Spanish Language Training for Law Enforcement Officers: Study Aid Use,Motivation, and Need to Use Correlate with Vocabulary Retention

Job-related Spanish courses are available across the country for a variety of professions. Blandino and Rivardo (Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology 21(2):68–82, 2006) assessed the effectiveness of the Officer Safety and Communication Spanish Level I (OSCSLI) (Alentado 1995) course for law enforcement officers, but did not have data beyond 6-months post course and were unable to fully assess potential benefits of study aid use. In a follow-up study, 200 law enforcement officers completed a questionnaire and quiz up to 10 years following course completion. Those who used study aids had higher quiz scores than those who did not. Multiple regression analyses indicated that past need to use Spanish and motivation to learn Spanish were significant predictors of quiz performance, further supporting long term course effectiveness.     

Prediction of Police Officer Performance Among New Mexico State Police as Assessed by the Personality Assessment Inventory

Little research has been conducted regarding the use of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) in law enforcement screening and selection. The limited body of research that does exist appears to support its utility in the selection process. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Psychological Rating Risk Factor Statement (PRRFS) developed by Roberts, Thompson, and Johnson (2004) in predicting and discriminating problem from non-problem New Mexico State Police (NMSP) applicants. PAI profiles for each officer were obtained and transferred into the PAI Law Enforcement, Corrections, and Public Safety Selection software program, which generated probability estimates (PRRFS) to predict the likelihood that participants were not well-suited for a career in law enforcement. Subsequent logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) statistical analyses revealed that the PRRFS was ineffective in predicting and discriminating between problem and non-problem officers. Potential explanations for this finding are discussed.     

Cops and cameras: Officer perceptions of the use of body-worn cameras in law enforcement

PurposeThere has been a recent surge in the adoption of and media attention to the use of body-worn cameras in law enforcement. Despite this increase in use and media attention, there is little to no research on officer perceptions of body-worn cameras.MethodsThis study relies on baseline data of officer perceptions toward body-worn cameras collected from surveys administered to Orlando Police officers who are participants in a randomized experiment evaluating the impact of body-worn cameras (Taser AXON Flex) in law enforcement.ResultsResults suggest that police officers are, by and large, open to and supportive of the use of body-worn cameras in policing, they would feel comfortable wearing them, and that they perceive a potential for benefits of body-worn cameras in improving citizen behavior, their own behavior, and the behavior of their fellow officers.ConclusionsOfficers are generally supportive of body-worn cameras, and they hold perceptions that these devices can be beneficial in positively affecting relevant outcomes. Study limitations and implications are also discussed.     

“警察人性化执法”刍议

警察人性化执法,是指警察在执法过程中,在依法保障当事人合法权益的前提下,依照法定的职权和法定的程序,改变执法观念和执法方式,以人为本,实现执法公正的一项专门活动。在警察人性化执法中,严格执法是前提,依法保障当事人的合法权益(包括警察自身的合法权益)是核心内容,人文关怀是方式,实现执法公正是终极目标。而"懦弱执法"、"人情执法"、"不平等执法"和"首次不罚"的执法都不是警察的人性化执法。警察人性化执法实现的途径主要有三:一是完善公安法律制度;二是提高人民警察自身的素质;三是加强监督,从严治警。     

Police shootings. The Metropolitan Dade County experience from 1956 to 1982

Police shootings, or, when law enforcement officers shoot and kill criminal suspects, have been studied in metropolitan Dade County from 1956 to 1982. A total of 194 cases have been studied and analyzed according to age, race, sex, Spanish surname, alcohol and/or drugs detected at autopsy, and prior criminal arrest record of the victim. The reason(s) for the shooting and any agencies involved have also been noted. Finally, an appendix is included that provides guidelines for the forensic pathologist on how to approach a case.     

Ambivalent sexism,empathy and law enforcement attitudes towards partner violence against women among male police officers

Police attitudes towards partner violence against women (PVAW) can play an important role in their evaluation and responses to this type of violence. The present study aims to examine ambivalent sexism and empathy as determinants of male police officers' law enforcement attitudes towards PVAW. The study sample was composed by 404 male police officers. Results suggested that male police officers scoring low in benevolent sexism expressed a general preference for unconditional law enforcement (i.e. regardless of the victim's willingness to press charges against the offender), whereas those scoring high in benevolent sexism expressed a preference for conditional law enforcement (i.e. depending on the willingness of the victim to press charges against the offender). Results also showed that police officers scoring high in empathy and low in hostile sexism were those who expressed a general preference for unconditional law enforcement. The presence of sexist attitudes and low levels of empathy among some police officers, and their influence on law enforcement attitudes, highlights not only the importance of specific training, but also the need to pay attention to the selection process of police officers dealing with PVAW.     

Preemployment screening and training could reduce excessive force litigation cases

Police officers enter law enforcement with enthusiasm. However, at some point, their idealism dissipates to the point of apathy causing some to become aggressive with the general public. During this period, some officer’s performance declines. This raises concerns for superior officers and management with how these problems could lead to legal liabilities if out-of-control officers engage in excessive force.     

Prevalence and Predictors of Suicidal Ideation Among U.S. Law Enforcement Officers

Police officers have often been reported to experience high rates of suicide compared to the general population. Suicidal ideation (SI) is considered a strong predictor of suicidal acts. However, few studies have examined SI in U.S. law enforcement officers. This study investigated the prevalence of SI and the association between SI and amount of subjective work-related traumatic stress, personal relationship stress, work-related but non-traumatic stress, age, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, alcohol use, and posttraumatic growth among law enforcement officers (N?=?193) from a Midwestern state. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that greater depression symptoms significantly predicted greater SI among officers.     

To protect and collect: a nationwide study of profit-motivated police crime

This study is part of a larger research project on police crime in the United States. Police crimes are those criminal offenses committed by sworn law enforcement officers who have the general powers of arrest. Profit-motivated police crime involves officers who use their authority of position to engage in crime for personal gain. This study reports the findings on 1,591 cases where a law enforcement officer was arrested for one or more profit-motivated crimes during the seven-year period 2005–2011. The profit-motivated arrest cases involved 1,396 individual officers employed by 782 state, local, special, constable, and tribal law enforcement agencies located in 531 counties and independent cities in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Our data is the first systematic study of profit-motivated police crime. The study describes the nature of this form of police misconduct in terms of several dimensions, including the characteristics of police who perpetrate these crimes, where it occurs, the specific criminal charges, and the contexts within which profit-motivated police crime is punished through police agencies and the criminal courts.     

Post-FTO Performance Evaluations of Rookie Police Officers

Abstract

The literature surrounding the Field Training Officer (FTO) program examines how police recruits navigate post-academy on-the-job training, the reactions these novices have, and how these fledgling officers assess their training experience. Absent from this literature is any consideration of how new officers perform after graduation from the FTO program. The present study examines 347 monthly evaluations issued by immediate supervisors for 66 rookies at the Tallahassee (FL) Police Department. An analysis of scores registered in 18 areas over the first six months after FTO completion determines that race and sex of the sergeant and officer exhibit a statistical influence on grading practices. While these effects do not appear to taint the transition from probationary to full employment status, long-term ramifications are explored.     

The influence of suspect gender in domestic violence arrests

This study examines heterosexual domestic violence incidents involving male and female suspects. The sample includes 428 incident reports filed at the Columbia (South Carolina) Police Department between 1993 and 1997. Police officers appear to use different arrest determinants for women than for men. The implications of these differential law enforcement practices are discussed.     

Terrorism Preparation by Michigan Law Enforcement Agencies

The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, compelled most Americans to imagine the unimaginable. Increased interest was focused on lessons learned, specifically if local law enforcement agencies had made appropriate organizational changes to manage potential terrorism events. The purpose of this study was to assess perceptions of law enforcement officers in the state of Michigan regarding organizational changes post 9/11. A total of 247 law enforcement officers participated in the study by completing three instruments, the Police Unit Assessment of Terrorism (PAT) Scale, Domestic Unit Assessment of Terrorism (DAT) Scale, and a short demographic survey. The officers who perceived their work load had increased since 9/11 were more likely to have more positive perceptions on both the PAT and DAT.     

Women in Law Enforcement and Police Use of Deadly Force

We test the hypothesis that law enforcement agencies that have a larger share of female officers should experience lower rates of police use of deadly force. We use the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics 2013 survey of police and sheriff departments (N?=?1,983). We measure police-involved violence as the number of civilians killed by law enforcement officers from 2013 through 2015 as reported by the website Mapping Police Violence. Using a variety of empirical estimators to take into consideration the structure of the distribution of police-caused deaths, we find consistent results that a higher share of female officers is associated with a higher likelihood of police-caused deaths. These results are consistent with prior findings within the literature and implies that in order to “fit in” with their male counterparts female officers will use coercive tactics to the same extent.     

The influence of strain on law enforcement legitimacy evaluations

Purpose

While law enforcement officers have the state-sanctioned authority to use force as a way to ensure citizen obedience with the law, research has found that when private citizens evaluate the police as legitimate, they are more likely to comply with legal demands and cooperate with the police. Although procedural justice has shown to be a highly significant predictor of perceived police legitimacy, research has found other correlates of this outcome, including ethnic identity, low self-control and structural economic disadvantage. To date, no study has explored whether strain influences perceptions of the legitimacy of law enforcement.

Methods

A series of linear regression equations was estimated using survey data collected from a convenience sample of college students to determine the effect of strain on perceived police legitimacy.

Results

Even after controlling for procedural justice, strain exerted a negative and statistically significant influence on law enforcement legitimacy evaluations.

Conclusions

Police officers are encouraged to interact with citizens in procedurally just manners and to also consider people's strain levels when enforcing the law.     

Female Police Officers and Their Experiences: The Metropolitan Police of Buenos Aires Context

This research explores the experience of female police officers in the Metropolitan Police of Buenos Aires, which began providing public safety in 2010. The purpose of this research is to better understand the barriers and opportunities female officers are encountering in this new context of community policing in Latin America. With better understanding, law enforcement officials will be better equipped to ensure that female officers achieve at the highest levels in organizations. Responding female officers identified civic duty as a primary reason for joining the force. Female officers did not report significant levels of institutional discrimination but did report informal disparaging treatment, including sexual harassment. The results of this research suggest that as this young police force matures, officials should pay close attention to the emerging culture of the organization, as many common and negative aspects of it have already started to form.     

Black and Blue Bloods: Protecting Police Officer Families from Domestic Violence

Officer‐involved domestic violence (OIDV) is a national problem, with police officer families having higher rates of domestic violence than non–police officer families. OIDV is also an underresearched problem with few studies or proposed solutions. Many victims of OIDV do not report their abuse precisely because their abuser is a police officer, whom they fear is in a unique position to protect him/herself from any legal consequences. Often, OIDV complaints are not investigated properly in a nonbiased manner. While a handful of police agencies around the country have developed specific policies and procedures to deal with OIDV, Washington State has enacted legislation that requires its police agencies to adopt OIDV‐specific policies. The International Associations of Chiefs of Police (IACP), an organization that addresses various issues confronting law enforcement, has also developed a model policy on OIDV. This Note proposes that, in light of the Washington legislation and the model policy proposed by the IACP, each state should enact a statute that requires its police agencies to develop policies on OIDV. This Note also outlines a specific set of procedures that such statutes should, at a minimum, require its police agencies to adopt, ranging from educating police officers on domestic violence to developing guidelines on responding to and investigating OIDV complaints.     

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.     

The theory of planned behavior and policing: how attitudes about behavior,subjective norms,and perceived behavioral control affect the discretionary enforcement decisions of police officers

This research used qualitative methods to investigate police officer decision-making processes within the context of the theory of planned behavior from the discipline of psychology. Interviews with police officers were conducted to elicit how the constructs of attitudes about enforcement behaviors, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control manifest themselves in a policing context and how they affect the enforcement decisions that police officers ultimately make. The results indicated that officer attitudes about enforcement behaviors impact the decisions officers make with the caution that the impact of these attitudes varies across varying situational contexts. In terms of subjective norms, officers were primarily concerned with supervisor expectations more than the expectations of coworkers or the community in general. Officer decisions are also impacted by perceived limits on their discretion with these perceived limits being largely conditioned by offense seriousness. Theoretical implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Confidently Wrong: Police Endorsement of Psycho-Legal Misconceptions

Public beliefs about psychological issues relevant to the legal system have been demonstrated to often be misconceived, but the endorsement of such beliefs in law enforcement samples is largely unknown. This study was the first to compare psycho-legal beliefs between law enforcement officers and the general public in the UK. Participants were presented a 50-item questionnaire measuring five psycho-legal topics; police procedures, courts, tough on crime, mental illness, and memory and cognition. Despite direct involvement and relevant experience, law enforcement officers endorsed just as many empirically contradictory beliefs as those who were not law enforcement officers. Further, law enforcement officers were more confident in their responses. This research has implications for identifying areas of limited knowledge within police samples that can be targeted by police education.     

Police officers’ attitudes toward their role and work: A comparison of black and white officers

This study tests whether Black and White police officers differ in job-related attitudes. The analyses focus on officers’ attitudes toward police role, selective enforcement, legal restrictions, and departmental problem-solving efforts. Survey data were collected from the Indianapolis Police Department (IPD) during the summer of 1996. Findings show that compared to White officers, Black officers tend to have a broad role orientation, be less selective, and have positive attitudes toward legal restrictions. Implications for future research and policy are also discussed.