GEN 2240: Intro to Research

Discussion
My thesis statement claims: PBA Cards are supported by most officers, who give and
accept them under certain conditions, while there is much more controversy in the
fairness of them among citizens. My results, as presented in the previous section,
show a great deal of support for my thesis statement. I will show this by breaking
down my thesis statement.
PBA cards are supported by most officers: This statement is supported by Sgt.
Natolis interview responses. He acknowledges his support for this form of courtesy
in his field. He compares it to courtesies that occur in other professions as well. He
claims it is just a favor, or common courtesy, acknowledged by officers.
Officers give and accept them under certain conditions: This section of my
thesis is also supported by Sgt. Natolis interview. In his responses he explains
whom he distributes his PBA cards to. He gives them to close friends or family that
he knows are respectful. Officers have specific ramifications when giving the cards
out. Also, he only acknowledges the card if the person is polite and their infraction is
minor. There are unwritten rules as to how the cards work for officers.
There is much more controversy in the fairness of [PBA cards] among citizens:
This final clause of my thesis is supported by all of the survey responses I received.
My responses for approval/disapproval and considering the cards fair/unfair all
came back split. There wasnt one side that heavily outweighed another, and there
was a large variety in the responses as well as the reasons given to support the
responses. There was no common agreement among the citizen responses, and
there wasnt any overwhelming support leaning either way. The only response I saw
a majority in was that most agreed that their possession of a card did not influence
their feelings on the subject. Although, it is very possible that influences can be
subliminal, and easily undetected.

My results also agree with the information I collected in my Lit Review. The
literature I found shows that police are pretty much on the same page with deciding
how the distribute as well as honor the PBA cards. They all seemed to have a
common understanding that cards are to be given out to family and good friends
who do not get themselves into trouble a lot. It is then also understand by officers
that honoring a card is completely at the officers discretion and there are other
factors involved such as politeness and severity of the offense. The literature I
researched also shows how many differing opinions citizens had on the subject.
There were the extremists who thought either very strongly for or against the cards,
although not many of either. Then the majority of opinions were split rather evenly
among disagree, neutral, and agree. My data shows exactly the same responses and
results as all of the information drawn from the literature.
Some limitations I encountered were that I only had direct access to one officer for
an interview, and I decided after the fact that asking age on my survey would have
been beneficial, or at the very least interesting. Another limitation is that even
though I was able to collect 103 full and valid responses after screening, I still only
captured the opinions of those who live mostly in the tri-state area. It would be
much more interesting to include states and areas where PBA cards may be less
prevalent, or used in a different manner.
If I were going to continue this research, I would create a survey geared towards
Law Enforcement Officers. This would help me a capture a more primary,
widespread police response, instead of relying on one police interview along with
some great literature. I would also try my best to spread the word to all different
states and include that as a response on the survey to watch how it differs.
Eventually I would research the opinions on the topic globally.
Personally, the primary research at the scale I conducted it was not a struggle. It
went relatively smoothly and I was able to spread the word through media and by

mouth as well. Technology truly helped me get many peoples attentions on the
topic and they are even eager to see the results. I believe this study to be one not
commonly considered, which was evident in the lack of literature on it. Conducting
my own primary research helped me experience firsthand peoples feelings on the
topic, while comparing them to the small amount of previous research already out
there. I think with more research on a broader scale, Id be able to detect the
differences in this Police Courtesy and how it works within different areas or
cultures.
In the beginning I did expect more people to approve on the subject than
disapprove. This turned out to be only barely true, and not enough so that I can
claim that there is a larger support behind approval of the cards than disapproval.
The results were interesting and they were somewhat what I had expected as well
as somewhat surprising.