The Cognitive Interview: novice police officers' witness/victim interviewing practices

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate novice police officers’ witness interview practices immediately post investigative interview training (known as PEACE) with reference to the eight Cognitive Interview (CI) components taught. Forty-eight UK police officers took part as interviewers. Forty-eight undergraduates participated as mock witness; they viewed a non-violent crime video and 2 days later were individually interviewed by a police officer. Interviews were recorded and rated for officers’ application of the CI procedure.

Despite having recently completed the only training available to them no officer applied or attempted to apply the CI procedure in its entirety. However, some of the individual CI components were applied more frequently than others. This study provides a unique insight into the interviewing practices of some of the least researched, least experienced, and least trained investigative interviewers who, nonetheless, conduct witness interviews on a daily basis. The emergent picture suggests that either the CI procedure currently taught to novice police officers is too complex at so early a stage in their police career and/or that the current training may be insufficient to equip them with the skills necessary to effectively apply the procedure.     

Wellbeing,occupational justice and police practice: an ‘affirming environment’?

This paper examines wellbeing and occupational justice within the police profession. The research presented is based on a preliminary study utilising a qualitative methodology in which 14 in-depth interviews were conducted with rank and file police officers in one state of Australia. The data-set reveals that there are many positive aspects to being a police officer, contrary to the ‘dysfunction’ research that exists concerning the police in which corruption and poor performance prevails. The data analysis supports the notion that the practice of the police can be understood through a framework of wellbeing, occupational justice, and positive psychology. Whilst the research yields strong positive aspects in the work police officers engage in, as well as in their working environment, there are challenges within the profession, namely dealing with traumatic events that can hinder wellbeing and occupational justice. This study offers evidence to reflect on current policies and practices in terms of police recruitment, education and training. The study also offers evidence for improving staff retention by building on the principles of wellbeing and occupational justice within police practice.     

The thin blue line meets the big blue sky: perceptions of police legitimacy and public attitudes towards aerial drones

Police departments across the United States are now integrating new visual monitoring technology (e.g. unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs or ‘drones’], body cameras) into routine police practices. Despite their potential use in multiple areas of proactive and reactive policing, public attitudes toward police use of UAVs, and visual monitoring technology overall, is mixed. As an extension of previous research, the current study uses a national survey to assess how well individuals’ perceptions about police legitimacy, effectiveness, and other criminal justice attitudes predict the level of public receptivity and opposition toward police UAV use in various contexts. The implications of these findings for public policy and law enforcement practices are discussed.     

Racial profiling and searches: Did the politics of racial profiling change police behavior?*

Research Summary Scholarly research has documented repeatedly that minority citizens are disproportionately stopped, searched, and arrested relative to their baseline populations. In recent years, policymakers have brought increased attention to this issue as law‐enforcement agencies across the United States have faced allegations of racial profiling. In the 1990s, the politics generated by accounts of racially biased policing placed heightened pressure on law‐enforcement agencies. However, to date, few studies have explored whether the increased social and political scrutiny placed on police organizations influenced or changed their general pattern of enforcement among black and white citizens. Using data in the search and citation file from the North Carolina Highway Traffic Study, this research specifically examined whether the politics generated by the media coverage of racial profiling and racial profiling legislation in North Carolina influenced the search practices of officers of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol's drug interdiction team. The findings suggest that media accounts and the passage of new legislation were particularly powerful influences, which thereby reduced racial disparity in searches. Declines in the use of consent searches and an increased probability of finding contraband also were influenced by the politics of racial profiling. Policy Implications The results of this study suggest several important policy recommendations. First, law‐enforcement agencies must monitor the policing practices of their officers because such supervision can influence officer compliance with fair and unbiased policing policies. Next, supervisors need to familiarize themselves with enforcement data to identify potential problem officers and organizational practices. By doing so, police organizations will not only increase officer accountability but also will potentially improve communication with their local communities. Such communication can empower community members to file charges against officers who violate their civil rights. Next, the media and political effects documented in this study suggest that external oversight can be particularly influential on police practices. Therefore, police agencies should consider developing a citizen complaint board, which is an external oversight board that would be responsible for investigating allegations against officers who engage in racial profiling or other racially biased enforcement practices. Such a board could assist police administrators in identifying problem officers as well as in making recommendations for corrective action. Finally, external social and political pressure must continually be placed on police forces to improve equity in police behavior. These external forces can assist in creating opportunities for police to increase the overall quality and efficacy of policing.     

In their own eyes: an empirical examination of police self-legitimacy

In their paper Beyond Procedural Justice, Bottoms and Tankebe specified two interrelated dimensions of legitimacy: audience legitimacy and self-legitimacy. Criminologists have given considerable attention to audience legitimacy, but police officers’ belief in their own legitimacy remains understudied. This paper extends Bottoms and Tankebe’s theory and reports findings on some of its key propositions, using survey data from a UK police force. Three key findings emerge. First, contrary to previous studies, feelings of recognition by supervisors and clientele did not predict self-legitimacy; self-legitimacy was found to depend on feelings of peer recognition and acceptance. Second, self-legitimacy predicted officers’ commitment to external procedural justice but not their moral orientations towards crime victims. Finally, perceived police effectiveness but not supervisor recognition – that is, internal procedural justice – was the key predictor both of external procedural justice and of normative orientations towards crime victims. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Tracking the evolution of police training and education in Poland: linear developments and exciting prospects

ABSTRACT

An important issue for police services across the world is the training and education of police personnel. Both training and education have often been linked to the professionalization of policing. An overview of current developments in police training and education in Poland is provided by a discussion and delineation of learning pathways for Polish police officers and the relevant pieces of legislation that have influenced these pathways. This contributes significant knowledge to international literature by being the first repository of information about Polish police training and education. The historical context of police and police training in Poland is introduced first, followed by an overview of the two-tier system of training. Finally, developments of police training in the Polish context are critically assessed to demonstrate the slow, yet undeniable, approach toward professionalisation of police officers in Poland.     

Managing Police Patrol Time: The Role of Supervisor Directives

Contemporary police practice advocates the importance of proactive policing activities. Proactive policing reforms emphasize self‐initiated tasks during unassigned patrol time and directed activities based on supervisor review of crime analysis and problem identification. Our study analyzes data from systematic social observations of police patrol officers to examine how officers spent their discretionary time. We find that, on average, over three quarters of a patrol officers’ shift is unassigned. During this time, officers primarily self‐initiate routine patrol, or back up other officers on calls to which they were not dispatched. Just 6 percent of unassigned time activities are directed by supervising officers, dispatchers, other officers or citizens. Moreover, directives provided by supervisors are vague, general in form, and do not operationalize problem‐oriented policing, community‐oriented policing, or proactive policing strategies. We conclude that first, a very significant proportion of patrol officer time is spent uncommitted that could be better utilized doing proactive, problem‐oriented policing activities, and second, supervisors need to provide patrol officers with much more detailed directives, based on sound crime analysis, to help capitalize on the under‐utilization of patrol officer time.     

‘Hotspot policing’: a comparative analysis of sanctioned acts of policing versus media representations of policing in a stigmatized community in Trinidad

The ‘Partial State of Emergency’ implemented in Trinidad and Tobago in August 2011, as well as media broadcasts on the crime situation, has brought to the forefront the high degree of interface between police officers and civilians within the identified ‘hotspot communities’. The assumed realities of these individuals were communicated in such a manner which led to the stereotyping of citizens as marginalized victims and police officers as ‘disrespectful bullies’. The media broadcasts reflected the act of policing as unitary, as opposed to encompassing a wide range of roles for interaction with civilians. These broadcasts revealed a high degree of violent physical displays by police officers, which were perceived as irrational, and in some instances inhumane. Despite community policing initiatives, there seem to be continued instances of problematic relations between police officers and civilians from ‘hotspot communities’. The research examined the sanctioned responses of police officer governing interaction with civilians from one of these communities. It highlighted the extent to which these endorsed reactions are contextually portrayed in media footage. The study described the determinants governing police use of force as evidenced in the media with the aim of providing a direction for redress during interaction.     

The Impact of Negative Publicity on Police Self-legitimacy

High-profile events involving police use of force in various cities throughout the US and internationally have garnered enormous media coverage and demonstrated the importance of police-community relations. To date little empirical attention has focused on how such events may negatively impact police officers. Using survey data from 567 officers, this study considers whether perceptions of negative publicity are adversely related to officers’ sense of self-legitimacy (i.e. the confidence they have in their authority). Findings revealed officers who felt less motivated as a result of negative publicity expressed less self-legitimacy. However, the degree to which officers felt their job had become more dangerous as a result of negative publicity was not significantly related to self-legitimacy. These findings increase our understanding of the sources of self-legitimacy and reveal that negative publicity surrounding law enforcement presents a unique challenge to officers’ confidence in their authority, which can have important implications for the community.     

Police Enforcement of Domestic Violence Laws: Supervisory Control or Officer Prerogatives?

Police officers are afforded a high degree of discretion in the exercise of their authority, and the control of this discretion is an important issue. While it is assumed that individual officer attitudes and preferences shape their discretionary activity, these officers are also members of a paramilitary organization with leaders over them. The present study explored the influence of both officer attitudes and management influences to explain variation in officer domestic violence arrest rates. Hierarchical linear modeling was used with a sample of 311 patrol officers and 61 supervisors from 23 municipal police agencies across multiple states. Unlike much of the previous literature, the results revealed that officer occupational attitudes had no effect on this particular officer work behavior. Management influences (such as rewards and written policies) significantly influenced officers’ domestic violence arrest behavior. The findings emphasize the complexity involved in the control of officer discretion.     

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.     

The influence of personality on violent victimization – a study on police officers

The current study aims to examine the influence of police officer characteristics, civilian characteristics, and possible interactions between both on violent victimization of police officers. Based on literature distinguishing between ‘provocative’ and ‘submissive’ victims, focus is given on effects of police officers’ personality in terms of the five-factor model plus risk-taking. Patrol police officers (n?=?1813) from Lower Saxony, Germany, completed a paper-and-pencil survey including personality assessments as well as questions about their last three police encounters. Binary logistic multilevel regression analyses demonstrate that police officers with higher scores on neuroticism and openness to experience were more likely to be violently attacked. Furthermore, agreeableness reduced police officers’ risk of violent victimization, while risk-taking and neuroticism increased their risk when confronted with a violent civilian. The study indicates that personality and especially traits that are assumed to provoke potential perpetrators were linked with violent victimization. It further stresses the need to include perpetrator attributes in victim studies in order to identify relevant interaction effects between both parties.     

Force,Stress, and Decision-Making Within the Belgian Police: the Impact of Stressful Situations on Police Decision-Making

Stress and fear are inevitable aspects of the police job and may have a large impact on police officers’ decision-making process. Many studies have explored how stress and fear may influence assessments of police officers, especially with regard to the use of force. This article aims to contribute to this research domain by reporting the findings from two empirical studies among Belgian police officers: a quantitative study of police officers’ attitudes towards and experiences with the use of force and a qualitative study on the influence of stress and emotions on officers’ decision-making and assessment abilities and accuracy of shooting. Both studies confirmed that stress and fear are often present in Belgian police practice. One of the main findings is that Belgian police officers are anxious about the consequences of their actions because they know they will be held accountable for them. The pressure that results from this accountability can make it even more difficult for police officers to react to stressful situations. Therefore, we need to look for the right balance in this difficult position, by providing tools that support police officers in making daily decisions, and help them do their job as effectively as possible.     

Development and reform of police training and education in Taiwan

This article describes the development of training and educating police officers in Taiwan. The current system, which has largely survived the democratic transition between 1986 and 2000, is unique. It is a two-track system in which Taiwan Police College (TPC) is responsible for training low ranking police personnel, whereas Central Police University (CPU) is responsible for educating police management personnel. Currently, the presidents of CPU are no longer chosen from the military, but their backgrounds require experiences as police officers. The Examination Yuan opens up the new route into TPC and CPU through competitive national civil examinations. Echoing the outcry for reform within Taiwan and abroad, we advocate to liberate new cadets from the closed system so that they can learn together with other non-police students and to add more social science materials into the police education curriculum.     

Informing Police Response to Intimate Partner Violence: Predictors of Perceived Usefulness of Risk Assessment Screening

Substantial research has demonstrated the value of using risk assessment tools for the prediction and management of violence risk, including for intimate partner violence (IPV) (Mills, Kroner, and Morgan 2011). Such tools have been advocated for use by police officers (Hilton, Grant, and Rice 2010), but little is known about police officers’ perceptions of using these tools to inform their decision-making. Using a sample of 159 Canadian police officers (73% male, M age =?41.8 years, SD?=?8.9), the current study examined police officer’s experiences with IPV risk tools, their attitudes about using such tools, and identified predictors of these attitudes using an online survey. Most of this sample had previously used an IPV risk tool, which was most commonly the Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk (64.1%). Most police officers rated use of risk tools as at least somewhat to extremely helpful (73.5%), and 67.4% indicated that they would use a risk tool with sufficient training on it. Regression analyses indicated that police officers’ perceived IPV risk tool usefulness was significantly predicted by older respondent age and greater perceived need for guidance in responding to IPV calls. In conclusion, most police officers view IPV risk screening as valuable for informing their responses to such calls for service and are likely to embrace such decision-aids with sufficient training on their potential impact for enhancing safety.     

Women Police

Abstract

This study investigated the use of force by and against women police officers using survey data from a large sample of female and male officers in six departments. Results suggested that female officers and same-gender female-female officer pairs used less force, and were less likely to use physical force, in police-citizen encounters when compared to their male counterparts. There was no evidence supporting the proposition that citizens used less force against female officers compared with male officers. In fact, the findings indicated that citizens used significantly more force against female officers relative to male officers in domestic calls. Although female officers were more likely to engage in underpredicted policing; that is, use less force than the situation would normally dictate, underpredicted policing was not related to an increase in the likelihood of officer injury. Implications for women officers, police use of force, and the institution of policing are discussed.     

Post-traumatic effects in policing: perceptions,stigmas and help seeking behaviours

This study explored the relationships between perceptions, stigmas and support with help seeking amongst police officers. A total of 421 web surveys were completed by constables from a large municipal police force in Canada. The most significant finding was the relationship between officers feeling comfortable disclosing distressing personal information and seeking help from others. Help was most commonly sought from respondents’ friends (at work and outside) and family members. Respondents shared information with their direct supervisors only when there was a strong, reciprocal relationship between them. Implications for future research and practice for help seeking in police occupations are discussed.     

Women Police Officers and the Use of Coercion

Abstract

Despite numerous advances in the last thirty years, women police officers continue to face acceptance issues in a male-dominated occupation. Qualitative accounts of policewomen have noted that many of the integration barriers stem from traditional assumptions about police work, much of which revolves around the cultural mandate to display one's coercive authority over citizens. Female officers are often perceived as unwilling (or lacking in ability) to use coercion when encountering citizens. Unfortunately, little empirical evidence is available to support this claim, as gender studies that specifically examine the use of coercion have tended to focus on excessive force. Using data collected as part of a systematic social observation study in Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida, this research examines both verbal and physical coercion that policewomen use in day-to-day encounters with citizens. The results of this study challenge one of the most fundamental stereotypes levied against women police officers. Contrary to traditional assumptions, female police officers (compared to their male counterparts) are not reluctant to use coercive force, and examinations of both verbal and physical force reveal few differences in not only the prevalence of each behavior, but also in the commonly associated explanatory factors. The article concludes with the implications of these     

Victims’ perceptions of the police response as a predictor of victim cooperation in the Netherlands: a prospective analysis

The current study prospectively explores whether crime victims’ willingness to cooperate with the police is predicted by victims’ perceptions of police officers’ behaviour with regard to their case through their perceptions of police legitimacy. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the interrelationships between the study variables while controlling for baseline values among a sample of 201 crime victims in the Netherlands. Results indicate that victims’ perceptions of procedural justice and police performance were predictive of both indicators of perceived police legitimacy (i.e. obligation to obey the law and trust in the police). Moreover, victims’ willingness to cooperate with the police was indirectly predicted by victims’ perceptions of procedural justice and police performance, through their perceptions of obligation to obey the law. These findings suggest that police officers may play an important role in stimulating victims’ willingness to cooperate with the police by treating victims fairly and by taking investigative actions to solve the crime.     

‘Looking back,i wouldn’t join up again’: the lived experiences of police officers as victims of bias and prejudice perpetrated by fellow staff within an english police force

ABSTRACT

Women, ethnic minority and LGB police officers often experience prejudice, disadvantage and exclusion within police forces because of their perceived ‘otherness’ in a predominantly white, heterosexual, male organisation. In the context of an increasingly diverse service, the paper argues that the concept of intersectionality is important in order to understand the experiences of police officers who encounter bias and prejudice because of their multiple, intersecting identities. Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with 20 individuals based in an English police force, the paper examines their occupational experiences of bias, discrimination and exclusion perpetrated by their colleagues and supervisors. Utilising the ‘exit, voice and loyalty’ model, the paper analyses how police officers are affected by, and respond to these experiences. Taken together, these arguments lay the foundation for future work to further understand the experiences of police officers as victims of bias and prejudice due to their multiple, intersecting identities.