Law Enforcement Management And Administrative Statistics Research Articles

Does national police accreditation undermine local control?

PurposeOne of the main roadblocks to increasing uptake of national police accreditation (i.e. accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA)) is concern among some in law enforcement that promoting national standards for policing would undermine local control. The purpose of this study is to assess whether CALEA-accredited police departments are more (or less) likely than non-CALEA-accredited police departments to utilize information from resident surveys to inform agency operations.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey and cardinality matching, a quasi-experimental approach, to estimate the relationship between CALEA accreditation status and utilization of information from resident surveys among municipal police departments.FindingsWe find that agencies that subscribe to national police accreditation are more likely to use resident surveys to prioritize crime/disorder problems, evaluate officer or agency performance, guide training and development and inform agency policies and procedures compared to matched agencies that do not subscribe to national police accreditation.Originality/valueWhile there is research on the effects of national police accreditation on traditional policing outcomes, there is a paucity of research on whether national police accreditation undermines the ability of local residents to affect policing standards. The findings from this study suggest that national police accreditation may enhance the power of local residents to affect policing.

Racial/Ethnic Diversity in Positions of Power in U.S. Law Enforcement: An Examination of Active Representation and Disparities in Vehicle Stops

Increasing minority representation in law enforcement has long been viewed as a means of improving police-citizen relations. Yet, little scholarly attention has examined whether racial/ethnic diversity translates into desired outcomes. These studies largely measure the racial/ethnic composition of the agency in general—not in positions of power where they are most likely to make an impact on department policy/practice (i.e., ‘active representation’). Using data from the 2016 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, the current study 1) provides an overview of Black and Hispanic representation in chief executive, mid-level management, and supervisory roles and 2) explores the impact that diversity in these positions has on racial/ethnic disparities in vehicle stops in Illinois and Missouri. Minority officers are more underrepresented in these positions of power compared to their composition in agencies in general, and higher levels of representation are not significantly associated with reductions in disparities in stops.

Using Competing Theories to Explain Variations in U.S. Police Departments’ Reported use of Force Counts

Using data from the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, the current study provides a cross-sectional analysis of U.S. police departments’ reported use of force. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which departments’ reported force counts were explained by rational bureaucratic and/or institutional theory. Given the stark variations in reported force counts, a hurdle model was used to examine the potential effects of the theories on departments’ likelihoods of reporting force and the frequency in which they reported it. The results highlighted the significance of both theories. In terms of rational bureaucratic theory, the results illustrate that the absence of a collective bargaining agreement and greater professionalism requirements reduced departments’ likelihoods of reporting force, while less restrictive administrative policies increased departments’ likelihoods of reporting force and the frequencies in which they reported it. In terms of institutional theory, the results revealed that black officer representation reduced both the likelihood of reporting force and the frequency of force reported. However, increases in jurisdictions’ population and crime rates, for the most part, increased force reports. Combined the theories explained over one-fifth of the variations in departments’ reported use of force for the observed year. The findings suggest that successful efforts to reduce force-related injuries and deaths should consider the contextual environments in which rules and regulations regarding force are made.

Reappreciating the varieties of police behavior: a national examination of contemporary police mission statements

PurposeThe current and ongoing police legitimacy crises demand a renewed analysis of the police mission in American law enforcement. This research aims to examine the mission statements of a national sample of police agencies, and generates an organizational typology of contemporary policing styles.Design/methodology/approachUsing the responsive agencies listed in the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) as a sampling frame, mission statements from 2,826 departments were collected from official law enforcement websites. Wilson's (1968) seminal typology of policing styles was then used to classify the emergent patterns from the mission statements. Mission statement patterns that did not fit squarely into Wilson's model (i.e. watchman, service and legalistic styles of policing) were classified to update the model and account for contemporary police goals and organizational orientations.FindingsA theme of outward-facing legitimacy among police organizations emerged as a new variety of police behavior, according to collected mission statements. The researchers’ findings suggest that public perceptions of police legitimacy are a primary concern for today's police forces.Originality/valueThis research reappreciates the utility of Wilson's typology of policing styles, and provides insight into the cultivation of police legitimacy. The authors identify a fourth typology of organizational behavior, legitimacy, that may be an emerging, professional police response to both contemporary crime issues and public antipathy.

An Examination of Asian American Officers in State and Federal Law Enforcement

The increasing concerns about anti-Asian hate crimes, attacks, and xenophobic violence as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, coupled with the recent killing spree (March 16, 2021) targeting the Asian community in Georgia, has emphasized the scant research on Asian Americans in policing. This article represents the second half of a 2-part series detailing the employment figures of Asian officers in the United States. Using the latest data on race and ethnicity compiled by both the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey and the Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers (CFLEO), this study examines all the state law enforcement agencies, as well as the major federal law enforcement agencies employing at least 100 officers (or agents), to investigate Asian diversity across state and federal policing. Findings reveal that Asian Americans are underrepresented in nearly every state and federal law enforcement agency in the country, with the exception of two state police organizations and three federal law enforcement components.

Staffing composition in large, US police departments: benchmarking workforce diversity

PurposePolicymakers have long suggested diversifying US police forces, which typically have white male majorities among officers. This article explores to what extent police diversity has changed over time in large agencies, as well as whether different diversity benchmarks may matter for agencies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey for 358 agencies that had at least 100 full-time sworn officers in 1997 and 2016 and that reported officer demographic data to the LEMAS in both years. For a selection of 12 communities – three randomly chosen in each of the four US Census regions – the authors compare officer diversity to Census data on population diversity for different benchmarks.FindingsThere has been some increase in diversity but policing largely remains a white male profession. The authors find only limited variation in diversity by type of benchmark – e.g. total population, working population or recruiting-age population – a community considers. This suggests communities may wish to choose a benchmark they can best measure and seek to increase diversity by it, and research on workforce representation may not be sensitive to benchmark choice. The authors also suggest communities and their police organizations consider other ways to assess diversity, including those that illustrate a broader range of attributes and representation throughout the organization, and that they research and test alternative forms of measurement to gauge whether these findings hold for different modeling approaches.Research limitations/implicationsOur analysis is limited to the largest police agencies and to overall staffing level diversity metrics pertaining to sex, race and Hispanic origin. Still, we find many police agencies have room for greater diversity, which could draw more qualified workers and lead to better policing.Originality/valueWhile there has been much attention to police diversity in recent decades, there have been few efforts to compare alternative measurement approaches. This research provides guidance to some initial measures, as well as further considerations communities may wish to make.

Women in State Law Enforcement: An Exploratory Trend Analysis

Gender diversity in policing has never been more important than it is today. However, women in state law enforcement are the least noticeable and most underrepresented of all women in policing. Using data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) surveys, this study examines gender diversity across the 49 primary state law enforcement agencies in the United States between 2000 and 2016. Although representation varies broadly across the states, the findings are mostly negative and suggest that women in state law enforcement have remained stagnant over the past two decades with very little improvement. This is important because scholarship must continue to bring attention to the underrepresentation of women in law enforcement, regardless of intergovernmental level, and monitor its progress.

US law enforcement policy predictors of race-specific police fatalities during 2015-16.

Mounting evidence suggests that law enforcement organizational factors contribute to higher incidence and racial disparities in police killings. To determine whether agency policies contribute to race-specific civilian fatalities, this exploratory study compared fatality rates among agencies with and without selected policies expected to reduce killings. A cross-section of 1085 fatalities in the 2015–2016 The Counted public-use database were matched to 481 agencies in the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) database. Negative binomial regression estimated incidence rate ratios (IRR) adjusted for agency type, number of officers, percent female personnel, median income, percent with a bachelor’s degree, violent crime rate, and population size, with inference using robust standard errors. Agencies with greater proportions of full-time personnel (range 43–100%) had lower rates of all (IRR = 0.85; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.77–0.93) and non-White civilian killings (IRR = 0.85; CI = 0.73–0.99). Mission statements predicted lower rates of all (IRR = 0.70; CI = 0.58–0.84) and White killings (IRR = 0.60; CI = 0.40–0.90). Community evaluation and more types of personnel incentives predicted lower rates of White (IRR = 0.82; CI = 0.68–0.99) and non-White killings (IRR = 0.94; CI = 0.89–1.00), respectively. Increasing video use predicted higher rates of White killings (IRR = 1.13; CI = 1.01–1.28). No policies were significantly associated with Black civilian killings. Law enforcement policies that help reduce police killings may vary across racial groups with the least benefit for Black civilians. Impact evaluations and meta-analyses of initiatives aimed to mitigate fatalities should be explored, particularly policies to address anti-Black bias. A national registry tracking all police killings and agency policies is urgently needed to inform law enforcement policies aimed to mitigate civilian fatalities.

Investigating the influence of institutional perviousness on the adoption of body-worn cameras by United States police agencies

ABSTRACT There is evidence that body-worn cameras decrease rates of police use of force and improve citizens’ perceptions of police legitimacy. Yet, research examining the processes leading agencies to adopt body-worn cameras is sparse. Using the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) data from U.S. police agencies of all sizes, this study examines the relevance of institutional perviousness for body-worn camera adoption. Perviousness governs the chances that an organization adopts a new policy or practice, as well as the extent to which an organization is internally aligned to implement the new innovation. Results demonstrate that perviousness increases the odds of agency body-worn camera adoption, alongside other organizational characteristics. The findings suggest that future research should consider the potential impact of perviousness when investigating other organizational outputs.

Gender composition and agency decision-making: female officers' effect on body-worn camera acquisition

PurposeGender representation in policing is an important but understudied topic. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between female representation in police departments and the acquisition of body-worn cameras (BWCs). Further, it examined how female representation influenced the reasons for acquiring BWCs.Design/methodology/approachData were gathered from the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey and the 2016 Body-Worn Camera Supplement to the LEMAS.FindingsControlling for relevant organizational characteristics, findings highlight the importance of female representation in terms of the acquisition of BWCs. In addition, findings point to the effect that increased female representation has on the reasons for acquiring BWCs. Namely, agencies with a greater percentage of female patrol officers were more likely to acquire body cameras for reasons related to improving community relations, professionalism, training, reducing use of force and strengthening leadership.Practical implicationsThis paper provides evidence of the positive influence of female representation in policing.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills the identified need to examine the influence of gender representation in police organizations. In addition, it advances the direction of recent research to merge large data sets in order to provide a unique look at the research questions.

Police discretion, organizational characteristics, and traffic stops: An analysis of racial disparity in illinois

An important source of racial disparity in policing is traffic enforcement. The level of discretion afforded to officers for traffic enforcement is generally greater than it is for other policing decisions. One way to control misuse of discretion is through minority representation, which is the extent that the racial composition of the police agency matches that of the local community. Using data from the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS), this study examines how social context and police organizational variables (e.g., minority representation) relate to enforcement outcomes. We find that organizational measures, including minority representation, relate to written citations and consent search requests. Moreover, non-white population size conditions the effect of minority representation on traffic stops and citations. These results highlight the importance of accounting for both social context and organizational characteristics when research examines discretionary police behavior.

Progress toward national estimates of police use of force.

This research builds on three decades of effort to produce national estimates of the amount and rate of force used by law enforcement officers in the United States. Prior efforts to produce national estimates have suffered from poor and inconsistent measurements of force, small and unrepresentative samples, low survey and/or item response rates, and disparate reporting of rates of force. The present study employs data from a nationally representative survey of state and local law enforcement agencies that has a high survey response rate as well as a relatively high rate of reporting uses of force. Using data on arrests for violent offenses and the number of sworn officers to impute missing data on uses of force, we estimate a total of 337,590 use of physical force incidents among State and local law enforcement agencies during 2012 with a 95 percent confidence interval of +/- 10,470 incidents or +/- 3.1 percent. This article reports the extent to which the number and rate of force incidents vary by the type and size of law enforcement agencies. Our findings demonstrate the willingness of a large proportion of law enforcement agencies to voluntarily report the amount of force used by their officers and the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) program to produce nationally representative information about police behavior.

A typological approach to studying policing

ABSTRACTPolicing in the United States has experienced immense change throughout the past quarter-century. Although police agencies have shared their goals of preserving life and protecting property, their philosophies and practices for achieving these goals have differed. The present research, therefore, explores patterns in policing via a novel, typological approach. Using six waves of data (1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2007, and 2013) from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) data series, we first employ factor analyses to generate indices for six important policing dimensions: (1) officer diversity, (2) community policing, (3) patrol strategy diversity, (4) militancy, (5) technology, and (6) staffing rigor. Using these indices, we then employ latent class analyses to construct typologies of police agencies, and examine the distribution of such typologies across space at various points in time. Our results reveal several key findings. We detect consistent patterns in typologies across time, including classes with high militancy, high diversity, or low staffing rigor (among others). Within these sets of classes, we also detect micro-heterogeneity amongst patterns of index values: for example, subsets of classes which all score high on one dimension but score high versus low on other dimensions. Finally, we find evidence to suggest spatial convergence of typologies in one large geographic region: Southern California. By offering a multidimensional classification scheme over a 20-year period, we contribute to the policing literature by highlighting the importance and implications of studying multiple policing dimensions simultaneously.

Policing through social networking

Researchers are starting to explore predictive models for departmental usage of opportunities to self-represent online. This is the first study to independently address police social networking in the US across a variety of social media platforms. Using the sampling frame of the 558 ‘self-representing’ municipal police department respondents in the 2007 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) data, I collected information concerning whether departments maintained active accounts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in 2014. The LEMAS data provides key independent variables concerning each department’s community-oriented policing commitment and technological sophistication. Ultimately, these organisational features are not predictive of departmental use of any of the three social networking sites.

Emerging Early Intervention Systems: An Agency-Specific Pre-Post Comparison of Formal Citizen Complaints of Use of Force

The use of Early Intervention (EI) systems among law enforcement agencies has rapidly increased in recent years. Despite being highly regarded throughout the field, there have been few evaluations of such systems. In the small number of cases where EI systems have been examined, studies have been limited to individual agencies looking at changes in behaviour at the officer level. Consequently, there has yet to be a large-scale evaluation of the effectiveness of EI systems across departments. Using data collected from the 2003 and 2007 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) surveys, the current study investigates patterns in rates of citizen complaints of use of force among 94 departments that implemented an EI system in the intervening years. Results show that the effectiveness of EI systems may have been overstated. Practical implications, specifically implementation issues of EI systems, and directions for future research are discussed.

When a Cleared Rape Is Not Cleared: A Multilevel Study of Arrest and Exceptional Clearance.

As rape remains one of the most underreported and least likely to be cleared of the violent crimes, it is of paramount importance to understand the factors associated with the likelihood of a case being cleared by law enforcement. This study uses data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS), and a multilevel modeling approach to examine the relationship between victim, offender, incident, and police department characteristics contrasting the two types of clearance: arrest and exceptional clearance. The latter occurs due to reasons outside of law enforcement's control and despite being considered cleared, the offender is not arrested, charged, nor turned over for prosecution. Of the 16,231 cleared rapes in 238 departments, nearly half (47%) results in exceptional clearance when the victim refuses to cooperate or when prosecution is declined. Incident-level variables have a greater effect on the likelihood of exceptional clearance than victim and offender variables. The department explained a nontrivial amount of variation in the dependent variable, as 37% of the variance in type of clearance was between-department variation. Implications for future research on exceptional clearance and NIBRS are discussed.

The legacy of LEMAS

Purpose– Since 1987, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has periodically collected data from police agencies in the USA and disseminated these data as the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) series. The purpose of this paper is to outline LEMAS's impact on criminal justice scholarship by describing the nexus between policing scholarship and LEMAS, and by analyzing the LEMAS constructs and variables used by researchers in refereed journal articles.Design/methodology/approach– A systematic review of the literature is undertaken to better comprehend how scholars use LEMAS variables and constructs. In total, 114 peer-reviewed journal articles were analyzed to parcel out variables and constructs derived from LEMAS data.Findings– The paper's analysis reveals that LEMAS is the second-most used BJS data series and the majority of authors use LEMAS to measure elements of organizational structure but not organizational behaviors, outcomes, or outputs.Originality/value– The study is the first to systematically identify all peer-reviewed journal articles that utilize LEMAS data. Police organizational research is unique in the fact that most authors agree on the operationalization of variables and constructs.

Rates and Patterns of Law Enforcement Turnover

Law enforcement agencies invest substantial resources to recruit, hire, and train new police officers. Reducing officer turnover can save significant resources, yet little is known about the rates and patterns of turnover in law enforcement. Using data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey in 2003 and the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA) in 2008, this study establishes baseline rates of employee turnover for sworn police officers. In addition to national rates, variations in turnover were compared across states, regions, urbanity, agency size, and agency type. Nationally, the total turnover rate was 10.8% in both 2003 and 2008. There was much consistency in turnover rates between survey years. Turnover rates, however, were higher in smaller agencies, municipal agencies, those in southern regions, and those in rural areas. The turnover rate benchmarks reported here serve to inform future research on law enforcement turnover and retention.

Diversity in municipal police agencies: a national examination of minority hiring and promotion

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to better understand the institutional and external factors associated with African-American and Latino representation in policing at the line and managerial ranks. Line representation analyses utilize new data sources and a full range of theoretically informed covariates. Managerial representation analyses provide the first comprehensive attempt to understand the dynamics behind minority promotion.Design/methodology/approach– Portions of the 2000 US Census of Population and Housing Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Tabulation, Division of Governmental Studies, and Services (DGSS) survey and Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey were combined to produce a sample of 180 cities/municipal departments for analysis.Findings– Results indicate that the representation of minorities in political office and their presence in police leadership positions are among the most influential predictors of line officer diversity. Proportions of minorities in administrative police roles are greater in larger departments paying higher salaries. There is also evidence that the career advancement of minorities can be limited when multiple minority groups compete for the same promotional opportunities.Originality/value– This study provides a thorough examination of minority officer line representation and the first multivariate examination of minority representation in managerial positions using a national sample.

Community and organizational influences on voluntary turnover in law enforcement

A small but growing body of research focuses on police officer turnover. Most of these studies are limited to measuring the experiences, views, and intentions of officers at one or a handful of agencies. Using the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) national survey of police agencies and data on community factors, this study examined the effects of organizational and community variables on voluntary municipal police officer turnover rates at small, medium, and large departments. For small departments, pay incentives had a negative relationship with voluntary turnover, while violent crime rate and mean temperature for the area had positive relationships. For medium-sized agencies, only a measure of concentrated disadvantage had a positive relationship with voluntary turnover. Finally, for large departments, concentrated disadvantage, the county's suicide rate, and mean temperature for the area all had significant positive relationships, while the violent crime rate for the area had a negative association.