Determinants of citizen support for community-oriented policing

The extent to which community members are willing to cooperate with the police and become involved with various community crime prevention programs depends on citizen perceptions of the police and of the community in which they reside. The purpose of the present study is to explore factors that affect support for community policing in a small rural city. Findings revealed that the majority of respondents supported community policing. Using community survey data collected from over 400 citizens in a small metropolitan area in the intermountain West, this study also explored the importance of demographic factors, community characteristics, and public perceptions and experiences with police in predicting citizens’ support for community policing. Citizen support for community-oriented policing varied somewhat by demographic factors (i.e., gender, education), and by community characteristics (i.e., disorder, social cohesion).     

Surveillance of environmental movements in Canada: critical infrastructure protection and the petro-security apparatus

A convergence of post-9/11 security governance practices and a dependence on extractive economies has resulted in changes to the way Canadian policing agencies classify environmental movements. We detail how the category of ‘critical infrastructure protection’ (CIP) now enables surveillance of environmentalists under the banner of national security. We examine the growth of CIP as a security category, its changing character from the Cold War to the present, and the role of threat entrepreneurs. We demonstrate that CIP networks have institutionalized collaborations between national security agencies and energy corporations, creating a petro-security apparatus that aims to suppress dissent. We conclude with reflections on what surveillance regimes driven by the petro-security apparatus mean for debates about national security and social movements.     

The role of respect in interactions with police among substance-using African refugee young people in Melbourne,Australia

Racialized policing and substance use are major issues faced by African young people in Australia. In-depth interviews with 18 refugee young people who use alcohol and/or drugs examined interactions with police. Status respect and human respect played important roles in interactions with police. Participants felt unfairly targeted by police and reported that they were disrespected by police through the use of discriminatory language, failing to differentiate between individuals leading to a sense of loss of self-identity, and stereotyping. Development and implementation of programs focusing on building mutual understanding and respect is needed to improve relations between refugee-background youth and police.     

Use of pepper spray in policing: retrospective study of situational characteristics and implications for violent situations

Pepper spray (OC) is a policing tool aimed to prevent or stop aggressive behavior by quickly and temporarily incapacitate without injuring. To date, few studies have investigated OC’s operational usefulness and limitations. OC reduced violent behavior in 93% of the 936 incidents investigated. However, the operative range was often <2 m and it took between 3 and 5 s of spraying before obtaining effect, partly owing to the difficulties of hitting a small, sometimes erratically moving target. Collateral hits were noted in 24% of the incidents, whereof 90% were other officers. Noteworthy, in 21% of incidents officers put themselves at large personal risk by using OC at close range against people armed with lethal weapons. Hence, OC emerges as a suitable tool for handling low threat situations but lacks key traits to ensure safe and efficient policing of high threat situations, e.g., handling armed assailants.     

EFFECT OF SUSPECT RACE ON OFFICERS’ ARREST DECISIONS*

Many respondents to opinion surveys say that the citizen's race influences how police officers treat the public, yet recent expert social‐science panels have declared that research findings are too contradictory to form a conclusion on whether American police are biased against racial minorities. We perform a meta‐analysis of quantitative research that estimates the effect of race on the police decision to arrest. Screening nearly 4,500 potential sources, we analyze the results based on 27 independent data sets that generated 40 research reports (both published and unpublished) that permitted an estimate of the effect size of the suspect's race on the probability of arrest. The meta‐analysis shows with strong consistency that minority suspects are more likely to be arrested than White suspects. Depending on the method of estimation, the effect size of race varied between 1.32 and 1.52. Converting the race effect size to probabilities shows that compared with the average probability in these studies of a White being arrested (.20), the average probability for a non‐White was calculated at .26. The significant race effect persists when taking into account the studies’ variations in research methods and the nature of explanatory models used in the studies. Implications for future research are presented.     

优化城市治安防范体系 创新警务管理模式——大连市社会管理创新的理论与实践研究

文章从非平衡和可拓分析的角度分析了在治安防范体系中推行信息效能特点以及警务转换桥机制,提出在社会管理创新的需求牵引下,要想使城市治安防范体系在改革与创新中获得时效,必须解决警务管理中的不相容问题。文中论述了危机意识、信息效能、学习精神和警务模式在其中的作用,提出了一些有待研究的课题。     

论公安院校的警务化管理

警务化管理是公安院校的主要管理方式。警务化管理对培养公安院校学生政治性、纪律性和警察意识、方便管理等方面具有积极的作用。但是,随着学生个性成长及实践中警务化管理与教学的冲突,迫切需要进一步完善。警务化管理首先应当突出学生的主体地位,强调学生参与;其次应当以服务于教学为主要理念;同时要突出公安特色;在具体手段上,应当强调刚柔并济。