scholarly journals The Eyes of Law Enforcement in the New Panopticon: Police-Community Racial Asymmetry and the Use of Surveillance Technology

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josh A. Hendrix ◽  
Travis A. Taniguchi ◽  
Kevin J. Strom ◽  
Kelle A. Barrick ◽  
Nicole J. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
Supplementary Information ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Local Law Enforcement ◽  
Surveillance Technology ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Crime Reports

This study examines the relationship between police-community racial asymmetry and the use of surveillance technology by local law enforcement. The data come from a nationally representative survey of law enforcement agencies, with supplementary information provided by the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics Survey, the Census, and the Uniform Crime Reports. Results indicate that police departments that underrepresent African Americans in the community are more likely to use or plan to implement surveillance technology, controlling for a range of agency-and contextual-level factors. One potential explanation for these findings is that surveillance technology operates as a form of social control that is differentially applied to racial minorities to manage what is perceived to be a greater proclivity toward criminal behavior. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Organizing Communities to Prevent the Sale of Tobacco Products to Minors

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Michael Cummings ◽  
Karen Coogan
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
New York State ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Erie County ◽  
Tobacco Products ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Local Law Enforcement

In New York State, it is illegal to sell tobacco products to persons under the age of eighteen. A 1989 survey of 120 retail stores in Erie County, New York, found that 82 percent sold cigarettes illegally to fourteen and fifteen year olds. In an effort to address this problem, Project SCAN (Stop Children's Addiction to Nicotine) was launched by Roswell Park Cancer Institute in the Spring of 1990. Project SCAN had three objectives: 1) to increase public awareness of the problem of youth tobacco use; 2) to educate merchants about the tobacco access law to promote voluntary compliance; and 3) to encourage local law enforcement agencies to enforce the access law. This article describes our experience in implementing Project SCAN including strategies used to recruit volunteers to deliver merchant education materials, reaction of merchants to the program, and the involvement of local police departments in enforcement efforts. Case examples describing how Project SCAN has been implemented in two communities illustrate the importance of community participation and law enforcement in the success of the program.

Racializing Crimmigration

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amada Armenta
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigration Enforcement ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Local Law Enforcement ◽  
Local Jail ◽  
Colorblind Ideology ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Local Law

Deporting “criminal aliens” has become the highest priority in American immigration enforcement. Today, most deportations are achieved through the “crimmigration” system, a term that describes the convergence of the criminal justice and immigration enforcement systems. Emerging research argues that U.S. immigration enforcement is a “racial project” that subordinates and racializes Latino residents in the United States. This article examines the role of local law enforcement agencies in the racialization process by focusing on the techniques and logics that drive law enforcement practices across two agencies, I argue that local law enforcement agents racialize Latinos by punishing illegality through their daily, and sometimes mundane, practices. Investigatory traffic stops put Latinos at disproportionate risk of arrest and citation, and processing at the local jail subjects unauthorized immigrants to deportation. Although a variety of local actors sustain the deportation system, most do not see themselves as active participants in immigrant removal and they explain their behavior through a colorblind ideology. This colorblind ideology obscures and naturalizes how organizational practices and laws converge to systematically criminalize and punish Latinos in the United States.

Motivations for Police Support of Domestic Violence Response Team Implementation With Advocates

2020 ◽  
pp. 107780122093082
Author(s):  
Laura Johnson ◽  
Elisheva Davidoff ◽  
Abigail R. DeSilva
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Perceived Benefits ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Serious Crime ◽  
Response Team ◽  
Domestic Violence Organizations

In New Jersey, collaboration between police departments and advocates from domestic violence organizations is mandated by state policy, which requires law enforcement agencies to participate in domestic violence response teams (DVRTs). The purpose of this study is to examine factors that motivate police officers to implement DVRT. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with DVRT coordinators and domestic violence liaison police officers. Findings suggest that police motivation for implementing the intervention is often influenced by perceived benefits to police response and investigation, perceived benefits to victims, the need to comply with mandates, and recognition of domestic violence as a serious crime.

Re-evaluating community policing in a polycentric system

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER J. BOETTKE ◽  
JAYME S. LEMKE ◽  
LIYA PALAGASHVILI
Keyword(s):  
Community Policing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Indiana University ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
Local Law Enforcement ◽  
State And Local

AbstractElinor Ostrom and her colleagues in The Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University in Bloomington conducted fieldwork in metropolitan police departments across the United States. Their findings in support of community policing dealt a blow to the popular belief that consolidation and centralization of services was the only way to effectively provide citizens with public goods. However, subsequent empirical literature suggests that the widespread implementation of community policing has been generally ineffective and in many ways unsustainable. We argue that the failures are the result of strategic interplay between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies that has resulted in the prioritization of federal over community initiatives, the militarization of domestic police, and the erosion of genuine community-police partnerships.

University Researcher and Law Enforcement Collaboration

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 508-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett C. Burkhardt ◽  
Scott Akins ◽  
Jon Sassaman ◽  
Scott Jackson ◽  
Ken Elwer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Relationship Maintenance ◽  
State University ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Local Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Contacts ◽  
University Researcher ◽  
Law Enforcement Officials ◽  
Benton County

In 2012, heads of local law enforcement agencies in Benton County, Oregon, contacted researchers at Oregon State University to discuss a problem: a sharp rise in the number of contacts between police and suspects displaying symptoms of mental illness. This initial inquiry led to an ongoing collaborative examination of the nature, causes, and consequences of the rise in police contacts. In this article, the authors describe this collaboration between researchers and law enforcement officials from the perspective of both parties, situating it within the context of mental illness in the U.S. criminal justice system. The collaborators draw on firsthand experiences and prior collaborations to discuss the benefits of, challenges in, and recommendations for university–police research collaborations. Although such collaborations may pose challenges (related to relationship definition, data collection and analysis, outputs, and relationship maintenance), the potential benefits—for researchers and law enforcement agencies—are substantial.

The Criminal Law and Law Enforcement Implications of Big Data

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 293-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Brayne
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Data Analytics ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Legal Questions ◽  
Legal Responses

Law enforcement agencies increasingly use big data analytics in their daily operations. This review outlines how police departments leverage big data and new surveillant technologies in patrol and investigations. It distinguishes between directed surveillance—which involves the surveillance of individuals and places under suspicion—and dragnet surveillance—which involves suspicionless, unparticularized data collection. Law enforcement's adoption of big data analytics far outpaces legal responses to the new surveillant landscape. Therefore, this review highlights open legal questions about data collection, suspicion requirements, and police discretion. It concludes by offering suggestions for future directions for researchers and practitioners.

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