Police-community Relations Research Articles

Urban Upheaval and the Enduring Appeal of Law and Order

Urban Upheaval and the Enduring Appeal of Law and Order

Minority representation in policing and racial profiling

PurposeIncreasing minority representation in law enforcement has long been viewed as a primary means to improve police-citizen relations. The recommendation to diversify police departments was endorsed by the Kerner Commission and, most recently, the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. While these recommendations make intuitive sense, little scholarly attention has examined whether greater levels of minority representation translate into positive police-community relations. The purpose of this paper is to use the representative bureaucracy and minority threat frameworks to assess the impact of the racial/ethnic composition of both police departments and municipalities on disparities in traffic stops.Design/methodology/approachA series of ordinary least squares regression analyses are tested using a sample of more than 150 local police agencies from Illinois and Missouri.FindingsHigher levels of departmental representativeness are not associated with fewer racial/ethnic disparities in stops. Instead, the racial/ethnic composition of municipalities is more predictive of racial patterns of traffic stops.Originality/valueThis study provides one of the few investigations of representative bureaucracy in law enforcement using individual departments as the unit of analysis. It examines Hispanic as well as black disparities in traffic stops, employing a more representative sample of different size agencies.

The effects of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on police and citizen outcomes

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the extant of the published literature on body-worn cameras (BWCs) in policing, specifically in the context of how BWCs affect both citizens and officers.Design/methodology/approachThe current study is a narrative review of the impact of BWCs on police and citizens generated through a search of four repositories (Google Scholar, Criminal Justice s, EBSCO Host, PsychInfo).FindingsThe current narrative review identified 21 articles that matched the selection criteria. In general, this body of research demonstrates that: the police are supportive of BWC adoption; the evidence from BWC evaluations suggests that the use of BWCs can have benefits for police-public encounters.Practical implicationsThe practical implications derived from this narrative review suggest police administrators that the adoption and effective implementation of BWCs are one mechanism that can strengthen police-community relationships and decrease police misconduct through enhanced legitimacy and accountability.Originality/valueThis study is useful for researchers who wish to further examine BWC issues in policing, for police managers/administrators who are currently utilizing BWC technology, and for those who are considering adopting BWC technology.

“Losing the Humanity of the Street”: Retired Police Officer Narratives of the Evolution of Low-level Enforcement in New York City

Low-level enforcement activities such as pedestrian and traffic stops, the issuance of criminal court summonses (tickets or citations), and misdemeanor arrests comprise the vast majority of police-citizen encounters relative to the policing of more serious, felony-level offenses. The complexities of these activities—particularly from the perspectives of the police officers who carry them out—have received relatively little scholarly attention. In an effort to more fully understand the nuances of low-level enforcement, in particular how such activities have changed over time and how police officers have experienced such changes, in-depth interviews were conducted with a small sample of retired New York Police Department (NYPD) officers. Findings shed light on how officers understand and experience proactive policing tactics and the pressures associated with data-driven accountability. The implications of this research for improving police-community relations are explored.

Police officers’ perceptions of organizational justice and their trust in the public

Research in organizational psychology has consistently demonstrated that employee perceptions of organizational justice have significant effects on employee attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. Similar studies utilizing the organizational justice model in policing have also noted these effects, including the relationship of justice perceptions with officer attitudes toward the public. Recent theoretical developments in policing contend that the association between internal perceptions of justice and external attitudes may be the result of organizational and supervisory practices that ‘trickle-down’ into the police-community relationship. This paper explores this association by assessing the effects of officer perceptions of organizational justice on officer trust in the public. A sample of patrol division police officers were surveyed using measures taken from the organizational justice literature and Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman’s model of organizational trust. Results show a strong relationship between perceptions of organizational justice and trust in the public even when other relevant predictors are controlled.

Police Perceptions of Body-Worn Cameras

Over the past several years there has been resistance from police officers towards implementing body-worn camera (BWC) technology. This paper assesses police perceptions towards BWCs in Pittsburgh and other cities to better characterize and explain such resistance, and also gain insight into the efficacy and potential benefits of BWCs from officers who have used the technology in their daily policing duties. Our surveys and interviews found that overall, Pittsburgh officers strongly believe BWCs can reduce citizen complaints and maintain police-community relations, but support for deploying BWCs throughout the city is low (31%). However, that support significantly increases among officers with hands-on BWC experience (57%). A comparison to previous police surveys found further evidence that BWC experience improves officer perception of the technology. In contrast, Pittsburgh officers who oppose city-wide adoption were concerned BWCs would erode trust between officers and their superiors, implying that police departments that can protect these internal police relationships might experience less resistance from police officers. These and other results suggest that changes in BWC technology, police policy and procedure, rollout, and police training could lead to better BWC programs.

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.

Mobile police community office: a vehicle for reducing crime, crime harm and enhancing police legitimacy?

A key objective for police is to develop innovative and adaptive methods to efficiently maintain public safety and foster strong police–community relations. The Queensland Police Service (QPS) designed the Mobile Police Community Office (MPCO), a purpose-built van with many of the same facilities of a police station, and trained MPCO officers to engage with members of the public using principles of procedural justice. This paper reports on whether the MPCO can be a “vehicle” to reduce crime, crime impact and enhance police legitimacy in crime hot spots in Brisbane, Australia. We matched 24 hot spots based on crime and location characteristics. Within pairs, hot spots were randomly assigned to either the existing police response or the existing response plus the MPCO for two days at prevalent crime times/days. A public survey assessing perceptions of police legitimacy was administered during deployment. Our study compared official crime counts for a period of two months pre-/post-deployment date for experimental and control hot spots. We developed a crime impact score using QPS offense level descriptions and corresponding Queensland legislation penalties as an additional efficacy measure. We found a modest yet insignificant decrease in crime between the pre- and post-intervention period and no significant difference in crime impact scores. While some argue that hot spot policing can reduce legitimacy, we found no evidence to support this claim. The MPCO is well received by the community and further research is needed to better understand its potential deterrent effect on crime.

Ethnographies of Race, Crime, and Justice: Toward a Sociological Double-Consciousness

This review discusses contemporary developments in qualitative research on race, crime, and criminal justice, focusing on ethnographic studies of race and policing, criminal justice, prisons, and mass incarceration. These ethnographies inform us about the day-to-day contexts in which crime, law, and punishment are produced. They help to make visible structures of power that contribute to inequality, push for a more reflexive approach to ethnography, and sophisticate our understanding of culture. A methodological paradigm has emerged that informs the research process and helps us understand the root causes and consequences of some of the most pressing issues in the United States: race and racism in the justice system, police harassment, police violence, police–community relations, antiauthoritarian social movements, crime prevention, and reentry. This body of scholarship is collectively developing a more reflexive paradigm in ethnography, which we term the sociological double-consciousness approach.

Is There Anybody There? Police, Communities and Communications Technology in Hargeisa

This article addresses the connection between information and communications technology (ICT) and police-community engagement in environments characterised by high access to mobile telephones but minimal police response rates. It examines public responses to a text alert project in Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa in order to explore the everyday choices shaping low-level police-community engagement. Although the project failed (local people did not use mobiles to alert the police to security issues requiring attention), it offers contextualised insights into both the specifics of daily police-community relations and the use of mobiles as a two-way technology capable of reaching low-income or marginalised populations in relatively safe urban environments. In focusing on how local expectations are, rather than should be, fulfilled, it finds little evidence to suggest that access to ICT leads to more responsive or accountable policing. For police, activities are shaped as much by community expectations as by the technologies available, and local preferences can offset the availability of globalised ICT. From this perspective, the key to understanding police-community engagement is found in the knowledge, skills and resources police need to fulfil local expectations, rather than the expectations of international donors.

Third-person perceptions, hostile media effects, and policing: Developing a theoretical framework for assessing the Ferguson effect

ObjectivesPolicing in the United States has come under intense scrutiny following numerous deadly force incidents involving unarmed black citizens, which dominated the news media. Some have argued that consequently, a “chill wind” has blown through law enforcement, such that officers have become more distrustful of civilians, fearful of scandal, and are de-policing. To date, however, scholars have given insufficient theoretical and empirical attention to why and how media coverage of policing may lead to such outcomes. MethodsWe addressed this literature gap using data from a survey of officers in a metropolitan police department in the southeast. ResultsWe found that officers perceive that media coverage of policing has a large effect on civilians, so much so as to impact crime rates. In turn, hostile media perceptions increase officers' 1) likelihood of believing that civilians' attitudes and behaviors toward police have worsened in recent years—that is, that there is a legitimacy crisis—and 2) fear of having false allegations lodged against them. Additionally, hostile media perceptions indirectly increase officers' likelihood of believing that crime is rising in their city, by increasing their perceptions of a police legitimacy crisis and fear of false allegations. ConclusionsThese findings have important implications for police-community relations moving forward.

Police Occupational Culture: Testing the Monolithic Model

Since foundational work in the 1950s, researchers have described a variety of dimensions of the occupational culture of police. In an effort to integrate the disparate works, a theoretical model has been constructed depicting the ways in which the stressful features of the police work environment produce coping mechanisms and outcomes. While this model usefully organizes the vast literature on police culture, it has yet to be empirically tested. The current study addresses this void. Path analyses of officer survey data reveal support for several of the propositions set forth by the monolithic model, although the magnitude of the statistical associations was not very powerful and overall model fit was marginal. The implications of these findings are especially relevant given recent concerns over police-community relations and the renewed interest in the police occupational culture expressed by the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

Demeanor, Race, and Police Perceptions of Procedural Justice: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments

President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing recently endorsed procedural justice as a way to restore trust between police and communities. Yet police–citizen interactions vary immensely, and research has yet to give sufficient consideration to the factors that might affect the importance officers place on exercising procedural justice during interactions. Building on research examining “moral worthiness” judgments and racial stereotyping among police officers, we conducted two randomized experiments to test whether suspect race and demeanor affect officers’ perceptions of the threat of violence and importance of exercising procedural justice while interacting with suspicious persons. We find that suspect race fails to exert a statistically significant effect on either outcome. However, demeanor does—such that officers perceive a greater threat of violence and indicate it is less important to exercise procedural justice with disrespectful suspects. These findings have implications for procedural justice training, specifically, and police–community relations more broadly.

Collective Leadership and Circles: Not Invented Here

ABSTRACTIssues like police-community relations, violence—from neighborhood to global levels, economic inequality, and climate change have been only minimally addressed within behavior analysis, despite the oft repeated mantra that they are all at root behavioral. Disciplines determine the scope of their interests; behavior analysis and behavioral systems analysis have long claimed at least potential expertise in changing not only individual behavior, but also the collective and interlocking functioning of larger institutions and systems. In this paper we note that standard organizational behavior management (OBM) practices primarily emphasizing centralized leadership are unlikely to be adequate for such work. We therefore argue that collective leadership, a strategy that has not been emphasized in OBM, will be required to operationalize behavioral systems interventions in situations where centralized leadership is impossible or dangerous, and suggest circle processes as one behaviorally specifiable approach to constructing collective leadership, an approach that behavioral systems analysts are well-positioned to test and refine.

Police Perceptions of Body-Worn Cameras

Over the past several years there has been resistance from police officers towards implementing body-worn camera (BWC) technology. This paper assesses police perceptions towards BWCs in Pittsburgh and other cities to better characterize and explain such resistance, and also gain insight into the efficacy and potential benefits of BWCs from officers who have used the technology in their daily policing duties. Our surveys and interviews found that overall, Pittsburgh officers strongly believe BWCs can reduce citizen complaints and maintain police-community relations, but support for deploying BWCs throughout the city is low (31%). However, that support significantly increases among officers with hands-on BWC experience (57%). A comparison to previous police surveys found further evidence that BWC experience improves officer perception of the technology. In contrast, Pittsburgh officers who oppose city-wide adoption were concerned BWCs would erode trust between officers and their superiors, implying that police departments that can protect these internal police relationships might experience less resistance from police officers. These and other results suggest that changes in BWC technology, police policy and procedure, rollout, and police training could lead to better BWC programs.

The Police-Community Interaction Survey: measuring police performance in new ways

PurposeThere is widespread interest in moving beyond crime statistics to measure police performance in new ways, especially the quality of police-community interactions that influence police legitimacy and public trust. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Police-Community Interaction Survey (PCIS) developed by the National Police Research Platform.Design/methodology/approachThe PCIS collected data from 53 police agencies around the USA in 2013-2014. The psychometric properties of the constructs measured are presented. This study also offers a preliminary test of the effects of an alternatively specified and expanded procedural justice model on willingness to cooperate with the police, mediated through perceptions of officer trustworthiness.FindingsScales were developed with good reliability and validity that measure various aspects of the police-community interactions. The authors find evidence that empathy is an important addition to the procedural justice model, and that the effects of procedural justice on willingness to cooperate with the police are partially mediated through perceptions of officer trustworthiness.Originality/valueThis is the first attempt to validate the measurement of police-community interactions on a large scale in the USA with policy implications at the local and national levels. The findings can help local police agencies incorporate new performance metrics at the individual, group, and agency levels. Nationally, the science of policing can be advanced by specifying the antecedents and consequences of respectful and empathic actions, including behavior that strengthens police-community relations.

Black Men Down: An Assessment of Experts’ Quotes on Deadly Encounters with Police

There is growing concern about conflict between police and black urban residents. Police-involved shootings of African American males have become a hot topic in the national discourse on race and policing. Despite this concern, there is still a paucity of research on the depiction of such incidents in the news and the implications for media and crime research. To address this gap, this study presents an exploratory content analysis of experts’ quotes from newspaper articles based on three separate incidents involving the death of unarmed black men at the hands of police. The findings show that articles quoted state managers much more frequently than intellectuals. Quotes were generally not favorable toward the actions of the police (most were neutral). However, they contained very little regarding evidence-based strategies for improving police–community relations in communities of color. The implications for research on media and crime are also discussed.

The Influence of Police Profanity on Public Perception of Excessive Force

Previous research has examined elements of police performance impacting community policing and police-citizen relationships, but no study has considered the impact of police use of profanity during arrest on public rating of force. Police profanity may negatively bias police-citizen interactions, and this bias could shape later interactions with community members, impact the quality of police-community relations, or even result in public outcry over excessive use of force. The aim of this study was to determine whether officer use of profanity during arrest led to public perception of excessive force and to examine whether gender of the officer or subject affected this relation. Force was evaluated as more excessive when profanity was used, when the subject was a female, and when the officer was a female. Participants who rated force as excessive had significantly more negative attitudes about police and police use of force. These findings have direct implications for police training and suggest that if police avoid the use of profanity, this could result in more positive relationships with the public and fewer allegations of excessive force. Future researchers should further evaluate the nature and impact of gender biases against female police, as they may contribute to reduced opportunities, less frequent promotion, and reduced self-efficacy in female officers.

Police-Community Relations in Northeast India: A Case Study from Assam

Community policing (CP) is an innovative partnership between police and the people concerned. In this system, community attempts to manage and control public disorder and reduce inter-communal tensions along with police personnel. However, there are many constructions of its meaning, each informed by different philosophical underpinnings. This paper highlights the effective policing process which is greatly facilitated by good local community participation in policing matters. The paper specially focuses on the conflict prone zones of Assam in India's North East, and the flagship programme of Assam Police in the lines of community policing, ‘PRAHARI’ and its role towards crime control, order maintenance, public safety and most importantly promoting peace and harmony in the society. The author feels the need to nurture such initiatives for a better future.

Police legitimacy and disrupting overt drug markets

Purpose Overt drug markets are particularly difficult to address using traditional law enforcement tactics alone; disrupting these markets often requires substantial community cooperation. Enhancing police-community relations has been offered as a promising strategy for closing overt markets, demonstrating sustained success in several settings. The purpose of this paper is to examine theoretical mechanisms hypothesized to create immediate and sustained disruption in overt drug markets, focusing on the role of strengthened police/community relations, and greater police legitimacy. Design/methodology/approach The manuscript describes a series of focus groups with community residents across three sites over 15-months after a drug market intervention. A repeated cross-sectional design enabled in-depth analysis of study participants’ views regarding mechanisms of change over time. Findings Study participants remained ambivalent about police legitimacy; they expressed appreciation regarding local policing efforts to improve neighborhood conditions, but maintained many negative feelings about the overall policing profession. Further, residents worried that the increased police presence might lead to greater harassment. Regardless of their misgivings, however, the findings reveal increases in police cooperation and improvements in some previously identified components of police legitimacy. Practical implications There is partial support for several underlying mechanisms of change over time. Study participants perceived a more focused police response, resulting in disruptions of the market and sustained improvements in neighborhood conditions. Originality/value This reflects original work not published elsewhere. It contributes to a growing body of literature on the role of police legitimacy in problem-solving interventions.