Assessing police attitudes toward drugs and drug enforcement

Citation

(2014), "Assessing police attitudes toward drugs and drug enforcement", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 37 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-03-2014-0023

Assessing police attitudes toward drugs and drug enforcement

Article Type: Perspectives on policing From: Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Volume 37, Issue 2

Matthew Petrocelli, Trish Oberweis, Michael R. Smith, and Joseph Petrocelli

American Journal of Criminal Justice

2014

Vol. 39

No. 1

pp. 22-40

The American War on Drugs has been a hot-button issue for the past few decades. A variety of studies have looked into associated costs, support for, and public compliance with our nation's drug laws. One perspective that has not been exhaustively explored is that of law enforcement officers. Prior research has shown that an officer's views about the law and its implementation may impact how they enforce the law. Petrocelli et al. (2014) aim to address this gap in the research and supplement our knowledge of drug law enforcement by investigating officer views toward drugs and drug crimes.

This study was conducted using a survey of police officers who had enrolled in a national drug interdiction training course by the 4:20 Group (a law enforcement consultation and training firm contracted by the DEA). Officers completed the survey at the course's conclusion and created a sample of 1,050 responses. The survey evaluated officer demographics, as well as attitudes toward illicit drugs, enforcement, and policy.

Petrocelli et al. (2014) found that more than half of the officers in the sample felt the possession laws for nearly all illicit substances (cocaine, crack, heroin, marijuana, methamphetamines, and hallucinogens) were “not strict enough.” Only steroids fell below 50 percent in this category. Interestingly, the most benign drug presented, marijuana, showed the highest percentage of officers who believed the laws were not strict enough (58.7 percent). Regarding national harm, more than 90 percent of officers believed crack, heroin, and methamphetamines were “very harmful” or “harmful.” In a noteworthy finding, results showed only 54.6 percent of officers indicated that marijuana was “very harmful” or “harmful” (again, this substance was most often labeled as having laws that were “not strict enough”).

The majority (58.7 percent) of the officers felt “targeting users and dealers” were the most effective enforcement strategy. The largest percentage of the sample (45.2 percent) indicated their choice of primary response was “incarceration.” In a distant second place, 22.8 percent indicated “drug treatment through a drug court” would be their primary response. Methamphetamines were seen as the most harmful drug (38 percent), with heroin (22.5) and crack (11.1) following. Finally, support toward decriminalization showed crack, ecstasy, methamphetamines, and hallucinogens was very weak (greater than 80 percent either “disagreed” or “strongly disagreed” with these efforts). For marijuana, 67.4 percent “disagreed” or “strongly disagreed” with decriminalization. The majority of these findings showed no differences between urban, suburban, and rural environments.

This work by Petrocelli et al. (2014) showed clear perceptions of drug use by law enforcement officers. This study illustrates that police officers often hold traditional views on drug enforcement. Officers believe these substances cause great harm to the country and the people who use them. They support more strict laws for virtually all substances and encourage aggressive enforcement. These results also demonstrate that the growing support for decriminalization in the general public is much smaller among law enforcement officers. The authors suggest these results, though, may be less generalizable and further research using a randomized sample would be necessary for multivariate analyses.

Nicholas Michael Perez

Department of Criminology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA

References

Donner, C.M. (2013), “Presidential influence on police practices: the U.S. President's indirect impact on fourth amendment case outcome through Supreme Court appointments”, American Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 422-438

Petrocelli, M., Obereweis, T., Smith, M.R. and Petrocelli, J. (2014), “Assessing police attitudes toward drugs and drug enforcement”, American Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 22-40

Tankebe, J. (2013), “Viewing things differently: the dimensions of public perceptions of police legitimacy”, Criminology, Vol. 51 No. 1, pp. 103-135

About the Reviewer

Nicholas Michael Perez is a second-year Doctoral Criminology Student at the University of South Florida. Prior to this, he received his BA in Sociology and his MS in Criminal Justice from the University of Central Florida. His current research interests include bullying/hazing violence, policing, and substance abuse and crime. Nicholas Michael Perez can be contacted at: mailto:nmperez1@mail.usf.edu