Aggressive Patrol: A Search for Side-effects

Recent interest in the possible deterrent effects of aggressive or proactive policing raises the issue of such strategies' consequences for individual liberties and police-community relations. This study examines the latter—specifically, the effects of four neighborhood-level measures of an aggressive patrol style on citizens' evaluations of police and citizens' propensities to report crimes. The results suggest that, for most citizens, aggressive patrol has almost no effect on either evaluations or reporting behavior. Surprisingly, one form of proactive patrol, the neighborhood rate of suspicion stops, seems to have a positive effect on the evaluations of police made by young black men.     

Police use of excessive force: Does the race of the suspect influence citizens' perceptions?

Instances of excessive force by police officers, most notably the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles and the Malice Green fatality in Detroit, suggest that the race of the suspect may influence the decision to use excessive force. If police practices are simply a reflection of the expectations of larger society, then it follows that citizens' evaluations of police brutality toward minorities might reflect this sentiment. As part of a larger study focusing on the exploration of police misconduct, a telephone survey containing 16 vignettes was developed, each vignette described a separate type of misconduct in which a hypothetical officer was involved. Of these 16 vignettes, 3 described the misconduct of excessive force and are analyzed for the present study. A random sample of 992 Ohio citizens were surveyed. The hypothesis that citizens in general assign significantly lower seriousness scores to excessive force on African Americans and Hispanics than on whites was tested. Our hypothesis was not supported. Instead, we found evidence to suggest that the behavior of the suspect during the arrest and the behavior of the police officer are much more significant correlates of citizens' perceptions of police use of excessive force than is the race of the suspect.     

Brief history of law enforcement intelligence: Past practice and recommendations for change

Controversies have surrounded law enforcement intelligence because of past instances where the police maintained records of citizens' activities that were viewed as suspicious or anti-American, even though no crimes were being committed. This, of course, violates fundamental constitutional guarantees and offends the American sense of fairness with respect to government intrusiveness. Unfortunately, the boundary is not precise regarding the types of information the police can collect and keep. Some legal guidelines appear contradictory and the application of law to factual situations is often difficult. Beyond the legal ramifications, early intelligence initiatives by the police typically lacked focus, purpose, and process. Important lessons can be learned from these historical experiences that provide context and guidance for law enforcement intelligence today. Aggravating the [kinds of factors referred to above] has been the tenuous relationship between law enforcement intelligence and national security intelligence that has changed continuously since the mid-20th century. These changes have been both politically and legally controversial, responding to changing socio-political events in American history and most recently through post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts. As a result, there is value in understanding selected portions of history from both types of intelligence to gain context and understand the lessons learned.     

CITIZEN RATINGS OF THE POLICE: The Difference Contact Makes

Recent surveys repeatedly indicate that the public holds favorable attitudes toward the police. This analysis suggests positive public evaluations of the police may be in part the result of citizen satisfaction with police actions in handling specific incidents. Citizen-police contacts are found to be relatively common, and in the majority of these contacts, citizens are found to rate police actions favorably. Four types of citizen-police contacts are analyzed: contacts resulting from victimizations, assistances provided by the police, stops initiated by police, and citizen calls to the police for information. Contact type alone is found to have relatively little influence on citizen evaluations of the police services provided to their neighborhoods. But citizen satisfaction with police handling of contacts has a stronger impact, which appears to vary with contact type.     

A Brief History of Personality Assessment in Police Psychology: 1916–2008

Since the 1960s, the application of psychological services and research to law enforcement settings (known as “police psychology”) evolved from being practically nonexistent to almost universal in a relatively short period of time (Scrivner 2006). Currently, psychologists provide a variety of services to law enforcement agencies, including performing evaluations for pre-employment selection, “fitness-for-duty” evaluations (FFDE), and counseling/treatment for psychologically troubled officers and first responders. The extensive use of personality assessment instruments in police psychology is not surprising given the fact psychologists have traditionally concerned themselves with issues of psychological measurement and test construction. In the contemporary practice of police psychology, assessment using personality measures is essential, being utilized in all of the abovementioned evaluations, in addition to other occasional applications (Weiss et al. 2008). This article provides a brief history of personality assessment in police and public safety psychology as it developed from 1916 to 2008.     

The Salience of Social Contextual Factors in Appraisals of Police Interactions with Citizens: A Randomized Factorial Experiment

Objectives

Prior research indicates that public assessments of the manner in which the police exercise their authority are a key antecedent of judgments about the legitimacy of the police. In this study, the importance of context in influencing people’s assessment of police wrongdoing is examined.

Methods

A randomized factorial experiment was used to test how respondents perceive and evaluate police–citizens interactions along a range of types of situations and encounters. 1,361 subjects were surveyed on factors hypothesized to be salient influences on how citizens perceive and evaluate citizen interactions with police. Subjects viewed videos of actual police–citizen encounters and were asked for their evaluations of these observed encounters. Contextual primes were used to focus subjects on particular aspects of the context within which the encounter occurs.

Results

Structural equation models revealed that social contextual framing factors, such as the climate of police–community relations and the legality of the stop that led to the encounter, influence citizen appraisals of police behavior with effects comparable in size to and even larger than demographic variables such as education, race, and income.

Conclusions

These results suggest that the understandings and perceptions that people bring to a situation are important determinants of their assessment of police fairness. The police can positively influence citizen interpretations of police actions by striving to create a climate of positive police–community relationships in cities.     

Economic justice,political behavior,and American political values

Although theories of political economy state that citizens' concerns about economic outcomes are important determinants of their political responses, an alternative perspective states that concerns about economic justice influence political responses. Survey data were examined to determine the relative influence of each of these factors on political evaluations and behaviors. Concerns about the justice of the procedures used by the government to make decisions about the distribution of benefits and services strongly predicted evaluations of President Reagan and participation in policy-related political behavior, and were weakly related to general political activism. Concerns about the justice of the distributions of economic benefits were related to evaluations of President Reagan but not to political activism. Judgments about personal economic gain or loss relative to the past predicted evaluations of President Reagan while global subjective judgments of present economic outcomes weakly predicted policy-related political activism. The effect of justice is explained by considering the relationship between citizens' concerns about economic justice and values associated with the American political culture.     

Race, driving, and police organization: Modeling moving and nonmoving traffic stops with citizen self-reports of driving practices

A rapidly growing body of police scholarship has found evidence of racial disparities in traffic stop patterns using police-generated data. Despite the empirical consensus, the question of whether race inappropriately influences traffic stop patterns remains open, largely as a result of methodological weaknesses. The current article helps to address this issue by employing self-report data about citizens' driving practices and traffic stops. It presents a series of models that predict the likelihood of a self-reported traffic stop disaggregated by police organizational type and the reason for the stop. Results suggest that moving and nonmoving driving practices are associated with the likelihood of police stops for moving and nonmoving reasons, respectively. As expected, differences between local police and state police models emerge. Finally, Black drivers and younger drivers are especially vulnerable to traffic stop risk for nonmoving stops by local police, even after controlling for driving behaviors.     

Is problem-oriented policing effective in reducing crime and disorder?

Research Summary
We conducted a Campbell systematic review to examine the effectiveness of problem-oriented policing (POP) in reducing crime and disorder. After an exhaustive search strategy that identified more than 5,500 articles and reports, we found only ten methodologically rigorous evaluations that met our inclusion criteria. Using meta-analytic techniques, we found an overall modest but statistically significant impact of POP on crime and disorder. We also report on our analysis of pre/post comparison studies. Although these studies are less methodologically rigorous, they are more numerous. The results of these studies indicate an overwhelmingly positive impact from POP.
Policy Implications
POP has been adopted widely across police agencies and has been identified as effective by many policing scholars. Our study supports the overall commitment of police to POP but suggests that we should not necessarily expect large crime and disorder control benefits from this approach. Moreover, funders and the police need to invest much greater effort and resources to identify the specific approaches and tactics that work best in combating specific types of crime problems. We conclude that the evidence base in this area is deficient given the strong investment in POP being made by the government and police agencies.     

Hot spots policing and crime prevention: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Crime scholars and practitioners have argued that police actions should be focused on high-risk crime places rather than spread thinly across the urban landscape. This review examines five randomized controlled trials of the effects of concentrating police enforcement efforts on crime hot spots. The findings of these evaluations suggest that focused police actions can prevent crime and disorder in crime hot spots. A meta-analysis of the effect sizes from the five experiments reveals a statistically significant mean effect size for hot spots policing interventions; this suggests overall reductions in citizen calls for service in the treatment hot spots relative to the control hot spots. These studies also suggest that focused police actions at specific locations do not necessarily result in crime displacement. Although these evaluations reveal that these programs work in preventing crime, additional research is needed to unravel other important policy-relevant issues such as community reaction to focused police enforcement efforts.     

警察:请尊重公民的私权

公权与私权,是法制社会权利之两翼。现代法治设计的重要思想就是对公共权力的制约和对社会个体权利的保障。树立尊重公民私权的意识和遵守法定程序的观念,是我国人民警察队伍走向现代化的重要标志。     

College Students' Evaluation of Police Performance: A Comparison of Chinese and Americans

Public evaluations of the police are equally important in the East and West as police legitimacy resides in the views of the public. Using survey data from over 800 college students in China and the U.S., this study compares and contrasts Chinese and American college students' global satisfaction with the police and specific evaluations of police demeanor, integrity, and effectiveness. Three groups of predictors, including demographic characteristics, crime and criminal justice experiences, and locality were used to explain these perceptions. It was found that Chinese college students generally viewed the police less positively than Americans. Some factors such as media influence and college major had a consistent effect on perceptions of the police across the two countries, while other factors such as victimization and fear of crime had varied effects depending on specific evaluative areas. Implications for future research and policy are provided.     

Police evaluative perceptions of themselves,the general public and selected occupational groups

In recent years the police have faced sharply increasing pressures, criticisms, and role confusions due to such factors as rising crime rates, widely publicized incidents of police corruption and brutality, judicial changes in legally acceptable due process procedures, and new functions and tasks being assigned to police. This study investigates aspects related to the effects of increased strains and role confusions on police. Specifically, the study examines, with a semantic differential scale administered to 492 state and city police, how police perceive themselves and their roles, and their perceptual evaluations of the general public and various groups they interact with. The findings indicate that the respondents evaluate themselves and their profession highly implying they have a positive self-concept and are favorably disposed to their career. The four most negatively evaluated groups were lawyers, college students, politicians, and prison inmates. The low evaluation of lawyers may be due to the respondents' view that attorney frustrate and complicate the criminal justice system.     

Perceived police legitimacy: investigating its association with college-based informal social controls

Research has found that when private citizens view law enforcement as legitimate authority figures, they are more likely to obey laws and voluntarily comply with police demands. Although procedural justice has shown to be an important predictor of perceived police legitimacy, a recent line of studies has found other significant correlates of this outcome, including media exposure, ethnic identity and strain. To date, however, few studies have explored the role collegiate-based informal social controls play in predicting law enforcement legitimacy evaluations. Using questionnaire data from a convenience sample of college students, linear regression equations were estimated to explore whether Hirschi's four social bond measures predict the obligation to obey and trust in police constructs of police legitimacy. Across both models and even after controlling for procedural justice, respondent beliefs were positively correlated with these measures. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.     

Explaining suspects' resistance and disrespect toward police

The importance of suspects' resistance toward police officers has almost always been described in terms of its influence on police behavior. Given the centrality of citizens' resistance in the literature on police behavior, it is surprising that so little attention has been focused on explaining suspects' resistance independent of its influence on police behavior. This research examined the factors influencing multiple measures of suspects' resistance using systematic observation data collected in 1977 from twenty-four departments in three metropolitan areas. The findings show that non-White suspects were more likely to be noncompliant toward White officers but were not more likely to show more aggressive forms of resistance (e.g., verbal aggression, physical aggression, or disrespect). In addition, female suspects were more likely to be disrespectful toward officers compared to male suspects. The relevance of these findings for future research is discussed.     

Employment-related psychological evaluations: Risk management concerns and current practices

Pre-employment psychological evaluations and fitness for duty evaluations are an increasingly important part of police psychology services. While it is assumed that agencies display differences in how they handle these functions, there has been to date no systematic study of the specific methods and patterns of service delivery for pre-employment and work fitness evaluations. The current study presents results from a national survey of the fifty largest police and sheriffs' agencies using department size to partition the data. Of particular interest are the methods of communication of confidential findings to the department in light of restrictions set forth by professional guidelines and by a recent California Appellate decision in the Pettus case. Implications for addressing conflicting elements of ADA requirements and reducing risk factors for professional liability are addressed in our discussion of these findings.     

Crisis intervention skills training for police negotiators in the 21st century

Summary While Crisis Management training and intervention skills are not new areas for police officers or for police crisis negotiators, it is certainly true that such training must be included in the overall preparation for police officers in general and for police crisis negotiators in particular. Not to do so ignores the need for such skills in the day-to-day functions and calls-for-service of these groups. It has been the experience of this author, in talking with police negotiators, that more and more calls for their services are being made, in situations which are non-hostage related, than ever before. These areas continue to include barricaded individuals, suicidal persons, family disputes in which one member of the family is holding other members of the family against their will, and abuse situations including spouse abuse and child abuse. Additional areas include those in which there are juveniles involved as well as within school settings. Some of the latter may involve hostages while others do not. Finally, it is becoming less unusual for negotiators to be summoned only to find that the subject has engaged in acts designed to evoke fatal responses from those officers involved. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as “death by cop.” Further, it is also important that those indirectly involved in these situations receive this type of Crisis Intervention training. These may include first response officers, first response police and security personnel in our public and private schools, security officers in our hospitals and courthouses, and others who, due to their particular jobs, may be involved in these types of incidents.     

论现代法治框架下的警察行政权

为维护社会秩序和增进公共福利,必须赋予警察在社会管理方面一定的公权力,这种权力即为警察行政权。警察行政权涉及到社会的各个方面,直接面对着人民的个人生活,其行使如果越过必要的界限,极易造成对公民私权利的侵害。把警察行政权的行使纳入现代法治的框架,对其的运行强调法律、比例、程序、制约、救济等法治原则,重视行政相对人的能动作用,加强对警察机关及其警务人员行使警察行政权的行为—公安行政行为的监督,将会有效地防止警察违法行政行为的发生。     

Drug users’ Satisfaction with Drug Control by the Police in China

Illicit use of drugs has received tremendous public attention in China in recent years, but little is known about the effectiveness of drug control practices, especially those adopted by the police. This study examines the effectiveness of drug control as perceived by drug users. The study uses surveys from 100 drug users who have voluntarily participated in nongovernmental treatment in Kunming. Results show that, inconsistent with prior research on campaign style policing, the majority of respondents were satisfied with the police in drug control. In addition, drug users’ evaluations of the police were significantly correlated with their age, marital status, perceptions of collective efficacy, and evaluations of their prior contacts with the police. Limitations of the research and future directions are also discussed.     

论警察执法能力建设与和谐社会的构建

人民警察执法能力是党的执政能力在公安工作中的具体体现。社会主义和谐社会作为党的执政能力建设的主要任务,理 应成为人民警察执法能力建设的重要内容。人民警察必须加强执法能力建设,切实担负起巩固共产党执政地位、维护国家长治久安、 保障人民安居乐业的重大政治和社会责任,为社会主义和谐社会的构建作出应有的贡献。