American Police Research Articles

Algorithmic policing: Tech startups, venture capital and law enforcement in America (Part 2)

Building on Part 1, Part 2 of this article extends the analysis of algorithmic policing to include acoustic gunshot detection systems and explores the broader political economy of policing in America. It examines the development and deployment of ShotSpotter technology, its effectiveness, and the controversies surrounding its use. The article then synthesizes insights from the various algorithmic policing tools discussed across both parts to analyze how the imperatives of Silicon Valley venture capital and startup culture are reshaping law enforcement. It explores the historical context of American policing and how new technologies are altering police‐community relations. The article concludes by discussing the global spread of algorithmic policing, potential future developments in AI‐enabled law enforcement, and the role anthropology can play in critically examining and shaping the future of policing in the age of algorithms.

Role Incongruity of Women in United States Law Enforcement: A National Survey Exploring Global and Specific Resistance in a Gendered Organization

ABSTRACTSince the 1990s, there has been a lot of research on women in policing and resistance to their entry into the field. Much of the research has examined specific resistance (i.e., individualized resistance based on perceived performance), whereas fewer studies today examine global resistance (i.e., resistance to women police in general). Applying role congruity theory, global and specific resistance by men coworkers, administrators, and the public was examined for a national sample of 358 women in United States law enforcement. It was found that women in law enforcement received slightly more global resistance from the public, whereas men coworkers displayed more specific resistance, and specific resistance was more likely to occur in areas related to the perceived ability of women to handle a masculine job. Multivariate analyses revealed that law enforcement remains a gendered organization with continued role incongruity for women.

Docile or dangerous? An intersectional analysis of Asian-descent adults’ policing experiences

ABSTRACT Drawing from the experiences of sixty-three interviewees, I elucidate how Asian-descent people in the United States make sense of the intersecting dynamics that configure the link between racial typicality and policing. Their narratives foreground relationality, gendered racism, and classed racism as guiding frameworks for how they believe police officers assign meanings of dangerousness or docility to cues of Asian-ness. I argue that their experiences exemplify how police-citizen interactions function as boundary-making events that brighten racial boundaries via the differential deployment of authority and legal violence according to gendered and classed constructions of racial prototypes. This study contributes to the growing race scholarship that interrogates notions of racial groupness. And while I focus on Asian-descent individuals, my findings underscore broader gendered and classed racial boundary making processes that manifest via disparate policing. Altogether, this study offers a more nuanced and expansive theoretical conception of race making in American policing.

Developing an intervention tool for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in laboratory settings

ABSTRACT In the wake of ongoing injustices and disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic and continued extrajudicial killings by police in the United States (US) during 2020, many academic science communities began to have widespread discussions about system racism, the ways in which scientific fields were implicated, and how to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming in academic science fields. As academic researchers in multiple fields and institutions, we each observed this current moment differing vantage points. Discontented with the lack of sustained engagement on discussions of racism, diversity, and inclusion in the aftermath of 2020, we developed an initiative, The DE-SILO (Diversity, Equity, and Sociology Training in Laboratory Organizations) Project, to bring these conversations into everyday practice. The goal of The DE-SILO Project was simple: to spark small but durable changes to daily life in research laboratories. Leveraging the sociological, science and technology studies, and anti-racism scholarship to create a toolkit for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) laboratories, The DE-SILO Project supports sustained engagement on these issues in academic science settings. In this engagement, we document the DE-SILO Project concept and methods, describe our implementation efforts in four research laboratories at institutions across the US, present findings from our pilot year, and discuss lessons learned through implementation.

The magnitude of legal wildlife trade and implications for species survival

The unsustainable use of wildlife is a primary driver of global biodiversity loss. No comprehensive global dataset exists on what species are in trade, their geographic origins, and trade's ultimate impacts, which limits our ability to sustainably manage trade. The United States is one of the world's largest importers of wildlife, with trade data compiled in the US Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS). The LEMIS provides the most comprehensive publicly accessible wildlife trade database of non-the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) listed species. In total, 21,097 species and over 2.85 billion individuals were traded over the past 22 y (2000-2022). When LEMIS data are combined with CITES records, the United States imported over 29,445 wild species, including over 50% of all globally described species in some taxonomic groups. For most taxa, around half of the individuals are declared as sourced from the wild. Although the LEMIS provides the only means to assess trade volumes for many taxa, without any associated data on most wild populations, it is impossible to assess the impact on biodiversity, sustainability of trade, or any potential risk of pest or pathogen spread. These insights underscore the considerable underestimation of trade and the urgent need for other countries to adopt similar mechanisms to accurately record trade.

Spectacles of social activism: pandemic and politicking in the age of digital media

The global COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020 coincided with another incident that made global news, namely the release of the video of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in the United States. While the novelty of the pandemic wore off relatively quickly when things “went back to normal”, the death of George Floyd inspired a radical global movement relating to the treatment of black people (by both police and civilians) worldwide, namely the “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) movement. The force of the 2020 BLM movement arguably resulted in greater social activism relating to the treatment of minorities in the US and UK in a matter of a few weeks than the almost unfathomable number of deaths from COVID-19. The aim of this article is to critically analyse this particular phenomenon through the lens of so-called “memory culture”, and specifically the role of spectacle in digital mnemotechnologies in circulating videos, images and appeals to empathetic engagement with the collective memories of violence against black minorities in the West. This trend supports the argument that will be made, namely that we live in a memory culture which has become obsessed with the fetishisation of the spectacle in order to induce the collective imagination, leading towards empathy for different groups. This provides a perspective on how the notion of the spectacle seems to be more effective in our contemporary memory culture at garnering sociopolitical action than appeals to scientific reason, or even just narratives unaccompanied by shocking videos or images.

Towards a Macro-Level Theoretical Understanding of Police Services’ Acquisition of Risk Technologies

Most North American police services have rapidly acquired and implemented a range of emerging and disruptive technologies in recent years. This rapid adoption of technologies has left a significant gap in our theoretical understanding of how police make decisions about which technologies to acquire. While existing research has focused on technology’s impact at the organizational level, the macro-level context that shapes technological acquisition by the police is undertheorized. To address this gap in the literature, this article combines theorizing by Ericson and Haggerty (1997) on policing the risk society (PRS) and Zuboff (2019) on surveillance capitalism (SC) to develop a macro-level theoretical framework. We consider technologies acquired by the police to be risk technologies and argue that combining key elements of PRS and SC theorizing offers a macro-level understanding of police decision-making about which technologies to adopt that can complement meso-level organizational theories. While calling for additional empirical research, this article concludes by discussing the potential impacts associated with private-sector involvement in public-sector initiatives and providing directions for future research.

Mobsters, Mounties, and Canadian Governmental Responses to Organized Crime, 1965–67

Due to its secretive nature and propensity to spread if left unchecked, organized crime bedeviled politicians and law enforcement officials in North America. The popular mythology surrounding the gangster and mobster betrayed the harsh realities of illicit business activities geared towards exploitive profit. Canada was slow to appreciate that career criminals connected to mafia syndicates from the United States and their home-grown accomplices were present and active during the 1960s. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police/Gendarmerie royale du Canada took the lead in criminal intelligence and maintained close relations with American law enforcement counterparts at the federal level. Separate efforts in Quebec focused on investigation towards prosecution, pushed by a tough-on-crime justice minister. The two approaches towards the problem came up in discussions between federal and provincial authorities during meetings in July 1965 and January 1966, interspersed by a federal election that returned a Liberal minority government to power. This article argues that the federal government’s preference for a modest law enforcement solution stymied real progress and instead served political expediency to dodge a demanded royal commission. Organized crime continued to flourish despite governmental efforts.

Special Issue Introduction: Researching and Understanding the Intersection of Immigrants and Policing in the 21st Century United States

The purpose of this special issue is to highlight recent research on the intersection of immigrants and policing in the United States, a traditional destination since time immemorial for immigrants from disparate parts of the world. The special issue aims to enhance understandings of immigrants and how they interact with police officers and policing in the United States. Instructively, while there is a host of immigration studies conducted in the United States as well as scholarship on the immigration/policing nexus, the body of work surrounding immigrants and policing appears to be limited and thus requires framing in a broader context to capture a wider range of immigrants’ perspectives on the policing of immigrants in the United States. This special issue addresses the existing lacuna by framing immigrants’ intersection with policing in the United States around a wide range of nationalities, including, but not limited to, immigrants from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, as well as on a host of immigrant specific issues, such as U Visa, sanctuary states and immigrants’ willingness to cooperate with the police. Regardless of the gender, nationality, age, and/or ethnicity of the immigrants reported upon in this special issue, the guest editors issue a call to action for organizations with a migration focus as well as scholars in the social sciences to systematically conduct research on immigrants and their interaction with policing as this has implications for immigration, police legitimacy, and social integration.

Immigrant Threat, Racial Competition, and White Resistance to Police and Criminal Justice Reform

This research draws on conflict-based accounts to examine how perceptions of out-group threats shape White resistance to police and criminal justice reform. Using nationally representative data from the ANES-GSS 2020 Joint Study, we find that White Americans who perceive immigrants as a criminal threat are more likely to prioritize the need for more robust social controls rather than supporting efforts toward reforming the police and the criminal legal system. We also uncover a link between racial competition for political power and White preferences for a stronger emphasis on law and order through expanded policing and more stringent enforcement of the laws. This preference supersedes the desire to address bias against minorities in the criminal legal system through police and court reforms. The implications of these findings for understanding the current context of American racial and immigration politics, as well as the future of American policing and criminal justice, are discussed.

An Exploration of Texas Latinos’ Perceptions of Law Enforcement and Undocumented Immigration in the United States

Given increased trepidation about undocumented immigration in the United States, this study offers an examination of the extent to which Latinos who represent different generations of immigrants perceive United States law enforcement and the current state of undocumented immigration. It gives voice to Latinos, the most significant demographic crossing the border. The topic is relevant given policymakers’ interest in addressing the moral panic over increasing immigration to the country and an interest in law enforcement legitimacy as an essential ingredient in their effectiveness in combating crimes. This qualitative study using semi-structured interviews describes the perceptions of 40 Texas Latinos regarding their willingness to engage with law enforcement in calls for service that may or may not include victimizations and thoughts on undocumented immigration. This study offers the input of Texas Latinos on these matters. Data were coded and analyzed using thematic text analysis to identify patterns and themes. Six themes were identified. Overall, the perceptions of U.S. law enforcement were positive. The participants essentially indicated a desire for more organized and safe U.S. immigration processes at the border that facilitate opportunities to work in the U.S. The study has implications for policymakers interested in effective policing where police and citizens partner in preventing and clearing crime.

A diverting quarter century? Evidence-based police-led diversion 25 years on

It is more than 25 years since Lawrence Sherman delivered his ‘Ideas in American Policing’ lecture on ‘evidence-based policing’ for the US Police Foundation. The original work [Sherman LW (1998) Evidence-Based Policing. Ideas in American Policing. Washington, DC: Police Foundation], Sherman’s equally seminal study on ‘preventing crime’ [Sherman LW, Gottfredson D, MacKenzie D, et al. (1997) Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising. Washington, DC: Office of Justice Programs] and the subsequent development of evidence-based policing in the ‘Triple T’ [Sherman LW (2013) The rise of evidenced-based policing: targeting, testing and tracking. In: Tonry M (ed.) Crime and Justice in America 1975–2025. Chicago: University of Chicago Press] have been immensely influential as well as, for some, controversial. In 1998, Sherman challenged scholars, practitioners and policymakers to use the ‘best available evidence’ to guide policy and practice. He then posed four questions: ‘What is it? What is new about it? How does it apply to a specific example of police practice? How can it be institutionalized?’. Taking the lead from Sherman's questions, this contribution to the 25-year anniversary collection focuses on one example – police-led diversion – to illustrate the development and challenges of institutionalizing evidence-based policing since 1998.

Association Between Employment Factors and Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease in US Law Enforcement Workers: The National Health Interview Survey, 2006-2018.

Law enforcement workers face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), however, employment factors impacting CVD remain systematically understudied, particularly in a national US sample. We describe temporal trends in prevalent CVD including coronary heart disease (CHD), angina, myocardial infarction (MI) and other heart disease; and investigate associations of select employment factors with CVD among law enforcement workers using the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) from 2006 to 2018. We analyzed prevalent CVD in law enforcement workers employed in local, state, and federal establishments using the NHIS, a nationally representative sample of US workers. We estimated odds ratios (OR [95% confidence interval, CI]) of CVD in relation to employment factors using survey-weighted multivariable logistic regression models adjusted for sociodemographic and traditional CVD risk factors. Among 2177 law enforcement workers, mean age 46 years, 19% female, prevalence of CVD was higher among disabled (OR = 5.37; 95% CI: 2.53, 11.38 for aggregate CVD outcome) and retired (OR = 2.14; 95% CI: 1.18, 3.88 for aggregate CVD outcome) workers compared to currently employed workers. Workers employed in smaller (1-24 employees) or larger (≥ 500 employees) departments and those with tenure > 20 years also demonstrated higher prevalence odds of select CVD outcomes. Although not statistically significant, higher prevalence odds across CVD outcomes were observed in local government employees, hourly paid workers, and workers with 10-19 years of tenure. Our study highlights that select employment factors, some previously underexplored, may be associated with prevalent CVD in law enforcement workers. Leveraging national surveys and worker cohorts to enhance surveillance of identified groups in this high-risk population could help elucidate the role of employment on CVD development and inform workplace interventions.

Juvenile Injuries and Deaths From Shootings by Police in the United States, 2015–2020

PurposeThe present study describes juveniles injured in fatal and nonfatal shootings by the police from 2015 to 2020, compares characteristics of juvenile victimizations to adult victimizations, and estimates the odds of a shooting victim being a juvenile v. adult, given known characteristics. MethodsFrom July 2021 to April 2023, we manually reviewed publicly available records on all 2015–2020 injurious shootings by the US police, identified from Gun Violence Archive. We first calculated counts and proportions of victim, incident, and response characteristics among juvenile and adult injured people, then estimated the odds of juvenile (vs. adult) victimization associated with each characteristic in multilevel logistic regression models with random intercepts to account for state- and incident-level correlation. Results97 percent of shootings involved presumed on-duty officers and victims whose categorical age status (i.e., juvenile or adult) was reported (n = 10,382). Included among these injured people were 317 juveniles, 33% of whom were fatally injured (mean reported juvenile age = 15.5 years). Several patterns differentiated juveniles from adult police shooting victims, including multiple demographic characteristics (e.g., race or ethnicity and gender) and the outcomes of and circumstances surrounding these events (e.g., fatality, victim weapon status, and single-officer response). DiscussionFindings point to a critical need to identify and implement public health and policing strategies that greatly reduce the number of juveniles shot by the police every year, so that all children have the opportunity to thrive into adulthood.

Do Community Views of Local Police Agencies Change During “Crises of Legitimacy”? Results of a Multi-wave Random Sample Community Survey in a Large Suburban Jurisdiction

AbstractGeorge Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police Department officer on May 25, 2020, was arguably one of the most impactful events in modern policing in the United States. However, several controversial and highly publicized use-of-force events preceded it during the 2010s, leading to this entire period being labeled a “crisis of legitimacy” or “reckoning” for the police. Nationally, perceptions of the police declined during this period, especially after Floyd’s death, prompting a great deal of debate, protest, and discussion about police reform (including arguments about defunding the police). However, a great deal of variation exists in these perceptions at the local level. This study presents a rare insight into this issue, pooling two random-sample household mail surveys that researchers collected in 2015 and 2021 in a large urban-suburban county. It seeks to determine whether changes in specific measures of perceived police legitimacy and effectiveness found in national-level polls were also found in this jurisdiction, and more specifically, across different racial groups. Although this racially and ethnically diverse county is also a progressive Democratic stronghold, the results suggest that local views about police—even when disaggregated by race—may not align with national perspectives or events as expected, which, in turn, may impact support for police reforms at the local and national levels.

Race, Political Ideology, and Support for Defunding the Police in the United States

ABSTRACT This study investigates public attitudes toward “Defund the Police” proposals amid U.S. protests against racism and police brutality. Analysis of 2021 General Social Survey data reveals that racial identity and political ideology significantly shape these attitudes. Black Americans demonstrate the highest support for defunding, followed by Hispanic Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities, reflecting diverse historical and cultural experiences with the government. Political ideology further polarizes opinions, with liberals more supportive and conservatives more opposed. These findings highlight the complexities of addressing systemic issues in criminal justice and the importance of social identities in shaping attitudes toward police reform.

Conceptualizing Mano Dura in Latin America

Abstract Latin American governments are increasingly adopting mano dura initiatives to combat gangs, organized crime, and insecurity. While mano dura has been a concept of increasing empirical interest, there seems to be limited conceptual clarity about the wide spectrum of strategies developed to combat crime and associated fear. This article proposes a definition of mano dura that has three different dimensions, each of them containing specific elements. The form of mano dura depends on formal, informal, and rhetorical practices. Drawing on 46 scholarly works in the social sciences, we develop our definition anchored in the knowledge of Latin American policing strategies, contributions on responses to crime in the region, and the conceptual development literature. With the purpose of supplementing our effort to standardize the usage of the term with the need to retain a degree of conceptual differentiation, we also offer a stylized model to better classify policing strategies in Latin America. In our stylized model, the numerous ways policies and narratives as well as their implementation (or not) interact can be grouped into four broad categories: full mano dura, institutional mano dura, performative mano dura, and covert mano dura.

Women police leaders: attitudes about policing and experiences in the occupation

PurposeThis study explored women police leaders’ (n = 503) attitudes and experiences relative to men police leaders (n = 3,359) and women police officers (n = 1,153) with no supervisory responsibilities.Design/methodology/approachSelf-reported survey data were collected from 5,015 officers in 85 United States law enforcement agencies.FindingsCompared with men police leaders, women police leaders were more likely to identify inequalities in the workplace, empower community members’ voices in defining legitimate forms of policing, elevate the importance of police misconduct and reject a tough physical approach. Women police leaders were also more likely than male police leaders to think that effective leadership influences the behavior of subordinates and more likely to feel that the rules leave room for interpretation. Black women police leaders reported different attitudes and experiences than White women police leaders, including recognizing greater inequalities, prioritizing increased law enforcement activities and experiencing less occupational burnout. Except for the seriousness of misconduct, there were no differences between women police leaders and women police officers without supervisory responsibilities.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the ongoing conversation about women in policing and how increasing the number of women in leadership roles affects law enforcement agencies and the public’s experiences with policing. As policing continues to face calls for reform and employment challenges, increasing the number of women in leadership plays a vital role in producing law enforcement agencies that are equitable and efficacious.

Law enforcement recruit fitness: Changes across the fitness spectrum.

Law enforcement is a profession of sedentary physical activity interspersed with physically demanding activity that requires high levels of fitness. It is imperative that agencies training law enforcement recruits maximise their fitness during their time at the academy. The aim of this study was to investigate changes in physical fitness during academy training. Retrospective data for 10 academy recruit classes, totalling 715 participants, were collected from a US law enforcement agency. The change in performance on two standardised tests were used as outcome measures. Comparisons were made between percentiles utilising one-way ANOVA and a linear mixed model (LMM). Overall, higher percentiles were found to have smaller improvements in physical fitness than lower percentiles. The results of the LMM support this supposition, showing that lower physical fitness scores resulted in greater improvements in a generalised fitness assessment (value = -0.45, standard error 0.02, p < 0.001) and an occupational assessment (value = -0.49, standard error = 0.02, p < 0.001). The results of this study suggest that recruits with lower physical fitness will see greater improvements during academy training. This could be due to a ceiling effect for the more fit but may also be due to recruits of higher physical fitness being under trained during academy. Utilising ability-based training and prescribing an appropriate workload to recruits of higher fitness may improve overall recruit fitness upon graduation.

Algorithmic policing: Part 1. Tech startups, venture capital and law enforcement in America

This article examines the rise of algorithmic policing in the United States, focusing on predictive policing platforms and facial recognition technologies. Part 1 explores how companies like PredPol, Palantir and Clearview AI have developed data‐driven tools to predict and prevent crime and identify suspects. The article analyses the historical context, technological development and implementation of these systems by law enforcement agencies. It also discusses the concerns raised by critics, including issues of privacy, racial bias and the potential for reinforcing discriminatory policing practices. Through case studies and examples, the article illustrates how these technologies have impacted communities, particularly communities of colour. It examines the complex interplay between Silicon Valley startups, venture capital and law enforcement in shaping modern policing practices.