Protect Police Officers Research Articles

방검 성능을 부여한 차세대 경찰 외근조끼 디자인 개발

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this research is to develop the design of the next-generation knife-proof duty vest with enhanced protective performance and mobility for police officers.
 Methods: From March 1st, 2022 to February 28th, 2023, the research was conducted to develop the design of the next-generation knife-proof duty vest for police officers. The existing police duty vests and knife-proof vests are analyzed. The result of the meeting with the equipment officer of Korean National Police Agency and the conference of Police-Lab. 2.0 was also analyzed.
 Results: Nine major issues were discovered by analyzing the existing police duty vests and knife-proof vests, and the result of the meeting and the conference. Based on the result of the analysis, the 3D design of the prototype next-generation duty vest with enhanced protective performance and mobility for police officers was developed by using CLO 6.0; a 3D fashion design software. The final design was fixed after a few modifications and the sample was produced.
 Conclusion/Implications: The next-generation knife-proof duty vest developed in this research can protect police officers from mortal wounds on the neck and heart, unlike existing police duty vests, its convertible collars and lapels can provide convenience. The widespread adoption of this next-generation duty vest with enhanced protective performance and mobility for police officers will solve most problems of current duty vests, reduce police officer mortality on duty, and increase crime prevention and case resolution rates.

Internet-of-Things System to Protect Police Officers From Collisions While on Duty on the Roadway

Police officers on duty on the road for traffic stops, vehicle collisions, traffic direction, and so forth, are exposed to the risk of being hit or even killed by a passing vehicle. Very few studies have tried to develop a system that can warn pedestrians or police officers on duty on the road to take proactive evasive action. This study proposes an Internet-of-Things protection system for police officers on duty on the road. The development of the system envisaged involves three essential phases: 1. detection, 2. risk analysis, and 3. warning and communication. This study focused on the risk analysis phase. We applied a fuzzy rule-based algorithm that integrates four input indicators (lateral distance from police officer to traveled lane, magnitude of speeding, stopping sight distance, and direct distance) into a single estimate of the risk of a collision. The study used data from a real-world situation on Highway 416 in Ontario, Canada to demonstrate the application of the proposed model. The results clearly demonstrated that the proposed model could generate risk estimates that could be used to give timely warning of a possible collision risk to police officers at work on a road.

A legal shot? Police Gun Violence and Individual Accountability in Miami

Abstract In light of police violence and injustice, criminologists tend to focus on masculine and violent police cultures, the lack of democratic oversight and on social processes of dehumanization. Yet much less attention, however, is given to the objects commonly used in violent and lethal police encounters: guns. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork with police officers in Miami, I suggest that police officers tend to re-contextualize police gun violence in terms of individual liability and legal culpability—as a question of what constitutes a legal shot. While a legal framing might protect police officers from prosecution, the legal shot first and foremost enables state institutions to explain police brutality as “incidents”: as unintentional and exceptional outcomes of an otherwise warranted form of policing. Recognizing how the legal shot attunes our attention to individual misconduct and legal solutions to systemic and racialized police violence, I suggest, is an important step in exploring the possibilities to disarm the police, and to organize around the question of how to imagine and push for a more inclusive form of public safety.

Can Police Unions Help Change American Policing?

Police unions are part of the problem in American policing. Could police unions also be part of the solution? This Comment begins by putting into practice the dialectic we must achieve at a societal level by detailing the ways in which police and Black Americans have been positioned to be in conflict from the seventeenth century to the present, and by discussing the formation of police unions. American society needs truth-telling about the history and present context that drives police officers into deadly conflict with Black Americans to heal, trust, and effectuate a more perfect system for public safety. This Comment wrestles with the need to understand several truths at once: that police organized into unions in part to protect the rank-and-file from managerial abuse; that the American policing system is in many ways designed and implemented against Black Americans; that police unions organized in the Civil Rights Era to protect police officers from discipline for following orders; and that deep, structural change should include police unions. Less fundamental changes that leave in place the core of American policing, without examining its racist foundations and incentives toward brutality and lethal force, will not serve to bring about lasting reconciliation. This Comment reviews several ways to improve the management of police departments put forth by labor and policing scholars and suggests that the promise of such reforms could motivate participation in a truth process. The conversation about policing reform in the United States has expanded and deepened tremendously in the past year, and it continues to evolve and take on new dimensions. This Comment urges policymakers to create a truth process as part of police reform and suggests that the process be implemented via the police unions because the voices of police organizations that represent rank-and-file officers are a critical ingredient for meaningful change.

Educational Intervention Based on the Health Belief Model to Modify Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Disease in Police Officers in Iran: A Quasi-experimental Study.

Objectives:Police officers may be at a greater risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) than the general population due to their highstress occupation. This study evaluated how an educational program based on the health belief model (HBM) may protect police officers from developing CVD.Methods:In this single-group experimental study, 58 police officers in Iran participated in a 5-week intervention based on HBM principles. Outcomes included changes in scores on an HBM scale, time spent on moderate to vigorous physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire), body mass index (BMI), blood lipid profile, blood glucose, and blood pressure. The intervention consisted of 5 HBM-based educational sessions. Follow-up was conducted at 3 months post-intervention. The paired t-test was used to examine differences between baseline and follow-up scores.Results:All aspects of the HBM scale improved between baseline and follow-up (p<0.05), except the cues to action subscale. Self-efficacy and preventive behaviors improved the most. BMI decreased from 26.7±2.9 kg/m2 at baseline to 25.8±2.4 kg/m2 at follow-up. All components of the lipid profile, including triglycerides, cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein, showed significant improvements post-intervention. Blood glucose and blood pressure also decreased, but not significantly. Nearly 25% of participants who were not physically active at baseline increased their physical activity above or beyond the healthy threshold.Conclusions:A relatively brief educational intervention based on HBM principles led to a significant improvement in CVD risk factors among police officers. Further research is needed to corroborate the effectiveness of this intervention.

Leadership climate prevents emotional exhaustion in German police officers

Police officers are exposed to a high amount of work effort in their everyday employment. This increases their risk of developing emotional exhaustion, the key symptom of the burnout syndrome. Previous research suggests that leadership climate is important for employees’ health and thus might be protective against emotional exhaustion. This study investigated whether a positive leadership climate prevents emotional exhaustion and buffers the negative impact of work effort in police officers. Data from a cross-sectional health survey in a German police department ( N = 570) were used to test the assumptions. Results of the hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that high work effort was correlated with high levels of emotional exhaustion and positive leadership climate was associated with low levels of emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, both predictor variables interacted, indicating a buffer effect of a positive leadership climate under stressful working conditions. This is the first study to show both direct and indirect protective effects of a positive leadership climate in police officers. In police work, stressful working conditions such as high work effort are hard to avoid. Thus, it is crucial to promote preventive factors such as a positive leadership climate to protect police officers’ health. Suggestions of how police supervisors and departments might establish a positive leadership climate are presented.

Job Demands, Job Resources, and Well-being in Police Officers\u2014a Resource-Oriented Approach

This study examined the association between job characteristics, namely job demands and job resources, and mental health outcomes in terms of emotional exhaustion and well-being among police officers. Eight hundred forty-three German police officers participated in a cross-sectional online survey. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the validity of the dual process model of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework in the context of police work. Job demands (verbal assaults by citizens, workload, and administrative stressors) predicted emotional exhaustion whereas job resources (team support, shared values, and perceived fairness) predicted well-being. Moreover, job resources were directly and negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. The findings confirm the capacity of job resources to simultaneously promote well-being and reduce emotional exhaustion. Work place interventions should thus not merely decrease job demands. To improve and protect police officers’ well-being, it is advisable to promote job resources. A supportive and fair organizational climate based on shared values is required to foster mental health in the context of police work.

Self-resilience as a protective factor against development of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in police officers.

BackgroundThis study was conducted to check whether self-resilience, one of the characteristics known to affect the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms after experiencing traumatic events, could serve as a protective factor for police officers whose occupational factors are corrected.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study in which 112 male police officers in Gangwon Province participated. They visited the Wonju Severance Christian Hospital Occupational Environment Center for medical check-ups from June to December 2015. Their general characteristics were identified using structured questionnaires, and they were asked to fill in the Korean Occupational Stress Scale-Short Form (KOSS-SF). Further, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale-Korean (CD-RI-K), and Impact of Event Scale-Revised-Korean version (IES-R-K) were used to evaluate their job stress, depression, self-resilience, and PTSD symptoms. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to correct their personal, occupational, and psychological factors to analyze the relationship between self-resilience and PTSD symptoms.ResultsAmong 112 respondents who experienced a traumatic event, those with low self-resilience had significantly higher rate of PTSD symptoms than those with high self-resilience even after correcting for the covariate of general, occupational, and psychological characteristics (odds ratio [OR] 3.51; 95 % CI: 1.06–19.23).ConclusionsDespite several limitations, these results suggest that a high degree of self-resilience may protect police officers from critical incident-related PTSD symptoms.

Particulate Matter Exposure in a Police Station Located near a Highway.

People living or working near roadways have experienced an increase in cardiovascular or respiratory diseases due to vehicle emissions. Very few studies have focused on the PM exposure of highway police officers, particularly for the number concentration and size distribution of ultrafine particles (UFP). This study evaluated exposure concentrations of particulate matter (PM) in the Sinying police station near a highway located in Tainan, Taiwan, under different traffic volumes, traffic types, and shift times. We focused on periods when the wind blew from the highway toward the police station and when the wind speed was greater than or equal to 0.5 m/s. PM2.5, UFP, and PM-PAHs concentrations in the police station and an upwind reference station were measured. Results indicate that PM2.5, UFP, and PM-PAHs concentrations in the police station can be on average 1.13, 2.17, and 5.81 times more than the upwind reference station concentrations, respectively. The highest exposure level for PM2.5 and UFP was observed during the 12:00 PM–4:00 PM shift while the highest PAHs concentration was found in the 4:00 AM–8:00 AM shift. Thus, special attention needs to be given to protect police officers from exposure to high PM concentration.

Protective factors for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in a prospective study of police officers

Although police officers are frequently exposed to potentially traumatic incidents, only a minority will develop chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Identifying and understanding protective factors could inform the development of preventive interventions; however, few studies have examined this. In the present prospective study, 233 police officers were assessed during academy training and again following 2 years of police service. Caucasian race, less previous trauma exposure, and less critical incident exposure during police service as well as greater sense of self-worth, beliefs of greater benevolence of the world, greater social support and better social adjustment, all assessed during academy training, were associated with lower PTSD symptoms after 2 years of service. Positive personality attributes assessed during training with the NEO Five-Factor Personality Inventory were not associated with lower PTSD symptoms. In a hierarchical linear regression model, only Caucasian race, lower critical incident exposure during police service, greater assumptions of benevolence of the world and better social adjustment during training remained predictive of lower PTSD symptoms after 2 years of police service. These results suggest that positive world assumptions and better social functioning during training may protect police officers from critical incident related PTSD.

Bearing False Witness: Perjured Affidavits and the Fourth Amendment

The purpose of this Article is to articulate appropriate legal doctrine to govern the problem of false statements of fact by law enforcement officers in warrant affidavits. This Article addresses the issue in the context of actions brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to redress such Fourth Amendment violations. This perspective promises to be interesting and unique for two reasons. First, the fact that the guilty are ordinarily the direct beneficiaries of the Fourth Amendment has long been a matter of grave concern. In contrast, rarely, if ever, will anyone except an innocent victim of a search based on a perjured warrant affidavit be able to maintain a successful action asserting this particular Fourth Amendment violation. Second, a police officer who files a false affidavit in support of a warrant application, unlike any other defendant in a § 1983 case, is not entitled to the protection of any of the immunity doctrines which protect police officers in most cases from legal liability.

Maryland’s Death Penalty Statute Recognizes the Need to Protect Police Officers

This six-page 2005 article is titled “Maryland’s Death Penalty Statute Recognizes the Need to Protect Police Officers.” It was published in The Trooper magazine. The article shows how the legislature, in enacting Maryland’s death penalty statute, protects law enforcement officers by considering “law enforcement” factors as heavy factors when deciding whether to impose the death penalty. Topics include (1) the death penalty prior to the 1972 Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia, (2) application of Furman v. Georgia to state law, (3) reinstatement of the death penalty after five 1976 Supreme Court decisions, (4) the recognition in death penalty statutes of the need to protect police and other law enforcement officers, and (5) aggravating factors based on the victim being a police officer and/or a police officer in the line of duty.

City of Sherman v. Henry: Is The Texas Constitutional Right of Privacy Still a Source of Protection for Texas Citizens?

Part I of this Note explores the Texas constitutional right of privacy and the right of privacy guaranteed by the United States Constitution as well as the relationship between the two. Part II reviews the facts in Henry, the Texas Supreme Court's decision, and concurrences of both Justice Owen and Justice Spector. Part III analyzes the court's reasoning in Henry and determines that the decision fails to safeguard the constitutional right of privacy guaranteed by the Texas Constitution. Part IV proposes two potential solutions available to Texas courts to protect police officers and other public employees from unreasonable intrusions into their private lives, thus ensuring the effectiveness of the right of privacy guaranteed by the Texas Constitution in TSEU.

Police Homicide in a Democracy

Although many more people are killed by police than kill police, many of the former instances do not appear justified. Laws limiting the use of deadly force sometimes permit its use against anyone fleeing police custody. Although police regulations are more limiting than the law, there is little indication that departmental rules are enforced stringently. Prosecutors also appear to be extremely reluctant to prosecute police who have killed citizens. In short, the system appears to function to protect police officers who have killed citizens.