Examining Relationships Between Officer Experience and Use of Force After Vehicle Pursuits

Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Committee Chair

Jonathon Mccombs

Committee Member

Jennifer Harris

Committee Member

Chenelle Jones

Abstract

Policing is the most visible part of government for citizens, and building trust, legitimacy, and relationships with the community is vital. Police vehicle pursuits and use of force are topics that can damage these relationships. This quantitative non-experimental design used secondary data from the Cincinnati Police Department in Ohio to examine whether an officer’s experience is associated with the likelihood of using force after a vehicle pursuit. Previous research has focused on multiple factors in determining relationships between force and vehicle pursuits, and limited attention has been given to tenue and its influence on post-pursuit decision-making during arrest. This research focused solely on officer experience, measured in months of service, and analyzed pursuit data from September 2019 through September 2024 (N = 378). Service was calculated by comparing the officer’s hire date to the date of the pursuit. Descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and Mann-Whitney U testing were conducted to determine if experience differed significantly between cases where force was used and cases where force was not used. In addition to inferential analysis, visual exploration data methods were used to examine the distribution, overlap, and variability between the two outcome groups. The findings indicated that experience alone did not significantly predict the likelihood of force being used after a pursuit. Rather than experience, findings further suggest that the decisions are influenced more by other dynamics, training, and organizational expectations. This highlights the need for future research on decision-making models, communication during pursuits, and other factors, such as demographics, time, location, and criminal activity.

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