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PurposeThe objectives of this research were to examine how officer perspectives on body-worn cameras (BWCs) are patterned by broader occupational attitudes, and to analyze stability and change in officers' attitudes toward BWCs before and after the deployment of the technology.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyze panel survey data on individual officers in the Albany (New York) Police Department (APD).FindingsPre-BWC deployment, officers varied in their occupational attitudes and BWC perspectives, and the officers' BWC outlooks bore relationships to several occupational attitudes. BWC outlooks were largely stable following deployment. Individual changes in BWC perspectives were related to officers' assignments and unrelated to officers' occupational attitudes.Originality/valueThe authors use panel survey data to test hypotheses about the effect of broad occupational attitudes on officers' receptivity to BWCs and to analyze change pre-/post-BWC deployment.

Long-term, collaborative practitioner–researcher partnerships offer many benefits to police agencies and research institutions, generating systematic evidence that enables agencies to become learning organizations and expands the base of knowledge. We reflect on our experiences with five such partnerships to discuss the scope, operation, and structure of collaboration. Given their skills and independence, researchers can perform functions that serve valuable purposes, and that probably could not be performed as well by equally well-trained personnel in the police chain-of-command. Research partnerships need not be limited to ‘policy’ research, as researchers can shed light on a wide range of topics that have practical and theoretical significance. They need not confine themselves to randomized controlled trials, and partnerships need not conform to any prescribed structure, as they will be shaped by the joint characteristics of the agency and the researcher(s). They confront challenges that stem from the political environment, which may also afford opportunities.

The imposition of appropriate sanctions for substantiated police misconduct is important, but social science offers little evidence about whether the severity of sanctions is related to the gravity of the misconduct, or disparities indicative of biased decision-making, or simply arbitrary decision-making. We examine the application of sanctions for police misconduct in one agency, analyzing sanctions imposed in 1,946 sustained personnel complaints filed against 1,026 officers between 1987 and 2001. We find that the nature of the misconduct accounts for some of the variation in sanction severity, with internal bureaucratic violations sanctioned more severely than officers’ improprieties vis-à-vis citizens. Among the latter, sanctions tend to be less severe than those prescribed by either citizens or police officers. We also find that sanction severity is affected by officers’ characteristics, but also that much of the variation in sanctions is unaccounted for, suggesting a large degree of unstructured decision-making.

Objectives: The group based violence intervention model is predicated on the assumption that individuals who are delivered the deterrence message spread the message to the remaining group members. We focus on the problem of who should be given the initial message to maximize the reach of the message within the group. Methods: We use social network analysis to create an algorithm to prioritize individuals to deliver the message. Using a sample of twelve gangs in four different cities, we identify the number of members in the dominant set. The edges in the gang networks are defined by being arrested or stopped together in the prior three years. In eight of the gangs we calculate the reach of observed call-ins, and compare these with the sets defined by our algorithm. In four of the gangs we calculate the reach for a strategy that only calls-in members under supervision. Results: The message only needs to be delivered to around 1/3 of the members to reach 100% of the group. Using simulations we show our algorithm identifies the minimal dominant set in the majority of networks. The observed call-ins were often inefficient, and those under supervision could be prioritized more effectively. Conclusions: Group based strategies should monitor their potential reach based on who has been given the message. While only calling-in those under supervision can reach a large proportion of the gang, delivering the message to those not under supervision will likely be needed to reach 100% of the group.

We evaluate the Violent Offender Identification Directive (VOID) tool, a risk prediction instrument implemented within a police department to identify offenders likely to be involved with future gun violence. VOID uses a variety of static measures of prior criminal history that are available in police records management systems. The VOID tool is assessed for predictive accuracy by taking a historical sample and calculating scores for over 200,000 individuals known to the police at the end of 2012, and predicting 103 individuals involved with gun violence (either as a shooter or a victim) during 2013. Despite weights for the instrument being determined in an ad hoc manner, the VOID tool does very well in predicting involvement with gun violence compared with an optimized logistic regression and generalized boosted models. We discuss theoretical reasons why such ad hoc instruments are likely to perform well in identifying chronic offenders for all police departments.

Unwarranted, by NYU law professor Barry Friedman, offers a diagnosis of some of the contemporary ills of American policing and a prescribed cure. Between 2014 and 2016, incidents of fatal shootings...

In early 2016, Albany police launched its law-enforcement-assisted diversion (LEAD) program, providing for discretionary prebooking diversion for low-level offenders whose offending was driven by drug addiction, mental illness, homelessness, or poverty. We examine the exercise of officers’ discretion in making LEAD diversions by analyzing eligible incidents to estimate the effects of offense-, suspect-, and officer-related variables on discretionary decisions, and by analyzing semistructured interviews with officers. We find that in the first year of LEAD, diversions were few in number, and the individuals diverted to LEAD were not generally people with a high level of previous justice involvement. Officers’ attitudes toward diversion and toward LEAD were mixed, and those attitudes influenced the exercise of their discretion. Overall, we find evidence of the same kinds of challenges that have confronted the implementation of new programs in many police agencies, particularly challenges to “pluralized” drug control.

By most contemporary accounts, the judgments that people make about their contacts with the police have a strong bearing on their broader attitudes toward the police, including especially their tru...

People who file complaints against the police tend to experience objectively unfavorable outcomes, for most complaints are not sustained. But features of citizen oversight might be expected to enhance the procedural justice of the complaint review process and, hence, provide positive subjective experience despite the outcomes. Using data collected through interviews with complainants about their experience with complaint review in a city that provides for citizen oversight, we examine the factors associated with complainants’ subjective experiences. We find that complainants’ subjective experiences are shaped mainly by outcomes, while features of the process that might be expected to enhance its procedural fairness have little or no effect on complainants’ judgments.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the “state of the art” in research on police legitimacy. The authors consider two bodies of theory and empirical research on police legitimacy: one rooted in social psychology and concerned with individual attitudes, and the other based on organizational institutionalism. The authors contrast the theories, discuss the methods with which propositions have been examined, and take stock of the empirical evidence. The authors then turn to a direct comparison of the theories and their predictions. Design/methodology/approach Critical review and comparison of two bodies of literature. Findings Police legitimacy is a phenomenon that can be properly understood only when it is addressed at both individual and organizational levels. A large body of social psychological research on police legitimacy has been conducted at the individual level, though it has dwelled mainly on attitudes, and the empirical evidence on the relationships of attitudes to behavior is weak. A much smaller body of research on organizational legitimacy in policing has accumulated, and it appears to have promise for advancing our understanding of police legitimacy. Originality/value The understanding of police legitimacy can be deepened by the juxtaposition of these two bodies of theory and research.

The procedural justice that citizens subjectively experience with the police affects police legitimacy. The procedural justice of policing is typically not measured in police agencies, nor is it an outcome for which managers are held accountable. We examine whether and how the measurement of procedural justice would affect its management. Survey-based measures of subjective procedural justice in police contacts were reported to two departments’ command staffs on a monthly basis in Compstat meetings. The impacts of thusly measuring performance were estimated. We also analyzed an indicator of procedural justice that was based on systematic observation through video and audio recording of police-citizen encounters, and we interviewed patrol officers and supervisors about supervisors’ efforts to manage procedural justice. Neither indicator of police performance revealed consistent changes. However, a modest improvement on one platoon was detected. We discuss the implications for enhancing police legitimacy.

Chapter Three considers the police decision to arrest, including a thorough discussion of the factors that influence this decision. Identifying the factors that influence arrest (and the relative strength of their influences) is a logical first step that provides the foundation upon which evidence-based strategies must be developed. While there are several factors empirically associated with an officer’s decision to arrest, much remains unexplained. Additionally, research exploring the decision to arrest has substantially declined in the past two decades. Following the exploration of the decision to arrest, this chapter reviews the evidence regarding mandatory arrest policies as well as proactive policing strategies and discusses their varying impacts on the use of arrest and police-decision making.

The police decision to arrest is impacted by several areas, including policy, community, and law. This chapter discusses the need to better understand the long-term and unintended consequences of the decision to arrest as well as alternatives to arrest. Well-designed evaluations, particularly through the use of systematic social observation and police-academic partnerships, are argued to be particularly useful for this purpose. Legitimizing how police make decisions, particularly around the decision to arrest, is an important step to enhancing police-community relations. There is a critical need in the field of policing research to re-establish the foundation of research on police decision-making. Ultimately, this chapter considers how the police can simultaneously reduce crime and rates of arrest, by strategically using arrest and alternatives to arrest.

This chapter considers the different definitions of arrest and the reasons for the difficulty in creating a universally standard term. However, a singular definition is offered, which is used to guide discussions throughout this review. This chapter considers the historical use of arrest, including the evidence for the general and specific deterrent effects of police use of arrest. This chapter also discusses the many substantial direct and collateral consequences to individuals and communities. This wide range of costs emphasizes the importance of arrest, and how police can carefully consider its strategic use in order to achieve desired results.

Arrest has several substantial direct and collateral consequences for individuals and communities. Given these costs, it is important to consider the utility of alternatives to arrest. This chapter focuses on two primary forms of arrest alternatives: police-led diversion and citations in lieu of arrest. For police-led diversion, three sup-topics are discussed in detail: (1) drug offenders, (2) persons with mental illness, and (3) juvenile offenders. This chapter offers a discussion of the structure of these programs, and any preliminary evidence regarding programmatic outcomes and impacts.

We evaluate the Violent Offender Identification Directive (VOID) tool, a risk assessment instrument implemented within a police department to prospectively identify offenders likely to be involved with future gun violence. The tool uses a variety of static measures of prior criminal history that are readily available in police records management systems. The VOID tool is assessed for predictive accuracy by taking a historical sample and calculating scores for over 200,000 individuals known to the police at the end of 2012, and predicting 103 individuals involved with gun violence (either as a shooter or a victim) during 2013. Despite weights for the instrument being determined in an ad-hoc manner by crime analysts, the VOID tool does very well in predicting involvement with gun violence compared to an optimized logistic regression and generalized boosted models. We discuss theoretical reasons why such ad-hoc instruments are likely to perform well in identifying chronic offenders for all police departments.