Utilizing the approach-avoidance perspective to understand turnover rationales of former police officers in Trinidad and Tobago

The police profession is almost two hundred years old and resignations are a common feature of policing, however, little is known about officers’ rationales for resigning from policing. Instructively, the little that is known emanates from research conducted in the Global North and this facilitates a knowledge gap in the Global South. As a result, this study was conducted to close that gap. Using thirty-five former police officers from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), (only males who had resigned), reviewed literature, semi-structured interviews, and the principles of consensual qualitative research, the approach-avoidance perspective was used to evaluate resignations from the TTPS. The findings revealed three themes and that the approach perspective was the most frequent rationale for resigning from policing, but that a combination of approach-avoidance also influenced police officers’ resignation. This study makes a practical contribution to workforce management by police leadership in the Global South.