3. Police Legitimacy | ScienceGate

This chapter considers the development of, and growing interest in, cold case reviews, distinguishing between the instrumental and symbolic politics which surround their development. What becomes clear in this chapter is that the rise in interest can be attributed to a number of individual and interlocking events, including changes in police legitimacy, the introduction of a number of police reforms, and initiatives resulting in changes to police practices, pressure from victims’ rights groups for more attention from the criminal justice system, and advances in scientific techniques and technologies with increasing uses found for them. The chapter briefly considers the political background to cold case reviews, and how this connects with the broader politics of policing along with the instrumental politics of maintaining major crime review teams and the symbolic politics which helps to justify expenditure in cold case reviews.

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Enhancing Police Legitimacy

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/0002716203262627 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 593 (1) ◽

pp. 84-99 ◽

Cited By ~ 538

Author(s):

Tom R. Tyler

Keyword(s):

Police Legitimacy

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Understanding emotion as a strategy in policing

The Police Journal Theory Practice and Principles ◽

10.1177/0032258x211018496 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 0032258X2110184

Author(s):

Kevin Sweeney

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Psychology ◽

Community Policing ◽

Police Legitimacy ◽

Tactical Training ◽

Psychology Literature ◽

Warrior Ethos

This article reviews neuroscience and cognitive psychology literature to understand how trauma and emotion impact policing and why some strategies are counterproductive by threatening police legitimacy. This review further illuminates the pernicious effect of stress in the policing environment, in both officer and citizen. Therefore, the article makes the point that the current focus on tactical training and the ‘warrior ethos’ diminishes community policing values, destroys trust, undermines respect and discourages cooperation while fostering resentment and hostility thus making everyday policing more hazardous. It argues that community policing strategies offer the only path for successful consensus policing in a democracy.

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Willingness to cooperate with police: A population-based study of Australian young adult illicit stimulant users

Criminology & Criminal Justice ◽

10.1177/1748895816671382 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 301-318 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Ellen M Leslie ◽

Adrian Cherney ◽

Andrew Smirnov ◽

Helene Wells ◽

Robert Kemp ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young Adult ◽

Procedural Justice ◽

Drug Users ◽

Illicit Drug ◽

Population Based ◽

Police Legitimacy ◽

Population Based Study ◽

Reduction Strategies ◽

Willingness To Cooperate

While procedural justice has been highlighted as a key strategy for promoting cooperation with police, little is known about this model’s applicability to subgroups engaged in illegal behaviour, such as illicit drug users. This study compares willingness to cooperate with police and belief in police legitimacy, procedural justice and law legitimacy among a population-based sample of Australian young adult amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS; i.e. ecstasy and methamphetamine) users and non-users. We then examine predictors of willingness to cooperate among ATS users. ATS users were significantly less willing to cooperate with police and had significantly lower perceptions of police legitimacy, procedural justice and law legitimacy, compared to non-users. However, belief in police legitimacy independently predicted willingness to cooperate among ATS users. We set out to discuss the implications of these findings for policing, including the role of procedural justice in helping police deliver harm reduction strategies.

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Communicating Reform: Testing an Apology for Police History as a Supplement to a Policy Communication

The American Review of Public Administration ◽

10.1177/02750740211048887 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 027507402110488

Author(s):

Mark Benton

Keyword(s):

African Americans ◽

Policy Implementation ◽

Community Policing ◽

Qualitative Data ◽

The United States ◽

Mechanical Turk ◽

Police Legitimacy ◽

Policy Communication ◽

Amazon's Mechanical Turk ◽

Vignette Experiment

Policing in the United States has a racist history, with negative implications for its legitimacy among African Americans today. Legitimacy is important for policing's effective operations. Community policing may improve policing's legitimacy but is difficult to implement with fidelity and does not address history. An apology for policing's racist history may work as a legitimizing supplement to community policing. On the other hand, an apology may be interpreted as words without changes in practices. Using a survey vignette experiment on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to sample African Americans, this research tests the legitimizing effect of a supplemental apology for historical police racism during a community policing policy announcement. Statistical findings suggest that supplementing the communication with an apology imparted little to no additional legitimacy on policing among respondents. Qualitative data suggested a rationale: Apologies need not indicate future equitable behavior or policy implementation, with implementation itself seeming crucial for police legitimacy improvements.

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