The cause(s) of reduced use of force and complaints following police body-worn camera (BWC) deployment remain unclear, though some argue that BWCs generate a civilizing effect on citizen behavior. This potential effect rests on four pre-conditions: (1) BWC presence and citizen awareness; (2) BWC activation; (3) Escalated citizen behavior or the potential for escalation; (4) Citizen mental capacity

The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department sought to reduce violent crime with an evidence-based approach to problem analysis and intervention planning. Informed by hot spot analysis and risk terrain modeling, police and their community partners implemented a place-based crime intervention program focused on key attractors and generators of the environmental backcloth. Target and comparison areas

Law enforcement officers’ health and wellness is important at the individual and community levels in terms of maintaining a fit workforce to uphold the mission of public safety. The current study was designed to assess officer wellness across the U.S. From a nationally representative random sample of 1,135 local and state agencies, a random, probability-based sample of officers was selected, oversampling

This study was conducted as controversy and turmoil engulfed police worldwide. Police-community conflict was widespread and conceivably increased officers’ stress levels. Because stress affects officers’ health and job performance, it is important to understand the phenomenon. This study was designed to ascertain officers’ stress levels, coping mechanisms, and perspectives regarding police-community

Maximizing crime prevention through large-scale implementation of hot spot policing requires a more refined understanding of how to calibrate police activity across high and low-risk areas. This study investigates these issues based on the experience of a large urban police agency that substantially reduced proactive activities across a large area due to resource cutbacks while also shifting a larger

Despite increasing allegations of misconduct, police organizations continue to overlook the environmental factors that contribute to harassment and other forms of misconduct. Using secondary survey data collected from a Canadian police organization (N = 488), this study explored the specific factors that might contribute to masculinity contest cultures (i.e., cultures akin to a zero-sum competition

Police agencies implement a variety of strategies for recruiting, promoting and retaining police officers with diverse backgrounds. Changes have however been difficult to attain. We expand research on representative bureaucracy by investigating diversity perspectives in a case study of the Norwegian Police Service (NPS). Using mixed-methods we investigate the diversity perspectives of ethnic minority

The police must on occasion use physical force and weapons in order to apprehend and control subjects and fulfil the police function. It is inevitable that some of these interactions will result in injuries to both subjects and officers, with a range of both tangible and intangible harms and costs. It is therefore important to study injuries related to the use of force with an eye toward identifying

There has been speculation by researchers regarding the potential fears, concerns, and difficulties experienced by children of police officers, such as fears about their parent being injured or killed while on duty, ridicule and bullying, or being personally assaulted. More disheartening are the increased potential stressors facing police officers’ children due to increased community hostility across

The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility of engineering resilience into the split-second decision environment police officers face during potential deadly force encounters. Using a randomized controlled experiment that incorporated a police firearms training simulator and 313 active law enforcement officers, this study examined the effects of muzzle-position – where an officer points

Diversion is a prevalent alternative to traditional criminal justice processing, especially at the pre-trial stage. More recently, pre-arrest diversion has been implemented to avert the consequences of arrest, pre-trial proceedings, and future incarceration. Pre-booking diversion programs rely on the willingness of officers to use their discretionary authority to divert low-level offenders to community-based

Police use of force is one of the most critical issues in policing with research consistently finding that the best predictor of force is suspect resistance. Yet, resistance itself is relatively rarely researched. This study drew from the Drug Use Monitoring in Australian (DUMA) program – Australia’s longest running cross-sectional survey of offenders. Data was analyzed using multivariate and multi-level

In this work we evaluate the predictive capability of identifying long term, micro place hot spots in Dallas, Texas. We create hot spots using a clustering algorithm, using law enforcement cost of responding to crime estimates as weights. Relative to the much larger current hot spot areas defined by the Dallas Police Department, our identified hot spots are much smaller (under 3 square miles), and

Law enforcement officers are sometimes required to make split-second use of force decisions. One factor that can impact their decision-making process is the presence of a weapon. This experiment sought to improve the speed and accuracy of weapon identification in a dynamic use of force scenario through the principles of deliberate practice. This research utilized randomized control trial with random

A unique dataset is analyzed to investigate the effect of a criminal suspect’s prior criminal record on the probability of arrest. Multivariate logistic regression results show that a criminal suspect with a prior criminal record is approximately 29 times more likely than a suspect without a criminal record to be arrested by police. While findings also reveal that Black suspects and Black suspects

Police departments rely on administrative rules to set organizational priorities and establish systems of accountability. To that end, several departments require officers to submit data describing every traffic stop they conduct as a way of tracking officer activity and identifying any race-based disparities. This paper draws on an analysis of San Diego Police Department traffic stop records, as well

Disproportionate impact in policing has long been a concern for researchers and practitioners alike, with much of the focus on traffic stops. While there are many methods used to determine disproportionality in traffic stops, the veil of darkness (VOD) approach has increasingly become one of the most popular frameworks. Although there is consensus on certain aspects of the method, researchers utilizing

Little is known about officer perceptions of body-worn cameras (BWCs), and whether perceptions change following implementation within their agencies. BWC deployment varies, with some agencies mandating officers to wear BWCs and others using volunteers. Researchers have yet to assess attitudinal differences between volunteers and mandated officers. This study addresses these gaps using data from an

One of the hidden dangers of police work is self-imposed—the failure to wear seat belts. Unfortunately, little evidence exists concerning the factors that account for why officers do not wear their seat belts. This study used a sample of 450 police officers to develop and test a framework for understanding the predictors of seat belt use. We found several factors that were associated with the frequency

Despite stalking as a risk factor for intimate partner homicide, few studies have explored officer decision making in domestic violence (DV) complaints that involve stalking. This study employs the focal concerns perspective to identify the legal and extra-legal factors associated with officers' identification of, and arrest for, stalking in DV complaints. Using a statewide sample of 230 DV complaints

This study uses data from 570 male police officers working in 16 substations in South Korea to examine the impact of job stressors (e.g., victimization, authoritative organizational culture, and perceptions of unfair work assignments) on organizational commitment. Furthermore, we examine the conditioning effect of social resources on organizational commitment. The results show that organizational characteristics

Over the last few years, there has been a series of high-profile, premeditated ambush attacks on police, which has led some to conclude there is a “war on cops.” Unfortunately, prior research has not examined the prevalence of police ambushes over an extended period of time, and the most recent study only analyzed the phenomenon through 2013. Moreover, the “war on cops” thesis implies a very specific

By 2016, approximately one half of American police agencies had adopted body-worn cameras (BWCs). Although a growing body of research has examined the impact of BWCs on outcomes such as use of force, complaints, and perceptions of police, few have considered how and why some agencies adopted BWCs, while others have not. With guidance from the diffusion of innovations paradigm, this study explores variation

The present research investigates the productivity and performance of a large sample of police officers, beginning in the police academy and through their first 10 years of policing. Using longitudinal data and latent class growth analyses, we examine measures of productivity and performance over this time. Findings indicate that officers’ academy performance did not influence officer trajectories

Research indicates that women are still underrepresented in policing and that police culture is not fully accepting of its sisters in blue. As police organizations strive toward building an inclusive workforce, we must understand how women, already in the field, view their place and experiences within their jobs, organizations, and workgroups. Thus, in the current research, we use a comparative sample

Policing as an institution has been under immense pressure to increase the representation of women as police patrol officers. As the representation of women in policing has plateaued, increasing research has focused on barriers to women entering patrol work but has not examined the salience of these barriers with respect to males or reliably determined which barriers are most influential to desire

“Active shooter” incidents and the police response to them receive considerable attention. There is a public expectation that officers should immediately enter active shooter events and engage the suspects. To explore how POLICE view their role in active shooter events, a vignette research design was used to gather opinion data from a convenience sample of police officers in two states. Respondents

The 2017 National Academies of Sciences (NAS) Committee and Report on Proactive Policing highlighted what we know about the effects of proactive policing practices on crime prevention and police–community relations. However, the evaluation evidence reviewed by the NAS, which largely comes from case studies of carefully managed proactive initiatives, does not provide a basis for estimating how extensively

Police shootings have become one of the most “visible and controversial” aspects of the criminal justice system . Yet, very little empirical effort has been devoted to understanding the underlying systemic vulnerabilities that likely contribute to these tragic outcomes. Using a randomized controlled experiment that incorporated a police firearms simulator and 306 active law enforcement officers, this

The number of jurisdictions implementing focused deterrence strategies targeted at gangs continues unabated. Although recent research suggests positive impacts of the strategy on reductions in gun violence, little is known about the particular mechanisms operating behind the strategy. This article provides a descriptive analysis of the law enforcement activities or levers undertaken after enforcement

Real-time crime hot spot forecasting presents challenges to policing. There is a high volume of hot spot misclassifications and a lack of theoretical support for forecasting algorithms, especially in disciplines outside the fields of criminology and criminal justice. Transparency is particularly important as most hot spot forecasting models do not provide their underlying mechanisms. To address these

This study examines predictors of immigrants’ confidence in the police at the individual and national levels, based on the instrumental and expressive frameworks. Using the World Value Survey, the study analyzes data from 5,746 immigrants across 34 nations. Generalized multilevel mixed-effects models are utilized to test the effects of individual-level attributes and national-level structural indicators

Domestically and globally females continue to be underrepresented in policing, despite their greater likelihood of advancing themselves through higher education, driving organizational change, and being less likely to use excessive force or be named in civil litigation than their male counterparts. Extant research indicates that women may be effectively gated from policing by a subculture that aggrandizes

Dissatisfied workers are at risk for negative occupational behaviors such as job turnover, poor performance, work avoidance, decreased morale among coworkers, and physical or legal liability. Relying heavily on demographic (e.g., sex, race, education) and occupational (e.g., rank, experience, assignment) explanatory factors, early empirical studies failed to effectively model the statistical correlates

The identification and investigation of human trafficking cases has lagged behind what prevalence estimates of the scope of the crime have suggested. Previous research has identified the importance of formalized responses to human trafficking for the successful identification of these cases, but little is known about the factors predicting the creation of specialized human trafficking units. The current

Suicide by cop (SbC) occurs when an individual purposely engages in threatening behavior toward police officers in an attempt to be killed. Previous studies have found the prototypical SbC subject is male, mid-30s, with disrupted relationships, and mental health concerns, although these studies have almost exclusively relied on officer involved shootings or public information as sources of data. To

This article tests the temporal relationship between the representation of females in policing and organizational change toward community-oriented policing. This mixed methods study involves secondary data analysis of the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, open-source data collection of online recruitment materials for 493 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative

Research has found a meaningful income gap between males and females across several occupational settings, and this is also true within law enforcement. As more female workers enter the criminal justice system, it is important to revisit and update these patterns of gender inequality to account for the changing gender dynamics within this occupation. Using Current Population Survey data, we document

Researchers have investigated the underlying mechanisms and consequences of militarization in law enforcement agencies for decades, yet there is no agreed-upon definition for this concept. Without consensus, discourse and research on the intersection of policing and community well-being are hampered. The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive framework for the concept of “militarization.”

The issue of how to measure the impact of situational-, suspect-, and officer-level factors on police actions has long been debated in the policing literature. One promising method is to use interval-level metrics developed via a combined method of concept mapping and Thurstone scaling. Our objective here was to use these metrics to score 667 incident reports from a large (n ∼ 1,500) urban police department

This article presents data emerging from ethnographic research that sought to explore the extent to which stop and search procedures in Scotland are underpinned by a focus on procedural justice and the impact they have on young people. Data were collected via participant observation of police deployments and semi-structured interviews with 23 law enforcement officers and 46 young people. The emerging

Turnover of police chiefs is brisk, with the average tenure of a chief of police ranging from 4 to 6 years, but few scholars have examined factors which may impact police chief turnover. This study contributes to the literature on police chief turnover via an examination of the impact that two forms of performance—leadership performance and departmental performance—may have on police chief turnover

This study identifies subtypes of citizen behavioral characteristics within police use of force events and assesses ecological influences on these subtypes. Data comprised police use of force reports, recorded crime data, and census data. Latent class analysis was applied to 19,900 police use of force events to identify latent classes of citizen behavioral characteristics. A five class-solution demonstrated

Job-related burnout is a significant concern for researchers, law enforcement administrators, and government authorities because of its broader effects on officer health, job performance, and service provided to the public. This topic is particularly relevant amidst a variety of complex challenges and heightened scrutiny surrounding law enforcement officers, their decisions, and relations with the

The space-time risk window associated with near-repeat burglary patterns would seem to present a natural opportunity for burglary prevention efforts. However, constraints associated with the reporting of, police response to, and space-time patterning of burglaries can reduce the crime prevention potential of such efforts. To better estimate the crime prevention potential of focusing on near-repeat

The use of automated license plate readers (LPRs) has spread rapidly among American police in recent decades. However, research on LPRs has been very limited and focused primarily on small-scale use of LPRs in patrol. This study expands the evidence base on LPRs by evaluating investigative use of a large-scale fixed LPR network in one populous city. Survival analysis methods were used to assess changes

Since the legalization of recreational marijuana occurred in Colorado, politicians, academics, and the public have been paying close attention to what impact, if any, the legalization of recreational marijuana has on crime, substance use and abuse, and state revenue gains. However, research has not identified the potential impact that marijuana legalization has had on law enforcement officers in neighboring

This study evaluated the Dayton Foot Patrol Program (DFPP). The DFPP spanned 28 weeks. During the DFPP, patrol officers were asked to conduct foot patrol in six hot spots located in the downtown business district for at least 2 hours a day but used their discretion to determine when, which hot spot, how long, and in which ways to patrol. On average, roughly 9 hours of foot patrol were conducted each

This study reviews findings from Project Regional Analytics for the Safety of Our Residents, a modified focused deterrence program operated across three jurisdictions in Massachusetts. Unlike most other evaluations of targeted high-risk offender programs, the impact on individual-level offending is examined. Data from records management systems in three police agencies were extracted and used to create

In 2014, protests in Ferguson, Missouri (MO), and the subsequent law enforcement response, shined a light on police militarization—the adoption of military styles, equipment, and tactics within law enforcement. Since 1990, the U.S. Department of Defense has transferred excess military equipment to domestic law enforcement agencies via the federal 1033 program. This article examines transfers of mine-resistant

Average crime clearance rates have remained remarkably stable in the United States since the 1980s, despite many advances in investigative technologies or fluctuations in crime. Taking these average trends at face value, some have suggested that this stability indicates that police departments can do little to alter their clearance rates. However, in this study, we find that the average trends mask

Applications of organizational theory to police organizations frequently employ the framework of structural contingency or institutional theories. The current study seeks to evaluate the impact of both technical and institutional environmental aspects of policing on the goals of municipal police agencies. The influence of a combination of environmental contingencies and chiefs’ ratings of institutional

Intelligence-led policing (ILP) is a managerial law enforcement model that seeks to place crime intelligence at the forefront of decision-making. This model has been widely adopted, at least notionally, in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Drawing on interviews with intelligence analysts from two Australian state law enforcement agencies, this article contributes to the relatively

This study describes changes in the use of sworn volunteers among the nation’s local law enforcement agencies and identifies those state-level certification, community, and agency characteristics associated with agencies using such volunteers in 2013. Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics data from 1999 through 2013 were analyzed to document trends in both the number of sworn volunteers

This study analyzes 131 police–citizen interactions observed during Fall 2016 and coded through systematic social observation. We assessed how often officers use de-escalation tactics, factors associated with their use, and the relationship between de-escalation and calm citizen demeanor. We found officers frequently employed de-escalation tactics, including the “respect” tactic of treating citizens

Police departments in the United States are rapidly adopting body-worn cameras (BWCs). To date, no study has investigated the effects of BWCs on police officers themselves, despite evidence suggesting negative effects of electronic performance monitoring on employee well-being. Police officers already experience higher levels of burnout than other professions. We hypothesize that the intense surveillance

The legalization of recreational cannabis in Washington state (I-502) and Colorado (A-64) created a natural experiment with ancillary unknowns. Of these unknowns, one of the more heavily debated is that of the potential effects on public health and safety. Specific to public safety, advocates of legalization expected improvements in police effectiveness through the reduction in police time and attention

Currently, about 96% of U.S. police departments have adopted social media, nearly 94% of which have implemented Facebook. Unfortunately, researchers have not paid much attention to police use of social media. The study serving as the basis for this article entails a careful analysis of 14 of the most popular police Facebook pages and analyzes posts during a 1-year period. The study documents 5 major

This article evaluates a community-based, peer support program in which police officers and mental health workers collaboratively address citizens’ mental health needs following encounters with law enforcement. We analyzed data 12, 24, and 36 months after a police-abated mental health crisis for 775 individuals, some of whom were referred to this program. Using lagged regression models, we find that

This research investigates the fairness and effectiveness of making a large number of bicycle stops as a proactive policing strategy designed to reduce unsafe riding and crime in Tampa, Florida. Public concern about the fairness and effectiveness of this tactic was magnified by a 2015 newspaper article that noted racial disparities in bicycle stops by the Tampa Police Department (TPD). Our analyses