Collective Bargaining and Job Benefits in Florida Municipal Police Agencies, 2000–2009

While a recent analysis of unionization among Florida county sheriff deputies was informative, that study failed to provide a comprehensive picture of all law enforcement unionization activity in that state. More specifically, county sheriff offices account for only 20 % of all local law enforcement agencies in the state, represent approximately half the sworn personnel in Florida, and have only been engaged in collective bargaining for the past ten years. As a result, the present study incorporates municipal police agencies, a hitherto neglected portion of the Florida law enforcement community, in an effort to gain a fuller understanding of how unionization influences salaries and other job conditions. The results underscore the importance of adopting a broader orientation to understand the progression of collective bargaining objectives.     

Law Enforcement Fusion Centers: Cultivating an Information Sharing Environment while Safeguarding Privacy

The national network of fusion centers, of which there are currently 78 nationwide, was created in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and continue to play an integral role in contemporary law enforcement. Their mission, put simply, is to facilitate information sharing across disparate agencies and organizations. Despite a significant presence within the law enforcement landscape, fusion centers have received relatively minimal scholarly attention. This limited literature alludes to operational challenges and public concerns that inhibit fusion center effectiveness. More specifically, little information is known about how fusion centers develop relationships with external partners as well as institute mechanisms to safeguard against violations of individual privacy. The present research employs a combination of national survey data and three in-depth case studies of fusion centers in Florida, Nevada, and Michigan to provide initial answers to these questions. Implications for improved policy and practice are discussed.     

Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws and Equitable Sharing Activity by the Police

Research Summary

For several decades, critics have argued that civil forfeiture laws create incentives for law enforcement to increase departmental revenue by “policing for profit.” By using data on federal equitable sharing payments to nearly 600 local law enforcement agencies between 2000 and 2012, we examine the relationship between the characteristics of state forfeiture laws and equitable sharing payments to local agencies. Our results indicate that agencies in states with state laws that are more restrictive or less rewarding to police collect more in federal equitable sharing. This finding supports the critics’ argument that police behavior in regard to forfeiture activities is influenced by the financial rewards and burdens involved.

Policy Implications

Our results reveal that the findings of investigative journalism and case study research, that is, that police forfeiture activities are influenced by financial rewards, may be more generalizable to law enforcement than previously thought. Despite recent state‐level reforms, federal equitable sharing and most state forfeiture laws provide limited due process protections and have minimal accountability or reporting requirements. Concerns about the impact of civil forfeiture practices on perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy are discussed, and possible policy reforms are reviewed.     

Civil asset forfeiture, equitable sharing, and policing for profit in the United States

Purpose

Critics of asset forfeiture claim that forfeiture laws create financial incentives that inappropriately influence police behavior. The present study examines the relationship between measures of the financial incentive and legal burdens for civil asset forfeiture on federal equitable sharing payments to local law enforcement to determine whether police behavior is affected by different statutory incentives for forfeiture activity.

Methods

Using LEMAS and DOJ forfeiture data, this study addresses some of the limitations of previous research by using a multi-year average for forfeiture activity, an improved measure of financial incentives for law enforcement, and multiple measures of statutory burdens to law enforcement to determine the impact of forfeiture laws on forfeiture activity.

Results

Consistent with anecdotal reports and limited prior research, findings indicate that agencies in jurisdictions with more restrictive state forfeiture laws receive more proceeds through federal equitable sharing.

Conclusions

Results suggest that state and local law enforcement agencies use federal equitable sharing to circumvent their own state forfeiture laws when state laws are more burdensome or less financially rewarding to these agencies, providing additional evidence that police operations are influenced by financial incentives.     

The Nature and Extent of Conservation Policing: Law Enforcement Generalists or Conservation Specialists?

Little is known about law enforcement agencies with responsibility for fish, wildlife, and natural resource protection. Traditional conceptions of fish and wildlife police associate these officers almost entirely with fishing and hunting activities. The relative scarcity of academic literature regarding fish and wildlife police agencies results in a lack of understanding about their role in the criminal justice system in general. The current study seeks to contribute to the limited existing literature by examining conservation policing in Florida, a state not yet studied in this context, by analyzing some 2,910 field events. Findings indicate that officers devote a considerable portion of their attention to traditional law enforcement activities in addition to the type of enforcement customarily associated with fish and wildlife law enforcement.     

Florida’s task force approach to combat human trafficking: an analysis of county-level data

Abstract

Since emerging in the USA during the 1990s, the multi-agency task force has become the preferred organizational structure for enforcing human trafficking laws and providing assistance to victims. These task forces often work across county lines and typically include law enforcement agencies, as well as social service and non-governmental organizations. The effect of collaborations with other types of agencies on law enforcement’s human trafficking arrests is unknown. County-level arrest data for human trafficking first became available through the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2014. In this paper, we present findings from county-level analyses with human trafficking arrests in the State of Florida as the dependent variable. Independent variables include the presence of a task force, sociodemographic characteristics, tourism measures, and police officers per capita. The strongest predictor of human trafficking arrests is the presence of a task force.     

论公私协作执法

公私协作执法是公共执法和私人执法基于各自特点进行协作的法律执行模式,可以有效弥补公共执法动力不足、腐败和信息劣势的缺陷,也可以有效弥补单纯私人执法过程中的执法过度、缺乏强制力等缺陷.长期以来,我国法律执行活动被公共执法机构垄断,公私协作执法的制度空间不大.为此,应当通过扩张诉讼当事人资格、建立罚金分享制度、增加惩罚性赔偿规定以及放宽风险代理诉讼限制等方式为公私协作执法开辟空间,使公私协作执法能够成为我国法律执行机制改革的重要方向.     

Measuring organised crime-related harms: exploring five policing methods

Many law enforcement agencies around the world have adopted risk assessment methodologies to analyse organised crime. These assessments, which are intended to provide law enforcement management with rigourous analysis to enable rational and objective decision-making processes, are an integral part of intelligence-led policing. Despite the prevalence of these assessments, as the assessments and their methodologies are often tightly restricted within the law enforcement community, it is often unclear how law enforcement defines, analyses and makes decisions about organised crime. While the use of risk assessment methodology in policing to analyse organised crime is generally under-evaluated, critics point to serious methodological weaknesses. Another less-explored aspect in the scholarly literature is how law enforcement conceptualises and measures the impact of “harm” from organised crime and uses this analysis to inform priority-setting processes. This article explores how law enforcement assesses organised crime-related harm by examining five policing methods—one each from Australia and the Netherlands and three from the United Kingdom. The article finds that the methods have significant shortcomings: the main concepts are generally ill-defined and the operationalisation of these concepts is problematic. More importantly, the problems evident in the harm methods raise several critical questions, specifically whether measuring organised crime-related harms is empirically feasible and, if so, can be undertaken in a manner that meaningfully informs law enforcement’s decision-making and limits undue political interference.     

中国土地执法摇摆现象及其解释

中国土地执法实践呈现“摇摆现象”,即有时执法有效,有时执法失灵。执法摇摆现象的发生,并非完全因为法律不完备或者土地执法部门能力有限,还在于中国集中体制下的“嵌入式执法”。在中国国家体系中,土地执法部门被嵌入在集中体制及其建构的中心工作中。在中心工作完成过程中,土地执法部门真正完成的并非其职能目标,而是集中体制目标。不同中心工作的建构,导致土地执法效果可能有效也可能失灵,呈现出摇摆不定的执法效果。集中体制本身的分化,即中央和各级地方政府目标重点的不同,也使得土地执法效果更不可预期。     

The Reconstitution of Law in Local Settings: Agency Discretion, Ambiguity, and a Surplus of Law in the Policing of Hate Crime

An important yet poorly understood function of law enforcement organizations is the role they play in distilling and transmitting the meaning of legal rules to frontline law enforcement officers and their local communities. In this study, we examine how police and sheriff's agencies in California collectively make sense of state hate crime laws. To do so, we gathered formal policy documents called “hate crime general orders” from all 397 police and sheriff's departments in the state and conducted interviews with law enforcement officials to determine the aggregate patterns of local agencies' responses to higher law. We also construct a “genealogy of law” to locate the sources of the definitions of hate crime used in agency policies. Despite a common set of state criminal laws, we find significant variation in how hate crime is defined in these documents, which we attribute to the discretion local law enforcement agencies possess, the ambiguity of law, and the surplus of legal definitions of hate crime available in the larger environment to which law enforcement must respond. Some law enforcement agencies take their cue from other agencies, some follow statewide guidelines, and others are oriented toward gaining legitimacy from national professional bodies or groups within their own community. The social mechanisms that produce the observed clustering patterns in terms of approach to hate crime law are mimetic (copying another department), normative (driven by professional standards about training and community social movement pressure), and actuarial (affected by the demands of the crime data collection system). Together these findings paint a picture of policing organizations as mediators between law‐on‐the‐books and law‐in‐action that are embedded in interorganizational networks with other departments, state and federal agencies, professional bodies, national social movement organizations, and local community groups. The implications of an interorganizational field perspective on law enforcement and implementation are discussed in relation to existing sociolegal research on policing, regulation, and recent neo‐institutional scholarship on law.     

Cloud computing and its implications for cybercrime investigations in Australia

The advent of cloud computing has led to a dispersal of user data across international borders. More than ever before, law enforcement investigations into cybercrime and online criminal activity require cooperation between agencies from multiple countries. This paper examines recent changes to the law in Australia in relation to the power of law enforcement agencies to effectively investigate cybercrime insofar as individuals and organisations make use of cloud infrastructure in connection with criminal activity. It concludes that effective law enforcement operations in this area require harmonious laws across jurisdictions and streamlines procedures for granting assistance between law enforcement agencies. In conjunction with these mechanical developments, this paper posits that law enforcement officers require a systematised understanding of cloud infrastructure and its operation in order to effectively make use of their powers.     

Local law enforcement terrorism prevention efforts: A state level case study

Although law enforcement agencies across the nation have assumed part of the responsibility in the fight against terrorism, significant confusion exists as to the role of local law enforcement. While some agencies have taken steps towards terrorism prevention, little data has been collected on which agencies have taken the greatest steps, how those agencies have changed, and how other agencies should direct their activity. This case study of law enforcement census data from a single state considered variations in terrorism preparedness and predictors of preparedness. Agency size, presence of funding, and other variables significantly predict levels of terrorism preparedness. Important policy implications such as the distribution of funding and which agencies should be working towards terrorism preparedness are discussed.     

The Criminal Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in China: Recent Developments and Implications

This article systematically introduces and analyzes a number of aspects of the criminal enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China, focusing on recent trends and developments. China has been under tremendous pressure from the US to expand the criminalization of its IP infringement. The article first summarizes the substantive criminal law regarding IP offenses in China and describes the main enforcement agencies and judicial organs responsible for the investigation and processing of IP crimes. Analysis of the substantive criminal IP law and enforcement practices shows a steady pattern of rapid criminalization, not only on the books but also in action. Newly promulgated judicial interpretations and notices substantially expand criminalization of IP infringements. In addition, the enforcement rates of IP and related crimes have been rising consistently and rapidly. There have also been numerous joint meetings, information exchanges, issuance of provisions, collaborative “strike-hard” enforcement campaigns and other major efforts initiated by the police, the prosecutors, and administrative agencies to facilitate agency cooperation and strengthen the criminal enforcement of IPR. However, accompanying this rapid criminalization of IP infringement control are serious problems rooted in the Chinese criminal judicial system, including local protectionism, the lack of respect for procedural justice as well as the protection of defendants’ basic rights, and inadequate training, professional incompetence, misconduct, or corruption.     

城镇规划区违建执法困境及其解释——国家能力的视角

既有理论框架难以全面解释违建执法的困境.实际上,违建执法的困境反映执法领域国家能力的不足.从执法的结构和过程看,国家能力不足表现在多个层面:执法机构的"孤岛现象"普遍,不同机构之间难以有效合作;一线执法人员的素养欠缺,且其工作难以被执法机构有效考核;执法人员在进入社区空间、处理执法事务时受阻严重.由于国家能力的不足,执法人员常常接受执法对象的讨价还价,违建执法表现出"日常惰性—专项治理"的循环结构,强力执法与违法不究处于共生状态.改善社会治理,需要在执法领域强化国家能力,需要从执法机构、执法人员及其与社会的互动等多方面着手.     

Intellectual property and white-collar crime: report of issues,trends, and problems for future research

This research examines the association between intellectual property (IP) and whitecollar crime (WCC), and identifies future research that might benefit policymakers; federal, state, and local agencies; and the general public. Research methods include a review of literature, a review of information and data in IPR violations and WCC, and inquiry in areas that directly deal with IP laws and enforcement practices, such as law enforcement agencies, IP-based industries and private law firms.     

The police psychologist on the silver screen: Reviewing the roles on the reels

This article examines the portrayal of police psychologists in the cinema. A comparison is made between motion picture and television depiction of “cop shrinks.” Through content analysis of video segments from recent films, the case is made that a skewed picture is provided to the viewing public about the actual roles and functions of professional psychologists employed by law enforcement agencies. The value of entertainment is discussed in terms of the importance of accuracy. An argument is made for the need for professional organizations such as the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology (SPCP) to lobby film makers to more completely present the realistic contributions of psychology to law enforcement personnel and organizations. Stereotypes and type casting are revealed as media perpetuation of myth and misinformation.     

Sheriff law enforcement officers and the use of force

This study examined the relationship between sheriff law enforcement officers' characteristics and their use of force. Official records were utilized to collect data on the sworn law enforcement officers of the Florida Polk County Sheriff's Office and their self-reported use of force for 1999. The findings of this study indicated that White, male law enforcement officers, thirty-five years of age or younger, with less than 145 months of service, and assigned to patrol duties were more likely to resort to the use of force. Given that sheriff law enforcement officers are an integral part of policing, it is recommended that more studies be conducted of the use of force by these public officials.     

Multijurisdictional drug task forces: An analysis of impacts

In the past decade, municipal police organizations have devoted significant resources toward drug enforcement. One popular strategy in addressing the American drug problem is the formulation of multijurisdictional drug task forces. Despite their popularity, the impact of these cooperative ventures on law enforcement agencies has not been adequately evaluated. The research reported here examined the effect of membership in a drug enforcement task force on levels of drug enforcement outputs and perceptions of effectiveness by comparing law enforcement agencies participating in drug task forces to agencies which do not participate. Results suggest that task force membership impacts perceptions, but does not appear to influence objective measures of drug enforcement outputs.     

Assessing strategies for improving law enforcement / security relationships: Implications for community policing

Though much has been written about law enforcement agencies developing partnerships with citizen groups in the context of community policing, very little research has addressed the role of private security as a viable partner in law enforcement. The basis for developing working relationship is sharing common goals as well as having mutual respect for each other. A further important ingredient for developing sound relationships includes the presence and fostering of positive perceptions and attitudes toward each other. In this paper we examine a sample of 284 police officers and 236 security professionals in a Midwestern state to assess their perceptions on strategies to improve police/security relationships. Implications for developing partnerships are discussed.