Citizen perceptions of the legitimacy of traffic stops

Lundman and Kaufman (2003) reported that Black drivers were less likely than others to report that police made legitimate stops or that officers acted properly during traffic stops. The present work explored whether these results held when other variables were included in the model. Utilizing data drawn from a convenience sample, results show that being Black is not determinant in an expanded model aiming to better understand citizens’ perceptions of the legitimacy of traffic stops. Rather, size of place, time of day, and the race of the officer appeared to mediate the effect of “driving while Black”. Still, Black drivers had lower odds of reporting police acted properly during the traffic stop in either our basic or expanded model.     

The intersection of racial profiling research and the law

There has been a significant increase in the litigation of selective enforcement cases based on racial profiling claims. This trend has resulted in two legal issues that are problematic for racial profiling research. First, selective enforcement claims that rely on statistical evidence must successfully measure “similarly situated persons” who were eligible for police stops to provide a comparison against those actually stopped by police. Second, the research must demonstrate “how much” statistical evidence of racial/ethnic disparities exists. Although these legal components are necessary for successful selective enforcement claims, the methodologies and statistical analyses currently used in racial profiling research cannot adequately address these issues. It is argued that the over-reliance on social science research, in general, and statistical techniques, specifically, to provide evidence of discrimination in selective enforcement cases places policing research and legal decision making at a crossroads.     

DRIVING WHILE BLACK: BIAS PROCESSES AND RACIAL DISPARITY IN POLICE STOPS*

We estimate the degree of racial disparity in police vehicular stops separately for local and state police in North Carolina in the year 2000. We introduce four mechanisms that might produce racial disparities in police stops—racial profiling, race sensitive police deployment, cognitive bias and stereotyping, and prejudice. We then model the relative odds of police vehicle stops as a function of race, driving behavior, and other demographic statuses separately by police organization type, with controls for omitted variable bias at both the driver and spatial level. We find only weak evidence of racial disparity in stops by officers of the state highway patrol but stronger evidence in those made by local police officers.     

Beyond police crisis intervention: Moving “upstream” to manage cases and places of behavioral health vulnerability

Law enforcement officers continue to serve on the front lines as mental health interventionists, and as such have been subject to a wave of “first generation” reform designed to enhance their crisis response capabilities. Yet, this focus on crisis intervention has not answered recent calls to move “upstream” and bolster early intervention in the name of long-term recovery. This paper reports on findings from an action research project in Philadelphia aimed at exploring opportunities for enhanced upstream engagement. Study methods include spatial analyses of police mental health transportations from an eight year period (2004–2011) and qualitative data from twenty-three “framing conversations” with partners and other stakeholders, seven focus groups with police and outreach workers, five key informant interviews as well as document reviews of the service delivery system in Philadelphia. Recommendations include the need to move beyond a focus on what police can do to a wider conception of city agencies and business stakeholders who can influence vulnerable people and vulnerable spaces of the city. We argue for the need to develop shared principles and rules of engagement that clarify roles and stipulate how best to enlist city resources in a range of circumstances. Since issues of mental health, substance use and disorder are so tightly coupled, we stress the importance of establishing a data-driven approach to crime and disorder reduction in areas of the city we term “hotspots of vulnerability”. In line with a recovery philosophy, such an approach should reduce opportunities for anti-social behavior among the “dually labeled” in ways consistent with “procedural justice”. Furthermore, crime and disorder data flowing from police and security to behavioral health analysts could contribute to a more focused case management of “repeat utilizers” across the two systems. Our central argument is that a twin emphasis on “case management” and “place management” may provide the pillars needed to move upstream and strengthen interventions along a continuum of engagement.     

Self-reports of Police Speeding Stops by Race: Results from the North Carolina Reverse Record Check Survey

Survey reports of police stops and driving behavior are a potential methodology for examining the magnitude and prevalence of the “Driving While Black” phenomena. However, estimates of the magnitude or correlates of racial disparity in police stops from self-reported survey data are potentially compromised if the accuracy of self-reports of police stops and driving behavior differ by race. We report on the results of a reverse record check survey in which we directly assess the degree and consequences of differences by race in self-reports of police stops. In our sample of drivers who had been cited for speeding in the preceding year, we found that 77% of the White respondents and 71% of the African American respondents admitted to being stopped. While both groups underreport stops, African Americans do so at a higher rate. This finding is consistent with many past studies which report stronger social desirability effects on survey responses among African Americans. Thus, survey data will tend to underestimate the magnitude of the “Driving While Black” phenomena.

Victims' perceptions of police response to domestic violence incidents

This study examined the nature of police response to domestic violence incidents with a focus on the identification of areas of police intervention that female victims of domestic abuse find “most” helpful and “least” helpful. The first part of the study was based on the analysis of a random sample of incident reports of domestic abuse cases recorded in 2000 and 2001. These reports were examined to obtain information about the characteristics of domestic abuse victims and summary information about the incidents of domestic abuse offenses. The second stage of the research study involved a telephone survey conducted with a random sample of fifty female domestic abuse victims who called the police. The study examined female victims' perceptions of how the police responded to the domestic abuse incidents, how helpful or not so helpful victims found the police to be when they responded to their calls, and how their cases were handled by the legal system.     

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.     

The reasons for choosing a career in policing among South Korean police cadets

Despite the importance of understanding the reasons for choosing the police as an occupation for developing effective recruiting strategies, there is a surprising lack of research about what motivates people to choose careers in policing in South Korea. Employing the sample of 410 Korean police cadets, the study found that a financial factor — “steady salary” and “job security” — was the most important factor affecting the decisions of police cadets to join the police. Regression analyses indicated that gender and social-economic status had significant effects on cadets' motivation of joining the police. In the conclusion, policy implications for developing an effective recruitment strategy are discussed.     

Repeat Citizens in Motor Vehicle Stops

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the possible existence of the repeat phenomenon and their impact on racial disparities in police motor vehicle stops. The repeat phenomenon is the existence of a small proportion of people or places that account for a much larger proportion of events. While this phenomenon has been identified and discussed in other areas of criminal justice and criminology, it has not been extended to motor vehicle stops. The current study examines the existence of repeat citizens in a population of motor vehicle stops (N = 4775) from a Mid-western city during 2001. A small, but significant, concentration of motor vehicle stops were discovered among a few citizens and significant predictors of citizen performance included citizen race, gender, age, residency, time of the stop, and reason for the stop.     

Drug courts for DWI offenders? The effectiveness of two hybrid drug courts on DWI offenders

The effectiveness of drug courts for illegal drug-involved offenders has been well documented (Belenko, 1998, 2001; Wilson, Mitchell, & MacKenzie, 2006), however, few studies had examined whether they work for repeat “driving while intoxicated” (DWI) or “driving under the influence” (DUI) offenders. The current study examined sixty-six offenders who had completed one of two hybrid DUI/drug courts (compared to eighty-six similar parolees) operating in two small cities in a single midwestern state. Results suggested that among non-DUI offenders, completion of the drug court program reduced recidivism, as might be expected; however, among the subsample of chronic DUI offenders no significant recidivism reduction was noted. These results add to the small, but growing literature suggesting that DUI courts (as they are currently being implemented) may not be an effective way to reduce the occurrence of repeat DUI offenses. Suggestions for DUI court implementation and future research are presented.     

“Opt in” and “opt out” mechanisms in the internet era – towards a common theory

In order to provide for adequate legal protection mainly in mass-transactions on the internet, both the legislature and private parties increasingly, resort to so-called “opt in” and “opt out” mechanisms. Whether or not an “opt in” or an “opt out” mechanism is used is often decided on a case-by-case basis. The same is true regarding the circumstances under which private parties are or should be allowed to resort to “opt out” mechanisms, and if so, what restrictions should safeguard the free will of the addressees of such mechanisms. This paper argues that the existing “opt in” and “opt out” schemes should not be regarded and discussed as isolated phenomena. Rather, they should be analyzed from the viewpoint of a common underlying legal theory which builds on the common character of the underlying regulatory structure of all “opt in” and “opt out” schemes. This requires a complex matrix which comprises not only the opposites of “in” and “out”, but also of “active” and “inactive”, of “preference” and “non-preference” for the respective default rules, as well as of “ex ante” and “ex post” enforcement of the law. It also involves normative, economic, psychological and, last but not least, technical issues.     

Routine crime in exceptional times: The impact of the 2002 Winter Olympics on citizen demand for police services

Despite their rich theoretical and practical importance, criminologists have paid scant attention to the patterns of crime and the responses to crime during exceptional events. Throughout the world large-scale political, social, economic, cultural, and sporting events have become commonplace. Natural disasters such as blackouts, hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis present similar opportunities. Such events often tax the capacities of jurisdictions to provide safety and security in response to the exceptional event, as well as to meet the “routine” public safety needs. This article examines “routine” crime as measured by calls for police service, official crime reports, and police arrests in Salt Lake City before, during, and after the 2002 Olympic Games. The analyses suggest that while a rather benign demographic among attendees and the presence of large numbers of social control agents might have been expected to decrease calls for police service for minor crime, it actually increased in Salt Lake during this period. The implications of these findings are considered for theories of routine activities, as well as systems capacity.     

Cursing the Cloud (or) Controlling the Cloud?

Inspired by the cloud computing hypes, this paper responds to some of the hypes, but not to all. The hype in this paper refers to the level of the adequacy of data protection and privacy in a cloud computing (the Cloud) environment. Paradoxically, this paper proffers observational insights that surround the Cloud from the perspectives of data protection and privacy. It examines briefly the efforts of January 2010 led by Microsoft and anticipating “liability” scenarios. The liability rhetorically refers to the illegal access in the Cloud. This paper does not focus entirely on the technology sophistication; however, it analyses two scenarios of illegal access. To mitigate the liability, it suggests a “Cloud Compliant Strategy (CCS)” being a proposed model to control the Cloud. The observational insights of this paper have also intertwined with the adequacy of data protection from the lenses of the European Union (EU) Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC (DPD) and Safe Harbor provisions (SH).     

Investigating the impact of extended bar closing times on police stops for DUI

Researchers have often studied whether changes in the availability of alcohol impact associated problem behaviors like drunk driving. In July of 2003, the state of Minnesota approved legislation to extend by one hour the closing time for eating and social establishments that serve alcohol. This study utilized a time-series model to examine the impact of the extended closing time on the number of police stops for DUI in one jurisdiction in Minnesota. While results of the time-series indicated that there was a significant increase in the number of police stops for DUI following this legislative change, incident-specific analyses suggested that this increase might have been largely a result of increased proactive responses by local police. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Just enough police presence: Reducing crime and disorderly behavior by optimizing patrol time in crime hot spots

Using observational data collected as part of a one-year preventive patrol study in Minneapolis, this investigation employs survival models to test hypotheses about the effects of specific instances of police patrol presence at high-crime locations on the time until the next occurrence of criminal or disorderly behavior at these locations. The results show that patrol stops must reach a threshold dosage of about 10 minutes in order to generate significantly longer survival times without disorder — i.e., greater residual deterrence — than that generated by driving through a hot spot. The optimal length for patrol stops appears to be 11 to 15 minutes. After that point, continued police presence brings diminishing returns. The theoretical and policy implications of these results are discussed.     

Examining the effects of coping and social support on work and life stress among police officers

This study examined the effects of coping and social support on psychological distress in response to stressful work and life events among police officers. As part of a larger study investigating stress and coping, a sample of 233 police officers employed within a mid-sized northeastern law enforcement organization volunteered for this study. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that the main effect of life events was related to higher distress. Problem-focused coping resulted in a “reverse buffering effect”; the relationship between work events and distress was associated with higher distress. Seeking social support buffered the relationship between work events and distress, and emotion-focused coping buffered the relationship between life events and distress. The implications for developing and implementing stress management programs for police officers are discussed.     

Race matters: A critical look at racial profiling, it's a matter for the courts

The disproportionate number of minority motorists stopped by the police gives rise to a host of salient questions which center on contemporary police practices. Research has shown that traffic stops are routinely used as a “pretext” to stop minority drivers. In this article, the authors argue that the current police practice of disproportionately stopping minority motorists was formally sanctioned by the Supreme Court in Whren v. United States (1996). The current thrust to examine police practices will do little to end racial profiling, and the underpinnings of this problem, in part, lie in judicial precedent. The authors present the notion that in order to minimize racial profiling, the court must carve out an objective test from the Whren decision that will guide police behavior in the pretextual stops of motorists. The article concludes with a template of what this objective test may look like.     

Race and repeats: The impact of officer performance on racially biased policing

This study explored the impact of the repeat phenomenon on racial disparities in police motor vehicle stops. The repeat phenomenon is the existence of a small proportion of people or places (officers, citizens, places, victims) that account for a much larger proportion of events. While this phenomenon has been identified and discussed in other areas of criminal justice and criminology, little attention has been given to its existence in officer behavior. This study examined the impact of repeat officers on the level of racial disparity in a population of motor vehicle stops in a midwestern city during a portion of the year 2001. Results indicated that officer performance has a significant impact on the level of racial disproportionality in motor vehicle stops. Areas of future research addressing possible theoretical explanations for racial disparity in motor vehicle stops are also explored.     

The irony of broken windows policing: A micro-place study of the relationship between disorder, focused police crackdowns and fear of crime

In their seminal “Broken Windows” article in Atlantic Monthly, J. Q. Wilson and G. L. Kelling (1982) suggested that police could more effectively fight crime by targeting minor offenses. They hypothesized that untended disorder increases fear of crime in a community, starting a chain of events that eventually leads to heightened levels of crime. By targeting disorder, police can thus circumvent this cycle of neighborhood decline (Skogan, 1990). This study aimed to improve knowledge of the relationship between disorder and fear of crime in the context of the broken windows hypothesis by using a micro-place level research design involving a police crackdown on disorder and minor crime at hot spots. The results of the current study suggest that perceived social disorder and observed levels of physical disorder have a strong impact on fear of crime. This confirms the relationship between disorder and fear hypothesized by the broken windows literature, and implies that police may be able to reduce fear of crime by reducing disorder. It was also found, however, that the police intervention itself significantly increased the probability of feeling unsafe. Accordingly, any fear reduction benefits gained by reducing disorder may be offset by the fact that the policing strategies employed simultaneously increase fear of crime. These findings suggest the importance of a careful focus on “how” broken windows policing programs are implemented. Such programs must be geared not only to reduce disorder, but also to prevent increases in citizen fear that accompany crackdowns and other intensive enforcement efforts associated with broken windows policing.