Professional Police Research Articles

Who Forgot Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Police Officers? Findings from a National Survey

This article highlights the intersection of sexualities with contemporary police diversity debates. It showcases the findings of a national survey of LGB police officers in England and Wales, representing one of the largest datasets of its kind (n = 836). Presenting the main findings from the survey, the article identifies that the workplace experiences of these once stigmatized and rejected officers have been transformed post-Macpherson, but that some resistances and anxieties persist. Throughout, the complexity of managing LGB identities in professional policing contexts’ are demonstrated. The article calls on police constabularies not to see diversity reform as complete, but rather to further invest and address issues raised in this research by LGB officers themselves so that their career experiences can be further improved and contributions maximized.

Labour's election proposals for the police service: taking the wrong road

Article considers Labour's proposal to replace PCCs with regional police boards, amalgamating police forces and reintroducing indirectly elected councillors to oversee the police. It is based on the recommendations of the Steven's Report which placed a professional policing model at the centre of reform. The failure of this model is being played out daily with reports from the inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster. It recommends instead that PCCs be retained but local Police and Crime Panels be strengthened to oversee the work of PCCs between elections.

Police and Politics: Autonomy and Accountability

Safe, secure and peaceful environment is prerequisite for growth and survival of democracy. Rule of law is cardinal principle of democracy. Efficient, effective and accountable police is essential for ensuring peace and harmony and to uphold the rule of law. The expectations of people have grown in the post independence period. People wanted the police as people-friendly and service oriented institution, but the structure and functions of Indian police is still governed by the Indian Police Act 1861 enacted by Colonial rulers to perpetuate their unjust and oppressive rule in India. Consequently, structure and functioning of existing police system need to be changed for making it a people's police but the politicians, top police leadership and bureaucracy have vested interest to maintain the status quo. Instead of brining reform in police, the politicians have misused it for promoting their partisan interest. Thus, there is urgent need for police reforms to make the police autonomous but accountable. Insulating the police from political interference, providing infrastructural facilities, sufficient provision of training and adequate manpower are vital for autonomous and professional police forces. Democracy cannot survive in an environment of anarchy and chaos. Therefore, efficient and accountable police forces are as much essential for functional democracy of India as for safety and security of citizens.

Adaptation and development of the Empathy Assessment Index (EAI)

The purpose of this study was to adapt and develop a multidimensional measure of interpersonal empathy, the Empathy Assessment Index (EAI). The EAI is a self-report measure developed in the US that is applicable in most contexts where empathy is considered a relevant construct. The focus of this work is on professions dealing with complex interpersonal situations, such as the police or other professions that can be categorized as street-level bureaucrats. The added value of the EAI relative to previous measures of interpersonal empathy stems from its incorporation of subconstructs such as self-other awareness (SOA) and emotion regulation (ER) to augment the cognitive dimension of empathy. The Swedish version of the EAI was administered to a sample of 330 participants, most of whom were police recruits. An exploratory factor analysis identified a four-factor structure, which was supported by a confirmatory factor analysis. The factors identified in the analysis were affective response, SOA, perspective taking (PT), and ER. Evidence for the scale’s concurrent validity was established in relation to the empathic concern and PT subscales from the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The adapted version of the EAI will be used in further studies within the police context.

Grand Juries: Police Violence, Civil Liabilities and Benefits

The history of the Grand Jury in the Anglo-American legal system is briefly sketched in the context of its role as an arbiter of control of police violence and illegal behavior. The nature of charging of police with crimes associated with shooting civilians, especially minorities and the ethnic and gender makeup of Grand Juries is considered as a factor. The cost of liability to cities from police shoots is addressed in the context of the benefits of professional police services versus alternatives.

Strengthening Police Professionalism with Decision Support: Bounded Discretion in Out-of-Court Disposals

Strengthening Police Professionalism with Decision Support: Bounded Discretion in Out-of-Court Disposals

Police Officers' Perceptions of Interviewing Offenders on Sex Offender Registries

Police interviews with offenders form an important component of the sex offender registry monitoring process. This study provides an analysis of police professionals' perceptions of the benefits an...

Ghostly Collaboration: the Authorship of False Criminal Confession

Drawing on a body of confession scholarship, “Ghostly Collaboration” defines “coercive ghostwriting,” an authorship-inspired term for collaborative practices enacted between custodial criminal suspects and professional police interrogators resulting in coerced, potentially false confession. Within the United States, still-prominent notions of a Romantically-influenced autonomous Author problematically intersect with public perception of collaborative texts; the coercive ghostwriting label is intended to draw explicit attention to co-authorship via coercive collaboration, hopefully contributing to the ongoing efforts of researchers working to challenge inaccurate views of false confessions.

Crime, costs, and well being: policing Canadian Aboriginal communities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the community level factors associated with police strength and operational costs in Aboriginal police services from four different geographic zones, including remote communities inaccessible by road[1]. Design/methodology/approach – Analysis of variance was used to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference in per capita policing costs, the officer to resident ratio, an index of community well-being and crime severity in 236 rural and remote Canadian communities. Findings – The authors found that places that were geographically inaccessible or further from urban areas had rates of police-reported crime several times the national average and low levels of community well-being. Consistent with those results, the per capita costs of policing were many times greater than the national average, in part due to higher officer to resident ratios. Research limitations/implications – These results are from rural Canada and might not be generalizable to other nations. Practical implications – Given the complex needs of these communities, these findings reinforce the importance of delivering full-time professional police services in rural and remote communities. Short duration or temporary postings may reduce police legitimacy as residents may perceive that their rural or Aboriginal status makes them less valued than city dwellers. As a result, agencies should prioritize the retention of experienced officers in these communities. Originality/value – These findings validate the observations of officers about the challenges that must be overcome in policing these distinctive communities. This information can be used to inform future studies of rural and remote policing.

Sign language, translation and rule of law – deaf people's experiences from encounters with the Norwegian criminal justice system

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was ratified in Norway, June 2013. Nordic countries are generally associated with the promotion of human rights as well as disability rights. The Rule of Law Index from the World Justice Project ranks the Nordic countries among the top nations when it comes to high standards of justice (both civil and criminal justice) and rule of law. However, there are also well-known examples of grave miscarriages of justice in cases where disabled people have been involved. These cases address issues of access to justice and questions barriers to effective communication in criminal justice. Taking the situation of deaf people in Norway as a case, this study asks what barriers deaf people face when reporting a crime, being accused of a crime or being a witness in court. The methodological approach is semi-structured, open-ended interviews with deaf persons, professional sign language interpreters, judges, prosecutors, police officers and lawyers. All the info...

Youth Justice Co-ordinators’ perspectives on New Zealand’s Youth Justice Family Group Conference process

Summary The article describes an evaluation of New Zealand’s Youth Justice Family Group Conference process from the perspectives of Youth Justice Co-ordinators. The study aimed to understand the development of practice, to identify factors constituting best practice and areas of process weakness. Data was obtained from semi-structured interviews with Youth Justice Co-ordinators ( n = 19) with at least 12 years’ experience (Project One) and four broader focus groups ( n = 27) (Project Two). Findings The Youth Justice Family Group Conference process was reported by participants to be effective for the majority of young people, but inadequate for recidivist, high-risk offenders. Best practice included: aligned professional approaches to conference philosophy and practice, service delivery by trained Youth Justice Co-ordinators, conference preparation quality, victim inclusion, and determining a strengths-based personalised plan for the young person. Several process weaknesses were identified. Applications Recommendations for process improvement included: addressing Co-ordinator training and service leadership, reviewing the process for recidivists, enhancing professional collaboration and Police training.

HIV, drugs and the legal environment

A large body of scientific evidence indicates that policies based solely on law enforcement without taking into account public health and human rights considerations increase the health risks of people who inject drugs (PWIDs) and their communities. Although formal laws are an important component of the legal environment supporting harm reduction, it is the enforcement of the law that affects PWIDs’ behavior and attitudes most acutely. This commentary focuses primarily on drug policies and policing practices that increase PWIDs’ risk of acquiring HIV and viral hepatitis, and avenues for intervention. Policy and legal reforms that promote public health over the criminalization of drug use and PWID are urgently needed. This should include alternative regulatory frameworks for illicit drug possession and use. Changing legal norms and improving law enforcement responses to drug-related harms requires partnerships that are broader than the necessary bridges between criminal justice and public health sectors. HIV prevention efforts must partner with wider initiatives that seek to improve police professionalism, accountability, and transparency and boost the rule of law. Public health and criminal justice professionals can work synergistically to shift the legal environment away from one that exacerbates HIV risks to one that promotes safe and healthy communities.

Initial Biomechanical and performance implications of weapon design

Considerable debate exists among police and military professionals regarding the differences between conventional configuration weapons, where the magazine and action are located ahead of the trigger, and bullpup configuration, where they are located behind the trigger (closer to the user). To date, no published research has attempted to evaluate this question from a physical ergonomics standpoint, and the knowledge that one style might improve stability, reduce fatigue, or result in superior performance is of interest to countless military, law enforcement, and industry experts. In this study, a live-fire evaluation of both weapon styles was performed using a total of 48 participants. Shooting accuracy and fluctuations in biomechanical stability (center of pressure) were monitored while subjects used the weapons to perform standard drills. The bullpup weapon designs were found to provide a significant advantage in both respects, even while subjects showed considerable preference toward the conventional weapons. Although many mechanical and maintenance issues must be considered before committing to either platform, it is clear in terms of basic human stability that the bullpup is the more advantageous configuration.

Sensuous Governance: Assessing Urban Animal Hoarding

This article addresses how professional animal welfare inspectors and police officers produce knowledge about animal hoarding, and how they detect disconcern and come to conclusions about how to act. The specific aim is to contribute to a sociological understanding of the phenomenon of urban animal hoarding assessment by deploying the framework of “sensuous governance”. I will do so by focusing on the ways in which authorities use and record their senses of the emplaced situation – their visual, olfactory and auditory impressions – in order to make a judgement. The more general contribution concerns how the dimension of species adds to the long-lasting sociological interest in sensing as a mode of knowing about our environment. Using interview data along with animal welfare protocols from a Swedish study of human/animal relations in the city, the intersection of species, spaces and senses is put in focus.

Police presentational strategies on Twitter in Canada

This empirically driven paper explores police presentational strategies on popular micro-blogging social media site Twitter. A total of 105,801 tweets from Canadian Toronto Police Service Twitter accounts were examined using qualitative document analysis. Thematic issues associated with police professionalism and community policing are identified. A finding that runs throughout each thematic includes official police officer use of Twitter while off duty. A basic argument advanced herein is that official off duty use of Twitter delineates the individual officer from the policing institution but does so in an official capacity, a presentational strategy that diminishes the appearance of authoritarian relations traditionally associated with police. Suggestions for future research are noted.

Understanding the Process of Professionalisation in the Police Organisation

The push toward professionalisation of policing is an expanding discourse in western societies. Professions, as opposed to trades, crafts or occupations, have particular characteristics, some of which have eluded policing and must be considered if the police are to reach this goal. Characteristics of a profession include a professional association, cognitive base, institutionalised training, licensing, work autonomy, colleague control, a code of ethics and high standards of professional and intellectual excellence. Further, professionalisation requires the alignment of various aspects of professional practice (Schneider, 2009). Tertiary education and the development of a body of discipline knowledge through research are crucial components of this. This paper examines some of the issues which have previously prevented police adopting a full professional model. It also examines the increasing involvement in the university sector by the police practitioner, which would seem to indicate some ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ and room for optimism for the future.

Personalidad y resiliencia en un cuerpo especial de la Policía Nacional de España

The relationship between socio-demographic data, personality, and resilience is assessed in a sample of 348 male police intervention units (PIU) in Spain (N = 348) between 23 and 38 years (M = 26.88, SD = 3.12). The results showed that age and education, along with dominance, conscientiousness, perseverance, impulse control, and emotions were closely related to resilience. In addition, 66% of the variance in resilience would be given by four variables: age and academic level and the determination and control of emotions. The importance of some socio-demographic and individual differences as predictors of the level of resilience in specialized police professionals’ variables is discussed and some ways to work are open to the study of resilience in other professional groups constantly exposed to situations of extreme adversity.

From Adjusting to Rebuilding Police Institutions

Abstract:This article is intended for academics, think tanks and practitioners dealing with modem policing. The scope of the article is intentionally wide, and gives a general overview of issues involved, with minor adjustments, up to large-scale reestablishment of police institutions. The author aims to provide useful guidance to those who are in charge of conducting any police capacity building related activities. No matter the scale of the envisaged change, general background knowledge on police is essential in order to understand the implications of change.Keywords: Police reform, capacity building, law enforcement, police organizationEverything is subject to change; many philosophies describe very well the dynamic nature of society. However, not only societies undergo change, but all its sub-elements, including the police. To provide a safe and secure environment the police should also observe, learn and adapt. Adaptation is a frequently observed institutional reaction but it does not go beyond a certain scale. If we would set up a scale measuring change as it occurs in police institutions beyond a regularly occurring adaptation, the first mark would be Adjust, the second Reform and the third Rebuild. In this regard, adjusting is more than a minor correction, may not take place often and, in an idealistic situation, one can observe such actions not more than once every few years. This activity is internally conducted by top professional police leaders who are in charge of planning, approving and executing. For instance, this may involve establishing a new team or a new unit within a department. In case of adjustment, there is no shocking or provoking event -1 would argue that this is part of the organic institutional refreshing mechanism.Reform, as next on the scale, is a much larger action, occurring perhaps just once in a decade. One of the significant differences in comparison with the adjustment phase is that police reform may be politically led. Sometimes it is also related to a change in po* -litical administration. It could also be an institutional reaction to a shocking event after a long time ignored adjustment or a significant modernization meant to provide institu-tional solutions to various internal and external security related challenges. In this category, the change is well pronounced, supposedly well communicated and should aim for the mid to long-term. For instance, under police reform many modem police witnessed the establishment of a new (elite) police service in charge of organized crime, counterterrorism, high-profile crimes, etc. However, the scope of reform may likely go beyond and can even include merging police services into one single service, as was the case in Luxemburg (2000), Belgium (2001) and Austria (2005) when the former national gendarmerie service was merged into one single police service. Police reform requires thorough governmental planning, parliamentarian oversight and the adoption of a new police law. In some cases, such police reform occurs hand in hand with larger sectorial reforms either in tandem with the security sector or with the rule of law sector.The rebuilding of a police service is inherently very different. Rebuilding almost always follows a war (armed) crisis or a total collapse and disintegration of the police institution. Unfortunately, there are several recent examples of this, many, but not exclusively, on the African continent. We could cite significant rebuilding case studies from West Africa, the most advanced and successful of which occurred in Sierra Leone. In all cases the state authority was not and could not be the driving engine of police rebuilding; rather, there was always the need for a strong, external partner to guide, foster and assist the host nation throughout the process. That could be based on bilateral or multilateral work partnering with states, as was the case with the generation of the new Palestine Police Service. …

Does it matter how you deny it?: The role of demeanour in evaluations of criminal suspects

Purpose In some cases of wrongful convictions, demeanour seen as inappropriate can trigger suspicions of guilt. Two experiments systematically manipulated the demeanour of criminal suspects in interrogations to test its impact on guilt ratings. Methods In Experiment 1 (N = 60), participants saw a videotaped interrogation in which the suspect displayed flat demeanour or emotional demeanour. Before viewing the interrogation, participants were told that normal reactions to trauma consisted of either flat or emotional demeanour. In Experiment 2 (N = 147), the presence of the suspect's coerced confession and demeanour evidence were both manipulated. Results In Experiment 1, a suspect who displayed flat demeanour during the interrogation produced higher ratings of guilt than did a suspect who displayed emotional demeanour, especially when participants were told to expect emotional demeanour. In Experiment 2, without a confession, flat demeanour inflated guilt ratings, whereas emotional demeanour slightly (but non-significantly) decreased guilt ratings compared with a no demeanour information condition. When a confession was introduced, guilt ratings increased for all groups, with the highest ratings in the emotional demeanour condition. Conclusions Flat demeanour biases judgments against defendants. On its own, emotional demeanour is neutral (or potentially exonerating), but when paired with a confession, it becomes just as incriminating as flat demeanour. Recommendations for educating police professionals on the wide range of appropriate reactions to trauma are described.

Faking performance together: systems of performance evaluation in Russian enforcement agencies and production of bias and privilege

A specialist on Russian law enforcement examines a critical source of prosecution and conviction bias in that country – the system by which prosecutors, police, judges, and other legal professionals are evaluated. More specifically, she demonstrates how that system (exclusive of any inherent corruption or bias) institutionalizes incentives for the prosecution of large numbers of defendants in routine cases for the purpose of meeting informal quotas. Officials from a variety of law enforcement agencies, seeking to “hit their numbers,” develop techniques of selecting the “right” cases (and avoiding “wrong” ones), manipulating charges depending on the victim's and defendant's statuses.