UC Santa Barbara

Law enforcement agencies face a recruitment and retention crisis with significant implications for public safety and organizational effectiveness. Traditional police culture has contributed to strained police-community relations, negative public perception, and poor officer retention. In response, agencies are attempting cultural transformation through reformed socialization practices aimed at improving public interactions, officer well-being, and retention outcomes. This crisis has coincided with broader cultural transformation within agencies, yet little research examines how Generation Z officers (Born 1996-2012), the newest cohort entering law enforcement, experience organizational socialization amid these shifts.This study examines this cultural evolution through a generational framework, investigating the Generation Z officers and their organizational socialization (OS). While High-Reliability Organizations like policing traditionally require newcomers to shed previous identities and adopt the profession’s identity through assimilation, each generation brings characteristics shaped by unique formative experiences. This research explores whether and how Generation Z’s generational attributes influence their socialization experiences and ultimately, their retention in law enforcement careers. This qualitative study draws on 37 semi-structured interviews with officers across three generational cohorts (Generation Z, Millennials, and Generation X) within a West Coast law enforcement department. Findings reveal that officers across all generations explicitly distinguish between iv what they term "Old Culture", and an emerging "New Culture". Generation Z officers are entering law enforcement within this cultural context, navigating competing expectations from senior officers who may hold divergent views on appropriate practice. Intergenerational dynamics reveal friction around mentorship, identity frameworks, and psychological contracts that influence the socialization of the newest generational cohort into the workplace, as well as how it affects retention.