Police-citizen Encounters Research Articles

Thinking fast, not slow: How cognitive biases may contribute to racial disparities in the use of force in police-citizen encounters

PurposeTo illuminate how racial disparities in police use of force may arise and to guide research aimed at explaining such disparities. MethodsWe draw on research on policing, racial disparities in criminal justice, and cognitive bias and decision making to argue that police-citizen encounters require rapid assessments that demand reliance on cognitive “shortcuts,” or heuristics, that may influence the use of force. ResultsWhen cognitive shortcuts rely on biases about the dangerousness of racial minorities, they can contribute to disparities in the use of force. These biases may interact with those that citizens hold, which creates a greater potential for disparities. In addition, biases of officers and citizens may be influenced by such factors as officer training, social context, and reaction time. ConclusionsResearch is needed that identifies cognitive shortcuts used during police-citizen encounters, conditions under which they are activated, and strategies for minimizing their role in contributing to racial disparities in the use of force.

Commodifying Policing: A Recipe for Community-Police Tensions

Deadly police-citizen encounters do not occur in a vacuum. They reflect our times and our society. Some view them as an internal police problem, others as a symbol of larger societal challenges, especially racism, or as a function of failed criminal justice policies. On a yet larger scale, police actions, and the ensuing community response, are intimately tied to the dominant economic and political climate. In many parts of the country decreased funding for vital governmental functions, especially since the depression of 2008, has shaped police enforcement goals and tactics. Those have contributed to the deterioration of community-police relations and the civilian death toll at the hands of police. Not all police departments have been impacted equally but many have had to continue to diversify their funding streams with the downturn in municipal funding. The choices made to support department budgets – and those of other governmental entities – have impacted policing priorities and strategies, often leading to more intensive policing of poorer and minority neighborhoods. In turn, those decisions have increased community tensions with police. The focus on the larger economic picture is not designed to absolve police departments of blame for decisions made but to highlight the interdependencies between different government entities and broader challenges police will face in restructuring. With the downturn in funding for all municipal activity, including policing, police forces turned to other sources of funding. Those have included forfeiture; revenues derived from citations for traffic and municipal violations; fees added to fines; free equipment, donated by the Department of Defense; and grants from the federal and state governments. Pressures to make budget enhanced the incentives to seize private property and increase the issuance of tickets. The latter has led to the now well-documented reinstitution of the so-called debtor’s prison for individuals who have found themselves unable to pay off court-ordered debt. Measurements of police performance that went along with grant funding continued numbers- and dollars-driven enforcement by emphasizing numbers of arrests, amounts of drug or money seizures, or numbers of citations issued. Combined these policies have increased the stakes in interactions between community members and police, leading to greater dangers for both sides.

Police Officers’ Perceptions of Body-Worn Cameras in Buffalo and Rochester

Police body-worn cameras have been advanced as a solution to disparate perceptions among the citizenry, public officials, community leaders, and the police themselves in the highly contested arena of police-citizen encounters. As with previous innovations in policing it is important that programs or policies developed for street-level application be planned in advance, and the opinions of police officers should be understood prior to implementation. This study provides survey responses from police officers in Buffalo and Rochester regarding their perceptions of body-worn cameras. Survey items were borrowed from prior research in Phoenix and Los Angeles. It also included items intended to measure the officer’s opinions about examining camera images prior to writing a report, an issue that is the subject of some disagreement among policy makers. Findings suggest similar attitudes toward body cameras not only among Buffalo and Rochester police officers, but also with police officers in other agencies. Almost all respondents agree or strongly agree that police officers should have the ability to review body camera images prior to writing a report. The policy implications of this finding are discussed.

Challenging the ‘invariance’ thesis: procedural justice policing and the moderating influence of trust on citizens’ obligation to obey police

This paper examines the effects of a procedural justice policing intervention on citizens’ feelings of obligation to obey police. It examines whether the efficacy of procedural justice on citizens’ obligation to obey police may be contingent on citizens’ level of trust in police during a police–citizen encounter. This research draws on survey data from the Queensland Community Engagement Trial (QCET). QCET was a randomized controlled field trial implemented by the Queensland Police Service. The trial exposed citizens to either a procedural justice experience (experimental condition) or standard police practice (control condition) during a random roadside stop. Survey responses were received from 1107 drivers in the experimental condition and 1655 drivers in the control condition. Compared to the control condition, the procedural justice condition yielded higher levels of trust in the police officer conducting the roadside stop. No differences in obligation to obey police were observed between the two conditions. Importantly, citizens’ level of trust in the officer moderated the effect of the intervention on obligation to obey police. Specifically, the procedural justice condition had a negative effect on obligation to obey for those reporting low trust in police. For those high in trust, the procedural justice intervention had a slight but insignificant positive effect on obligation to obey. The findings suggest that procedural justice effects can vary between individuals; specifically, the findings reveal that procedural justice interventions can sometimes be counter-productive, depending on the level of trust a citizen exhibits toward police during an encounter. Police agencies should therefore be aware of potential counter-productive effects when implementing procedural justice in the field.

The Rugged Individual's Guide to the Fourth Amendment: How the Court's Idealized Citizen Shapes, Influences, and Excludes the Exercise of Constitutional Rights

Few figures inspire us like individuals who stand up for their rights and beliefs despite the peril that may follow. One cannot help but feel awe looking at the famous photograph of the lone Tiananmen Square protestor facing down a line of Red Army tanks, his willowy frame clothed in a simple white shirt and black pants as he holds a shopping bag. Or who can help but feel humbled by the courage of Rosa Parks, a seamstress, who finally had enough and was willing to be arrested rather than sit in the back of the bus. But while these stories of everyday individuals acting with remarkable courage inspire us, we would hesitate to say that before a citizen can enjoy his or her constitutional rights that he or she must exhibit a similar fortitude. A close examination of the Court’s cases, however, shows that the Court has imposed exactly such an expectation when it comes to the Fourth Amendment. The Court has repeatedly turned to the archetype of an idealized citizen – the “rugged individual” who will unflinchingly stand up to government authority – to define Fourth Amendment rights, and it has had disastrous consequences. The Court’s use of the rugged individual has created an unrealistic threshold for exercising one’s Fourth Amendment rights and is a primary reason why current Fourth Amendment doctrine has proven so impotent in addressing the severe problems with police-citizen encounters that have erupted across the country, from Seattle to Chicago to Ferguson to Baltimore, with each day’s headlines seemingly adding another city to the list. This Article will examine the Court’s use of the rugged individual archetype in its Fourth Amendment jurisprudence and demonstrate how instead of promoting values like dignity and autonomy, the values that the archetype was intended to represent, it has actively undermined those values to devastating effect. Not only does the empirical evidence show that acting like the rugged individual is beyond the reach of most of the citizenry when confronted by the police, it also shows that the archetype when applied to minority communities creates an especially dangerous situation that alienates and effectively disenfranchises a large swath of citizens from their rights. The Article concludes by examining the various reasons the Court continues to rely on the rugged individual and why that reliance must change. In its place, the Article proposes a rights-bearing citizen as an archetype that far better promotes the Fourth Amendment’s underlying values − an archetype that presumes that every citizen, whatever their race, income, or neighborhood, desires to exercise their Fourth Amendment rights and aligns Fourth Amendment jurisprudence with the realities of a police-citizen encounter.

Exploring the Potential for Body-Worn Cameras to Reduce Violence in Police–Citizen Encounters

Exploring the Potential for Body-Worn Cameras to Reduce Violence in Police–Citizen Encounters

Scott v. Harris: The Supreme Court's Reality Effect

In Scott v. Harris (2007), the Supreme Court for the first time posted a video on its website, as an appendix to its opinion. The assumption of the majority in this 8–1 decision is that the video speaks for itself; only Justice Stevens suggests otherwise. Looking at the video ourselves, we may want to ask why the Court reacts as it does. I argue that the “reality effect” of the video overcomes analytic judgment on the part of the Court majority. And, further, that this will become a larger problem as videos of police–citizen encounters are promoted as self-interpreting evidence.

Procedurally just cooperation: Explaining support for due process reforms in policing

PurposeWe explore criminal justice workers' (CJW) support for due process reforms in policing. We build on and integrate four related literatures—scholarship analyzing 1) process-based regulation, 2) the generality of procedural justice, 3) the bilateral and dialogical nature of legitimacy, and 4) the tensions between the due process versus crime control models of criminal justice. We hypothesize that when citizens exercise procedural justice in their decisions about how to respond to legal authorities' inquiries and directives it enhances “rights legitimacy” and increases CJW's support for the due process model of criminal justice. MethodsWe analyze data from a nationwide sample (N=579) of CJW. We examine whether CJW's perceptions that citizens are fair and respectful toward police are associated with their support for due process reforms. ResultsProcedurally just cooperation predicts support for due process reforms among police officers and other CJW, both before and after a highly publicized negative police-citizen encounter (the police killing of Michael Brown), and regardless of respondents' race, gender or career length. ConclusionsThe findings support the generality of the process-based model and the bilateral and dialogical nature of legitimacy.

The understated ugly side of police–citizen encounters: situation, suspect, officer, decision-making, and force predictors of officer injuries

ABSTRACTPolicing is one of the most dangerous occupations and is consistently placed in the top five occupations for injuries and fatalities as a result of occupational violence [Prenzler, T. (2012). Policing and security in practice: challenges and achievements. New York: Palgrave Macmillan]. Police–citizen encounters that involve the use of force present a high risk of injuries to officers. This study used official data from an Australian jurisdiction to explore injuries sustained by officers in 202 police–citizen encounters involving force. The study examined situation, suspect, and officer characteristics, as well as officers’ decision-making and the force level chosen relative to the suspects’ level of resistance. Multiple regression showed the most predictive factors of officer injury were encounters with physically aggressive suspects and situations where police used lower levels of force compared to suspect resistance. Significant effects were also found for crime event and suspect-related variables. The findings of this research help identify what types of incidents provide the greatest risk for police and develop risk reduction strategies.

Too much or too little? Individual and situational predictors of police force relative to suspect resistance

ABSTRACTThis study examined variations of police use of force by applying Terrill et al.’s [(2003). A management tool for evaluating police use of force: an application of the force factor. Police quarterly, 6 (2), 150–171] adaptation of Alpert and Dunham’s [(1997). The force factor: measuring police use of force relative to suspect resistance. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum] Force Factor method (where the level of force is explored relative to the level of suspect resistance) via the use of Terrill et al.’s Resistance Force Comparative Scale. Using official data from the Queensland Police Service in Australia, this study examined 202 police-citizen encounters that resulted in police use of force. The impact of individual and situational factors on officers’ use of commensurate, lower, or higher relative force was explored with chi-square and multinomial logistic regression. The regression analyses found that officers’ were less likely to use higher relative force with suspects who were physically aggressive and suspects with weapons. Encounters that resulted in lower relative force were more likely to involve female suspects. These findings are discussed in relation to officer preparedness and decision-making.

Measuring, Managing, and Enhancing Procedural Justice in Policing: Promise and Pitfalls

The procedural justice that citizens subjectively experience with the police affects police legitimacy. The procedural justice of policing is typically not measured in police agencies, nor is it an outcome for which managers are held accountable. We examine whether and how the measurement of procedural justice would affect its management. Survey-based measures of subjective procedural justice in police contacts were reported to two departments’ command staffs on a monthly basis in Compstat meetings. The impacts of thusly measuring performance were estimated. We also analyzed an indicator of procedural justice that was based on systematic observation through video and audio recording of police-citizen encounters, and we interviewed patrol officers and supervisors about supervisors’ efforts to manage procedural justice. Neither indicator of police performance revealed consistent changes. However, a modest improvement on one platoon was detected. We discuss the implications for enhancing police legitimacy.

CYNICAL STREETS: NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIAL PROCESSES AND PERCEPTIONS OF CRIMINAL INJUSTICE*

Studies have found that African Americans are more likely to perceive racial biases in the criminal justice system than are those from other racial groups. There is a limited understanding of how neighborhood social processes affect variation in these perceptions. This study formulates a series of hypotheses focused on whether perceived racial biases in the criminal justice system or perceptions of injustice vary as a function of levels of moral and legal cynicism as well as of adverse police–citizen encounters. These hypotheses are tested with multilevel regression models applied to data from a sample of 689 African Americans located in 39 neighborhoods. Findings from the regression models indicate that the positive association between structural disadvantage and perceptions of injustice is accounted for by moral and legal cynicism. Furthermore, adverse police encounters significantly increase perceptions of injustice; controlling for these encounters reduces the strength of the association between cynicism and injustice perceptions. Finally, the findings reveal that cynicism intensifies the association between adverse police encounters and perceptions of criminal injustice. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for research regarding perceived biases in the criminal justice system and neighborhood social processes.

Understanding perceptions of citizen demeanour: using an experimental design to understand the impact of encounter and observer characteristics

ABSTRACTSystematic social observations of police-citizen encounters have revealed that citizen demeanour is an important predictor of outcomes (e.g. arrests and searches). Drawing from research on stereotypes and impression formation, we examine whether characteristics of the encounter and/or observer affect how respondents perceive demeanour. We exposed undergraduates (n = 255) to a randomly rotated series of five between-subjects design, in which characteristics of the encounter (citizen race, gender, or age; officer gender; neighbourhood context) and the level of demeanour displayed were manipulated. OLS regression was used to examine how these manipulations interact to produce our dependent variable – perceptions of demeanour – and whether characteristics of the observer matter for perceptions, independent of the manipulations. We find that some aspects of the encounter, specifically officer gender and the socio-economic context of the neighbourhood, influence perceptions of demeanour. Previous victimisation, observers’ race, and perceptions of the police also impact how demeanour is perceived. These findings suggest that understanding the impact of citizen demeanour on police-citizen encounters requires consideration of encounter and observer characteristics.

Is bad stronger than good? The impact of police-citizen encounters on public satisfaction with police

Purpose– Drawing upon the negativity bias theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of positive and negative perceptions of police-initiated or citizen-initiated contacts on three distinctive dimensions of public satisfaction with police (PSWP).Design/methodology/approach– The data were obtained from a random-sample telephone survey of 1,143 residents in Houston in 2012. The OLS regressions were conducted with variables derived from the contact model and neighborhood context model that were often employed in the PSWP research. Particularly, five dichotomous variables were created to tap into the nature and quality of the police-citizen encounters.Findings– The results confirm the negativity bias theory that “bad is stronger than good,” suggesting that the negative-contact variables have stronger influences on PSWP than the positive-contact variables, net of neighborhood context and demographic background.Originality/value– This study expands the scope of the investigation on PSWP by exploring the effects of the nature and quality of the police-citizen contacts on the respondents’ sentiments toward the police.

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Relationship between Administrative Policy, Technological Preferences, and Body-Worn Camera Activation among Police Officers

Policymakers and communities are increasingly looking to body-worn cameras to increase accountability and fix the legitimacy crisis affecting American police. Empirical research on the effectiveness of body-worn cameras is therefore an important avenue of study. Although some research shows that body-worn cameras may influence officer behaviour, there is no research examining whether officers will use the device and how usage behaviour may depend on administrative policies. Thus, the relationship between officer preferences, policies regarding camera activation, and camera use remains unknown. The current study examines whether officers’ activation of body-worn cameras depends on two different policy conditions. Integrating research on administrative policy and officer behaviour with studies of technology use in organizations, we test key hypotheses using longitudinal data for 1,475 police-citizen encounters involving 50 officers over a 9-month period. Our study yields two key findings. First, body-worn camera activation is more prevalent under a mandatory use policy relative to a discretionary use policy. Second, although camera activation declined under the discretionary use policy, this was much less likely among officers who volunteered to wear cameras. The lowest levels of activation occurred among officers who were compulsory-assigned to wear cameras. We discuss the dual role of officer preferences and administrative policy on compliance with technological innovations within police organizations.

How Private Insurers Regulate Public Police

A string of deadly police-citizen encounters, made public on an unprecedented scale, has thrust American policing into the crucible of political conflict. New social movements have taken to the streets, while legislators have introduced a wide array of reform proposals. Optimism is elusive, though, as the police are notoriously difficult to change. One powerful policy lever, however, has been overlooked: police liability insurance. Based on primary sources new to legal literature and interviews with nearly thirty insurance industry representatives, civil rights litigators, municipal attorneys, and consultants, this Article shows how liability insurers are capable of effecting meaningful change within the agencies they insure — a majority of police agencies nationwide. The Article is the first to describe and assess the contemporary market for liability insurance in the policing context; in particular, the effects of insurance on police behavior. While not ignoring the familiar (and potentially serious) problem of moral hazard, the Article focuses on the ways in which insurers perform a traditionally governmental “regulatory” role as they work to manage risk. Insurers get police agencies to adopt or amend written departmental policies on subjects like the use of force and strip searches, to change the way they train their officers, and even to fire problem officers, from the beat up to the chief. One implication of these findings is that the state might regulate the police by regulating insurers. In this spirit, the Article considers several unconventional legal reforms that could reduce police misconduct, including a mandate that all municipalities purchase insurance coverage, a ban on “first-dollar” (no-deductible) policies that may reduce municipal care, and a requirement that small municipalities pool their risks and resources before buying insurance on the commercial market. At bottom, the Article establishes that liability insurance has profound significance to any comprehensive program of police reform. The Article also makes three important theoretical contributions to legal scholarship. First, it inverts the ordinary model of governance as public regulation of private action, observing that here, private insurers regulate public police. Second, it illustrates how insurers not only enforce the Constitution, but also construct its meaning. Among other things, in the hands of insurers, liability for constitutional violations and other police misconduct becomes “loss” to the police agency, which must be “controlled.” Perhaps surprisingly, by denaturing the law in this way and stripping it of its moral valence, insurers may actually advance the law’s aims. Finally, the Article helps to pry open the black box of deterrence. In fact, given widespread indemnification of both individual and entity liability for constitutional torts committed by police, an understanding of how insurers manage police risk is essential to any persuasive theory of civil deterrence of police misconduct.

Valuing Proactive Policing: A Hedonic Analysis of Stop & Frisk's Amenity Value

This paper measures the value households place on street-level intensive policing practices. It utilizes a large, spatially detailed data set that includes more than one hundred thousand real property sales and four million police-citizen encounters in New York City from 2006-2012. A hedonic analysis of this data shows that the New York Police Department's practice of Stop, Question & Frisk policing was likely seen as a neighborhood dis-amenity by home buyers. Using finely partitioned geographical areas to control for variation in omitted variables and precise spatial statistics describing location relative to surrounding amenities and dis-amenities, I find that properties exposed to more intense Stop & Frisk activity sold for significantly lower prices. In a novel application, this paper shows one way in which housing prices can be used to inform administrative policy related to the provision of public services.

Predicting Procedural Justice in Police–Citizen Encounters

Police exercise great discretion in their dealings with the public, but most research on police discretion focuses on coercive decisions. Despite the demonstrated importance of procedural justice (PJ) for police legitimacy and overall satisfaction, the predictors of police-provided PJ in police–citizen encounters have rarely been examined. We propose a framework for assessing the choice of police officers to engage in PJ and test it using data collected in direct observations of police interactions with the public. We find significant effects for the moral “worthiness” of the citizen as reflected in his or her role in the situation; for situational challenges of engaging in PJ, including large audience and officer mental/emotional fatigue; and for popular scripts for handling traffic-related encounters and serving in a backup role. We interpret and discuss the implications of our findings and suggest avenues for advancing understanding of the factors underlying procedurally just police treatment.

An application of procedural justice to stakeholder perspectives: examining police legitimacy and public trust in police complaints systems

ABSTRACTConsiderable research focuses on the complainant experience with civilian oversight agencies but we know much less about the perceptions of divergent stakeholders on the fairness in quality of decision-making and treatment associated with investigating allegations of police misconduct. Over 150 members of the community, law enforcement, and policy-makers were brought together to collaboratively develop recommendations to improve the transparency, accessibility, and accountability of a Canadian police complaints system (PCS). Using participant observation and survey data, the findings suggest the majority of participants hold negative views due to underlying themes of distrust in the investigation process, a reluctance to report due to inadequate knowledge and a fear of police reprisals, particularly by high risk and marginalised populations. Stakeholder confidence cannot be separated from the principles of procedural justice and due process constraints. Views on the legitimacy of both the police and the PCS are shaped by the absence of procedural justice principles of fairness in treatment and decision-making. Further, citizens appear to confound perceptions of legitimacy of the PCS with that of behaviour during police–citizen encounters. Thus, to increase public confidence the PCSs must work with police services to improve relationships with the community by developing initiatives that target the elements of the procedural justice model separately.

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Relationship between Administrative Policy, Technological Preferences, and Body-Worn Camera Activation Among Police Officers

Policymakers and communities are increasingly looking to body-worn cameras to increase accountability and fix the legitimacy crisis affecting American police. Empirical research on the effectiveness of body-worn cameras is therefore an important avenue of study. Although some research shows that body-worn cameras may influence officer behavior, there is no research examining whether officers will use the device and how usage behavior may depend on administrative policies. Thus, the relationship between officer preferences for body-worn cameras and policies regarding camera activation remains unknown. The current study examines whether officers’ activation of body-worn cameras depends on two different policy conditions. Integrating research on administrative policy and officer behavior with studies of technology use in organizations, we test key hypotheses using longitudinal data for 1,475 police-citizen encounters involving 50 officers over a 9-month period. Our study yields two key findings. First, body-worn camera activation is more prevalent under a mandatory use policy relative to a discretionary use policy. Second, although camera activation declined under the discretionary use policy, this was much less likely among officers who volunteered to wear cameras. The lowest levels of activation occurred among officers who were compulsory-assigned to wear cameras. We discuss the dual role of officer preferences and administrative policy on compliance with technological innovations within police organizations.