究的目的是探讨瑞典警察如何描述职业知识。通过更多地了解官员如何描述职业知识，该研究可以更深入地了解他们在其职业任务中更有可能采用的信息类型。

设计/方法/方法

在这项研究中，作者对瑞典警察进行了27次半结构化采访。我问了官员几个关于他们日常工作生活和专业经验的开放式问题。

发现

瑞典军官将知识分为两类，即理论知识和实践知识。理论知识是在学院里学习的，被描述为“非黑即白”，这意味着它被认为是静态的，不适用于巡逻中发生的事情。实践知识是从同事那里学到的。

研究限制/影响

世界各地的警察有各种各样的要求和培训才能成为警察。然而，实证研究发现，警官在执行警务任务时倾向于使用不同类型的信息。根据信息的感知和教授方式，官员可能会对不同类型的知识做出不同的反应，因为他们对知识的有效性进行了评估。

原创性/价值

本研究的发现从两个方面支持了以往关于警务和知识领域的实证研究；首先，这项研究认为，警官的知识是有分类的。其次，这项研究表明，官员认为一种职业知识类型更具理论性，而另一种则更实用。