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.

scholarly journals How the interplay between organisational ‘culture’ and ‘climate’ shapes police officers’ perceptions of community policing

2021 ◽  
pp. 146135572110640
Author(s):  
Liam Fenn ◽  
Karen Bullock
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Community Policing ◽  
Organisational Culture ◽  
Police Work ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Discretionary Effort ◽  
Organisational Justice ◽  
Contextual Determinants ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
Culture And Climate

This article draws on interview data and the concepts of organisational ‘culture’ and ‘climate’ to critically assess police officers’ perceptions of community policing in one English constabulary. In so doing, it considers the cultural, organisational and wider contextual determinants of officers’ alignment to this style of police work. With an emphasis on developing community partnerships and engaging in problem-solving, rather than enforcement of the criminal law, community policing has been seen a primary way of rendering officers more ‘responsive’ to the needs of citizens, improving police–community relations and driving down crime rates. An important reform movement in police organisations around the world, the success of community policing nonetheless depends on officers’ willingness and ability to deliver it. Accordingly, the generation of evidence about the ‘drivers’ of officers’ attitudes to inform strategies to promote the delivery of the approach is essential. Findings suggest that officers value community policing as an organisational strategy but that the approach maintains a low status and is undervalued compared with other specialisms within the organisation. This is born of an organisational culture that foregrounds law enforcement as the primary function of police work and an organisational climate that reinforces it. This has implications for community officers in terms of their perceptions of and attitudes towards the approach, self-esteem and sense of value and worth, perceptions of organisational justice, discretionary effort and role commitment. Recommendations for police managers are set out.

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.

#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

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.

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.

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.

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 Violent death in the lives of police officers in Ghana; An evidence-based study

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (05) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alhassan Salifu Bawah ◽  
Awaisu Imurana Braimah
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Occupational Hazards ◽  
Police Administration ◽  
The Core ◽  
Police Personnel ◽  
Changing Trend ◽  
The Media ◽  
Crime Detection ◽  
Police Community Relations

This article examines the recurrent and widespread spate of civilian attacks on police personnel in Ghana. It is an undeniable fact that police actions and inactions has led to civilian injuries and deaths in Ghana. Extensive media reportage on these incidences of police militarization and brutalities has painted the police service, albeit negatively, as an institution acknowledged for inflicting pain, torture, injury and killing of civilians at the least provocation. This perception has broken down police-community relations, which is one of the core mechanisms in crime detection and prevention in modern policing. Violent attacks on police personnel by a section of the Ghanaian public leading to injuries and in some extreme cases death, appears institutionalized. As a result, violent attacks on the police is not  perceived as an issue, either because of the quietism of the police administration itself, or it could be that the media perceive these unprovoked attacks on the police, as part of the occupational hazards and/or a fitting retribution for the police. In either way, the lives of police officers matter, just as the lives of the citizens they are mandated by law to protect. This study thematically focused on the changing trend of violent deaths in the lives of police officers killed in the line of duty by civilian assailants or criminal elements within the Ghanaian society. The paper argues that violent deaths and injuries caused to police officers have not been given the needed attention due to the ongoing antagonistic relationship between the police administration and the general Ghanaian public.

Police-Community Relations in Times of Crisis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Deuchar ◽  
Vaughn J. Crichlow ◽  
Seth W. Fallik
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Police Community Relations ◽  
Legitimacy Crisis

The deaths of Michael Brown and George Floyd at the hands of white police officers have uncovered an apparent legitimacy crisis at the heart of American policing. Drawing on interviews with officers, offenders, practitioners and community members, this book explores policing changes in the 'post-Ferguson' era and informs future policing practice.

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