scholarly journals Privatization of Law Enforcement

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Anastasia Konina
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Democratic Control ◽  
Technical Specifications ◽  
Procurement Contracts ◽  
Elected Representatives

The year 2020 ushered in growing calls to defund the police. In Canada, as in other countries where the movement to defund the police has gained momentum, activists demand transferring money from police departments to social workers, reducing the number of police officers, and increasing police departments’ democratic accountability. This last group of reform initiatives is, perhaps, the least controversial one because it calls for improving the familiar structures of democratic oversight over police departments, such as municipal councils, independent police oversight boards and complaints bodies, and others. The demands for greater accountability of police departments to the public are a symptom of a deeper problem - there is a growing discrepancy between the goals of policing and the consequences of the police’s actions. This discrepancy materializes when the police’s attempts to ensure public safety result in the marginalization of racialized communities, particularly in larger cities across Canada. In order to understand why laudable policy goals lead to deeply problematic consequences, it is necessary to analyze the policing process in our cities. While it has traditionally been assumed that this process is left to the discretion of separate police departments, this paper demonstrates that externalities, such as data generated by private technologies, play an important role in undermining the goals of policing. Reliance on private data and technology does not absolve the police of accountability for resulting human rights violations. However, it has important implications for the reform of public oversight over the police. In an era when non-governmental actors are taking part in law enforcement through procurement contracts, democratic control over the exercise of the police’s contracting powers is an important, albeit often overlooked, instrument of police reform. Relying on contracts for predictive policing technologies as a case study, this paper argues that communities should condition the funding of police procurement on ex ante assessment procedures, technical specifications, and contract enforcement rights. Also, local elected representatives should have an opportunity to approve any data and technology sharing arrangements as well as federal standing offer arrangements that extend predictive policing to their communities.

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.

scholarly journals Mining the crime data using naïve Bayes model

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 1084
Author(s):  
Lourdes M. Padirayon ◽  
Melvin S. Atayan ◽  
Jose Sherief Panelo ◽  
Carlito R. Fagela, Jr
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Naive Bayes ◽  
Naïve Bayes ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Crime Data ◽  
Bayes Model ◽  
Massive Number ◽  
Index Crime

<p>A massive number of documents on crime has been handled by police departments worldwide and today's criminals are becoming technologically elegant. One obstacle faced by law enforcement is the complexity of processing voluminous crime data. Approximately 439 crimes have been registered in sanchez mira municipality in the past seven years. Police officers have no clear view as to the pattern crimes in the municipality, peak hours, months of the commission and the location where the crimes are concentrated. The naïve Bayes modelis a classification algorithm using the Rapid miner auto model which is used and analyze the crime data set. This approach helps to recognize crime trends and of which, most of the crimes committed were a violation of special penal laws. The month of May has the highest for index and non-index crimes and Tuesday as for the day of crimes. Hotspots were barangay centro 1 for non-index crimes and barangay centro 2 for index crimes. Most non-index crimes committed were violations of special law and for index crime rape recorded the highest crime and usually occurs at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The crime outcome takes various decisions to maximize the efficacy of crime solutions.</p>

De-Policing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Rushin ◽  
Griffin Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Mandated Reform ◽  
External Regulation ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Growing Pains ◽  
Law Enforcement Leaders

102 Cornell Law Review 721 (2017)Critics have long claimed that when the law regulates police behavior it inadvertently reduces officer aggressiveness, thereby increasing crime. This hypothesis has taken on new significance in recent years as prominent politicians and law enforcement leaders have argued that increased oversight of police officers in the wake of the events in Ferguson, Missouri has led to an increase in national crime rates. Using a panel of American law enforcement agencies and difference-in-difference regression analyses, this Article tests whether the introduction of public scrutiny or external regulation is associated with changes in crime rates. To do this, this Article relies on an original dataset of all police departments that have been subject to federally mandated reform under 42 U.S.C. § 14141 — the most invasive form of modern American police regulation. This Article finds that the introduction of § 14141 regulation was associated with a statistically significant uptick in some crime rates, relative to unaffected municipalities. This uptick in crime was concentrated in the years immediately after federal intervention and diminished over time. This finding suggests that police departments may expe- rience growing pains when faced with external regulation.

scholarly journals Exploitative Revenues, Law Enforcement, and the Quality of Government Service

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Goldstein ◽  
Michael W. Sances ◽  
Hye Young You
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Criminal Investigation ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Government Service ◽  
Revenue Collection ◽  
Local Police ◽  
Commuting Time

A growing body of evidence indicates that local police departments are being used to provide revenue for municipalities by imposing and collecting fees, fines, and asset forfeitures. We examine whether revenue collection activities compromise the criminal investigation functions of local police departments. We find that police departments in cities that collect a greater share of their revenue from fees solve violent and property crimes at significantly lower rates. The effect on violent crime clearance is more salient in smaller cities where police officers’ assignments tend not to be highly specialized. We find that this relationship is robust to a variety of empirical strategies, including instrumenting for fines revenue using commuting time. Our results suggest that institutional changes—such as decreasing municipal government reliance on fines and fees for revenue—are important for changing police behavior and improving the provision of public safety.

scholarly journals An Exercise in Fire Safety: Readying Ourselves for the Unintended Consequences of Traditional I-O Approaches to Diversity Management

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 598-604
Author(s):  
Alison V. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Diversity Management ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
In Fire

This commentary elaborates on the position taken in the focal article, “Baltimore Is Burning” (Ruggs et al., 2016), that partnerships between industrial–organizational (I-O) psychologists and law enforcement agencies could offer valuable insight and practical tools that help to alleviate long-standing and ongoing conflict between police officers and communities of color. I fully support this stance as well as many of the recommendations proposed within the focal article. I-O psychologists indeed have knowledge and resources that could prove useful for supporting police reform efforts. However, although I-O psychologists have much to contribute to the conversation, a recent review by Hall, Hall, and Perry (2016) draws attention to several ways in which law enforcement as a context and police officers as a population are distinct from many of the workplace environments and civilian employee populations that have informed current I-O knowledge and best practices. As such, our traditional methods may be wrought with unique challenges when implemented in law enforcement contexts. If we fail to give serious consideration to this, the role of I-O psychologists in preventing future fires in Baltimore and throughout the United States may be accompanied by unintended consequences. As I-O psychologists prepare to help law enforcement extinguish the flames between police and communities of color, we must anticipate and prepare to safely combat these dangers so we do not add fuel to the fire or get burned in the process of rendering aid.

scholarly journals Delineating policing towards a social and health profession

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 156-163
Author(s):  
Uzma Williams ◽  
Daniel J. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Verbal Response ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Training And Education ◽  
Calls For Service ◽  
Extensive Training ◽  
Mental Health Factors ◽  
And Training

This article suggests potential reforms required to address shortcomings of the policing profession in response to contemporary challenges. Police reforms that de-emphasize enforcement and promote policing as a helping profession are discussed. This stance is presented because police calls for service commonly involve complex human behaviour that includes mental health factors (including addictions) and diversity. Police officers require extensive training and education on mental health and diversity, which should include regular specialized training advancements in professionalism, interpersonal skills, and behavioural (non-verbal and verbal) response. All police officers have to deal with mental health and diversity, and, as such, an appropriate helping model (that adopts certain skills from health and social professions) should be incorporated into law enforcement practices and training. The Compass Police Response (CPR) Model is presented for consideration in police reform as well as a revised representation of the Police Use of Force Framework. The authors posit that policing should include increased collaboration with health and social professions. The support of other community disciplines and health systems is necessary to adequately address reforms required in the policing profession.

scholarly journals Predictive Policing for Reform? Indeterminacy and Intervention in Big Data Policing

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 456-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Predictive Analytics ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Predictive Policing ◽  
Trade Offs

Predictive analytics and artificial intelligence are applied widely across law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system. Despite criticism that such tools reinforce inequality and structural discrimination, proponents insist that they will nonetheless improve the equality and fairness of outcomes by countering humans’ biased or capricious decision-making. How can predictive analytics be understood simultaneously as a source of, and solution to, discrimination and bias in criminal justice and law enforcement? The article provides a framework for understanding the techno-political gambit of predictive policing as a mechanism of police reform—a discourse that I call “predictive policing for reform.” Focusing specifically on geospatial predictive policing systems, I argue that “predictive policing for reform” should be seen as a flawed attempt to rationalize police patrols through an algorithmic remediation of patrol geographies. The attempt is flawed because predictive systems operate on the sociotechnical practices of police patrols, which are themselves contradictory enactments of the state’s power to distribute safety and harm. The ambiguities and contradictions of the patrol are not resolved through algorithmic remediation. Instead, they lead to new indeterminacies, trade-offs, and experimentations based on unfalsifiable claims. I detail these through a discussion of predictive policing firm HunchLab’s use of predictive analytics to rationalize patrols and mitigate bias. Understanding how the “predictive policing for reform” discourse is operationalized as a series of technical fixes that rely on the production of indeterminacies allows for a more nuanced critique of predictive policing.

Police Criminality: Nature and Extent of Crimes Committed by Female Police Officers

2021 ◽  
pp. 109861112110440
Author(s):  
Francis D. Boateng ◽  
Ming-Li Hsieh ◽  
Daniel K. Pryce
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Multilevel Model ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Female Criminality ◽  
Considerable Controversy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Female Officers ◽  
Recent Attention

Given the recent attention focusing on “bad apples” in police departments across the country, police behaviors have been the subject of considerable controversy and protest. Still, research indicates that rates of officially reported police crime are relatively low. In addition, crimes committed by female officers are largely understudied in this male-dominated workplace. Therefore, the current study explores the attributes associated with police crime committed by female officers using national arrest data. Results obtained from a multilevel model demonstrate the influences of individual- and agency-level variables in explaining female officers’ criminality. Findings reveal that while on-duty female officers are more likely to commit economically motivated and drug-related crimes, off-duty officers are more likely to engage in violent and alcohol-related crimes. Moreover, contextual factors such as types of agency and numbers of sworn officers predicted female officers’ criminality. Current findings highlight the importance of policies that would directly address female criminality in law enforcement.

Assessing (In)Equality in the Structural Covariates of Drug-Specific Arrest Counts

2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun A. Thomas ◽  
Rick Dierenfeldt
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Composite Measures ◽  
Local Police ◽  
Specific Mortality ◽  
Drug Arrests

Prior research assessing the structural covariates of drug arrests has focused on composite measures of arrests. Prior studies have also neglected to simultaneously consider the influence of characteristics of communities, law enforcement agencies, police officers, and drug-specific mortality rates on drug-specific arrests. As such, the extant literature offers an incomplete understanding of the structural correlates of drug arrests. The current study addresses these limitations by assessing the structural covariates of drug-specific measures of arrests for cocaine, crack, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine. Results highlight substantive distinctions in the structural covariates of drug-specific arrests across places, particularly related to racial diversity within the community and local police departments, and drug-specific mortality (i.e., overdose) rates findings that have important implications for future research.

The Effect of a Narrated Video of an Arrest on Civilians’ Perceptions of Police

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Giaimo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Perceptions Of Police

Trust of the police is at a 22-year low in the United States (Jones, 2015). Many police departments hold community discussions in an attempt to educate civilians and increase trust in the police (Star, 2017). This research explores whether an in depth, play-by-play explanation of force used during a video of a violent arrest can increase civilians’ perceptions of the police. Participants either watched a video of a violent arrest with narration or the same video with no narration. The narrator explained the tactics used by the police officers and how the tactics were used to avoid escalation of the violence during the arrest. After viewing one of the videos, both groups filled out the Perceptions of Police (POP) scale to indicate the participants’ feelings about the police. The type of video watched did not influence POP scores, however two interactions were significant. These results suggest that the police should focus on other methods of gaining the trust of Americans.

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