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1 – 10 of over 3000This study aims to examine minority representation amid the largest police departments in the USA that employ at least 500 sworn officers to determine whether the passage of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine minority representation amid the largest police departments in the USA that employ at least 500 sworn officers to determine whether the passage of Executive Order 13684 (2014)—a comprehensive criminal justice reform initiative to identify policing best practices and offer recommendations on how those practices can promote effective crime reduction while (re)building public trust—had any policy impact for increasing racial diversity in policing.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey responses on race and ethnicity are collected from 83 police departments across three cross-sectional points in time (2007–2013 and 2013–2016) to examine changes in racial diversity.
Findings
The findings suggest that nearly 20% of the police departments in this study had increases in racial diversity that could be attributed to Executive Order 13684 (2014).
Research limitations/implications
Insufficient time may have lapsed between the passage of Executive Order 13684 (2014) and the last survey collection period to generate meaningful change.
Practical implications
This study responds to the call by the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2015) to highlight those successful police departments, as well as those less successful police departments, for improving diversity in the police force.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, the findings from this study provide one of the first attempts to examine how federal recommendations impact local policing practices.
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Examining the historical evolution of public protest and the police response, primarily in the United States since the 1960s informs strategies and tactics on more recent…
Abstract
Examining the historical evolution of public protest and the police response, primarily in the United States since the 1960s informs strategies and tactics on more recent responses to protest. Case study examination and analysis can aid police and civic leaders in crafting a cohesive strategy to address civil unrest within their jurisdictions. Specifically examining case studies involving the Occupy Movement of 2011 and the resultant civil unrest following the death of Freddie Gray in the City of Baltimore will aid in understanding potential benefits of a more integrated response to civil unrest that would include emergency management as a contributory to the possible solution.
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Drawing on over two decades of studying and researching police recruitment, selection, and training, a correlation of the three prongs to professional policing in a democratic…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on over two decades of studying and researching police recruitment, selection, and training, a correlation of the three prongs to professional policing in a democratic society is established.
Methodology/approach
The author overviews the current approaches to professional policing through an analysis of a statement made by a legendary chief of police August Vollmer, who is credited with the inception of the era of “professional policing.”
Findings
The transition from a young adult and inexperienced adult into a life-and-death decision maker needs to take into consideration a host of characteristics identified by Vollmer. These characteristics cannot be found nor honed within the current recruitment, selection, and training practices of American police departments.
Originality/value
This chapter provides an analysis of the required skills and characteristics necessary to hone and develop a professional police officer in a democratic society.
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Marin C. Beagley, Zoë D. Peterson, David R. Strasshofer and Tara E. Galovski
Women comprise a significant and growing proportion of the law enforcement population. Despite this, their potentially unique reactions to job-related posttraumatic stress…
Abstract
Purpose
Women comprise a significant and growing proportion of the law enforcement population. Despite this, their potentially unique reactions to job-related posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and depression have been underrepresented in the relevant literature, particularly within the context of exposure to community violence. Also understudied is the role of empathy in the development of post-trauma reactions, which has been a risk factor for the development of posttraumatic distress in previous studies. With the recent endorsement of empathy training by the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, it is important to examine ways in which empathy may contribute to differences in PTSS and depression for male and female officers. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Male and female police officers (n=189) exposed to violence during the 2014 Ferguson protests completed a battery of measures designed to assess demographic information, prior trauma history, and mental health outcomes.
Findings
Moderation analyses showed that empathy moderated the relationships between exposure and PTSS and exposure and depression in female officers, such that exposure was associated with higher posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms only for female officers with high levels of empathy. These relationships were not found for men.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine sex differences and the role of empathy in the mental health effects of law enforcement secondary to violence during community protests against policing.
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The study explores the use of video to document police interaction with citizens and its role in the renaissance of a contemporary crisis focused on police use-of-force, race…
Abstract
Purpose
The study explores the use of video to document police interaction with citizens and its role in the renaissance of a contemporary crisis focused on police use-of-force, race relations, and legitimacy in the United States. The saturation of communication technologies and network access have ushered an era of citizens watching the police, consolidating the new visibility of policing and potentially reorganizing to some degree the power dynamics of traditional police/community relations.
Methodology/approach
The argument is supported through a triangulated analysis that draws on several data sources about video technology use by both citizens and police, media coverage of police shootings, and public opinion on trends in police excessive force.
Findings
The institution of policing is experiencing a legitimacy crisis that is fueled by high-profile police shootings of African Americans by white police officers captured by video technology. The public increasingly expects access to video of police/citizen encounters, which redefines the public’s role in police accountability matters as well as the consequences for police legitimacy.
Originality/value
The theory illuminates the ways in which video has become central to public and official discourse in police use-of-force cases and the problems its presence and absence presents in police/community relations. The ability of citizens to record and widely share video of police encounters is a new development in the ability of citizens and police reform advocates to frame the discourse on police/community relations, accountability, and legitimacy.
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John Shjarback, Scott Decker, Jeff J. Rojek and Rod K. Brunson
Increasing minority representation in law enforcement has long been viewed as a primary means to improve police-citizen relations. The recommendation to diversify police…
Abstract
Purpose
Increasing minority representation in law enforcement has long been viewed as a primary means to improve police-citizen relations. The recommendation to diversify police departments was endorsed by the Kerner Commission and, most recently, the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. While these recommendations make intuitive sense, little scholarly attention has examined whether greater levels of minority representation translate into positive police-community relations. The purpose of this paper is to use the representative bureaucracy and minority threat frameworks to assess the impact of the racial/ethnic composition of both police departments and municipalities on disparities in traffic stops.
Design/methodology/approach
A series of ordinary least squares regression analyses are tested using a sample of more than 150 local police agencies from Illinois and Missouri.
Findings
Higher levels of departmental representativeness are not associated with fewer racial/ethnic disparities in stops. Instead, the racial/ethnic composition of municipalities is more predictive of racial patterns of traffic stops.
Originality/value
This study provides one of the few investigations of representative bureaucracy in law enforcement using individual departments as the unit of analysis. It examines Hispanic as well as black disparities in traffic stops, employing a more representative sample of different size agencies.
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Chad Posick and Heather Hatfield
Police-community relations are currently at a cross-road. Incidents over the past several years have severely damaged trust and faith in the police – particularly in minority…
Abstract
Purpose
Police-community relations are currently at a cross-road. Incidents over the past several years have severely damaged trust and faith in the police – particularly in minority communities. Society is faced with the choice of accepting an “us-vs-them” mentality with police on one side and citizens on the other or banding together to advance police-community coproduction in reducing violence. The purpose of this paper is to advance the latter by introducing a model for police to follow in police-citizen interactions in an effort to increase perceptions of fairness and legitimacy of police officers and police departments.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from the National Police Research Platform’s Police-Community Interaction Survey, correlates of perceptions of fairness in police-community encounters as well as variation in agency-level fairness across 53 jurisdictions are examined.
Findings
Results show that application of the H.E.A.R.T. medical model is the most significant and substantial correlate of perceived fairness of police-community interactions and accounts for agency-level differences in perceived fairness.
Originality/value
The results highlight important ways that police can improve their image in the community and with minority communities in particular.
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Tammy Rinehart Kochel and Wesley G. Skogan
This paper examines the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing's recommendation that police promote trust and legitimacy by creating a culture of transparency and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing's recommendation that police promote trust and legitimacy by creating a culture of transparency and accountability.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a panel survey of 841 Chicago residents that was interrupted between the waves by a momentous local policing event that proved to be known to virtually every participant. The reinterview period encompassed this event, its political repercussions and subsequent efforts to hold Chicago Police accountable and increase transparency. The authors examine whether these events and reform efforts improved African Americans' assessments of police legitimacy and trust relative to other respondents.
Findings
Trust in Chicago Police improved by 21%, and trust in neighborhood police increased 30% among Black residents. In contrast, views of Whites became more negative, declining by 62% in their assessments about Chicago Police and by 39% regarding neighborhood police.
Originality/value
Events occurring between the waves of a panel survey created an opportunity to examine the impact of events on residents of a large and diverse city. The authors discuss why reforms promoting transparency and police accountability can alter levels of trust in the police but in different and politically consequential ways.
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Jack R. Greene, Christian Mouhanna, Sema A. Taheri and David Squier Jones
Throughout the world the police have undergone considerable criticism for a lack of transparency and accountability. Many police agencies across the world have been grappling with…
Abstract
Purpose
Throughout the world the police have undergone considerable criticism for a lack of transparency and accountability. Many police agencies across the world have been grappling with how to improve transparency and accountability, as well as public acceptance of the police, most especially in minority and immigrant communities, which are the places where aggressive police tactics are often most visible.
Methodology/approach
This chapter considers policing in Boston, United States, and Bordeaux, France, framed by a three-part medical intervention model. The central thesis here is that in their quest to shed their other social support roles or in undercounting and undervaluing such efforts the police lose an opportunity to reframe the police legitimacy discussion. While issues of police legitimacy have been predominantly framed as fair treatment at the point of being stopped, admonished, arrested, or detained, much of what the police do to actually support communities is not much accounted for in the present legitimacy discourse.
Findings
Our preliminary findings suggest that public contact with the police goes well beyond issues of crime. Individuals and communities use the police for preventing harm, responding to a wide array of needs and for mitigating harm and fear, all of which help frame public opinion toward the police and hence shape the level of legitimacy accorded the police.
Originality/value
Analysis of police data from Boston and impressions from a developing effort in Bordeaux consider how the police are organized and what they do in these very different cultures, thereby broadening the conception and measurement of police efforts that support or detract from legitimacy.
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