ABSTRACT
People have confl icting stereotypes about police offi cers and their personality traits. Some are convinced that police offi cers are responsible, dedicated guardians of society, while others are certain that police offi cers are authoritarian individuals who are prone to abusing their authority (Yarmey, 1990). The assumption underlying both of these stereotypes is that police offi cers as a group are characterized by the same personality traits. This assumption is also refl ected in the traditional approach to studying police personality, which postulates there is a “modal police personality” that characterizes police offi cers and distinguishes them from other members of the population (Leftowitz, 1975).
