Investigating Law Enforcement Retirement Resilience Through Narrative Inquiry: A Social Constructivism Analysis of an Activist Artwork Anthology

The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the transition from a traumatic career in law enforcement to resilient retirement. The investigation examines an African American Chicago police officer who served as a detective, bomb squad respondent, and hostage negotiator. Data collection and analysis are conducted according to Connelly and Clandinin narrative inquiry procedures (1990). Investigation was made regarding the familial, educational, professional, and personal experiences of Doctor Detective Melvin Hargrett. Data collection completed through guided interview transcripts was supported by photographs of his social justice artwork. The subject’s trauma processing is evidenced in his activist artwork themes since retirement. The theoretical frameworks of Social Constructivism and Ways of Coping Theory analyze the artwork anthology, exploring themes that highlight his lived experiences and his resultant social justice insight. Considerations of influence from race on trauma and resilience are explored. A chronological development of the subject’s worldview informs his paradigms of personal and professional life experiences. Multiple traumas as a Black American male in law enforcement are evidenced by artwork themes. The subject offers family engagement with the historically significant figures Rosa Park, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Mark Clark and Frederick Allen Hampton, Sr. The unique influence from personal relationships between these social activists and the Hargrett family were apparent upon analyzing the subject’s narrative inquiry interviews and artwork anthology themes. This qualitative research informs effective identification of law enforcement primary and secondary trauma. In doing so, it directs the development of personally and socially beneficial resilience in retirement following traumatic law enforcement lived experiences.