The current study extends research on community policing beyond Western contexts in the course of developing a conceptual model of police officers' attitudes toward community policing in South Korea. The community policing concept was introduced to the Korean policing practices in 1999 when they attempted to change its image from one that has been characterized as brutal and violent to that of service orientation and legitimacy. During the 20th century, the Korean police served the Japanese government and the military regimes. At the end of the 20th century, the Korean police introduced the Grand Reform to bring about a shift from a colonial style of policing to a more democratic form of policing which focuses on accountability to citizens and a service orientation of the police. Community policing was one of the main policies of the Grand Reform in 1999. However, there is relatively little research on community policing in South Korea. In particular, factors relating to officers' attitudes toward community policing is unexplored empirically in South Korea. Moreover, this study collected the data across the country unlike prior research whose data mainly came from the specific area or training facilities. With regard to the theoretical framework, the job characteristics model and expectancy motivation theory were employed to explore factors that influence officers' attitudes toward community policing. This study hypothesized that job characteristics and job satisfaction are main factors that affect officers' attitudes toward community policing. To address the research questions, this study surveyed 421 officers in 16 police departments in Korea. The questionnaire is based on the job characteristics model, expectancy motivation theory and previous studies. Several statistical methods from a bivariate analysis to a series of structural equation modeling (SEM) (i.e., confirmatory factor analysis and structural regression model) were employed to analyze the data. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to measure several dimensions of job characteristics and job satisfaction as well as officers' attitudes toward community policing. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that job characteristics, job satisfaction, and officers' attitudes toward community policing suggest measures with the construct validity. In addition to the confirmatory factor analysis, the structural regression model was employed to determine the causal relationships between exogenous variables and endogenous variables. The results from the structural regression model revealed that several dimensions of job characteristics such as supervision, social network at work, and public support affect officers' attitudes toward community policing. Satisfaction with work influences officers' attitude toward community policing. Interestingly, male and non-patrol officers have more positive attitudes toward community policing than female and patrol officers. Policy implications for the successful implementation of community policing are suggested. The limitations of this study and suggested future research directions are also discussed.
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