Police Capacity Research Articles

Policing perpetrator suicide threats in family violence cases: competing priorities and contemporary challenges

ABSTRACT There has been increasing attention afforded to how a perpetrator of family violence may engage in coercive and controlling behaviour. As a form of coercive control, perpetrators may threaten to take their own life, impacting the thoughts and behaviours of victim/survivors, as well as their decision to leave the relationship. This form of coercive control challenges police in the way they manage and respond to perceived risk. In Victoria, Australia, section 232 of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022 (Vic) allows police to place a person who shows signs of mental illness under the care of medical practitioners for assessment, to prevent violence towards themselves or another person. This may present challenges in the investigation of family violence matters and serving protection orders (referred to as family violence intervention orders (FVIOs) in Victoria), as police are required to balance the needs of perpetrators, victim/survivors, and the community at large. This article examines the competing priorities of police as they attend a family violence incident where the perpetrator has threatened to take their own life. Drawing from the perspectives of ten specialist family violence officers from Victoria Police, this paper will provide critical insight into the policing of suicide threats in the context of coercive control. Further, it explores how current collaboration with the health sector may reduce police capacity to ensure victim/survivors’ safety through FVIOs.

Strengthening the Rule of Law Through Community Policing: Evidence From Liberia

How to improve security and strengthen the rule of law in fragile states? Community policing programs have long been at the forefront of policymakers’ efforts to address this challenge. These programs tend to be more expansive than those found in developed countries, focusing not only on building trust through meetings and foot patrols, but also on eliciting ‘coproduction’ from communities to supplement scarce police capacity and provide alternatives to vigilantism. I partnered with the Liberian National Police (LNP) to experimentally evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in Monrovia, Liberia, one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most crime-ridden cities. Drawing on a large-scale resident survey and administrative crime data, I find that the program improved relations between police and citizens, strengthened social norms against vigilantism, and mobilized communities to participate in the police’s “Watch Forum” initiative by forming and sustaining local security groups designed to facilitate cooperation with police. These changes were accompanied by a roughly 40% reduction in the incidence of mob violence. Despite these improvements, the program did not reduce the overall incident of crime, improve perceptions of security, or increase crime reporting.

Traditional Authorities, Norm Collisions, and Communal Conflict

I examine the effect of the policing capacity of traditional authorities (TAs) on communal conflict. TAs of ethnic groups use distinct customary laws and dispute-resolution mechanisms. Their coexistence with national norms and those of other TAs results in parallel legal systems. I argue that this generates uncertainties about norms and vertical and horizontal jurisdictional conflict, which increases the risk of communal conflict. However, this effect can be dampened by state-level rules on norm collisions, which lead to a system of co-production and less violence. To investigate these claims, I use global georeferenced expert survey data on customary policing of TAs and data measuring their constitutional regulation. I show that customary policing can have an adverse effect on communal peace. More subgroups of the larger ethnic group with policing institutions increase the risk of conflict. State-level regulation moderates these relationships. Additional evidence suggests that policing increases communal conflict through vertical jurisdictional conflict but otherwise achieves its intended purpose of providing security.

경찰기동대원의 회복탄력성, 팀워크, 의사소통이 조직몰입에 미치는 영향

Due to the abolition of the mandatory police system in May 2023, a police riot squad was created. The police riot squad is deployed to sites where security forces are required, such as large-scale gatherings and demonstrations, and focuses on maintaining order and crime prevention and suppression. The capacity of the police riot squad is only 30% of the existing conscripted police capacity, and is experiencing a manpower shortage. Therefore, in order to efficiently utilize limited budget and manpower, factors affecting organizational commitment, an organizational effectiveness variable, were explored through prior research. Accordingly, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted to determine the impact of variables such as resilience, teamwork, and communication on organizational commitment. As a result of the analysis, organizational commitment, resilience, teamwork, and communication were found to have a statistically significant positive (+) correlation. However, the results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that only resilience had a statistically significant positive effect on organizational commitment, and teamwork and communication did not have a significant effect on organizational commitment. Based on the results of this analysis, the police organization presented policy grounds such as support and management to increase the resilience of police officers, which is a psychological factor, in order to efficiently operate limited budget and manpower.

CRIMINAL LAW AGAINST FRAUD USING ANDROID PACKAGE APPLICATIONS VIA WHATSAPP MESSAGES

Online fraud using the Android Package application via Whatsapp messages is one type of cybercrime with the sniffing method. Normative-Empirical Legal Research was chosen as a method, in order to obtain normative legal provisions and their application to each particular legal event. Legal arrangements for personal data theft (identity theft) using the Android Package application via Whatsapp messages are generally contained in the PDP Law and the ITE Law, where law enforcement cannot be done optimally. Increase Cyber Patrol and police capacity in monitoring websites selling personal data. Implement standardized data security governance protocols for institutions that manage large amounts of personal data.

Resilience policing and disaster management during Australia's Black Summer bushfire crisis

Policing landscapes are being transformed by disaster risks associated with climate change. ‘Resilience policing’ is described as an emergent model of security governance that builds upon established state-based community policing traditions to support the management of these complex risks and hazards. The assumption is that established policing capabilities might be harnessed to enhance disaster resilience. Empirical research on resilience policing is lacking however, and it is unclear whether this model is truly innovative, or simply a progression of established community policing models. This article explores these questions by considering how local police contributed to disaster management activities in a remote rural community which was directly impacted by Australia's catastrophic Black Summer bushfires in 2019–20. Our qualitative, empirical case study illustrates how institutionalized learnings, organizational and systemic reforms, and everyday policing activities enhanced the absorptive and adaptive capabilities of police as emergency responders, emergency management networks, and local residents. Our analysis indicates that a resilience policing model, anchored in existing community engagement and partnership-working methods, may hold promise as a means of enhancing the adaptative capacity of police and improving alignment between policing and emergency management networks. Less optimistically, it reveals potential obstacles to adapting this template for use in complex policing environments, sustaining institutional focus and adaptive capabilities amidst poly-crises, and aligning policing roles and mandates with transformative climate adaptation agendas.

Community Policing Involvement in the Fight Against Narcotics Use Among Youth in Rwanda

This study aimed to ascertain the implication of community policing in the fight against narcotics use among youth in Rwanda. It was guided by three specific objectives: to assess community policing involvement in decision-making against narcotics use among youth, to evaluate community policing inclusivity in the fight against narcotics use among youth, and to examine community policing capacity to fight against narcotic use among youth. The study employed a descriptive research design. The mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative was used to collect quantitative data using a questionnaire to 124 respondents and qualitative data by use of focus group. A sample size of 292 respondents was calculated using the Slovin’s Formula. The sample size was selected using purposeful sampling method among Police members, Kicukiro District officials, Community Policing Members, narcotics users in the rehabilitation process or rehabilitated, and partners. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics by the help of SPSS 21.0 version and descriptive data visualization tools employed in forms frequency tables and cross tabulations. The descriptive results of the objectives indicated a big number of respondents agreed that community policing is involved in decision-making against narcotics use among youth and they agreed that community policing is inclusive in the Kicukiro District. However, the respondents disagreed that community policing has enough capacity to fight against narcotics use among youth. The correlation analysis results supported the descriptive results by revealing that community policing involvement in decision-making, the inclusivity of community policing and its capacity play a positive and significant role in the fight against narcotics use among youth. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended to government of Rwanda and partners to improve the effectiveness of community policing involvement in the fight against narcotics use among youth by arising its capacity in terms of financial resources, equipment, skilled human resources, and sustainable technology. Keywords: Community Policing Involvement, Narcotics Use, Youth, Rwanda

Association between police officers’ stress and perceived health

Abstract Police experience occupational stress in two categories: operational (i.e. long hours, shift work, crime scenes) and organizational (e.g. favouritism, bureaucratic red tape) stress. High occupational stress may harm officers’ health perceptions, decreasing individual policing capacity. This study surveyed the relationship between operational and organizational stress and perceived health among 1,220 Serbian police officers (female = 232 [19%]; mean age 39.1 ± 8.4 years). Participants answered a single general health question, a 20-question operational police stress questionnaire, and a 20-question organizational police stress questionnaire. Perceived health was negatively associated with operational and organizational stress. Moderate negative associations were found between age and health and obesity status and health. When age groups were analysed separately, older officers with good or great health reported lower operational and organizational stress levels. These results suggest that better-perceived health may be protective against stress for police officers.

Reflections on the Nexus between Climate Change, Food Security and Violent Conflicts: A Tour through the Nigeria Experience

Climate change has been adjudged as the most treacherous threat to global sustainability having its deteriorating effects on the ecosystems in the form of increase in temperature, haphazard changes in the pattern of rainfall, rising of the sea level etc. We believe the consequential impacts of climate change on food, biodiversity, health, and the overall economy have been of grave concern in Nigeria and to Africa as a whole. Hence, in this present study we demonstrate the intricate relationship between climate change, food security and violent conflicts in Nigeria, especially the root causes of famers-Fulani herdsmen clashes in Nigeria with the goal of providing sustainable conflict management strategies to the crisis. A mixed method research design (basically a mix of research papers’ syntheses, causal loop diagram, interviews/focus group discussions and the social progress index data) was analysed and adopted to achieve the study’s specific objectives.The causal loop diagram help us to demonstrate the interconnectivity of climate change, food security and violent conflicts. Interestingly, the majority of respondents (70%) ranked “resource scarcity due to increased desertification” as the top-rated cause for farmers-Fulani’s herdsmen clashes while less than one-quarter (21%) emphasised that urbanisation and social vices propelled the conflict. In light of these findings, we reasoned that there is a critical need to build the capacity of local communities to take on key governance roles around resource management while remediation and appropriate management measures of affected and vulnerable regions must commence without further delay. Government should strengthen police capacity to curb rustling and banditry, improving livestock tracking.

An Exploration of the Impact of COVID-19 on Police Demand, Capacity and Capability

This project report outlines the findings of an initial exploratory study of the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the demand, capacity, and capability of the police within the United Kingdom. Freedom of information requests provide data regarding employees affected by COVID-19, including those working from home. A survey of police employees adds richness by exploring the departments and specialist capabilities affected. Preliminary results indicate a shift in demand away from property-related and violent crime, to online criminality, and disorders such as anti-social behavior and breaches of coronavirus legislation. Combined with high volumes of absent employees throughout 2020, the study postulates a reduction in police satisfaction, trust, and confidence may have occurred in the response to cyber investigation and policing anti-social behavior. Investment in agile technology to increase workforce flexibility and improved contingency planning are identified as requirements to prepare for future pandemics and avoid repetition.

Policing in patriarchy: An experimental evaluation of reforms to improve police responsiveness to women in India.

Gender-targeted police reforms are frequently proposed to tackle the global problem of rising yet under-reported gender-based violence (GBV)-but with mixed and often disappointing results. We explore this issue in India, a country with alarming rates of GBV and limited police capacity, by studying the impact of Women's Help Desks (WHDs): dedicated spaces for women in local police stations, staffed by trained officers. Drawing on the largest randomized controlled trial of a police reform to date (180 police stations serving 23.4 million people), we find that officers in stations with WHDs are more likely to register cases of GBV, particularly where female officers run the desks. This suggests that even in resource-constrained and patriarchal environments, police responsiveness can be improved by focusing and mainstreaming attention to women's cases and by greater gender representation within the police.

Instability of the North Korean Regime and the Residents Defection: A Plan for Enhancing the Capacity of Security Police for Their Settlement in South Korea -With a Focus on the Rank of the Security Police s Department of Service-

Purpose: Given the situation where it is expected that a plan of improvement for the North Korean refugee related support policy will be required in view of the recent incident of the North Korean defector returning to North Korea, which has become a problem in the South Korean society, the job satisfaction of the security police was surveyed based on the work area. This is because, given the situation where the security police perform various settlement related support activities as well as security tasks, which are their original duties, their job satisfaction can help improve the work efficiency and practically improve the settlement of the North Korean defectors. Method: In this study, among police officers in the security department as of 2020 who had experience in work related North Korean defectors, 100 trainees in the Police Human Resources Development Institute were surveyed via self-administration method. Among the collected survey questionnaires, 91 were selected as valid samples, excluding those whose answers were incomplete or missing. Results: First, the job satisfaction turned out to be higher as the number of employees of the police organization with which the police organization was affiliated increased, and second, the relationship between the division of work and authority and responsibility of the police working in large cities was clearer than that of the police working in small and medium cities, and as they are further classified and efficiently assigned, the commanders and superiors demonstrate a higher job satisfaction with the awareness that they are leading the staff by exam-ple rather than direct control. Conclusion: As a result of the study of this paper, the status of the North Korean defectors who are experienc-ing considerable difficulties in adapting and integrating into the South Korean society was identified, and the internal job satisfaction of the security police who are practically responsible for their settlement support was sur-veyed. Since the end of the Cold War, the status and job satisfaction of the security police have declined due to political reasons where the systemic competition between the South and the North has not surfaced, and the survey of their job satisfaction may yield a plan of improvement.

Policing Insecurity

In environments of seemingly intractable conflict, how should we understand the role of state capacity building and security-sector reform in transitions to peace? Prevailing wisdom suggests that a strong state security apparatus mitigates cyclical violence and aids in transitions to predictable, rule-governed behavior. Yet growing attention to police brutality in institutionalized democracies calls this assumption into question. Drawing on a multiyear study of war making and state making in eastern DR Congo, this article interrogates logics of police capacity building, analyzing how and why reform efforts intended to bolster the state’s monopoly on violence frequently fail to curb the unrest they seek to disrupt. I argue that enhancing the coercive capacity of the police can entrench a wartime political order that makes peace more elusive; when police deploy the image of the state toward destabilizing ends they reinforce the institutions of everyday war, undermining the stability a monopoly on violence is intended to build.

Racial Disparities in Neighborhood Arrest Rates during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Structural racism in police contact is an important driver of health inequities among the U.S. urban population. Hyper-policing and police violence in marginalized communities have risen to the top of the national policy agenda, particularly since protests in 2020. How did pandemic conditions impact policing? We assess neighborhood racial disparities in arrests after COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in Boston, Charleston, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco census tracts (January 2019–August 2020). Using interrupted time series models with census tract fixed effects, we report arrest rates across tract racial and ethnic compositions. In the weeks following stay-at-home orders, overall arrest rates were 39% lower (95% CI: 37–41%) on average compared to rates the year prior. Although arrest rates steadily increased thereafter, most tracts did not reach pre-pandemic arrest levels. However, despite declines in nearly all census tracts, the magnitude of racial inequities in arrests remained unchanged. During the initial weeks of the pandemic, arrest rates declined significantly in areas with higher Black populations, but average rates in Black neighborhoods remained higher than pre-pandemic arrest rates in White neighborhoods. These findings support urban policy reforms that reconsider police capacity and presence, particularly as a mechanism for enforcing public health ordinances and reducing racial disparities.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11524-021-00598-z.

A Study on the Factors that Decrease the Reliability of the Korean Police in HUMAN Society

Purpose: Due to the nature of police work, most of the work regulates or restricts the activities of the people, so it is not easy to seek cooperation from the people, and it is not easy to increase the reliability of the police despite the legitimate law enforcement activities. Despite this environment of police work, efforts to improve police reliability are needed. Method: ‘It is necessary to seriously consider the people variables, political variables, and legal variables that make the police s just activities impossible. We would like to find problems in the three variables and find ways to improve the reliability of the police in the legitimacy of police capacity building, police bureaucracy, and police activities. Results: We analyzed the factors that deteriorated the reliability of the Korean police and looked at ways to improve the reliability of police work. There are many difficult conditions to enhance public trust due to people variables, political variables, and legal variables in police affairs. Despite this environment of police work, efforts to improve police reliability are needed. Conclusion: The ways to restore public confidence in police work are as follows. In the process of police affairs, it shall be strictly followed by principles, and in the process, it is necessary to comply with the prescribed legal procedures. In addition, the top priority is not to lose trust in the people through fair handling of work and a friendly attitude.

"Isn't There Any Other Way than Calling the Cops?": How Differences in Initiation of Police Intervention Influence Survivor Safety.

As formal crisis responders, police are trained in de-escalation tactics that are expected to mitigate intimate partner violence and promote survivor safety. However, the alignment between expected and actual practice of police intervention varies, especially when the survivor does not initiate the call, police treat the survivor poorly, or provide an undesirable arrest outcome. At best, unsuccessful interventions do not change survivors' risk level, and at worse, elevate their risk of experiencing harm. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore survivors' perspectives on the process of police intervention, specifically how variations in initiation, quality of engagement, and arrest influence survivors' safety. Twenty-four women whose partners were in a relationship violence intervention program were recruited to participate in the study. Results showed that many survivors described a range of ongoing, strategic violence perpetrated by their partners that required intervention; yet the complex nature of the violence often extended beyond police capacity. Either survivors called the police, or they were initiated externally by neighbors or strangers; some survivors had dual initiations. Whether survivors reported that police used safety practices during the intervention was related to who initiated the police. Arrests of abusive partners were inconsistent, and they varied based on number of previous calls to the police and visible signs of injury. Survivors of color, specifically Black women, self-initiated at higher rates, experienced fewer safety strategies used by police, and had fewer arrests. No matter the outcomes of police intervention, survivors actively engaged in strategies outside of formal systems to protect themselves and their families. Study results imply that police intervention may be ill-suited to support survivors' safety goals and highlight a need for alternative interventions focused on de-escalation and prevention.

Banishing justice: Extradition limits in the United States

AbstractArrest warrants are an important and pervasive aspect of crime and justice in the United States. There are nearly three million arrest warrants active on any given day, of which several hundred thousand were issued for serious violent crimes (SVCs) such as aggravated assault, robbery, forcible sexual assault, and homicide. In more than a third of those SVC warrants, however, extradition is conditionally waived such that an offender can avoid arrest by leaving town; they can elect banishment over prosecution. Studying extradition limits among these serious offenses presents an opportunity to illuminate both a challenge to public safety and justice, as well as forces underlying discretionary decision making by police. To that end, we study all arrest warrants issued in the United States for SVCs between 2017 and 2019. We model banishment rates at the county‐level within a multivariate negative binomial framework. Analyses showed banishment varied as a function of policing capacity, firearm use in crimes, racial composition, and voting behavior during the 2016 presidential election.

Police Powers and Public Assemblies: Learning from the Clapham Common ‘Vigil’ during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract The policing of peaceful public assembly during the Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the most central challenges to police legitimacy. This is arguably because mass gatherings are assumed to carry a high risk of contagion yet, at the same time, peaceful public assembly is a protected human right. In this article, we explore this issue by using a case study to provide a detailed chronological interactional analysis of the policing operation surrounding a highly controversial public assembly that took place on Clapham Common in March 2021 in London, England. We explore the utility of a research and theory-based model for public order policing in pandemics as a framework for understanding the way the event evolved and identifying what lessons can be learnt for policing assemblies, both in future pandemics and more generally. We contend that ambiguity in the application of emergency powers and the potential for heavy fines to be applied using the legislation created a divergence between stakeholders and culminated in a leadership vacuum among protesters. Moreover, the context of acute political sensitivity led to a highly centralized public order operation that limited the capacity of police to enact dialogue-based solutions when leadership (re)emerged during the event. We conclude by discussing the implications of our analysis for understanding the inherent dangers of regulatory frameworks that place too heavy a burden of discretionary power into the hands of police in determining whether public assemblies are ‘lawful’, and under what conditions they can occur.

Participation of the Ethiopian Police Contingent in the United Nations Peace Operations: Focus on the Role and Challenges

This research article delved the role and challenges of the Ethiopian police contingent in the United Nations peace operations. To this end, the author used socio-legal research method. Both primary and secondary data collections tools were employed. Key informant interview based on the mission experience were used to collect primary data. Secondary data critically reviewed relevant normative frameworks, standards, official reports, websites and other materials. The finding indicated that the Ethiopian police contingents are performing policing roles including crime prevention; strengthen administration and capacity of local police, restructure and reform of the host states police. Nevertheless, Ethiopia’s participation remains very low and even nonexistent in most of the peace operations. The finding also indicated that lack of normative and institutional arrangements are among the major challenges of the police contingent. This in particular includes lack of clear selection guideline of the police for mission, pre-deployment training deficiencies to the police candidates on mission language, driving skill and mission area courses and lack of well-established training centers. This in turn stalled the Ethiopian police not to significantly respond to the call for UNPOL peace operations. Hence, Ethiopia’s normative frameworks and institutional arrangements should be in line with the UNPOL legal and policy frameworks. In this regard, lessons ought to be drawn from Rwanda, Ghana and Nigeria. Keywords: United Nations Police (UNPOL), Peace Operation, Role, Challenges DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/76-02 Publication date: October 31 st 2021

Police capacity and autonomy issues in sectarian crimes and enforcement of anti-terror laws in Punjab

Contemporary research mainly relates police ineffectiveness in sectarian crimes prevention-investigation and enforcement of anti-terror laws to disorganized police infrastructure, a shortage of manpower, a lack of professionalism and limited access to modern equipment. This article, by applying capacity (i.e. manpower, resources, professional and technical training, etc.) and autonomy (effective and neutral exercise of powers within mandates delegated to them) concepts, aims to examine police effectiveness in the enforcement of anti-sectarian laws in the context of interference in their functions by the political executive and the State’s Army. It addresses the question: How do police capacity and autonomy issues affect police effectiveness in prevention-investigation of sectarian crimes and enforcement of anti-terror laws? This article applies a mixed method research approach by using data from books, journal articles, newspapers, TV talk shows, online sources and interviews. It relates the police’s effectiveness in prevention-investigation of sectarian crimes and enforcement of anti-terror laws to their capacity and autonomy issues in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. It argues that the police due to capacity and autonomy issues cannot exercise delegated powers impartially, which affects their effectiveness in prevention-investigation of sectarian crimes and enforcement of anti-terror laws.