Date of Conferral

11-10-2025

Date of Award

November 2025

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Criminal Justice

Advisor

George King

Abstract

The current study was administered in order to examine Oklahoman social workers’ perception of collaborating with police officers to foster community trust. The goal was to determine whether the collaboration amongst social and police officer fostered trust when collaborating during services calls. The theory of planned behavior and policing (TPBP) studied by Ishoy and giving credit to Ajzen’s were the foundational theory used to support this study. Collaboration among social workers and police officers can foster community trust and benefit both parties. Such collaboration could also lead to joint training and education, as well as alleviating public fears and misconceptions. TPBP is relevant to the study, since the framework predicts the factors influencing individuals’’ intentions to engage in specific behavior. I used purposeful and random sampling techniques in order to recruit participants for this study. There were 12 participants interviewed using Microsoft Teams audio recorded only, and no interview was in person. All participants were asked three demographic questions and 12 research interview questions, and thematic analysis was used to make this study significant. All participant interviews were collected as data and manually coded. Participants suggest that educating the community about the roles of social workers and police officers could build trust and improve collaboration outcomes. This study can promote positive social change by encouraging social workers’ collaboration with police officers in communities they serve.

Included in

Social Work Commons

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