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1 – 10 of 68Much empirical work has examined body-worn cameras (BWCs), and there is a growing interest in early intervention systems (EISs) in policing. Whether the effects of these…
Abstract
Purpose
Much empirical work has examined body-worn cameras (BWCs), and there is a growing interest in early intervention systems (EISs) in policing. Whether the effects of these accountability mechanisms are stable by officer gender and race remains unknown – important assumptions of each program despite differences in misconduct levels and policing practices by subgroups of officers (i.e. male vs female officers, White vs Black and Hispanic officers).
Design/methodology/approach
The current study uses data from a large Southwestern police department to examine the influence of BWCs and an EIS on alleged and sustained patrol officer misconduct between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2020.
Findings
In line with expectations and the intended goal of these programs, the effects of BWCs and the EIS on officer misconduct were stable by officer gender and race.
Originality/value
Given the importance of addressing officer misconduct to build and maintain community trust and the rapid expansion of BWCs and EISs across the United States, it is vital that police departments consider the accountability programs they implement and the equity of these programs. The current study provides insight into this process in one agency and offers policy implications and directions for future research.
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Rogers Rugeiyamu and Ajali Mustafa Nguyahambi
The world is experiencing democratic backsliding such that the situation is down back to 1986. This has resulted in the global shrinking of civic space for civil society…
Abstract
Purpose
The world is experiencing democratic backsliding such that the situation is down back to 1986. This has resulted in the global shrinking of civic space for civil society organizations (CSOs). NGOs engaging in advocacy activities are seen to be among the CSOs affected. Using four NGOs cases from Tanzania, the study contributes to the civic space debate by uncovering how advocacy NGOs become resilient.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is anchored in interpretivism and a cross-sectional case study design, following a qualitative approach path. Data were collected through interviews and a documentary review.
Findings
Results show that several strategies such as complying, building community back-up, collaboration, strategic litigation, using digital media and changing the scope are applied. However, strategies face obstacles including scope limitations, expected democratic roles, high cost, changes in the scope and being outsmarted by the government, and hence their effectiveness is questionable.
Research limitations/implications
This study focused on advocacy NGOs. More studies can be conducted for other advocacy-related CSOs on how they become resilient.
Practical implications
While NGOs are allowed to exist in the country, their freedom continue to be curtailed. Even the effectiveness of resiliency becomes temporary and depends on the political will of the existing regime.
Originality/value
Tanzania NGOs have to build strong bonds with citizens, expand the scope of strategies and use deliberative democratic principles to educate the government to change laws and tolerate plural political culture. Also, NGOs in other countries with confined civic space can apply the same.
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Given that previous research examining students’ perceptions of the legitimacy of the campus police (CP) has largely taken place on a single campus and utilized quantitative…
Abstract
Purpose
Given that previous research examining students’ perceptions of the legitimacy of the campus police (CP) has largely taken place on a single campus and utilized quantitative methods, the purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how community context shapes students’ interactions with and perceptions of the CP in two distinct campus settings.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on in-depth interviews with 70 undergraduates, including 36 attending a university in a relatively safe, affluent suburban area and 34 attending a university in a high crime, disadvantaged urban area.
Findings
Although participants at both universities appreciated the presence and visibility of the CP, some Suburban U students felt that rather than being protected from outside threats, they were instead policed for engaging in behaviors that they deemed typical of the college experience. Alternatively, Urban U students expressed the opposite of their CP, providing evidence that brief and positive officer-initiated encounters can enhance perceptions of legitimacy, particularly in settings characterized by higher crime rates.
Research limitations/implications
These findings have implications for how the CP can build trust and legitimacy among students to enhance campus safety and foster future compliance and mutual respect.
Originality/value
This study extends the findings of previous research in two important ways. First, it compares two starkly different campus contexts to understand how community setting and local crime rates influence students’ perceptions of the CP, and second, it utilizes both a comparative and qualitative research design.
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Celia Brown, Clarencetine (Teena) Brooks, Jonathan P. Edwards, Chyrell D. Bellamy and Kathleen O’Hara
The United Nation’s treaty from the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) speaks to the assurance of rights and access to justice. To assure the rights…
Abstract
The United Nation’s treaty from the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) speaks to the assurance of rights and access to justice. To assure the rights addressed in the treaty, disability scholars have argued for a collaborative approach between police officers, mental health, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, professionals, and disability rights organisations. Internationally, we have witnessed that rights are being trampled at the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender identity, disability, and sexual orientation. Interactions with the police and the various systems are sometimes experienced as sources of trauma, racism, disrespect, pain, and abuse by individuals living with disabilities. Allyship and organising with the community, particularly with BIPOC and other ‘minoritised’ communities, is essential for policy and other systemic change. Community conversations were done to learn how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and allies experience and address policing and disability and act at these intersections. The advocacy and activism of Surviving Race: The Intersection of Injustice, Disability, and Human Rights served as the impetus for this study. Surviving Race was created to unite psychiatric survivors, BIPOC impacted by the mental health and disability systems, White allies, and members of the LGBQTIA+ community to stand in solidarity with activists who were demanding systemic change after the deaths of far too many. This chapter explores intersectional and cross-disability allyship, allyship to BIPOC disability, and psychiatric survivor communities. It examines how people with disabilities and allies can more effectively work at the intersection of race, rights, equity, and justice.
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Kristina Marie Kokorelias, Anna Grosse, Dara Dillion, Joshua Wyman, Elsa Nana Nzepa, Meena Bhardwaj, Andrea Austen and Samir K. Sinha
This paper aims to provide an in-depth examination of culturally and linguistically diverse older adults’ perceptions of and experiences with the Toronto Police Service to inform…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an in-depth examination of culturally and linguistically diverse older adults’ perceptions of and experiences with the Toronto Police Service to inform the development of a training curriculum for police officers working with older persons.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative descriptive study using virtual focus groups with 26 older adults from Toronto was conducted.
Findings
Three main themes emerged: understanding intersectionality; the impact of police officer attitudes and biases; and the need for age-friendly policing. Although many older adults rely on police services to keep them safe, there is dissatisfaction with some aspects of how police interact with older adults, particularly from minority groups.
Originality/value
Participants were older adults from culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds who are not usually included in studies on improving police services.
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Brandon del Pozo, Saba Rouhani, M.H. Clark, Danielle Atkins, Barbara Andraka-Christou and Kaitlin F. Martins
The 2020 murder of George Floyd resulted in challenges to policing in the United States of America, but little is known about how police chiefs perceive them. At the same time…
Abstract
Purpose
The 2020 murder of George Floyd resulted in challenges to policing in the United States of America, but little is known about how police chiefs perceive them. At the same time, chiefs of police wield great influence over public perceptions of crime and disorder, the state of their profession, the laws and policies that govern the conduct of police officers and municipal public safety budgets. It is therefore critical to understand how police perceive the changes to their profession post-Floyd.
Design/methodology/approach
This study surveyed a randomly selected national sample of 276 municipal chiefs of police. Items probed resignations, recruitment, efforts to defund departments, community support, officer morale, suspects’ likelihood of obeying lawful orders and career risks that could inhibit proactive police work. It examined associations between perceptions and Census Bureau region, length of tenure as chief, size of police department, population served and the urban or rural designation of the jurisdiction.
Findings
Chiefs overwhelmingly reported recruiting qualified candidates had become much harder, and the present risks of proactive police work encourage inaction. Chiefs of agencies in the Northeast perceived more challenges than those in the South. Respondents with more years of experience were less likely to perceive the current situation as dire. Approximately 13.5% reported an attempt to defund their department, 56.8% of which yielded some success. Our study suggests an increase in the number and scope of challenges perceived by chiefs of police. Results vary by region and police chief years of experience.
Originality/value
This study provides researchers and practitioners with the perspectives of chiefs about the post-Floyd era that influence their decisions, policies and initiatives.
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Jeffrey T. Ward, J.Z. Bennett and Ajima Olaghere
Recent scholarship calls for identifying conditions in which procedurally just treatment translate to increased police legitimacy. The present study draws on community justice and…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent scholarship calls for identifying conditions in which procedurally just treatment translate to increased police legitimacy. The present study draws on community justice and vitality and procedural justice literature to examine whether adolescent and young adults’ perceptions of legitimate work and school opportunities in their neighborhoods moderate the effects of fair treatment by police on perceptions of police legitimacy.
Design/methodology/approach
Longitudinal data from a justice-involved youth sample and a series of generalized linear mixed models are used to test the study’s hypotheses. We model “persons as contexts” and separate within-person and between-person effects.
Findings
Main effects models indicate that procedural justice and neighborhood opportunities both have significant within-individual, between-individual and person-contextual effects on police legitimacy. Results from interaction models indicate strong support for a person-contextual interaction effect. Net of covariates, higher average perceptions of procedurally just treatment leads to greater average police legitimacy, but this effect erodes when individuals perceive weak educational and occupational opportunities in their neighborhoods over time.
Originality/value
Efforts to maximize police legitimacy may be enhanced through greater investment in community opportunity structures. This study highlights the need for public officials and police to support the educational and occupational vitality of communities as a key strategy to promote police legitimacy and optimize core aspects of the procedural justice model.
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Leah Cleghorn, Casandra Harry and Chantelle Cummings
In Trinidad and Tobago, there is significant reliance on the traditional and centralized police service to engage in crime response and suppression in urban and rural areas. In…
Abstract
Purpose
In Trinidad and Tobago, there is significant reliance on the traditional and centralized police service to engage in crime response and suppression in urban and rural areas. In this regard, policing scholarship has largely focused on the impact of policing within urban areas, producing a gap in knowledge on what policing rural spaces entails. Despite this, there is some understanding that policing rural spaces can engender diverse challenges and calls for variability in policing strategies. The current study examines the lived experiences of police officers stationed in rural communities in Trinidad and Tobago.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the descriptive phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven police officers stationed in rural communities throughout the country.
Findings
Interviewees narrated the importance of community dynamics and community-specific needs in shaping their roles and functions when operating in and serving these communities. Three major themes were identified: (1) network activity in policing; (2) engagement in localistic and service-oriented approaches and (3) community-specific challenges.
Originality/value
The findings suggest that while there is an emphasis on traditional law enforcement responsibilities, in the rural context, police responsibilities and duties are constantly being redefined, reframed and broadened to meet the contextual community and geographic-specific diversities and demands.
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