Police Reform Research Articles

Police Training and Accountability: A Remedy or an Impediment for Reducing Unarmed Police Shootings?

The deaths of unarmed black citizens at the hands of police have led to dramatic calls for police reform. Some observers claim that officers are poorly trained and unaccountable for their actions. In this study, I test whether measures of organizational training and accountability reduce the likelihood of unarmed fatal officer-involved shootings (OIS). The results suggest external review of deadly force may decrease the likelihood of fatal OIS of unarmed black citizens. Other training and accountability mechanisms are unrelated to, or increase the likelihood of, fatal shootings. More research is needed to determine the causal links between the training and accountability mechanisms outlined in this study and fatal police shootings.

Recruiting the warrior cop: Assessing predictors of highly militarized recruitment videos

PurposeProminent among police reform policy discussions is a focus on recruitment (particularly of BIPOC officers), as well as a reorientation of policing away from a “warrior” mindset. This study examines levels of militarization found in police recruitment videos to determine whether organizational and environmental variables predict the themes advertised to potential applicants. MethodsUsing the findings of a content analysis of a sample of United States police recruiting videos, principal components analysis is conducted to observe whether measures of community-oriented policing load on distinct components from measures of militarization, with results used to calculate a militarization score for each video. The study then examines predictors of, and protective factors against, high video militarization scores using ordinal logistic regression. ResultsAgencies that received federal COPS grants for community-oriented policing, and that have collaborative problem-solving integrated into officers' evaluations are significantly less likely to advertise highly militarized messages to potential applicants. ConclusionCOPS grants are helpful in reducing militarized themes in recruiting videos, which may deter heavily “warrior”-minded applicants from applying. Agencies must also ensure that community-oriented philosophy is converted to actionable practice, and that these practices are showcased in recruiting materials to reflect the skills required for modern policing.

Police Brutality and Violation of Human Rights in Nigeria – Causes and Implications

This research work examines police brutality and violation of human rights in Nigeria – causes and its implications. The objectives of the study is to establish some cases of police brutality in Nigeria; to investigate the causes of police brutality and violation of human rights in Nigeria; to ascertain the implications of police brutality in Nigeria and to recommend ways to prevent police violence in Nigeria. To be able to achieve these objectives, four research questions were raised, such as, are there testimonies and evidences of human rights violation in Nigeria by the police? What are the causes of police brutality and violation of human rights in Nigeria? What are the implications of police brutality in Nigeria? How can police brutality and violation of human rights be prevented in Nigeria? The study made use of descriptive analytical method to analyze data gotten from secondary source such as academic journals, Newspaper publications, Television documentaries, Internet, relevant textbooks etc. Albert Bandura Social learning theory was adopted in this research, which explains that police, violates people’s right with impunity because they watch as other officers who violate people’s rights are not well sanctioned. The research reveals that police brutality in Nigeria has led to loss of lives, torture of detainees and extortion of suspects. Some of the recommendations are; The Nigerian police commission should strictly investigate and sanction erring officers, there should be a proper police reform, men of the Nigerian police should be subjected to a thorough mental examination before engaging them to service etc.

Policework in a racist context: A qualitative study of retired African American police officers

The law enforcement community has faced great scrutiny in policing tactics and their interactions with marginalized communities and experiences of systemic racism. Moreover, increases in awareness have elicited alarms for reforming and defunding the police. To date, a plethora of literature exists in examining policing, systemic racism, and best practices for reform. However, few studies have explored the perspectives and experiences of racialized practices experienced by African American police officers. This qualitative study explored intradepartmental discrimination, police reform, and alternative policing practices. Findings demonstrate retired police officers’ perceptions of racial bias in policing, how these practices changed over time, and how they may influence decision-making in law enforcement.

The politics of police violence: Political competition and police killings in Brazil

ABSTRACT What affects police killings of denizens in the cities of developing democracies? Brazil is one of the countries with the most casualties from police lethality, yet deaths from police interventions vary greatly across its cities, as well as over time. Since most of its police forces are formally responsive to state-level governments, the political dynamics at this government tier are essential to comprehend urban policing—and its resort to deadly violence. I argue that subnational political competition explains whether state-level governments can implement reforms to reduce police lethality. I illustrate this argument through a within-case, cross-case comparison of the city-states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro since re-democratization in the 1980s. While lower fragmentation and partisan continuity at the state-level government enabled and consolidated reforms that mitigated police violence in São Paulo, higher fragmentation and turnover inhibited reforms and increased police lethality in Rio. Building on interviews with subnational politicians and police officers as well as statistics on police killings, this paper helps spark an urgent conversation in urban studies on police violence in the urban Global South and expands the police reform literature by developing a theory of how politics influences police violence.

How does subnational variation in repression affect attitudes toward police? Evidence from Iraq’s 2019 protests

Recent episodes of severe police repression and violence against protesters around the world have brought new urgency to longstanding calls for police reform and in some cases more fundamental structural changes including abolition of existing police institutions. However, the police are not monolithic and there is considerable subnational variation in the extent to which individual police officers and units use excessive force against civilians, and this variation has important implications for police legitimacy in the eyes of the public. In Iraq, where federal police violently repressed anti-government demonstrations in 2019—killing more than 600 protesters—but local police refrained from violence and in some cases intervened to protect civilians, public opinion became significantly more negative toward federal police but not toward local police. These results suggest that civilians distinguish between the conduct of different actors in a decentralized, fragmented security apparatus and attribute blame individually rather than collectively blaming the state security apparatus as a whole. I suggest that two mechanisms—decentralization and fragmentation of state security institutions—interact to shape the pattern of subnational police violence in Iraq and discuss broader implications for police reform in Iraq and beyond.

Shedding Light on the Dark Figure of Police Mental Health Calls for Service

Abstract Recent discussions around police reform have acquired a significant degree of traction. Within these discussions have been calls to remove the police as primary responders to calls involving persons with perceived mental illness (PwPMI). While previous research shows that ∼1% of all calls for service involve PwPMI, limitations around police data recording practices likely mask the true proportion of PwPMI within and across calls for service. Accordingly, following manual review and text search of qualitative data appended to all calls for service made to a Canadian police service in 2019, we sought to identify the true proportion of calls for police service that involve PwPMI and predict the extent to which PwPMI are involved within and across different call classifications. Our findings reveal that while the ‘Mental Health’ call classification only comprised 0.9% (n = 397) of calls for service, PwPMI were in fact involved in 10.8% (n = 4,646) of calls. Furthermore, logistic regression models reveal that PwPMI are more likely to be involved in certain call classifications relative to others. Implications for police practice and reform are discussed.

‘Thieves Should not Live Amongst People’: Under-Protection and Popular Support for Police Violence in Nairobi

Abstract This paper examines how communities at the urban margins, who are under-protected by the state police, understand police reforms through an examination of the unusual case of street protests in support of a police officer who had killed two young men in Githurai in Nairobi. I explore how the under-protection of communities at the urban margins by the police leads to a reliance on various forms of vigilantism to generate security and justice outcomes. Noting the limitations of community vigilantism, I explore how these communities come to rely on police vigilantism, a form of vigilantism that has received limited attention in African studies. Based on insights generated from data collected in Githurai in March and April 2015, I argue that residents of Githurai protested against the arrest of a local police vigilante, whom they had come to rely on for security, because they considered his deployment of violence against suspected criminals to be justified and also feared that his arrest would expose them to further insecurity. I conclude that police reform efforts should pay attention to the innovations that communities have developed at the grassroots to generate security and justice outcome in absence of reliable protection by the state police.

‘Drops in the Ocean’: The Politics and Practice of Policing the West Riding of Yorkshire in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

The article examines the development of the superintending constable system in the West Riding and argues that the system, despite its limitations, was more acceptable and successful than contemporary critics and many later historians have claimed. Further, it also played an important but overlooked part in the transition to a county-wide police force following the 1856 County and Borough Police Act. Rather than being on the wrong side of history, the superintending constable system in the West Riding was an important part of a complex and evolving pattern of policing. Misleading distinctions between ‘old’ and ‘new’ policing obscure the realities of police reform in which continuities, downplayed by reformers at Westminster, played a crucial role.

Policing protests: an experimental evaluation of the impact of protester race on support for police reform

Policing protests: an experimental evaluation of the impact of protester race on support for police reform

African Americans and Law Enforcement: Tackling a Foundational Component of Structural Reform-Union Disciplinary Procedures.

Despite numerous high-profile deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement, little attention has been paid to the issue of police reform in the social work literature. To address this gap, this article focuses on a topic that has been singled out as the most important area of potential reform: restructuring the disciplinary provisions embedded in the contracts negotiated between police unions and municipalities. These provisions frequently shield problematic officers from public accountability by hindering their identification, sanctioning, and dismissal. Given that collective bargaining agreements are typically negotiated behind closed doors, social workers can play an essential role by advocating for public negotiations between municipal and union leaders, so provisions that obstruct public accountability for unfit officers can be identified and eliminated. The article concludes by delineating three alternative models to the status quo-increased neighborhood policing, disbanding or defunding police departments, and police abolition zones-and notes that no model can be successful if those who abuse their power cannot be removed from their positions of public trust. The authors suggest that social workers collaborate with African American residents in a given community to ensure that their preferences regarding community justice are enacted in a manner that reflects their aspirations.

Mass support for proposals to reshape policing depends on the implications for crime and safety

AbstractResearch SummaryThis paper presents novel survey and experimental evidence that reveals the mass public's interpretation of movements to reform, defund, and abolish the police. We find strong support for police reform, but efforts to defund or abolish generate opposition both in terms of slogan and substance. While these differences cannot be explained by differing beliefs about each movement's association with violent protests, racial makeup, or specific programmatic changes, efforts to defund and abolish the police appear unpopular because they seek reduced involvement of police in traditional roles and cuts in police numbers.Policy ImplicationsOur findings suggest that public support for changes to American policing is contingent on the perceived implications for crime and public safety. Proposals like defunding and abolition are therefore unlikely to succeed at the national level. Viable police reform may instead require proposals that target changing how police departments and their officers operate rather than lowering police budgets or decreasing police involvement in responding to crime and calls for service.

Community Policing in Malawi: Citizen Involvement, Satisfaction and Challenges

Abstract The concept of community policing was adopted by the Malawi government as a vehicle to facilitate police and the public engagement in fighting crimes. Considering that community policing has existed for over a decade in Malawi, this study was carried out to holistically uncover challenges associated with public involvement in community policing activities with the purpose to provide empirically backed strategies for the efficient implementation of the concept. The study employed a case study approach. Purposive sampling was used on one hand to select the research site – Central Regions of Malawi and to select the police officers working as Community Policing Coordinators and members of the communities working in Community Police Forums. Quota sampling was used to select police officers and members of the community from each district. Finally, convenient sampling was used to select police officers and members within the quotas of each district. Focus group discussions were conducted with 16 Community Police Forums; interviews were conducted with 16 Community Policing Coordinators; a questionnaire was used to collect data from 144 community members and 200 police officers. Results show that the community members are not satisfied with police officers in the way they implement the community policing because the police do not offer the public enough protection from criminals and that the police mostly treat the community badly. The community members were involved in the implementation of the community policing mainly because of worsening crimes in the community, personal fear of the crimes, need to be recognised by the police and the desire to benefit from the rewards from Non-Governmental Organisations in form of food. The factors that challenged the implementation of community policing include lack of knowledge on community policing on the part of police officers; lack of recognition of community policing; corrupt practices; lack of confidentiality; poor working relationship; and lack of resources. The concept of community policing continues to receive unprecedented attention in police reforms. Much as there is evidence of growing literature on this concept, little is known in Malawi where this study was conducted. In light of this, the study provides valuable literature which might be necessary for global academics and particularly in community policing in Malawi with practical implications on re-designing and continued implementation of community policing in Malawi and perhaps other developing countries.

Revisiting police reform: Rank-Neutral Space as resistance and conformity

The contemporary policing landscape is challenging traditional, hierarchical working arrangements as the police respond to new and more complex demands. Scholars have long recognized police occupational culture as a barrier to organizational change. Rank-centric cultural conventions conflict with alternative, democratic forms of working. This article introduces the concept of Rank-Neutral Space to describe an emerging practice where police officers navigate the hierarchical-laden culture to bring about change. In theorizing Rank-Neutral Space, I bring together perspectives from the sociology of space and findings from a qualitative study of police leadership, to define the space as a site of resistance and conformity, to capture the complexity of reform in the police as both processes of change and continuity.

The consequences of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act for police arrests.

Background & methodsNational protests in the summer of 2020 drew attention to the significant presence of police in marginalized communities. Recent social movements have called for substantial police reforms, including “defunding the police,” a phrase originating from a larger, historical abolition movement advocating that public investments be redirected away from the criminal justice system and into social services and health care. Although research has demonstrated the expansive role of police to respond a broad range of social problems and health emergencies, existing research has yet to fully explore the capacity for health insurance policy to influence rates of arrest in the population. To fill this gap, we examine the potential effect of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on arrests in 3,035 U.S. counties. We compare county-level arrests using FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program Data before and after Medicaid expansion in 2014–2016, relative to counties in non-expansion states. We use difference-in-differences (DID) models to estimate the change in arrests following Medicaid expansion for overall arrests, and violent, drug, and low-level arrests.ResultsPolice arrests significantly declined following the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA. Medicaid expansion produced a 20–32% negative difference in overall arrests rates in the first three years. We observe the largest negative differences for drug arrests: we find a 25–41% negative difference in drug arrests in the three years following Medicaid expansion, compared to non-expansion counties. We observe a 19–29% negative difference in arrests for violence in the three years after Medicaid expansion, and a decrease in low-level arrests between 24–28% in expansion counties compared to non-expansion counties. Our main results for drug arrests are robust to multiple sensitivity analyses, including a state-level model.ConclusionsEvidence in this paper suggests that expanded Medicaid insurance reduced police arrests, particularly drug-related arrests. Combined with research showing the harmful health consequences of chronic policing in disadvantaged communities, greater insurance coverage creates new avenues for individuals to seek care, receive treatment, and avoid criminalization. As police reform is high on the agenda at the local, state, and federal level, our paper supports the perspective that broad health policy reforms can meaningfully reduce contact with the criminal justice system under historic conditions of mass criminalization.

Assessing the impact of de‐escalation training on police behavior: Reducing police use of force in the Louisville, KY Metro Police Department

AbstractResearch summaryChanging police use of force policies and training to incorporate de‐escalation tactics is one of the most routinely recommended police reform measures. Despite widespread promotion and proliferation of de‐escalation trainings, to date, no research has empirically demonstrated that these trainings reduce use of force in the field (Engel, R. S., McManus, H. D., & Herold, T. D., 2020). Therefore, it is unknown if de‐escalation trainings actually reduce force, have no impact, or have unintended consequences that possibly increase injuries to officers or citizens. We collaborated with the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) in 2019 to evaluate the impact of the Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT) de‐escalation training developed by the Police Executive Research Forum. Using a stepped‐wedge randomized controlled trial research design, the panel regression results demonstrated statistically significant reductions in use of force incidents (−28.1%), citizen injuries (−26.3%), and officer injuries (−36.0%) in the post‐training period. These significant reductions were larger than any changes in LMPD arrest patterns during the same period. Other possible time‐based confounders were also considered; the combined analyses show robust, consistent, and immediate impacts on use of force counts after training.Policy implicationsOur findings suggest that agencies should continue to implement and evaluate de‐escalation trainings and adopt other resiliency‐based approaches to police training. To facilitate long‐term changes in police behavior, a holistic approach is recommended that supports training tenets with complementary policies, supervisory oversight, managerial support, and community involvement in reform efforts. Finally, researchers must continue to support police executives willing to open their agencies for evaluation and oversight. Due to the LMPD's partnership with researchers, evidence now exists that de‐escalation training can make police encounters with the public safer for all. Continuing to implement and evaluate innovative police trainings is our best opportunity for meaningful changes in policing.

The effect of the Seattle Police‐Free CHOP zone on crime: A microsynthetic control evaluation

Research SummaryNightly confrontations occurred between protestors and officers outside of the Seattle Police Department's (SPD's) East precinct in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. On June 8, 2020, the SPD abandoned the East precinct in an attempt to calm the situation. Following closure of the precinct, the Capitol Hill Occupation Protest (CHOP) took hold in the surrounding 6‐block area. The CHOP occupation lasted until July 1, 2020. Over this time period, CHOP operated as an autonomous zone, with police officers not patrolling and generally not responding to calls for police service within the area. We used the microsynthetic control group method to analyze the effect of CHOP on crime during the 24‐day occupation. Results indicate crime significantly increased in the CHOP zone, the encompassing two‐block area, and the overall East precinct service area.Policy ImplicationsThe current study found comparatively stronger effects than the general literature on depolicing. The significant crime increase is particularly noteworthy given the short time frame of the CHOP occupation and retreat of police from the area theoretically making it more challenging for crimes to be reported by citizens and/or proactively discovered by officers. This suggests that police abolition, the most extreme form of the police defunding movement, may significantly compromise public safety. Moving forward, a prudent policy solution may be to simultaneously support the evidence‐based crime prevention work of police and community‐based institutions. Such an approach may achieve currently desired policing reforms without risking crime spikes that can result from drastic reductions of police presence. Wide‐scale adoption of evidence‐based policing may provide a vehicle for such meaningful, long‐term reform.

Shrinking the Police Footprint

The most influential agenda for progressive police reform today aims to shrink the police footprint by reassigning many problems they currently manage to other institutions. This paper argues that this agenda relies on faulty understanding of the police role, and that a more promising agenda based on a better understanding is available. Police are a residual institution, charged with managing the crises that other institutions cannot handle adequately on their own, and it is not easy to reassign that work to anyone else. In the course of doing it, however, they develop expertise in the nature and sources of these crises that positions them to identify and help repair the institutional failures that generate them. The paper illustrates these claims with case studies of the challenges that efforts to reassign police work elsewhere have encountered and the role that police have played in institutional repair. It concludes by considering he normative concerns that this important aspect of the police role raises.

Police Reforms: Killing the Leviathan, a Case for Command Responsibility for Police Superiors in Kenya

Police Reforms: Killing the Leviathan, a Case for Command Responsibility for Police Superiors in Kenya

Decriminalization as Police Reform

Decriminalization as Police Reform