Police Research Group Guest Lecture: Dr. Jessica Huff
The Ohio Law Enforcement Retention Study
Friday, November 6, 2026 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM EST
Enterprise Hall, 318
The Police Research Group is happy to announce a guest lecture by Dr. Jessica Huff, Assistant Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. Her talk is titled: “The Ohio law enforcement retention study: Organizational practices, officer perspectives, and experimental evidence on retention incentives.”
What will her lecture be about? Officer retention has been a challenge for law enforcement agencies across the U.S. The Ohio Law Enforcement Retention Study is a multimethod evaluation designed to better understand the individual and organizational factors that influence retention. This project integrates four components: (1) a statewide survey of law enforcement agencies examining retention challenges, organizational policies, and retention programs; (2) an officer survey assessing retention intentions, organizational culture, and perceptions of workplace policies administered to 16 agencies; (3) an embedded survey experiment evaluating the effects of retention bonus conditions on officers’ willingness to extend employment; and (4) interviews with 95 officers and executives exploring retention decisions and organizational responses.
This presentation provides an overview of key study findings, with an in-depth review of the experimental assessment of retention incentives. Beyond discussing substantive results, Dr. Huff will describe the process of developing and sustaining research partnerships with law enforcement agencies, conducting applied research in operational settings, and building a research agenda that balances scholarly rigor with practical relevance.
About the Speaker: Dr. Jessica Huff’s research focuses on policing, with a particular emphasis on using experimental methods to examine the effectiveness and fairness of police policies and practices. She is an NIJ LEADS Academic who has partnered with police agencies across the U.S. to evaluate police training, violence reduction strategies, and technology. She serves on the International Association of Chiefs of Police Research Advisory Committee, and her research has been funded by the Department of Homeland Security, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
Who can attend? We encourage all CLS students, faculty, staff, and alumni to attend! Please RSVP.
Sponsored by Police Research Group, Department of Criminology, Law and Society.
