Can You Build a Better Cop?

Research Summary

By drawing from psychology and economics, we present an experimental evaluation of a procedural justice training program designed to “slow down” police officers’ thought processes during citizen encounters. We find that officers who were randomly assigned to participate in training were as engaged in the community as similarly situated officers, but they were less likely to resolve incidents with an arrest or to be involved in incidents where force was used. These changes were most evident among officers who worked in areas with a modest level of risk.

Policy Implications

Police officers who are actively engaged with the public can reduce crime through general deterrence and by arresting criminals. Nevertheless, excessive discretionary arrests and the use of force by officers can reduce public trust in the police. To date, there is scant evidence as to how police departments can successfully train officers to balance enforcement and public trust in the field. Through our study, we demonstrate that a relatively minor supervisory intervention may cause substantive changes in how police and citizens interact with each other.     

Informed voters and electoral outcomes: a natural experiment stemming from a fundamental information-technological shift

Public Choice - Do informed electorates choose better candidates? While that question is straightforward, its answer often is elusive. Typically, candidate-quality information is neither salient...     

Designing a tax incentive scheme: The case of a wage tip

Governments are constantly attempting to use their tax systems for purposes other than the collection of revenue. Each such use entails difficult decisions of both design and administration. Consideration of a tax-based policy that might reduce wage inflation—a so-called TIP—serves to reveal the wide range of difficult choices that need to be made. In addition to problems of measuring the behavior of the tax payer who is to be benefited or penalized, the analyst must settle on such questions as whether the program should be permanent or temporary, whether it should emphasize rewards or punishments, and whether it should be administered by existing government agencies or by special agencies. None of these problems is insuperable. But lurking behind all of them is the question whether, is the end, the chosen policy will actually contribute to reducing wage inflation.     

The 1689 Bill of Rights

Following the disastrous reign of James II, the Bill of Rights was introduced to curb future arbitrary behaviour by the Crown. Five of the thirteen Articles are still active and cases illustrating their use in the courts are described. The courts have enforced the requirement for parliamentary consent to taxation and the ban on the executive's power to suspend statutes but have been less strict over the dispensing power. Article 9, on parliamentary freedom of speech, is in active use, and developments in Australia and Canada are reviewed. Scotland's own legislation - the Claim of Right - is discussed briefly. Most of the Bill probably does not apply to Northern Ireland. Opinions vary on the Bill's importance but in the author's view it is still a potent force.