Predictions put into practice: a quasi-experimental evaluation of Chicago’s predictive policing pilot

Objectives

In 2013, the Chicago Police Department conducted a pilot of a predictive policing program designed to reduce gun violence. The program included development of a Strategic Subjects List (SSL) of people estimated to be at highest risk of gun violence who were then referred to local police commanders for a preventive intervention. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of the pilot on individual- and city-level gun violence, and to test possible drivers of results.

Methods

The SSL consisted of 426 people estimated to be at highest risk of gun violence. We used ARIMA models to estimate impacts on city-level homicide trends, and propensity score matching to estimate the effects of being placed on the list on five measures related to gun violence. A mediation analysis and interviews with police leadership and COMPSTAT meeting observations help understand what is driving results.

Results

Individuals on the SSL are not more or less likely to become a victim of a homicide or shooting than the comparison group, and this is further supported by city-level analysis. The treated group is more likely to be arrested for a shooting.

Conclusions

It is not clear how the predictions should be used in the field. One potential reason why being placed on the list resulted in an increased chance of being arrested for a shooting is that some officers may have used the list as leads to closing shooting cases. The results provide for a discussion about the future of individual-based predictive policing programs.

     

Canadian Police Mothers and the Boys’ Club: Pregnancy,Maternity Leave,and Returning to Work

This article explores police mothers’ perceptions of their workplace experiences during pregnancy and maternity leave and returning to work. Using Charmaz’s (2014 Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory. London, UK: Sage. [Google Scholar]) constructivist grounded theory with a critical feminist lens, qualitative interviews were conducted with 16 police mothers in the province of Ontario, Canada. Our analysis reveals that policewomen work inordinately hard to prove physical and emotional strength in an attempt to be accepted into policing’s boys’ club; encounter negative workplace responses to pregnancy; are often demoted or reassigned during maternity leave; and need to re-prove themselves as officers upon returning to work. Our research aims to enhance retention and foster changes that will best support police mothers, police organizations, and the communities they serve.     

Report: increases in police use of force in the presence of body-worn cameras are driven by officer discretion: a protocol-based subgroup analysis of ten randomized experiments

Objectives

Our multisite randomized controlled trial reported that police body-worn cameras (BWCs) had, on average, no effect on recorded incidents of police use of force. In some sites, rates of use of force decreased and in others increased. We wanted to understand these counter-intuitive findings and report pre-specified subgroup analyses related to officers’ discretion on activating the BWCs.

Methods

Using pre-established criteria for experimental protocol breakdown in terms of treatment integrity, ten experimental sites were subgrouped into “high-compliance” (no officer discretion applied to when and where BWCs should be used; n?=?3), “no-compliance” (treatment integrity failure in both treatment and control conditions; n?=?4), and tests where officers applied discretion during treatment group but followed protocol in control conditions only (n?=?4).

Results

When officers complied with the experimental protocol and did not use discretion, use of force rates were 37 % lower [SMD?=?(?.346); SE?= .137; 95?% CI (?.614) – (?.077)]; when officers did not comply with treatment protocol (i.e., officers chose when to turn cameras on/off), use of force rates were 71 % higher [SMD?= .392; SE?= .130; 95?% CI (.136) – (.647)], compared to control conditions. When full discretion (i.e., overall breakdown of protocol) was applied to both treatment and control conditions, null effects were registered [SMD?= .009; SE=.070; 95?% CI (?.127) – (.146)], compared to control conditions.

Conclusions

BWCs can reduce police use of force when then officers’ discretion to turn cameras on or off is minimized—in terms of both case types as well as individual incidents. BWCs ought to be switched on and the recording announced to suspects at early stages of police–public interactions. Future BWCs tests should pay close attention to adherence to experimental protocols.

     

Is the Effect of Procedural Justice on Police Legitimacy Invariant? Testing the Generality of Procedural Justice and Competing Antecedents of Legitimacy

Objectives

This study tests the generality of Tyler’s process-based model of policing by examining whether the effect of procedural justice and competing variables (i.e., distributive justice and police effectiveness) on police legitimacy evaluations operate in the same manner across individual and situational differences.

Methods

Data from a random sample of mail survey respondents are used to test the “invariance thesis” (N = 1681). Multiplicative interaction effects between the key antecedents of legitimacy (measured separately for obligation to obey and trust in the police) and various demographic categories, prior experiences, and perceived neighborhood conditions are estimated in a series of multivariate regression equations.

Results

The effect of procedural justice on police legitimacy is largely invariant. However, regression and marginal results show that procedural justice has a larger effect on trust in law enforcement among people with prior victimization experience compared to their counterparts. Additionally, the distributive justice effect on trust in the police is more pronounced for people who have greater fear of crime and perceive higher levels of disorder in their neighborhood.

Conclusion

The results suggest that Tyler’s process-based model is a “general” theory of individual police legitimacy evaluations. The police can enhance their legitimacy by ensuring procedural fairness during citizen interactions. The role of procedural justice also appears to be particularly important when the police interact with crime victims.

     

Privacy in Commonwealth Caribbean law: emerging trends in the protection of sexual citizenship

This article will explore the three recent judgments of Jovil Williams and Jason Campbell v AG of St. Christopher and Nevis & Chief of Police;¹1 Suit No: NEVHC 2013/0120, Williams J, (Supreme Court of St. Kitts Nevis, 21st March 2016) (unreported).View all notes Caleb Orozco v AG of Belize²2 Claim No. 668 of 2010 (Supreme Court of Belize, 10th August, 2016) (unreported).View all notes and Therese Ho vs Lendl Simmons³3 High Court Claim CV.2014-01949 (Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago, 26th October, 2015) (unreported) [32].View all notes which have broken new ground in constitutional law and the law of torts concerning the protection of (the right to) privacy. It is argued that these judgments hold substantial promise towards the making of a meaningful sexual citizenship in the Caribbean; a citizenship which protects the sexual autonomy of citizens and prevents or redresses the invasion or breach of these rights.     

Introduction

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ belief that the Constitution calls for the principle of free thought—“not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate”—was severely tested when the father of a fallen Marine sued members of the Westboro Baptist Church who picketed near his son's funeral service. Consistent with its traditions and precedents, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 8-1 that the First Amendment protected church members’ offensive speech from tort liability. In ruling as it did, the Court properly chose to consider only the case elements it was presented, refused to create a new category of unprotected speech, and in turn eroded the reach of intentional infliction of emotional distress in speech-related cases.

“The Court is out of the business of creating new categories of unprotected speech. Get over it.” ¹ Kathleen Sullivan, attorney and former dean, Stanford University Law School, remarks at Communication Law in the Digital Age conference of the Practising Law Institute, New York (Nov. 10, 2011).      

Can a Member of Parliament be ‘Genuinely and Properly’ Interested in Court Records?

If there was ever a case where the factual substratum could not have ever been foreseen, McCully v Whangamata Marina Society Inc & Anor ¹ 1 [2006] NZCA 209. (McCully) was one. The case is an unexpected by‐product of the substantive underlying case of Whangamata Marina Society Inc v Attorney‐General ² 2 HC WN CIV 2006, 485–789. (Whangamata) where the member of Parliament (MP) was not a party. The McCully case is unusual because: (1) it is, in law, a civil procedure case that matures into a significant constitutional law case; and (2) it is not the ruling alone, but the factual substratum particularly, that touches on the very heart of constitutional law. This article is limited to a cross‐analysis of the separation of powers, the sub judice rule, and ministerial decision‐making.     

The Supreme Court and the pledge of allegiance: a hollow victory

In Elk Grove Unified School District v Newdow (Elk Grove),1 124 S. Ct. 2301 (2004). View all notes the Supreme Court, in an 8–0 judgment,2 Justice Scalia chose not to participate in the outcome since he criticized the Ninth Circuit's ruling before it reached the High Court. Elk Grove Unified Sch. Dist. v Newdow, 124 S. Ct. 384 (Mem) (2003). See also Mark Walsh, Scalia: Courts go too far on Church State, Education Week, 22 January 2003, p. 22; Houston Chronicle, Justice decries courts removal of God, 13 January 2003, p. 5. View all notes with three concurrences, upheld the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance. In light of the uproar caused by Elk Grove, this article is divided into three parts. After reviewing the history of the Pledge the second section examines the litigation involving the pledge, including Elk Grove in this regard. The article concludes with brief reflections on the meaning of Elk Grove.     

Au nom de qui? The European Court of Justice between Member States,Civil Society and Union Citizens

Abstract: How does the quest for legitimacy of the European Union relate to the view the European Court of Justice(ECJ) accords to Union citizens, civil society and to private actors? It is submitted that the ECJ is currently developing a jurisprudence under which citizens, as well as their organisations and corporate private actors, are gradually, and in almost complete disregard of the public/private distinction, being included in the matrix of rights and—a crucial point—obligations of the treaties. The ECJ incorporates civil society actors and citizens, beyond notions of representative (citizenship) and participatory (civil society) democracy, into the body of law and thereby reworks its own and the Union's identity. Two core aspects are explored: the first is the reconfiguration of Union citizenship as a norm which triggers the application of the substantive norms of the EC Treaty. The second aspect of this evolution is the creation of ‘private governance’ schemes, i.e. processes in which, as a rule, private action is regarded as action that has to meet the standards of the Treaty. The analysis shows that the court is disentangling itself from the State‐oriented Treaty situation and drawing legitimacy directly from citizens themselves so that judgments should be pronounced ‘In the Name of the Citizens of the European Union’.

1 European Court of Justice 20 September 2001, Case C‐184/99, Grzelczyk [2001] ECR I‐6193, para. 31.

     

Police and the War on Women: A Gender-Linked Examination Behind and In Front of the Blue Curtain

The war on women was a term coined during the 2012 election cycle that referred to attempts to pass legislation that would limit women's rights, from control of women's bodies (with a particular focus on birth control, abortion, and the aftereffects of rape) to equal pay for women and their rights in the workforce (M. E. Gilman, 2014 Gilman, M. E. (2014). Feminism, democracy, and the “war on women.” Law & Inequality, 32, 1–30. [Google Scholar]). One arena in which evidence of such a war's impact on women may be assessed is behind and in front of the blue curtain of policing. To what extent, then, does policing reflect culture that supports and facilitates a war on women? We review arrest trends for female offenders, discuss police responses to crimes against women, and examine policies and practices that may improve understanding of the criminal justice system's role in this war. We find evidence of changes in police perspectives, actions, and policies toward women as perpetrators and victims of crime. Specifically, at the same time that police undertook more aggressive enforcement efforts against certain types of female offenders, resulting in trends for women that were often the reverse of those for men, there was an absence of similar attention to laws and policies protecting women as victims.     

Conclusions from the history of research into the effects of police force size on crime—1968 through 2013: a historical systematic review

Objectives

We describe and explain how the findings from nonexperimental studies of the relationship between police force size and crime have changed over time.

Methods

We conduct a systematic review of 62 studies and 229 findings of police force size and crime, from 1971 through 2013. Only studies of U.S. policing and containing standard errors of estimates were included. Using the robust variance estimation technique for meta-analysis, we show the history of study findings and effect sizes. We look at the influence of statistical methods and units of analysis, and time period of studies’ data, as well as variation in police force size over time.

Results

Findings vary considerably over time. However, compared to research standards and in comparison to effect sizes calculated for police practices in other meta-analyses, the overall effect size for police force size on crime is negative, small, and not statistically significant. Changes in research methods and units of analysis cannot account for fluctuations in findings. Finally, there is extremely little variation in police force size per capita over time, making it difficult to estimate the relationship with reliability.

Conclusions

This line of research has exhausted its utility. Changing policing strategy is likely to have a greater impact on crime than adding more police.

     

Cross-Border Criminal Investigation in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion: International Policing and the Theory of (inter-) Organisational Conflict

This article presents findings of the research by Nelen, Peters and Vanderhallen (2013b) regarding cross-border police cooperation in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion. These findings are scrutinised in light of the conceptual framework of inter-organisational conflict (Scott, Austral Social Work 58:132–141, 2005) to provide an enhanced and more in-depth analysis of the possibilities and difficulties in international police cooperation. Potential conflict between cooperating organisations is identified by five levels of analysis: (i) inter-organisational; (ii) intra-organisational; (iii) inter-professional; (iv) interpersonal and (v) intra-personal. Obstacles for international police cooperation are mainly found at the inter-organisational level and interpersonal level. Particularly, the Euroregional police organisations and their case management systems are ill attuned, creating conflict in cooperation. The article concludes with the potential benefits for further police cooperation in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion which are identified through the analysis and provides feedback on the conceptual framework.     

The Impact of Specialized Domestic Violence Units on Case Processing

This study involves an evaluation of an innovative approach to the handling of domestic violence (DV) cases in the city of Cleveland, Ohio that includes (1) a DV Project composed of specially trained police detectives, prosecutors and victim advocates for investigating and prosecuting domestic violence cases involving adult female victims who are married to, cohabitating with, or have a child with the defendant; and (2) a Dedicated Domestic Violence Docket that involves two Municipal Court judges hearing all of the domestic violence cases that are handled by the DV Project. We collected data on six months of domestic violence cases occurring in the latter half of 2008 (N?=?1388), by linking records from the Cleveland Police Department, the Prosecutor’s Office, and the Municipal Court. We found that very few victims in police districts lacking the DV Project follow up with a prosecutor to pursue the case further, indicting that specialized DV units in police departments can have a significant impact on the number of DV cases that move forward through the criminal justice system. DV Project cases were slightly less likely to result in charges issued by prosecutors (OR?=?.499) but more likely to result in dismissals (OR?=?2.545) and referrals to DV treatment programs (χ²?=?3.88).     

The United States Supreme Court and the death penalty since Furman: The settlement of basic issues

In 1972 the United States Supreme Court in Furman V. Georgia found that the death penalty as it was then being applied was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Furman provided few constitutional guidelines, but states reinacted their death penalty statutes.In 1976 the Court began to receive appeals from death sentences imposed under the reinacted statutes. In its decisions the Court began to establish guidelines. It found the death penalty was not per se cruel and unusual punishment. Before the death penalty can be imposed the court must take into consideration any mitigating circumstances and the case must be reviewed by the state supreme court. A mandatory death sentence is unconstitutional.Other issues including proportionality, due process and finality of judgment will be examined in the next segment of this study.     

Minority Status and Spirituality among Police Officers: Blacks and Women in a Metropolitan Department

This paper addresses two questions: (1) What are the sources of spirituality among police officers? (2) Can spirituality alleviate police stress? These issues are examined in a secondary analysis of the dataset Police Stress and Domestic Violence in Police Families in Baltimore, Maryland, 1997–1999. The study extends research on law enforcement spirituality to include the structural sources of spirituality. Minority status easily emerges as a source of spirituality with the highest levels present among African Americans and females. Contrary to previous research that has found either non-existent or positive relationships between spirituality and work-related stress among law enforcement, this study finds that spirituality is weakly associated with lower levels of burnout after controlling for demographic factors. However, the weak relationship between spirituality and perceived stress disappears when controlling for burnout and demographic factors, thus undermining the ability to make any overarching claims about the influence of spirituality that can cover all kinds of police stress.     

Evaluating the relative impact of positive and negative encounters with police: a randomized experiment

Objectives

Examines the influence of positive, negative, and neutral police behavior during traffic stops on citizen perceptions of police.

Methods

Participants were randomly assigned to view a video clip of a simulated traffic stop in which the officer communicates with the driver in a positive (procedurally just), negative (procedurally unjust), or neutral manner. After viewing the video, participants completed a survey about their perceptions of police, including their level of trust in police, obligation to obey police orders, and willingness to cooperate with police.

Results

Observing positive interactions with police enhanced people’s self-reported willingness to cooperate with police, obligation to obey police and the law, and trust and confidence in police, whereas observing negative interactions undermined these outcomes. The effects of these interactions were much stronger for encounter-specific outcomes than for more general outcomes.

Conclusions

The results from this randomized experiment confirm that procedural justice can enhance people’s prosocial attitudes toward police, whereas procedural injustice can undermine these attitudes. While positive (procedurally just) interactions tend to have weaker effects than negative (procedurally unjust) interactions, this study finds little support for the notion that only negative experiences shape people’s views about the police.

     

The Digital Economy Act 2010: subscriber monitoring and the right to privacy under Article 8 of the ECHR

This paper critically assesses the compatibility of s3 Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA) with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (1950) (ECHR). The analysis draws on Ofcom’s Initial Obligations and two UK cases, namely: British Telecommunications Plc & Anor, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills,¹1 British Telecommunications Plc & Anor, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills [2011] EWHC 1021 (Admin).View all notes and R (British Telecommunications plc and TalkTalk Telecom Group plc) v Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport and others.²2 R (British Telecommunications plc and TalkTalk Telecom Group plc) v Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport and others [2012] EWCA Civ 232.View all notes It argues that the implementation of this obligation allows directed surveillance of subscribers’ activities without legal authorisation under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). It also analyses compliance with the Strasbourg Court’s three-part, non-cumulative test, to determine whether s3 of the DEA is, firstly, ‘in accordance with the law’; secondly, pursues one or more legitimate aims contained within Article 8(2) of the Convention; and thirdly, is ‘necessary’ and ‘proportionate’. It concludes that unless the implementation of s3 of the DEA required the involvement of State authorities and was specifically targeted at serious, commercial scale online copyright infringement cases it could infringe part one and part three of the ECtHR’s test, thereby violating subscribers’ Article 8 ECHR rights.     

A Voice for the Fish? Climate Change Litigation and Potential Causes of Action for Impacts under the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement

The seas—all the seas—cry for regulation as a veritable res communis omnium. ² Louis Henkin, Arctic Anti-Pollution: Does Canada Make—or Break—International Law? 65 AJIL 131, 136 (1971).      

Police GPS Surveillance on Vehicles and the Warrant Requirement: “For a While I’ve Been Watching You Steady”

The global positioning system (GPS) has become ubiquitous to modern American life. The system supplies direction for travel through navigation systems as well as employee monitoring capabilities (Rosenberg Washington Journal of Law, Technology, and Arts 6:143–154, 2010). Law Enforcement has also found GPS to be a valuable tool. The technology provides a relatively cheap and highly effective way to monitor a suspect’s movement. Depending on the device, travel data can be reported in real time or be retrieved from the implanted device at intervals (Shah Journal of Law, Technology, and Policy 2009:281–294, 2009). This paper will first explore the core foundational Fourth Amendment cases that shape the use of GPS devices by law enforcement. Next, the federal circuits and state supreme courts’ decisions that have addressed the use of GPS will be reviewed. Third, the case of U.S. v. Jones (2012), which was recently decided by the United States Supreme Court, will be examined. Last, the policy implications of the current legal landscape regarding the use of GPS by police will be discussed.     

Policing a Negotiated World: A Partial Test of Klinger’s Ecological Theory of Policing

Objectives

Klinger’s (Criminology 35(2): 277–306, 1997) ecological theory of policing addresses the intersection of environment and police organizational structure on police patrol practices. The current study addresses the following question: ‘Is police response to calls for service influenced by the level of serious violent crime or the level of officer staffing?’

Methods

This question was addressed using crime, incident, and staffing data supplied by the Philadelphia Police Department. The dependent variable was the number of unfounded events per month, per police district, from 2004 to 2008. Analysis controlled for linear and non-linear trends, average monthly temperature, month length, and spatial effects. Data were analyzed using repeated measures multilevel modeling.

Results

Findings suggested that the quantity of unfounded events was associated with both workload and officer staffing levels. Consistent with theoretical predictions, higher workload was associated with more unfounded incidents while higher levels of officer staffing was associated with fewer unfounded incidents, net of ongoing trends and spatial effects.

Conclusions

These findings are consistent with the Ecological Theory of Policing and suggest that officers may shed workload in response to higher demands for service or lower levels of officer availability.