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Community-oriented policing (COP) is arguably the most popular and most misunderstood policing philosophy. Definitional ambiguity contributes to this problem, hampering theoretical development, creative new strategies of implementation, and evidence-based policy. DiMaggio and Powell's seminal piece on institutional isomorphism provides a framework for understanding the organizational vagueness of COP, including the processes of homogenization of priorities and structures across police organizations. We propose several new dimensions of COP, developed using police mission statements from a nationally representative sample of law enforcement agencies (N = 2,826). These emergent dimensions (Shallow Community-Oriented Policing, Responsivity, Legitimacy, Constitutionality, and Inclusivity) provide new avenues of theoretical consideration of the COP construct. Exploring these novel elements may strengthen existing community-oriented strategies and encourage creative policy suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anecdotal evidence suggests that recent video-recorded police–citizen encounters have undermined police legitimacy and fueled civil unrest across the United States. Drawing from the process-based model of policing, social cognitive theory, and past research on media effects, we assess the influence of viewing cell phone videos of police–citizen encounters on perceptions of law enforcement. Using quasi-experimental methods and video footage of an actual police–citizen encounter captured on cell phones, the effects of viewing these videos are assessed using a series of repeated measure ANOVAs. Results indicate that viewing cell phone videos of police–citizen encounters significantly impacts perceptions of law enforcement, though little evidence of differing effects based on point-of-view, number of video exposures, or ordering of video exposures was found. The process-based model of policing should consider further incorporating the contributions of technology to provide a more holistic account of the factors influencing perceptions of police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only a handful of studies have sought to explore the robustness of the relationship between procedural justice, police legitimacy, and willingness to cooperate with police among adults who have recently been arrested. The findings from those studies have raised questions about the durability of the framework for offenders, as well as whether there may be variation in perceptions of police across offender types. The current study explores these issues using data from interviews with a large, criminally diverse sample of recently booked arrestees in Maricopa County, AZ, from 2010 to 2012 (N = 2,262). Findings indicate that procedural justice is strongly associated with views of police legitimacy, and perceptions of police legitimacy do not vary by offender type. Procedural justice and legitimacy perceptions are powerful predictors of willingness to cooperate with the police. Results provide strong support for the extension of the normative, process-based framework to the arrestee population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]