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1 – 10 of over 3000Robert J. Kaminski and David W.M. Sorensen
Uses data on 1,550 nonlethal assaults recorded by Baltimore County Police Department. Examines factors that are associated with the likelihood of officer injury after an assault…
Abstract
Uses data on 1,550 nonlethal assaults recorded by Baltimore County Police Department. Examines factors that are associated with the likelihood of officer injury after an assault. Notes that factors affecting the probability of assault do not necessarily correspond with the factors that affect the likelihood of injury. Analyzes a broader spectrum of contributory factors than those addressed by other research. Finds inter alia that greater officer proficiency in unarmed defensive tactics may reduce their assault‐related injuries, since most incidents do not involve arms; that in‐service training should be biased toward less experienced officers who are at greater risk; that officer height is a significant variable; that many officers suffer multiple attacks; that domestic disturbances do not rank higher than other dangers, but that this may reflect the possibility that officers anticipate potential violence and take better precautions before attending the scene.
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Michael R. Smith, Robert J. Kaminski, Jeffrey Rojek, Geoffrey P. Alpert and Jason Mathis
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of police use of conducted energy devices (CEDs) on officer and suspect injuries while controlling for other types of force and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of police use of conducted energy devices (CEDs) on officer and suspect injuries while controlling for other types of force and resistance and other factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on 1,645 use‐of‐force incidents occurring between January 1, 2002 and July 2006 were obtained from two different law enforcement agencies. Logistic and generalized ordered logistic regressions are used to model the odds of injury and severity of injury.
Findings
The use of CEDs was associated with reduced odds of officer and suspect injury and the severity of suspect injury in one agency. In the other agency CED use was unrelated to the odds of injury; however, the use of pepper spray was associated with reduced odds of suspect injury. Among other findings, in both agencies the use of hands‐on tactics by police was associated with increased odds of officer and suspect injury, while the use of canines was associated with increased odds of suspect injury.
Research limitations/implications
Although this research was carried out in two distinctly different law enforcement agencies with different histories of CED adoption, the fact that CED use was associated with reductions in injuries in one agency but not the other indicates the need for additional research on the impact of CED use in other settings
Practical implications
The analysis suggests that relative to other forms of force, the use of CEDs and pepper spray can reduce the risk of injury to both suspects and law enforcement officers. This information should prove useful to law enforcement agencies considering adopting CEDs and suggests that agencies should consider the use of these less lethal alternatives in place of hands‐on tactics against actively resistant suspects.
Originality/value
At the time of this writing there was no published independent research on the risks of injury associated with CED use in field settings. The findings reported herein will help inform the public debate on the utility of CEDs for law enforcement.
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Vehicle crashes and being struck by vehicles are the leading causes of death among police. The purpose of this paper is to identify risk factors for injury in police officer…
Abstract
Purpose
Vehicle crashes and being struck by vehicles are the leading causes of death among police. The purpose of this paper is to identify risk factors for injury in police officer vehicle crashes in order to help determine the most effective approaches to improve officer vehicle safety.
Design/methodology/approach
The study entailed a cross-sectional survey of officer drivers involved in vehicle crashes from 16 local, county, and state law enforcement agencies across the USA over one year. The relative risk of injury for officers in crashes with a given characteristic relative comparison crashes without that characteristic was computed to determine which characteristics are more likely to be associated with injuries.
Findings
The survey yielded 854 crashes, 90 of which involved injuries to the officer driver. Crash characteristics associated with a statistically significant increase in the risk of injury include multiple vehicle collisions, collision direction, officer vehicle type, officer vehicle being stopped, driving under emergency conditions, conducting traffic control or assisting motorists, not wearing a seat belt, and others. Most findings hold for all crashes and when minor crashes are excluded from the analysis.
Originality/value
This study presents the first quantitative estimates of the risk factors for injury to law enforcement officers in vehicle crashes. Our findings indicate that seat belt use remains a critical safety intervention; driving under emergency conditions is high risk, though the reasons for this are unclear; better practices are needed to protect officers in stationary vehicles; agencies should carefully weigh the benefit of motorcycles against the vastly increased risk of injury they present; and that mobile data terminals are both a major distraction hazard and important source of injuries in crashes.
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Scott E. Wolfe, Jeff Rojek, Geoff Alpert, Hope M. Tiesman and Stephen M. James
The purpose of this paper is to examine the situational and individual officer characteristics of officer-involved vehicle collisions that result in fatality, injury, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the situational and individual officer characteristics of officer-involved vehicle collisions that result in fatality, injury, and non-injury outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on 35,840 vehicle collisions involving law enforcement officers in California occurring between January 2000 and December 2009 are examined. A descriptive analysis of collision characteristics is presented.
Findings
There were 39 officers killed by collisions over this study period and 7,684 officers who received some type injury. Incidents involving officers on motorcycles represented 39 percent of officer fatalities and 39 percent of severe injuries. In the case of fatalities, 33 percent of officers were reported as wearing seatbelts, 38 percent were not wearing a seatbelt, and seatbelt use was not stated in 29 percent of car fatalities.
Research limitations/implications
The findings only represent one state and the analysis is based on an estimated 86 percent of collisions that occurred during the study period due to missing data. Nonetheless, the results are based on a robust sample and address key limitations in the existing literature.
Practical implications
During the study period in California the estimated financial impact of collisions reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars when considering related fatality, injury, and vehicle damage costs combined. These impacts highlight the need for the law enforcement community to give greater attention to this issue.
Originality/value
At the time of this writing there was no published independent research that compares the situational and officer characteristics across fatality, injury, and non-injury outcomes in these events. The findings reported here will help inform emerging interest in this issue within the law enforcement, academic, and policy-making communities.
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Bruce Taylor, Geoffrey Alpert, Bruce Kubu, Daniel Woods and Roger G. Dunham
Few studies track non‐lethal weapon use by law enforcement agencies (LEAs), the number/level of force used by these agencies, complaints for excessive force, and injuries to…
Abstract
Purpose
Few studies track non‐lethal weapon use by law enforcement agencies (LEAs), the number/level of force used by these agencies, complaints for excessive force, and injuries to officers and suspects, both over time (especially recently) and with a national probability‐based sample. This study aims to address these gaps by developing longitudinal estimates to examine these use‐of‐force issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Two surveys of LEAs were conducted (n=518 and n=357 LEAs), covering 2003 to 2008, and statistical weights were used to align the data to be representative of all state and local LEAs in the USA, including adjustments for survey non‐response.
Findings
Conducted energy devices (CED) deployment has risen significantly (to about 70 percent of LEAs). However, standard baton use is down to 25 percent in 2008 and when available to the officer, batons are more likely to be left in their vehicles compared to CEDs. Baton use and empty‐hand tactics are becoming less commonly used by officers, but CED use was ranked among the most used tactics from 2005 to 2008. Excessive force complaints against LEAs, internally generated, have more than doubled from 2003 to 2008. Officer injuries varied little from 2003 to 2008, but they are still only about half as common as suspect injuries. Also, only 20 percent of LEAs collect injury data in a database, complicating future research.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies to track, nationally, the types of non‐lethal weapons in use by LEAs, and force level used, providing aid to LEA executives and policymakers who need to follow new trends in non‐lethal weapons.
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Yu‐Sheng Lin and Tonisha R. Jones
This paper seeks to address a deficit in the criminal justice literature by examining patterns of electronic control device (ECD) use and effectiveness as reflected in 1,188…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to address a deficit in the criminal justice literature by examining patterns of electronic control device (ECD) use and effectiveness as reflected in 1,188 official police use‐of‐force report records collected over a three‐year period (2005‐2007) by the Washington State Patrol (WSP).
Design/methodology/approach
Chi‐square, t‐test, ANOVA and logistic regression analysis were employed to analyze the data with respect to patterns of use and outcomes for officers and arrestees.
Findings
The findings observed indicate that the ECD tended to replace several other types of force used to gain compliance, tended to resolve incidents involving the use of force with fewer forms of force being used, and decreased officer injury rates. The ECD was rated as generally effective by officers, but not as effective as other methods of gaining compliance in life‐threatening situations. Results concerning suspect injury rates were somewhat mixed.
Research limitations/implications
Relying on the official self‐report from a single agency limits the ability to generalize to other law enforcement agencies.
Practical implications
The paper indicates the importance of providing for the systematic collection of data on police use of force involving the threat of use and deployment of the ECD.
Originality/value
A number of questions concerning ECD's appropriate use, effectiveness, and potential for harm have remained largely unanswered. The paper addresses this deficit in the criminal justice literature.
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Kelle Barrick, Kevin J. Strom and Nicholas Richardson
Violence against the police represents an ongoing and serious problem in the USA. In 2014, over 48,000 law enforcement officers assaulted while on duty. Although over one in four…
Abstract
Purpose
Violence against the police represents an ongoing and serious problem in the USA. In 2014, over 48,000 law enforcement officers assaulted while on duty. Although over one in four of these resulted in injury, little is known about the conditions under which injury is likely to occur. The purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of the individual and situational factors that predict injurious assaults against law enforcement.
Design/methodology/approach
Using logistic regression, the current study analyzes data from the 2012 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) on all assaults against the police (n=8,987) in order to understand, within a routine activities theoretical framework, how individual-level characteristics (i.e. officer and offender characteristics) and situational influences (i.e. assignment type, activity type, and location) predict the likelihood that an assault will result in injury.
Findings
Overall, findings suggest support for a routine activities theory of violence against the police. Initiating an arrest, one-officer vehicle type, and incidents occurring on highways/roads were all more likely to result in injurious assaults against the police. Other predictors of injury include officer and offender demographics as well as the time the incident took place.
Research limitations/implications
This research was unable to control for some factors that may influence the likelihood of injury such as wearing body armor. Additionally, NIBRS data are not nationally representative, which limits the generalizability of the findings.
Originality/value
This is one of the first papers to use national data to examine the individual and situational factors that predict injurious assaults against law enforcement.
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Helen M. Eigenberg, Kathryn E. Scarborough and Victor E. Kappeler
Provides empirical evidence for the first time to suggest that police officers are less apt to arrest in domestic violence cases when directly comparing officers’ responses in…
Abstract
Provides empirical evidence for the first time to suggest that police officers are less apt to arrest in domestic violence cases when directly comparing officers’ responses in domestic and non‐domestic assaults. Uses a sample of 92,000 police reports in a small midwestern police department of the USA. Supports the premise of disparate treatment for domestic assaults. Finds that injuries were equally likely in domestic and non‐domestic assaults; that the impact of weapons is limited. Calls for further research to clarify these issues, e.g., to re‐examine officers’definitions of injuries and weapons. Supports findings that officers are more apt to arrest when a victim requests this.
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Thomas M. Rice, Lara Troszak and Bryon G. Gustafson
Concerns about the risk of traffic collision injury to both police officers and bystanders are increasing as the use of in-vehicle technologies becoming widespread among agencies…
Abstract
Purpose
Concerns about the risk of traffic collision injury to both police officers and bystanders are increasing as the use of in-vehicle technologies becoming widespread among agencies. This study used national and California data to characterize traffic collisions in which a police vehicle was involved. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a California traffic collision database to retrospectively identify collisions that involved police vehicles for years 2007-2010. The authors summarized collision characteristics with descriptive methods and used log-binomial regression to estimate associations between personal and collision characteristics with officer culpability.
Findings
The authors identified 5,233 traffic collisions in California. In total, 10 percent of law enforcement vehicles were motorcycles. In all, 9 percent of cruisers struck a pedestrian or bicyclist, compared with only 2 percent of motorcycles. Compared with officers aged 50 or older, officers in younger age categories were progressively much more likely to have been culpable. Motorcycle officers were 33 percent less likely to be culpable for their collision involvements. Approximately 100 fatal collisions involving a law enforcement vehicle occur each year in the USA.
Originality/value
The findings from this study indicate that approximately 1,300 injury-producing traffic collisions occur each year in California that involve a law enforcement vehicle. The authors found that younger age, female sex, cruiser operation, traveling unbelted, and single-vehicle collision involvement were positively associated with officer culpability. Officer race and community population were not significantly associated with culpability. The occurrence of fatal collisions in the USA was stable over a 12-year period.
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Richard C. Lumb and Paul C. Friday
Use of “less than lethal weapons” by police has generated extreme review and controversy in some highly publicized cases. Confronting hostility and aggressiveness, police officers…
Abstract
Use of “less than lethal weapons” by police has generated extreme review and controversy in some highly publicized cases. Confronting hostility and aggressiveness, police officers cannot turn away and flee from a dangerous situation, forcing them to select the best available option for controlling the individual. Among the officers’ choice of responses, oleoresin capsicum (OC) pepper spray has proven to be extremely effective. However, this is not a risk‐free weapon, and due to a number of suspect deaths following its use, it has become controversial. Investigates if OC spray reduced the frequency and level of use of force, and if its availability affected the number of suspect and officer injuries.
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