Police Service Delivery to the Elderly

This article presents some preliminary findings from a major study of police service delivery to the elderly. It begins with a discussion of the need for special police attention by the elderly; then it moves on to an analysis of the findings from a survey of older persons in two major Ameri can cities and a consideration of the survey's implications for police operations. The survey data indicate that most older persons have positive attitudes toward the police. How ever, when examined in detail the data revealed that those elderly citizens who have either called the police or report a higher willingness to call (for crime and for noncrime reasons) demonstrate a higher degree of dissatisfaction with the police than the elderly population at large. The paper explores the reasons for the dissatisfaction of that segment of the elderly population which tends to rely most heavily upon the police. A prominent source of dissatisfaction is the normative expecta tions of what police service should be like outrun the elderly's anticipations of the quality of the police services that would be provided. The glamorized role of television police is singled out as a significant source of increased unrealistic normative expectations. The attitudes of the elderly toward themselves and toward their role in society also contribute to increased dissatisfaction with the police. Recommendations are proposed to improve police service delivery to the elderly.