Racial Profiling and Policing Black Communities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Kirven
Keyword(s):  
Job Performance ◽  
Black Males ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Racial Profiling ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Contact Theory ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Police Community Relations

Strained police-community relations are not new to distressed and black communities. However, recent decades of modern-day policing have become a challenging, stressful job for officers in terms of safety and social order, job performance, and being recorded (often on cell phones) and quickly judged by the public. This article looks at racial profiling, implicit bias, and how the heavy hand of order-maintenance policing is used to the detriment of black communities, especially black males. The relevance of contact theory will be discussed in terms of its relevance for reaching mutual ground between black males and police officers. This article offers practical strategies for (a) social workers (community practitioners), (b) black males and citizens of color , and ( c) police officers themselves. For officers specifically, this potential awareness can lead to healthier, neutral experiences with black males leading to positive policing of black communities.

Body Cameras and Policing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryce Elling Peterson ◽  
Daniel S. Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Citizen Complaints ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
The Impact

Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are small devices that police officers can affix to their person—in a head-, shoulder-, or chest-mounted position—that can audio and video record their interactions with community members. BWCs have received strong support from the public and, in recent years, widespread buy-in from police leadership and officers because of their ability to improve accountability and transparency and enhance the collection of evidence. Implementation guidelines recommend that officers activate their BWCs during each officer–citizen interaction and inform the people they encounter that they are being recorded. Early research on this technology found that officers equipped with body cameras were significantly less likely to engage in force and receive citizen complaints. However, more recent studies with larger samples have had mixed findings about the impact of body cameras on use of force, citizen complaints, and other police activities and behaviors. Numerous legal and ethical considerations are associated with BWCs, including their implications for privacy concerns and public disclosure. However, police officials, policymakers, civil rights groups, and the public must continue to weigh these privacy concerns against the potential for BWCs to enhance police accountability and transparency. Future scholarship should focus on the degree to which BWCs can improve police–community relations and yield valuable evidence for both criminal cases and internal investigations.

scholarly journals Policing the coronavirus pandemic: Nigeria police senior officers’ views on preparedness, response, legitimacy and post-COVID policing

2021 ◽  
pp. 146135572110640
Author(s):  
Richard A. Aborisade ◽  
Oluwajuwon G. Ariyo
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Public Health Interventions ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
Senior Officers

In the wake of pandemic policing occasioned by COVID-19, Nigeria police have been facing challenges of a lack of legitimacy, together with what is termed the militarization of police operations. This has impacted considerably on police–community relations. Meanwhile, early reports on the police response to the pandemic indicated high levels of lockdown violation, despite adoption of a militarized option in the enforcement of restriction orders. In reviewing one of the first police interventions on a public health crisis in Nigeria, a qualitative study was conducted among top-ranking police officers who supervised the enforcement of lockdown and other COVID-19 measures. Sixteen interviews were conducted and a thematic analysis of the narratives was carried out. Police unpreparedness for public health interventions, and public resistance to the use of repressive, force-led styles of policing were identified as major impediments to positive pandemic policing. Therefore, police officers are advised to ensure the application of procedurally just practices in their interactions with the public.

scholarly journals Are College-Educated Police Officers Different? A Study of Stops, Searches, and Arrests

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rosenfeld ◽  
Thaddeus L. Johnson ◽  
Richard Wright
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Performance Criteria ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
Primary Basis ◽  
Traditional Performance ◽  
College Educated

A study of more than 60,000 police traffic stops found that college-educated officers were more likely than other officers to stop drivers for less serious violations, perform consent searches, and make arrests on discretionary grounds. These results are consistent with those of prior research indicating that college-educated officers are more achievement-oriented and eager for advancement based on the traditional performance criteria of stops, searches, and arrests. The results raise questions regarding the recommendation of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing to improve police-community relations by hiring more college-educated police officers, especially in urban communities where concerns about over-policing are widespread. If community engagement were to become a primary basis for professional advancement, however, the current results suggest that college-educated officers may adapt to the new standards as diligently as they have to the traditional criteria for reward and promotion in U.S. police departments.

VOICES: a theory-driven intervention for improving relationships between police and the public

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn Hill ◽  
Howard Giles ◽  
Edward R. Maguire
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
Survey Responses

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a theory-driven intervention called VOICES that was developed to improve police-community relations. The intervention was designed based on principles derived from social psychological theories of intergroup contact and communication.Design/methodology/approachThe authors discuss the theoretical basis for the intervention, as well as its development and implementation in the Santa Barbara Police Department. Based on this pilot testing, the authors provide preliminary evidence about its effectiveness using survey responses and qualitative feedback provided by participants.FindingsAlthough the case study method used here does not allow for causal inferences about the effectiveness of the intervention, the limited evidence the authors present does suggest that participants found VOICES useful and it may have improved their perceptions of police. The next step will be to test this intervention using experimental or quasi-experimental methods that allow for causal inferences about effectiveness.Originality/valueThe paper shows how police can develop theory-driven interventions in an effort to improve trust between police and the public, including communities in which relationships with police have been historically strained. It also underscores how insights from the study of intergroup contact and communication can benefit policing.

Body-Worn Cameras

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Scott Thomas Duncan ◽  
Hannah Geczi
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
The Many

Police hold a unique and distinctive status compared to any other occupation in society with their authority to use force. With such responsibility, communities expect law enforcement to be held accountable when force is applied. One of the many proposed solutions embraced by authorities and the public to decrease the number of force encounters is body-worn cameras (BWCs). The purpose of this chapter is to examine BWCs as a measure of reducing force by law enforcement, explore the technology as an enhancement to transparency within the context of police-community relations, and offer recommendations for adoption rooted in best practices. For the public, it is imperative to recognize BWCs as just one part of improving law enforcement oversight as opposed to providing an all-encompassing solution that will completely resolve issues of transparency.

#BlackLivesMatter: Remembering Mark Duggan and David Oluwale in Contemporary British Plays

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-86
Author(s):  
Lynette Goddard
Keyword(s):  
Black Men ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Inner Cities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Police Shooting ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis paper examines two British plays that respond to cases in which the police have been implicated in the deaths of black men. Gillian Slovo’s The Riots (Tricycle Theatre, 2011) uses interviews from witnesses and politicians to dissect the events leading up to and during the Tottenham riots that followed in the wake of the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan by police on 4 August 2011 and spread to other inner cities in England over the following five nights. I examine how the first half portrays the local community’s concerns and locates the breakout of riots within a longer history of tense police-community relations in Tottenham, whereas the second half focuses on the political rhetoric surrounding the spread of rioting throughout England, which means that Mark Duggan disappears from the narrative. Oladipo Agboluaje’s adaptation of Kester Aspden’s The Hounding of David Oluwale (Eclipse Theatre, 2009) effectively uses dramatic strategies to remember the life of 38-year old Nigerian David Oluwale whose body was retrieved from the River Aire in Leeds on 4 May 1969 after allegedly last seen being chased towards the river by two police officers two weeks earlier. I explore the effectiveness of both plays as memorializations of black lives and consider how they contribute to ongoing debates about the relationship between black men and the police in Britain. #BlackLivesMatter #BlackPlaysMatter

‘It’s not like it used to be’: Respect and nostalgia in the policing of nightlife

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Wadds
Keyword(s):  
Community Relations ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Night Time ◽  
The Public ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Contemporary Work ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
Regulatory Controls

Contemporary debates regarding criminal justice, law and order, and also the occupational consciousness of policing itself, are often concerned with a mythical period of heightened ‘respect’ for authority that is contrasted with the decline of such respect in contemporary work patterns and interaction with the public. This nostalgia features most prominently in discussions about spaces and work practices where officers feel threatened, challenged or ‘under-siege’. One such site is the night-time economy, where expansion of drinking-based leisure and a long-term liberalisation of regulatory controls have exerted more pressure on police and produced urban spaces where this ‘lack of respect’ is keenly felt. This paper analyses themes that emerged from 15 interviews conducted with current and former members of the New South Wales Police Force to argue that the emergence and growth of urban nightlife have played a key role in promoting a nostalgic discourse that reflects ambivalence about historical efforts to lift police–community relations and the more formal regulation of interaction with the public. Such nostalgia also serves as a personal, social and existential resource that helps fortify shared meaning and a sense of solidarity in the working lives of officers.

Testing a Theoretical Model of Perceived Audience Legitimacy: The Neglected Linkage in the Dialogic Model of Police–community Relations

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Nix ◽  
Justin T. Pickett ◽  
Scott E. Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Policing ◽  
Perception Theory ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
National Probability Sample ◽  
Ongoing Dialogue

Objectives: Democratic policing involves an ongoing dialogue between officers and citizens about what it means to wield legitimate authority. Most of the criminological literature on police legitimacy has focused on citizens’ perceptions of this dialogue—that is, audience legitimacy. Consequently, we know little about how officers perceive their legitimacy in the eyes of the public and the antecedents of such perceptions. Pulling together separate strands of literature pertaining to citizen demeanor, hostile media perceptions, and danger perception theory, we propose and test a theoretical model of perceived audience legitimacy. Method: We conducted two separate studies: the first a survey of 546 officers working at a southern U.S. agency and the second a survey of a national probability sample of 665 executives and high-ranking officers. Results: Local violent crime rates, but not minority group size or growth, are associated with lower perceived audience legitimacy. Additionally, recent experiences with citizen disrespect and global perceptions of citizen animus are both inversely associated with perceived audience legitimacy. The perceived hostility of local, but not national, media coverage is also associated with lower perceived audience legitimacy. Conclusions: Our results suggest a need for additional research that explores whether the antecedents of audience legitimacy indirectly affect police behaviors, like the use of force.

Police officers’ attitudes toward citizen advisory councils

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 418-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Nix ◽  
Scott E. Wolfe ◽  
Brandon Tregle
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Justice ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Advisory Council ◽  
Least Squares Regression ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
Line Level

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of sheriff deputies’ perceived legitimacy of their agency’s citizen advisory council (CAC). Design/methodology/approach The authors obtained survey data from 567 sheriff deputies in a southeastern state. The authors first asked whether respondents knew their agency had a CAC, and then asked those who responded affirmatively a series of questions about the legitimacy of the council. The authors then ran an ordinary least squares regression that included organizational justice, self-legitimacy and public scrutiny as independent variables predicting perceived legitimacy of the CAC. Findings Deputies who perceived greater organizational justice from command staff were significantly more likely to perceive the CAC as legitimate. Originality/value In response to strained police/community relations, reform advocates have urged the police to embrace a more democratic style of policing, including allowing for more citizen oversight of agencies. The study sheds light on how line-level officers perceive such oversight.

The Police in the Middle of the Conflict

1969 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-392
Author(s):  
David W. Craig
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Police Work ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Selection Methods ◽  
Sophisticated Equipment ◽  
Police Community Relations

The key to real support of the police is to be found in the development of enhanced competence among police officers. The truly competent policeman performs effectively despite the diffi culties which stem from recent constitutional interpretations issued by the courts. Competency is more important than philos ophy in police-community relations. The development and im plementation of competency in police work depends upon scien tific recruit-selection methods, broad support of higher eduration of police, freeing police from irrelevant duties, and the wize use of more sophisticated equipment.

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