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The purpose of this paper is to leverage the perspectives of School Resource Officers (SROs) to develop improvement strategies aimed toward effective and efficient school-based policing. This study offers recommendations to improve SRO programs, with the goal of streamlining the path toward safer schools.

The present study was guided by two overarching research questions that aim to leverage the perspectives of SROs. The first question aimed to identify SROs’ perceived barriers to successful school-based policing, while the second question explores their perspectives in hopes of developing solutions for improved school safety. This study used secondary qualitative data to explore the perspectives of SROs (n=456) via an opened-ended section of a statewide survey of SROs conducted by the North Carolina Center for Safer Schools. Conventional content analysis was the approach used to explore the data.

SROs identified the need for improved quality of and access to training, additional resources allocations and improved program implementation on the part of both policing agencies and school districts.

The authors recommend standardizing the manner in which SRO programs are implemented. In addition, partnerships should be developed between school districts and policing agencies to use school-based behavioral specialists to support SRO programs. Finally, the authors recommend further study of school-based policing as a concept in the academic community.

Little is known about the experiences and needs of SROs themselves. The present studies address this gap in the literature, leveraging their perspectives to streamline a path toward safer schools.

In light of a growing trend towards mobile information management and a UK governmental drive for police forces to implement mobile technologies and realise significant benefits, it is important to examine the factors affecting officer acceptance. There appears to be little understanding of the key factors, yet this is critical to the success of the initiative. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main factors that influence the usage of mobile technologies amongst police officers.

A qualitative, partially ethnographic design was followed to allow an in‐depth exploration of this issue. The study was based on a mixed‐methods longitudinal evaluation study of the implementation of mobile technologies within a UK police force over a nine‐month period. The technology acceptance model (TAM) and the subsequent TAM2 and TAM3, were then reengineered to provide a suitable theoretical model for a mobile policing context.

In total, four main categories of officer acceptance factors were identified: officer performance, security/reliability, management style and cognitive acceptance. Evidence from the study showed a key shortfall in all three versions of the TAM in that they focus on the user perspective and did not confirm the broader organisational factors within the implementation and social contexts of mobile policing.

Consequently, an adapted mobile‐TAM (m‐TAM) was produced that incorporated these factors into the existing TAM elements. The high‐level nature of the adapted model for mobile policing means it could be applied by other police forces and potentially other organisations, regardless of the type of mobile device implemented, to address the barriers to acceptance. The m‐TAM addresses the need for a more relevant and robust model to the mobile policing paradigm, which goes beyond the static technology environment in which the TAM2 and TAM3 were built.

The purpose of this paper is to examine crowd violence in relation to the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot from the perspective of those police officers who were involved in the event, and identify any lessons that can be learned from this incident.

A total of 460 Vancouver police officers participated in this study. Police perceptions of the riot were elicited via mailed questionnaires, which focused on key themes related to crowd disorder and police response, including preparations, deployment, training, safety, causes, and future prevention. Questionnaire responses were analyzed using descriptive approaches and one-sample t-tests.

The study findings revealed that, in general, police felt ill-prepared prior to the riot, and ill- and unsafe during the riot. Their responses also suggested that their negative perceptions of the riot were the result of a few prominent factors, namely inadequate deployment, a lack of operational planning, and the presence of a large and belligerent crowd.

This study represents an important first step in understanding the issues associated with preventing and containing disorderly crowds from the perspective of police officers. Although valuable, this study does have a few limitations, including post hoc data collection.

This study provides important insights into the causes of riots and the particular difficulties officers face during the course of a riot. These insights may be used by departments to assist with planning and preparations related to preventing riots and effectively limiting crowd disorder.

This is the first study to examine police perceptions in a Canadian context. It utilizes a comparatively large sample, and is among the very few studies that includes the views of officers who have actually experienced a riot.

The work of scholars who study police deviance has yet to result in the development of a substantive theory with which to frame their collective efforts. Recently, Tittle advanced a general theory of deviance that may help to fill this gap. The central premise of Tittle’s control balance theory is that the amount of control to which one is subject relative to the amount of control one can exercise (the control ratio) affects both the probability of deviance as well as the specific form of deviance. Examines the utility of control balance as a new theoretical orientation in police deviance research. Presents a framework for conceptualizing control balance within the special context of police deviance and, using data collected specifically for the purpose of operationalizing the control ratio, provides an empirical test. The data are drawn from a survey administered to 499 Philadelphia police officers. Scenario methodology was used to investigate the effects of officer control ratios on the probability of reporting a fellow officer who covers up an incident in which another officer was discovered driving while intoxicated (off duty), and second physically abuses a suspect in custody. Consistent with predictions derived from Tittle’s theory, results indicated that officers with control deficits are more likely to report fellow officers who engage in the behaviors portrayed in the scenarios. Future research directions are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a state-of-the-art review on the topic of police stressors and associated health outcomes. Recent empirical research is reviewed in the areas of workplace stress, shift work, traumatic stress, and health. The authors provide a comprehensive table outlining occupational exposures and related health effects in police officers.

A review of recent empirical research on police stress and untoward psychological and physiological health outcomes in police officers.

The results offer a conceptual idea of the empirical associations between stressful workplace exposures and their impact on the mental and physical well-being of officers.

A key limitation observed in prior research is the cross-sectional study design; however, this serves as a motivator for researchers to explore these associations utilizing a longitudinal study design that will help determine causality.

This review provides empirical evidence of both mental and physical outcomes associated with police stress and the processes involved in both. Research findings presented in this paper are based on sound psychological and medical evidence among police officers

Many researchers have investigated the determinants of workers’ risk-taking/unsafe behaviours as a way to improve safety management and reduce accidents but there has been a general lack of research about workers’ risk information seeking behaviours or their source preferences for risk information. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether occupational risk information source preference was risk independent (i.e. whether workers prefer to receive occupational risk information from proximal sources like supervisors and workmates regardless of the nature of the risk or the source's expertise regarding that risk, or if they discriminated between information sources based on the type of risk being considered).

Data were collected from 106 frontline construction workers who were recruited from a single building site within the UK with the help of the safety officer on site. The source from which workers preferred to receive information about a range of risks was measured using a ranking exercise. Specifically, workers were asked to rank five occupational sources (HSE, safety manager, project manager, supervisor, workmates) according to how much they preferred each one to deliver information about eight different risks (asbestos, back pain, site transport, heights, slips/trips, housekeeping, and site-specific and job-specific risks).

The paper found that supervisors and safety managers were the most preferred sources of risk information overall, but a correspondence analysis suggested that workers’ risk information source preference is risk dependent and might be driven by source expertise.

The findings have important practical implications for the role of safety managers in risk communication and for building trust within high-hazard organisations.

To the author's knowledge, this is the first study to investigate risk information source preferences in an occupational setting.

Fatigue associated with shift work is a well-established and pervasive problem in policing that affects officer performance, safety, and health. It is critical to understand the extent to which fatigue degrades officer driving performance. Drowsy driving among post-shift workers is a well-established risk factor yet no data are available about officer injuries and deaths due to drowsy driving. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of fatigue associated with work shift and prior sleep on officers’ non-operational driving using laboratory experiments to assess post-shift drowsy driving risks and the ability of a well-validated vigilance and reaction-time task to assess these risks.

Experienced police patrol officer volunteers (n=78) from all four shifts of a medium-sized city’s police department were tested using a within- and between-subjects design to assess the impact of fatigue on individual officers, as well as the impact of different work shifts, on post-shift driving performance. Controlled laboratory experiments were conducted during which participants drove high-fidelity driving training simulators on two occasions: immediately following five consecutive 10:40-hour patrol shifts (fatigued condition) and again 72 hours after completing the last shift in a work cycle (rested condition).

Generalized linear mixed-model analyses of driving performance showed that officers working night shifts had significantly greater lane deviation during post-shift, non-operational driving than those working day shifts (F=4.40, df=1, 150, p=0.038). The same method also showed that easy to measure psychomotor vigilance test scores for reaction time predicted both lane deviation (F=31.48, df=1, 151, p < 0.001) and collisions (F=14.10, df=1, 151, p < 0.001) during the simulated drives.

Simulated driving tasks done by participants were generally less challenging than patrol or off-duty driving and likely underestimate the impact of fatigue on police driving post-shift or during extended shifts.

This is the first experimental research to assess the impact of shiftwork, fatigue, and extended shifts on police post-shift drowsy driving, a known risk factor for shift workers in general.

These are information briefs which will assist training officers, safety officers and managers with equivalent responsibilities to • identify the information needs of managers, supervisors and employees, • make training more cost effective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of school safety measures, including SROs and safety personnel, on school-related delinquency and perceived safety.

Specifically, a comprehensive search of the literature was performed to identify studies published between January 1, 1998 and July 1, 2016 that focussed on structural school safety measures such as metal detectors, cameras, closed circuit television systems, and access control measures and/or school resource officers in primary and secondary schools. Only studies that relied on randomized controlled trials and pre-test/post-test designs evaluating the impact of at least one school safety measure in reference to a control condition were eligible for inclusion.

The results of this exhaustive search revealed 32 unique study samples that met the inclusion criteria. Results from the studies suggest that implementation of more security measures may not be an effective policy. More safety measures often result in a decline of student-perceived safety. Study limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.

Results from this meta-review can provide educational administrators, superintendents, and school safety policymakers with a synthesis of only the most rigorous and valid studies that evaluate the impact of school safety measures on both actual and perceived school-related delinquency and safety. This information will provide school safety decision makers with a state-of-the-art synthesis of how school safety measures impact school-related delinquency problems and safety, and which measures appear to be most effective for informing the allocation of scarce resources.

This chapter explores how homeland security agencies can use unmanned aircraft, or drones, as tools to help them perform their public safety missions while earning the support and trust of the communities they serve for the use of this controversial technology. This chapter discusses the applications for drones in public safety and homeland security while also identifying limitations and challenges to their use in government operations. This chapter presents the current state of the law surrounding drone use by government agencies, particularly the police, along with published recommendations on drone implementation and trust-building practices. The author presents the drone-specific recommendations of groups like the International Association of Chiefs of Police, American Civil Liberties Union, and Community Oriented Policing Office of the United States Department of Justice. The author also provides a recommended process to follow for law enforcement and homeland security leaders looking to implement drone programs using evidence-based practices to earn the trust of their citizens.