Transaction Search Form: please type in any of the fields below.
Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:08 pm
Time: 8:08 pm
Results for police effectiveness
84 results foundAuthor: Kennedy, William Gregory Title: The Impact of Police Agency Size on Crime Clearance Rates Summary: The impact of police agency size on the ability of those agencies to deliver necessary police services is a question critical to many policy makers as they attempt to determine the best and most efficient manner to provide police services to their citizens. Over the years, there has been an ongoing debate as to the role of agency size and its effect on agency effectiveness. This study examines one element of that debate by looking at the role agency size plays on the ability of the agency to clear reported crime. The study hypothesizes that larger agencies are able to clear a larger proportion of reported crimes because larger agencies can take advantage of larger staff, greater resources and capitalize on other factors often associated with larger organizations. To conduct this analysis, the study develops a data set from LEMAS, UCR, and Census Bureau data that contains 2,271 local, county, and regional police and sheriffs’ agencies. Utilizing this data set, the study uses hierarchical regression to assess the impact of agency size on the clearance rates for seven UCR Part I crimes. The analysis controls for the effect of community demographics, agency structure, community policing tactics, and workload. The results of the analysis are mixed. For several crime categories, agency size dose not contribute significantly. However, for robbery, felony assault and vehicle theft, size is significant and has an inverse relationship to crime clearance rates. The finding that the clearance rates for robbery, felony assault and vehicle theft would decrease as agency size increases, is contrary to the study’s hypothesis. The study concludes with a discussion of possible reasons the size variable did not have the affect theorized, the implications of these findings, a discussion of the issues surrounding the effect of the control variables, as well as possible directions for future research. Details: Charlotte, NC: University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2009. 227p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed April 5, 2013 at: http://www.cpcc.edu/pd/resources-1/doctoral-research-group/dissertations/Kennedy-William-2009-PhD.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.cpcc.edu/pd/resources-1/doctoral-research-group/dissertations/Kennedy-William-2009-PhD.pdf Shelf Number: 128285 Keywords: Clearance RatesPolice Agencies (U.S.)Police EffectivenessPolice Resource Allocation |
Author: Great Britain. HM Inspectorate of Constabulary Title: Stop the Drift 2 – A Continuing Focus on 21st Century Criminal Justice (a joint review by HMIC and HMCPSI) Summary: Much of the debate in recent times has centred on the bureaucracy surrounding the criminal justice system. Our review in Stop the Drift: A Focus on 21st Century Criminal Justice (October 2010) revealed a number of bureaucratic processes that kept officers in police stations longer than necessary, especially when dealing with people detained at police stations and processing case files for prosecutions. Unnecessary bureaucracy should not be confused with effective management and good quality record keeping. The former has the effect of tying police officers down when they should be out, protecting the public from harm: the latter enables the police service to demonstrate compliance with the law, where the rights and interests of vulnerable people, suspects, victims and witnesses are protected and upheld. Effective management and good quality record keeping generate good quality assessments of risk, particularly when suspects are detained at police stations. The interests of justice are better served when good quality information is conveyed to other agencies in the criminal justice system so that decisions can be made about bringing criminal proceedings, supporting victims and witnesses throughout the trial, and ensuring that victims are compensated for injury and loss. Much can be done, for example, to streamline the process from arrest or detention to release from the police station or disposal at court, particularly in the area of IT, where, despite many years of effort, a citizen in possession of a smart phone is likely to have more functions at his disposal than a police officer equipped to patrol the streets. Having said that, there is no getting away from the fact that good quality policing depends on the effective management of the police contribution to the criminal justice process and good quality record keeping. Getting the right information to the right person at the right time is therefore a vital function. Enabling police officers and staff to carry out that function efficiently and effectively, however, requires more than a review of the number of forms required. A more fundamental approach must be taken if blockages are to be removed to pave the way for a more streamlined approach that removes purposeless activity but promotes the production of good quality information. This review provides, we hope, some insights on how police officer time might be freed up while improving performance within the criminal justice system. We believe the time has come to act decisively, with renewed focus and determination to streamline the process and banish the spectre of unnecessary bureaucracy that has been, for far too long, an impediment to progress. Details: London: HMIC, 2013. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 6, 2013 at: http://www.hmic.gov.uk/media/stop-the-drift-2-03062013.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.hmic.gov.uk/media/stop-the-drift-2-03062013.pdf Shelf Number: 128980 Keywords: Criminal Justice Policies (U.K.)Criminal Justice ReformPolice AdministrationPolice Effectiveness |
Author: Karn, Jacqui Title: Policing and Crime Reduction: The evidence and its implications for practice Summary: The ‘Police Effectiveness in a Changing World’ project was initiated at a time of rapid, fundamental changes both within the police service and beyond. New forms of police accountability, a renewed emphasis on fighting crime alongside substantial cuts in budgets present considerable challenges at a time when globalisation, rapid developments in technology and major changes in the way individuals, families and communities live their lives are substantially changing patterns of crime and victimisation. The role and function of the police is changing accordingly. The police mission has become broader and more complex, embracing functions more commonly associated with other agencies. Yet politicians and the public still expect and demand a police service that focuses on fighting crime. The ‘Police Effectiveness in a Changing World’ project addresses these different challenges by identifying and delivering better police-led approaches to reducing crime. This paper provides the evidence base on which the project will draw. Details: London: The Police Foundation, 2013. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 8, 2013 at: http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/uploads/catalogerfiles/policing-and-crime-reduction/police-foundation-police-effectiveness-report.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/uploads/catalogerfiles/policing-and-crime-reduction/police-foundation-police-effectiveness-report.pdf Shelf Number: 129274 Keywords: Crime Prevention (U.K.)Police Effectiveness |
Author: Munneke, Jop Title: The Eyes and Ears of the Police? Questioning the Role of Community Policing in Durban, South Africa Summary: Today, the number of actors that are involved in policing are increasing, and its field is not limited to the state police anymore. In this wider field of policing, the role of the community is increasingly recognised as important. The idea that the community should be more actively involved in policing has led to the concept of Community Policing, where the community as an actor in the security spectrum is officially recognised. Community Policing is surfacing and gaining in importance all over the world. But what is Community Policing? What is the ideal behind it, and how is it implemented in actual settings? Community Policing is both initiated by the police as a formal strategy to policing, as well as by the community as an informal strategy, which is often a response caused by discontent about the state-police’s performance in ensuring citizens’ personal security. In South Africa, both forms are seen. Formal Community Policing initiatives were initially introduced during South Africa’s transition to democracy in the early 1990s, when it was used as the police’s main strategy to ensure a smooth transition into a new political system, and to increase the legitimacy of the police among the public. Community Policing Fora (CPF) were the structures that were to ensure Community Policing’s proper implementation. Today, several years after the country’s transition, CPF lost their necessity in ensuring a proper transfer to democracy. Thus, their focus has changed towards crime-prevention, and the community, the police, and local governments are to establish a partnership and devise strategies together to ensure a reduction in crime and safer neighbourhoods. This thesis is based on an ethnographic study that I undertook within neighbourhoods of Durban and their CPF in early 2011. I undertook this research with the purpose of understanding how the CPF work and what their relationship is to the community’s perceptions of security. My findings show that different CPF face different successes and challenges, and that no general conclusion can be made as to how they work. However, factors that may be distinguished as potential challenges to the proper functioning of the fora include resource problems among the South African Police Service (SAPS), the deeply divided society of post-Apartheid South Africa, a lack of trust that the community has in the police and wrong interpretations about how a CPF should function. The effects of a poor relationship between the CPF and the community that is caused by these factors, show themselves in the CPF turning into a complaints forum, poor attendance from the community, increasingly negative perceptions of the SAPS and the surfacing of informal Community Policing initiatives in both the formal and informal settlements of Durban. However, positive results are also seen, and especially through an educational role where the CPF educate the public about actual crime rates and necessary precautions to take in order to decrease an individual’s chances of being a victim of crime, the CPF can and do contribute to higher perceptions of security among the community. Finally, I conclude that when determining the successes of CPF, they should be viewed in a broader perspective than the current one which only looks at their influence on crime-rates. CPF may fail to cause a substantial decrease in numbers, but they may have an effect on longer-term issues that South African society faces, like socio-economic inequality and a deeply divided society. Details: International Police Executive Symposium, 2013. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 43: Accessed August 7, 2013 at: http://www.ipes.info/WPS/WPS_No_43.pdf Year: 2013 Country: South Africa URL: http://www.ipes.info/WPS/WPS_No_43.pdf Shelf Number: 129567 Keywords: Community Policing (Durban, South Africa)Police EffectivenessPolice LegitimacyPolice-Community Relations |
Author: Koren, Dori Title: Social Networking for the Police Enterprise: An In-Depth Look at the Benefits, Requirements, and Challenges of Establishing a Social Networking Platform for Law Enforcement Summary: The emergence of social networking technologies has transformed the way people interact, develop social ties, exchange information, and organize their personal and professional lives. As a result, Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) platforms-which offer organizations a closed Facebook-like program to increase connectivity, reduce costs, and enhance productivity-are on the rise in both business and government. This report explores the benefits, requirements, and key challenges for implementing such a platform for the law enforcement and homeland security community. The judgments and findings are based on existing literature, extensive research, the evaluation of numerous software systems, and the consolidated perspective of 77 law enforcement leaders from 45 major agencies. Details: Major Cities Chiefs Association, 2013. 27p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 17, 2014 at: https://www.majorcitieschiefs.com/pdf/news/social_networking_for_the_police_enterprise__final_version_101513.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://www.majorcitieschiefs.com/pdf/news/social_networking_for_the_police_enterprise__final_version_101513.pdf Shelf Number: 131937 Keywords: Police CommunicationsPolice EffectivenessPolice PerformancePolicingSocial Networking |
Author: Davis, Robert C. Title: Civilian Staff in Policing: An Assessment of the 2009 Byrne Civilian Hiring Program, Summary: Civilians have come to play significant roles in law enforcement over the years. As the number of civilians in policing has increased, their roles have expanded as well. Originally occupying clerical positions, civilians now are often found in technical positions, research and planning positions, and administrative positions. In some departments, they even assist in non-hazardous patrol and investigation duties traditionally in the domain of uniformed officers. During the recession of 2008, many law enforcement agencies were forced to lay off substantial numbers of employees as municipalities struggled to balance budgets with lower tax revenues. Although many law enforcement administrators appreciate the value that civilians bring to policing, they were often the first to be laid off or furloughed as budgets were tightened. The Bureau of Justice Assistance, through its Byrne grant program, provided competitive funds for agencies to retain civilians or hire new civilian staff. This report presents the results of an NIJ-funded national examination of the Byrne civilian hiring program and the effects of the program on law enforcement agencies and crime rates. It also provides a picture of the state of civilianization in policing and issues associated with the hiring, retention, uses, and performance of civilians. The study combined a variety of research methods, including a national survey of the use of civilians in policing, interviews with agencies that hired or retained civilians through the Byrne program, an analysis of crime rates among Byrne grantees and matched control agencies, and case studies of innovative uses of Byrne funding. The results underscored the range of positions that civilians now hold and the positive contributions they make to police agencies. Civilians are now not only in clerical and support roles, but also in key skilled positions in I.T., crime analysis, intelligence, human resources, and media relations. Resentment of civilians that has been observed in earlier reports was not a major issue among respondents in our study. We found that Byrne grant recipients made good use of the positions made possible by the program, in many cases adding significant new analytic and intelligence capabilities to their departments. Byrne grant recipients believed that civilians hired through the program increased their agencies' effectiveness by freeing sworn staff for patrol and investigation duties, by enhancing crime analysis and intelligence capabilities, and by reducing costs. In most instances, the short-term grants led to permanent positions within the law enforcement agencies. During a period of recession and retrenchment, the Byrne civilian hiring program helped make it possible for some agencies not only to retain key civilian staff, but also to add civilian staff in a way that enhanced the capacity of their departments. Details: Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2013. 92p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 25, 2014 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/246952.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/246952.pdf Shelf Number: 0 Keywords: Police Civilian Employees (U.S.)Police EffectivenessPolice Personnel |
Author: Barrick, Kelle Title: Assessing Crime, Resident Trust, and Police Effectiveness in Tegucigalpa, Honduras Summary: According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Central American countries are faced with some of the highest homicide rates in the world (UNODC, 2007). With more than 87 homicides per 100,000 residents, Honduras is one of the region's most violent countries (Arce, 2012). Honduras's proximity to Mexico makes it highly susceptible to the influences of transnational drug trafficking organizations. Recent enforcement efforts in Mexico have disrupted and displaced drug trafficking patterns and Honduras is increasingly being utilized as a transshipment point for Andean cocaine. According to recent estimates, 42% of all cocaine entering the United States first passes through Central America (INL, 2012). Youth street gangs and concentrated levels of poverty are also assumed to be at the center of the country's ongoing struggle with crime (UNODC, 2007; Seelke, 2011). Moreover, there is evidence that the problems associated with violent crime are increasing in Honduras. Whereas violent crime has decreased in Colombia, a country notorious for its violence, in recent years Honduras has experienced a significant increase in homicides and now has the highest per capita homicide rate in the world (U.S. Department of State, 2012). To assist Honduras in addressing these public safety and security issues, the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), has provided funding to establish a Model Precinct in Tegucigalpa's San Miguel Police District. A review of documents provided by INL indicates that as part of the Model Precinct initiative, INL is working with the Polica Nacional de Honduras (PNH) to create a higher level of integrity in the national police force by vetting police officers using background checks and polygraph testing. Police officers will also be trained in management practices, community policing, public relations, report taking, and tactical operations. In addition, police departments will be provided with a variety of equipment, including vehicles, office equipment, tactical and technological equipment, database systems, and street surveillance cameras. INL initiatives are also attempting to prevent and reduce participation in local gangs by providing school-aged children and youth with training in the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) and Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) programs. Collectively, these Model Precinct activities are intended to result in a number of benefits for the San Miguel target area in Tegucigalpa. These include reductions in crime and gang activity, enhanced crime fighting and crime prevention capabilities for the police, and improved community perceptions and trust of the police. Details: Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International, 2013. 168p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 6, 2014 at: http://rti.org/pubs/hte024_baseline_english_final.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Honduras URL: http://rti.org/pubs/hte024_baseline_english_final.pdf Shelf Number: 132905 Keywords: Crime (Honduras)Drug TraffickingHomicidesPolice EffectivenessPolice-Community RelationsPolicingStreet GangsViolent Crime |
Author: Great Britain. Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary Title: Core Business: an inspection into crime prevention, police attendance and the use of police time Summary: This report examines all 43 police forces in England and Wales. It looks at three principal aspects of day-to-day policing: the prevention of crime; how crime is investigated and offenders are brought to justice; and freeing up and using police time more efficiently (which includes the use of modern technology). The report merges three complementary inspections into a single assessment. Details: London: HMIC, 2014. 159p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 15, 2014 at: http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/wp-content/uploads/core-business.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/wp-content/uploads/core-business.pdf Shelf Number: 133304 Keywords: Crime Prevention Criminal Investigation Police EffectivenessPolice Scheduling Police Technology Policing (U.K.) |
Author: Di Matteo, Livio Title: Police and Crime Rates in Canada: A Comparison of Resources and Outcomes Summary: There is growing public concern over the rising cost and sustainability of police services given that crime rates continue to decline. Indeed, between 2001 and 2012, the number of police officers per 100,000 population in Canada rose 8.7% while the crime rate declined by 26.3%. This study reviews the literature on the relationship between police resources and crime rates and then examines trends in crime rates and police resources in Canada. It also estimates the "efficiency" of police staffing across Canadian cities using a determinants approach that first estimates the relationship between the number of police officers per 100,000 in population and the crime rate, controlling for other factors. It then uses that relationship to estimate the predicted number of officers relative to the actual figure. The purpose is to assess whether the efficiency of municipal policing can be improved. The study finds substantial variation in the number of police officers per 100,000 of population and overall spending in cities across the country. The estimates of "efficiency" find cities of different sizes and different parts of the country ranking among the most and least efficient. Using this methodology, Kelowna, BC, Moncton, NB, and Ottawa-Gatineau, ON/QC, were found to have the most efficient staffing levels. Saint John, NB, Winnipeg, MB, and Windsor, ON, were found to have the least efficient staffing levels. There is substantial scope for police forces across Canada's census metropolitan areas (CMAs) to discover what the best practices are for creating a more efficient operation. Details: Burnaby, BC: Fraser Institute, 2014. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 25, 2014 at: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/police-and-crime-rates-in-canada.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Canada URL: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/police-and-crime-rates-in-canada.pdf Shelf Number: 133425 Keywords: Costs of Criminal JusticeCrime Rates (Canada)Police EffectivenessPolicing |
Author: Fortier, Nicole Title: Success-Oriented Funding: Reforming Federal Criminal Justice Grants Summary: A new policy proposal from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law suggests the president make broad reforms to federal grants across the country that fund state and local law enforcement. Specifically, the president should use his executive authority to recast all federal grants for criminal justice in a "Success-Oriented Funding" model, in which the flow of dollars is linked to the achievement of clear goals. Grant programs run by the federal government have a powerful role in shaping the behavior of law enforcement nationwide. "Success-Oriented Funding" would encourage practices that reduce crime and violence without recourse to unnecessary force, whether through police behavior or undue focus on arrests and incarceration. Details: New York: Brennan Center for Justice; New York University School of Law, 2014. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 9, 2014 at: http://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/SuccessOrientedFunding_ReformingFederalCriminalJusticeGrants.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/SuccessOrientedFunding_ReformingFederalCriminalJusticeGrants.pdf Shelf Number: 133624 Keywords: Criminal Justice Policy (U.S.)Federal GrantsLaw Enforcement ProgramsPolice EffectivenessPolicing |
Author: Great Britain. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary Title: An inspection of undercover policing in England and Wales Summary: In a letter dated 27 June 2013, the Home Secretary commissioned Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) to inspect the effectiveness of the arrangements in place in all police forces to carry out, manage and scrutinise undercover operations. Our inspection was to include all regional and national policing units, and the National Crime Agency. This was not an inquiry into the past events that have caused widespread concern about the way the police use undercover tactics; these past events fall to others to examine. Our inspection has examined how well undercover policing is carried out now. HMIC is an independent inspectorate which has responsibility under section 54(2), Police Act 1996 to inspect on the "efficiency and effectiveness of every police force maintained for a police area" in England and Wales. It also has statutory responsibility to inspect the National Crime Agency. We were invited to include Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs in our inspection. In order to provide a comprehensive picture, the British Transport Police, the Home Office Immigration Enforcement and the Royal Military Police - all of which may also carry out undercover operations - were included in our inspection. This is the first time that HMIC has inspected all law enforcement agencies that have the capability and capacity to deploy undercover officers. Details: London: HMIC, 2014. 202p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 13, 2014 at: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/wp-content/uploads/an-inspection-of-undercover-policing-in-england-and-wales.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/wp-content/uploads/an-inspection-of-undercover-policing-in-england-and-wales.pdf Shelf Number: 133941 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolice InvestigationsUndercover OperationsUndercover Policing (U.K.) |
Author: Caparini, Marina Title: African perspectives on challenges of police command in peace support operations Summary: Conflicts in Africa result in loss of life, weakened social structures and fragile economies. This provides an impetus for stronger African initiatives in conflict management through participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations, among others, and increased African-led peace support operations (PSOs). This paper aims to identify African perspectives specific to the police component and its role in the African Peace and Security Architecture. Challenges for police command at strategic, operational and tactical levels are then reviewed. Cross-cutting issues that affect command and the effectiveness of PSOs are examined. The conclusion notes questions and issues that may be considered to better understand and devise solutions to police command challenges in African-led PSOs. Details: Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, 2014. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: ISS Paper 276: Accessed November 13, 2014 at: http://www.issafrica.org/uploads/Paper276.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Africa URL: http://www.issafrica.org/uploads/Paper276.pdf Shelf Number: 134073 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolicing (Africa) |
Author: Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) Title: Review of the IPCC's work on investigating deaths: final report Summary: In 2012 the IPCC began a review into the way that we investigate deaths following police contact, with the aim of identifying and implementing changes to ensure that our work in this key area is: - thorough, transparent and effective - sensitive to the needs and expectations of bereaved families - able to build and sustain public confidence We have consulted widely with those affected - in particular those who have been critical of our approach to this important work or of the outcomes of our investigations. We published a progress report in September 2013, detailing the issues and concerns raised, and our response to them. This final report summarises all that we were told, our responses, and most importantly the actions we have taken or are planning to take. Details: London: IPCC, 2014. 111p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 20, 2014 at: http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Documents/deaths_review/Review_of_the_IPCCs_work_in_investigating_deaths_2014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Documents/deaths_review/Review_of_the_IPCCs_work_in_investigating_deaths_2014.pdf Shelf Number: 134180 Keywords: Deadly ForcePolice BehaviorPolice EffectivenessPolice LegitimacyPolice Use of Force (U.K.) |
Author: Great Britain. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary Title: Increasing efficiency in the Police Service: The role of collaboration Summary: Police collaboration is not a new phenomenon. Forces in England and Wales have always looked to share resources and to outsource some parts of their business in order to increase their operational resilience. Sharing resources can also result in significant savings. This makes collaboration - whether with another force, the public or private sector - one option available to the police as they work to close the 20% savings requirement outlined in the October 2010 Spending Review (SR). However, when Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) last asked about this, only 29 of the 43 forces across England and Wales had identified how savings could be made through collaboration. HMIC therefore took a further snapshot of collaborative activity in winter 2011 to see if progress had been made. This report describes what we found, and includes the projected financial savings from collaborative activity over the spending review period - the first time these comparative data have been collected or published. It also includes case studies of how different forces are collaborating (and with whom); and provides data and analysis to enable forces and their governing bodies to make informed choices when considering the value of future collaborations. We end with some key questions that might be useful to forces in making these decisions. Details: London: HMIC, 2012. 79p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 11, 2015 at: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/media/increasing-efficiency-in-the-police-service.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/media/increasing-efficiency-in-the-police-service.pdf Shelf Number: 134594 Keywords: PartnershipsPolice CollaborationPolice EffectivenessPolice Policies and PracticesPolicing (U.K.)Resource Sharing |
Author: Roeder, Oliver Title: What Caused the Crime Decline? Summary: What Caused the Crime Decline? examines one of the nation's least understood recent phenomena - the dramatic decline in crime nationwide over the past two decades - and analyzes various theories for why it occurred, by reviewing more than 40 years of data from all 50 states and the 50 largest cities. It concludes that over-harsh criminal justice policies, particularly increased incarceration, which rose even more dramatically over the same period, were not the main drivers of the crime decline. In fact, the report finds that increased incarceration has been declining in its effectiveness as a crime control tactic for more than 30 years. Its effect on crime rates since 1990 has been limited, and has been non-existent since 2000. More important were various social, economic, and environmental factors, such as growth in income and an aging population. The introduction of CompStat, a data-driven policing technique, also played a significant role in reducing crime in cities that introduced it. The report concludes that considering the immense social, fiscal, and economic costs of mass incarceration, programs that improve economic opportunities, modernize policing practices, and expand treatment and rehabilitation programs, all could be a better public safety investment. Details: New York: Brennan Center for Justice, New York University School of Law, 2015. 139p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 12, 2015 at: https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/analysis/Crime_rate_report_web.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/analysis/Crime_rate_report_web.pdf Shelf Number: 134615 Keywords: Crime Decline (U.S.)Crime StatisticsPolice EffectivenessSocioeconomic Conditions and Crime |
Author: Engel, Robin S. Title: Effectiveness vs. Equity in Policing: Is a Tradeoff Inevitable? Summary: Engel and Eck make the case that modern policing methods make it possible to increase both "effectiveness" and "equity" at the same time. The authors note that policing agencies and criminal justice researchers have long followed a framework established in 1968 by legal scholar Herbert Packer, which presumes that for every effort police make at increasing effectiveness, they must reduce their efforts at being fair and equitable. The best example of how this formula has been used in the last 20 years is the evolution of the 'stop, question, and frisk' practices, employed by police departments in cities like New York. Engel and Eck assert that modern policing methods like problem-oriented policing can be designed to take both effectiveness and equity into account, creating crime reduction while increasing fairness and police-community relations. Engel and Eck suggest that departments use scientific evidence to measure both their effectiveness at reducing crime and also the equity of policing in their communities. They provide the example of the City of Cincinnati, which instituted reforms after a federal investigation and a racial bias lawsuit was filed against police. These reforms included the creation of the Community Police Partnering Center, and a strategic focus within the Cincinnati Police Department to implement a number of problem-solving projects that involved community members from the beginning. These practices have led to a reduction in crime and an increase in police legitimacy in Cincinnati, the authors said. Details: Washington, DC: Police Foundation, 2015. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Ideas in American Policing, no. 18: Accessed March 4, 2015 at: http://www.policefoundation.org/sites/g/files/g798246/f/201502/PF_IIAP_EngelandEck_Jan2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.policefoundation.org/sites/g/files/g798246/f/201502/PF_IIAP_EngelandEck_Jan2015.pdf Shelf Number: 134742 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolice PerformancePolice Problem-SolvingPolice Reform (U.S.) |
Author: Alpert, Geoffrey P. Title: Measuring the impact of organisational culture and climate on police officers' decisions and behaviour Summary: The behaviour of police officers, particularly those at the operational frontline, attracts a high level of public scrutiny with frequent calls for increased accountability. The results of negative behaviour, or perceived faulty or biased decision-making, can affect the reputation of the whole organization and leave an enduring impression upon the public. Understanding the influences on police officer decision-making and behaviour, particularly those that an organization can change or control, can lead to optimal behaviour, improved police effectiveness and enhanced public confidence. This Working Paper looks at the police as an organization, and the influences on positive and negative officer decision making and behaviour, specifically detailing concepts of organizational culture and climate. Approaches to the measurement of these are outlined and the discussion concludes by proposing a mixed-method approach to understanding police culture to improve police behaviour. The behaviours of police vehicle accidents and the use of force are presented as examples to illustrate the approach Details: Mt Gravatt, QLD. : ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security, 2012. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper, Issue 1: Accessed March 19, 2015 at: http://www.ceps.edu.au/CMS/Uploads/file/GAlpert_JRojek_LPorter_issue1.pdf Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://www.ceps.edu.au/CMS/Uploads/file/GAlpert_JRojek_LPorter_issue1.pdf Shelf Number: 134974 Keywords: Police AccountabilityPolice BehaviorPolice CulturePolice Decision-MakingPolice Effectiveness |
Author: Police Reform Taskforce Title: Policing for the People: Interim report of the Police Reform Taskforce Summary: The central premise of this report is that, in spite of record spending on law and order, crime remains far too high. A more effective criminal justice system and social action will be important components of a new approach to fighting crime. But the police are a vital link in the chain of justice, consuming two-thirds of law and order spending. Their performance over the next decade will be essential in improving the quality of life of millions of citizens. The Government's approach to the police has been a familiar one: higher public spending combined with an ever tighter central grip. Like other public services, the police are bedeviled with national targets, interference and the bureaucracy created by central intervention. The result has been that even as resources for the police have reached record levels, officers feel unable to deliver the service they and the public want - and the gulf between the police and public is growing. The hundreds of meetings we have had with police officers over the past months have reinforced our belief that the service is full of officers with a real commitment to delivering effective policing for the public. Nevertheless, neither politicians nor the police can afford to ignore an undercurrent of public dissatisfaction about the level of policing which they are receiving. Focus groups which we conducted for the Taskforce indicated sympathy for the difficulty of the task which the police face. A general feeling, expressed by one participant, was that "their hands are totally tied - by red tape and political correctness". But there were also harsh words, reflecting an alienation from the service: "Your local bobby used to be known by everyone. He was an authority on the area and a friend. They are now obsolete". A familiar grievance was that the police appeared to pursue motorists with particular zeal: "You get pulled over for a driving offence and get treated like a complete criminal". This qualitative research is supported by quantitative evidence that trust in the police has declined and attitudes towards them are negatively related to personal experiences of the service. The most recent survey, conducted by ICM for the TaxPayers' Alliance, found that while the overwhelming majority of the public respects the police, less than a quarter think that policing in their area has improved, and less than half think that increases in council tax to pay for improvements to local policing in the last ten years have been good value for money. Large majorities of the public agree that the police spend too much time in police stations and not enough time on the beat; their hands are tied by red tape and political correctness, and they prefer to focus on easy targets like speeding motorists rather than deal with antisocial behaviour and local crime. The closure of police stations is emblematic of the withdrawal of the police from the public. On paper, police officer numbers have increased - the police workforce has grown by almost 25 per cent in the last five years. In practice, the public simply do not see it. ICM's survey found that most people think that there are fewer police on the beat than there used to be, and that nearly three quarters of the public know none of the police officers in their neighbourhood. As we demonstrate, vast amounts of police time are spent tied up in stations; the police spend more time on paperwork than on patrol, and less than a tenth of England and Wales' police officers are dedicated to neighbourhood policing. If the amount of time a police officer spends on the beat could be increased from one fifth to two fifths, this would effectively double the police presence on the streets of England and Wales without recruiting a single additional officer. For decades, an expert wisdom prevailed that high crime was inevitable and that policing could do little to prevent it. There was no point in putting police officers on the streets, the argument ran, because it would do little to reduce crime. Today such fatalism, which was never accepted by the public, has been debunked. When more police were put on the streets of central London after 7/7, crime fell. The success of New York City's reductions in crime in the 1990s - recently described by one leading academic as "by far the biggest crime prevention achievement in the recorded history of metropolitan policing" - demonstrates that good policing, which accounted for half of the 75 per cent reduction in crime in a decade, can make our streets safer. The lessons of New York are important ones. Better police performance was achieved by a combination of factors: a significant increase in police numbers on the streets, robust community policing, and powerful reforms which enhanced the accountability of managers. The changes were driven by an elected Mayor who was accountable to the people, and an inspirational police chief who innovated and led his force. Today the British police face the twin challenges of rebuilding community policing to tackle low level crime and antisocial behaviour, while at the same time strengthening the fight against serious crime and terrorism. To meet these challenges it will be vital to ensure that the police are properly resourced in the future. But they have never had so much money, so many officers or such access to technology. Furthermore, the growth of spending on public services is now slowing; indeed the Home Office budget is to be frozen from next year. The police face a new imperative to deliver value for money. Details: London: Policy Review, 2007. 241p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 20, 2015 at: http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/files/policing_for_the_people.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/files/policing_for_the_people.pdf Shelf Number: 135321 Keywords: Community PolicingCosts of Criminal JusticePolice AccountabilityPolice AdministrationPolice EffectivenessPolice LegitimacyPolice ReformPolicing (U.K.) |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Crime is Terribly Revealing: Information Technology and Police Productivity Summary: In an unprecedented information technology (IT) revolution in the public service sector, an increasing number of police departments use advanced statistical methods to improve their productivity in fighting crimes. Since 2007 the police department of Milan has been using a predictive policing software that is unique, as it not only produces aggregate crime predictions but also individual ones. This paper uses detailed information on individual crime incidents, coupled with offender-level identifiers produced by the software, to show that criminals follow habits, and that such habits make their future actions predictable. Using quasi- random assignment of crimes to two police forces that differ in the availability of this predictive policing software, this study shows that the adoption of this very advanced yet inexpensive IT innovation doubles the productivity of policing. Details: Unpublished paper, 2014. 47p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 13, 2015 at: http://www.hec.unil.ch/documents/seminars/deep/1587.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Italy URL: http://www.hec.unil.ch/documents/seminars/deep/1587.pdf Shelf Number: 135620 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolice Technology Predictive Policing |
Author: MacDonald, John M. Title: The Effect of Privately Provided Police Services on Crime Summary: Research demonstrates that police reduce crime. The implication of this research for investment in a particular form of extra police services, those provided by private institutions, has not been rigorously examined. We capitalize on the discontinuity in police force size at the geographic boundary of a private university police department to estimate the effect of the extra police services on crime. Extra police provided by the university generate approximately 45-60 percent fewer crimes in the surrounding neighborhood. These effects appear to be similar to other estimates in the literature. Details: Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Law School; Erasmus School of Law; PERC - Property and Environment Research Center, 2012. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: University of Pennsylvania, Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper No. 12-36 : Accessed May 13, 2015 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2171038 Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2171038 Shelf Number: 135871 Keywords: Campus PoliceCampus SecurityPolice EffectivenessPrivate PolicePrivate Security |
Author: Chalfin, Aaron Title: Are U.S. Cities Under-policed?: Theory and Evidence Summary: The socially optimal number of police hinges on the extent to which police reduce the most costly crimes, which are also the most difficult to model econometrically because they are rare. In the hope of minimizing simultaneity bias, papers in the recent literature have focused on quasi-experimental approaches that disregard most of the variation in police staffing levels, compounding the modeling difficulty. We argue that the central empirical challenge in this literature is not simultaneity bias, as has been supposed, but measurement error bias. Using a new panel data set on crime in medium to large U.S. cities over 1960-2010, we obtain measurement error corrected estimates of the police elasticity, with much greater parameter certainty for the most costly crimes. Our analysis suggests that U.S. cities are in fact underpoliced. Details: Unpublished paper, 2013. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 14, 2015 at: http://eml.berkeley.edu/~jmccrary/chalfin_mccrary2013.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://eml.berkeley.edu/~jmccrary/chalfin_mccrary2013.pdf Shelf Number: 135639 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolice Resource AllocationPolice Staffing LevelsPolicing |
Author: Jones, Nicholas A. Title: The Duty to Disclose. The Challenges, Costs and Possible Solutions: Final Report Summary: In recent years, there has been a growing interest in holding public safety services such as the police more accountable for their performance as publically funded agencies (Ruddell and Jones, 2014). As a result, there has been a determined and focused search for cost efficiencies within the criminal justice system. One area where there has been an increase in workload and costs is due to legal requirements associated with pre-trial disclosure. While Cowper (2012) noted that the disclosure ruling in the Supreme Court's R. v. Stinchcombe (1991) decision was predicted to result in an increased number of pre-court resolutions, which has not always been the case. Malm, Pollard, Brantingham, Tinsley, Plecas, Brantingham, Cohen and Kinney (2005, p. 13) reported that disclosure requirements have, in some cases, had a "debilitating, effect on police resources." Given the inter-related nature of the justice system, it is not difficult to see how this costly requirement also impacts upon the operations and budgets of Public Prosecutor Units as well. The Stinchcombe decision has resulted in justice agencies having to balance the requirements of the court ruling to ensure just and fair outcomes for the accused, while seeking strategies to ameliorate the increased workload they have experienced. The purpose of this report was to shed light on the practice of disclosure in Saskatchewan using information collected from justice-system practitioners and stakeholders, as well as practitioners from other provinces. Based on an analysis of their observations, four broad recommendations were generated that incorporated suggestions from the Saskatchewan participants, while also giving consideration to best practices reported by officials from other provinces who are grappling with similar issues. These recommendations fall under the broad themes of: 1) legal issues and requirements, 2) standardization of disclosure packages, 3) electronic forms of disclosure, and 4) transcription. Details: Regina, SK: Collaborative Centre for Justice and Safety, 2014. 329p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 18, 2015 at: http://www.justiceandsafety.ca/rsu_docs/duty-to-disclose-final-with-cover-to-ps.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Canada URL: http://www.justiceandsafety.ca/rsu_docs/duty-to-disclose-final-with-cover-to-ps.pdf Shelf Number: 135698 Keywords: Police AccountabilityPolice EffectivenessPolice PerformancePolicing |
Author: Campbell, Isla Title: What makes great police leadership? What research can tell us about the effectiveness of different leadership styles, competencies and behaviours. A Rapid Evidence Review Summary: The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the current evidence base on what makes a great police leader - in terms of leadership styles, behaviours and competencies. It focuses on internal police leadership for all ranks from first line-managers (sergeants) to chief executives (chief constables/ commissioners) and summarises findings from relevant UK and international research studies published in English over the last three decades (1979 - 2008.) An extensive systematic literature search was conducted to identify relevant research evidence that reported outcomes and impact of police leadership. Think pieces and research papers that did not report on such outcomes were excluded. The resulting list of 23 research studies have been reviewed by the NPIA research team and their findings summarised in this paper. Leadership is a complex research area and across all sectors there is ambiguity over which styles and behaviours are the most effective. Difficulties of linking leadership with organisational outcomes are particularly pronounced for the police, since common police performance measures are affected by multiple confounding factors. The findings of this review are, therefore, largely based on perceptions of what makes a great police leader. There is virtually no reliable evidence of what impacts police leadership styles and behaviours make on the ground. Details: National Policing Improvement Agency, 2011. 27p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 26, 2015 at: http://whatworks.college.police.uk/Research/Documents/Great_Police_Leader_REA.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://whatworks.college.police.uk/Research/Documents/Great_Police_Leader_REA.pdf Shelf Number: 131142 Keywords: Police AdministrationPolice BehaviorPolice EffectivenessPolicing |
Author: Khanna, Gaurav Title: Guns and Butter? Fighting Violence with the Promise of Development Summary: There is growing awareness that development-oriented government policies may be an important counterinsurgency strategy, but existing papers are usually unable to disentangle various mechanisms. Using a regression-discontinuity design, we analyze the impact of one of the world's largest anti-poverty programs, India's NREGS, on the intensity of Maoist conflict. We find short-run increases of insurgency-related violence, police-initiated attacks, and insurgent attacks on civilians. We discuss how these results relate to established theories in the literature. The main mechanism consistent with the empirical patterns is that NREGS induces civilians to share more information with the state, improving police effectiveness. Details: Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor, 2015. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper no. 9160: Accessed July 15, 2015 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp9160.pdf Year: 2015 Country: India URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp9160.pdf Shelf Number: 136053 Keywords: Counter-TerrorismEconomic DevelopmentPolice EffectivenessPovertySocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeTerrorism |
Author: Wider Impact Consultancy Title: Birmingham Based Police Youth Crime Officers: Independent Evaluation Summary: Wider Impact Consultancy has been delighted to accept this commission, the overall aim of the work being to carry out an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the Birmingham Youth Crime Officers (YCOs) in relation to their prime objective of reducing youth offending by enforcement and intervention measures. Details of key objectives are highlighted at Section . 1.2 Methodology Our research has been undertaken in three distinct phases: 1. Desk research. 2. Field research. 3. Presentation of our final report. Desk research has included accessing and assessing key youth related national, regional, sub-regional and local policies and strategies. Field research has been extensive and has included site visits / meetings / observational studies, one to one meetings, group meetings and site visits / meeting key staff / researching "best practice" in other areas of the Country. 1.3 Key Findings The Youth Offending Service (YOS) was established by the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, which requires each Chief Executive of a local authority to establish a local statutory multi-agency partnership involving (within Birmingham) the National Probation Service - West Midlands, West Midlands Police and Birmingham Primary Care Trusts. Based on national, regional, sub-regional and local policy and strategies, we have no doubts that the Birmingham based YCOs have a key role to play in the achievement of youth related national, regional, sub-regional and local aims and objectives. The Birmingham YCOs are extremely professional in their approach to their work, and are, on the whole, well regarded and appreciated within the multi-agency YOT offices. They provide a valuable and essential 'police presence', which is clearly best delivered by their working within YOT offices and in close partnership with fellow YOT staff members and other key multi-agency members. Their primary role has been focussed on delivering Final Warnings and associated record keeping / carrying out and arranging appropriate interventions and information sharing; including gathering intelligence on behalf of West Midlands Police. Other tasks carried out by the Birmingham YCOs include specific interventions for young people subject to Reprimands and Community Resolutions; officers designing and implementing group and individual intervention programmes; for example in response to new Government guidance on dealing with knife crime. It is apparent however, that the YCO Job Description (Appendix A), which outlines other "key main duties and responsibilities" is not being fully utilised. There is a lack of consistency across the YOS in the implementation and emphasis on such tasks, which requires attention. During our research, it has become apparent that, on the whole, operation police officers have limited knowledge of the roles of the YCOs within the YOTs and how they could enhance their front line roles of preventing and detecting crime. As will be highlighted, increased emphasis of "partnerships", as a result of Programme Paragon, and the subsequent force restructure along with our recommendations, should lead to increased awareness of and engagement with the YCOs. It has been an observation, that on the whole within the Birmingham area, there is excellent and innovative work going on within local YOTs and at operational (LPU) policing levels to deliver common objectives, which include preventing and reducing youth crime and anti-social behaviour, and improving public confidence in the Criminal Justice System. In relation to the role of the YCOs, we have noted a useful analogy, of there being a number of locally based LPU and YCO "beehives", containing valuable resources and sources of information and intelligence; with each working independently, without much input from the YCOs. It is the view of many we have spoken to that the ideal situation would be for the Birmingham based YCOs to be playing a significant role in "connecting" the "beehives" together in terms of youth related police / YOT / multi-agency intelligence coordination, information sharing and innovative partnership working. Details: Birmingham, UK: West Midlands Police and Birmingham Youth Offending Service, 2010. 112p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 16, 2015 at: http://www.widerimpact.com/docs/Birmingham-Police-Youth.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.widerimpact.com/docs/Birmingham-Police-Youth.pdf Shelf Number: 136079 Keywords: Juvenile OffendersPolice EffectivenessPolice OfficersYouth Adult Offenders |
Author: Flynn, Edward A. Title: Toward a Profession of Police Leadership Summary: Policing has always been complicated, but changes in the operating environment are making it ever more complex. Complex challenges do not have straightforward fixes, and applying tried and tested policing solutions can be ineffective. Innovation, experimentation, and adaptation are required, and the police organization often needs to learn new ways of operating to address complex concerns. This means that while police departments certainly need effective formal leaders, they also need a culture of learning that allows shared leadership to thrive. This report explores current approaches to developing police leadership and critiques the emphasis on training individual leaders. Drawing on national and international examples, the authors suggest ways in which leadership throughout the organization might be better developed and encourage police departments to think about more than formal leaders when considering leadership. Details: Cambridge, MA: Harvard Kennedy School, 2015. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: New Perspectives in Policing: Accessed July 23, 2015 at: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/content/download/76471/1715399/version/1/file/TowardaProfessionofPoliceLeadership.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/content/download/76471/1715399/version/1/file/TowardaProfessionofPoliceLeadership.pdf Shelf Number: 136138 Keywords: Police Administration Police Administrators Police EffectivenessPolice Leadership Police Performance |
Author: Great Britain. Committee on Standards in Public Life Title: Tone from the Top: Leadership, ethics and accountability in policing Summary: 1. The public expects high ethical standards from the police that serve them. Trust in the police is vital - from the Chief Constable to the most junior police officer. Police ethics - their honesty, their integrity, their impartiality, their openness - should be beyond reproach. Above all, this requires effective accountability and leadership to create a culture where high standards of behaviour are the norm. High standards - of both conduct and accountability - also need to be demonstrated by those charged with holding the police to account. 2. The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (the Act) created elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to "ensure the police respond to local priorities and are directly accountable to the public."1 PCCs set the strategic direction and aims of the police force and have responsibility for delivering community safety and reducing crime and delivering value for money. PCCs control over 12bn of police force funding.2 They have the statutory responsibility to appoint a Chief Constable as well as for their removal. In addition to the PCCs' local role, they have a regional and national role to ensure cross border resilience and capability and to meet national threats such as terrorism or organised crime. PCCs can and have entered into collaboration agreements with other PCCs and organisations to improve the efficiency or effectiveness of policing, for example by sharing back office functions. The Act also provided for the establishment of local Police and Crime Panels who have a dual scrutiny and support role in respect of the PCC and have some powers of veto on budgets and on the appointment of a Chief Constable. 3. PCCs represent a deliberate and substantial strengthening of the locally elected element of the tripartite arrangements for policing accountability. The model is one of democratic accountability "replacing bureaucratic accountability with democratic accountability" where "the public will have elected Police and Crime Commissioners and will be holding them to account for how policing is delivered through their force." The model is primarily reliant on the cycle of elections as the main means of holding PCCs to account. The average turnout for the PCC election in 2012 was 15.1%. The Committee's public research has found that knowledge of the policing accountability arrangements is not very high4 and there is a very low level of public interest in policing - 60% of respondents said they were not interested in finding out about policing issues in their local area5. Rather, for the public, the key accountability mechanism is the ability to question or challenge "their" local beat team or commander on specific areas of concern. 4. The statutory Policing Protocol, which sets out to all PCCs, Chief Constables and Police and Crime Panels how their functions will be exercised in relation to each other, makes clear that all parties will abide by the Seven Principles of Public Life - Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty and Leadership. 5. The Committee believes that any accountability and governance framework for policing should similarly reflect the Seven Principles of Public Life, and operate in a way which is capable of ensuring ethical behaviour, reducing ethical risks and providing effective accountability in order to command public confidence. 6. This matters because our policing system relies on policing by consent in a way that meets the differing needs and priorities of communities. It also relies on the operational independence of the police. But operational independence does not mean that there can be exceptionalism for the police - the public is clear on what the ethical standards should be and is consistent in its expectation that those in public life should abide by them. Year on year the public has affirmed that the definition of standards set out in the Seven Principles is still relevant and should continue to apply to public office holders and all those delivering public services. 7. The Committee recognises that the role of police officer is a unique and valuable one. It does not underestimate the challenging and often unexpected situations the police face every day. "Police officers are expected to make quick but finely-calibrated judgements about when, how and how much of their power it is justified to use" and the vast majority of police officers do so with integrity. They are operating in a fast moving landscape with changing demands of crime where increased accountability, professionalisation and ethical behaviour will be key to ensuring public confidence. 8. The Committee's surveys tell us that public experience of core policing values is generally positive. They show that the majority of respondents thought senior police officers could be trusted to tell the truth and the large majority of respondents thought they would be treated fairly as a victim of crime reporting it to the police. This view is reinforced by other surveys which showed that 65% of respondents thought police officers could be trusted to tell the truth, and 63% of adults gave positive ratings of local police. Research carried out specifically for this inquiry showed that the majority of respondents believed that the police are held to account for their actions and that police deal with crime and anti-social behaviour issues that matter in their local area. 9. The democratic accountability of the PCC must not negate oversight of those who hold public office. As the government acknowledged: "the public need to have the right information to judge the Commissioner's performance and they need to know the Commissioner can be called to account with effective scrutiny and appropriate checks and balances, in particular at a local level." 10. Accountability should be tested between elections by demonstrable compliance with standards of conduct, propriety and performance. It should be tested and verified by independent scrutiny, with failure addressed with appropriate and timely sanctions. 11. The Committee is conscious that all those involved in the new local accountability arrangements have had to adapt to new relationships and ways of working, with relatively little guidance and support from central Government. PCCs in particular faced a huge task to develop their Police and Crime Plans setting out their priorities and establish their offices in a short space of time after delayed elections. The Committee has borne this in mind throughout the course of the inquiry. The Committee has found evidence of: a. recognition of the importance of the College of Policing's Code of Ethics and core policing values and diverse good practice in implementing and embedding the Code within police forces; b. increased professionalism that is ethically based and an acknowledgement of the importance of leadership in policing to support high ethical standards; c. increased visibility, greater focus on victim support and local public engagement by PCCs in comparison to the Police Authorities they replaced, but questions around the wider impact of that engagement; d. the existence of various mechanisms, of varying effectiveness, to support high standards of behaviour and propriety such as information transparency, audit committees, ethical frameworks, scrutiny plans, controls to manage conflicts of interests and arrangements to engage, promote and monitor best practice - these arrangements will need to be consistently and actively implemented with regular monitoring of compliance and impact. 13. The Committee has also identified significant standards risks including: a. confusion amongst the public and the participants about roles and responsibilities, especially in relation to where operational independence and governance oversight begin and end; b. a significant absence of a clear process to take action against a PCC whose conduct falls below the standards expected of public office holders, resulting in that behaviour going unchallenged and uncensured; c. concerns about the robustness of current selection processes for chief officers; d. PCCs not encountering sufficient constructive challenge or active support in exercising decision making powers; e. barriers to the effective operation of Police and Crime Panels as scrutinisers including support, resources and the consistency and credibility of representative membership; f. a lack of timely and accessible information being provided to Police and Crime Panels by PCCs affecting Police and Crime Panels' ability to scrutinise and support the PCC; g. potential for high risk conflict of interests in roles jointly appointed by PCCs and Chief Constables (which although relatively rare, may increase in number) and risks inherent in the combined role of Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer to the PCC; h. confusion between, and inherent tensions in the current police complaints system and the complaints system attaching to PCCs, and a gap in the expectations of the public in how complaints against PCCs would be resolved, especially when this involved unethical but not criminal behaviour. 14. Combined, these factors impact on the ability of Police and Crime Panels to ensure, "that decisions of PCCs are tested on behalf of the public on a regular basis." There are benefits for PCCs in active engagement with Police and Crime Panels as a source of local knowledge, political support and leverage. PCCs need to play their part in sustaining open and trusting relationships. There is also scope for Police and Crime Panels to develop a more strategic future focus with better forward planning. 15. The operational and strategic roles of the Chief Constable and PCC respectively are not clearly defined and this has created confusion in the minds of the public which has fed into the complaints system. The evidence has also shown that success or failure in the current framework depends not only on the skills and experience but also on the personalities of and the relationship between the Chief Constable and the PCC. Whilst this is not a substantially new issue - constructive relationships were an important factor when Chief Constables were accountable to Police Authorities - it becomes critical when it is a one-on-one relationship. 16. The risk that the balance of power will become asymmetric or dysfunctional argues for transparency in working relationships and appropriate checks and balances. The Committee is not convinced that the existing safeguards in the framework are sufficient, given that the PCC as a single individual directly controls local policing, crime strategy and a significant budget. This matters because policing in times of austerity may mean that Chief Constables will increasingly be making difficult operational decisions which may not be supported by the public or the PCC. 17. The Committee considers a minimum code of conduct for PCCs an essential component in ensuring there is clarity as to the standards of conduct and behaviour expected from the individuals concerned and in providing the public with certainty as to what is and is not acceptable conduct. This will in turn increase transparency in the complaints system and produce a common standard of conduct which could be relied upon in any future power of recall. 18. The Committee noted the establishment of Ethics Committees in some areas, but considers they are an adjunct to, not an answer to, embedding a standards culture. Nor are they part of the formal accountability for holding Chief Constables to account. The Committee believes the remit of Ethics Committees needs to be sharply focused and clearly differentiated from other groups such as Independent Advisory Groups. As new bodies in an already crowded landscape, their effectiveness should be regularly reviewed. 19. The Committee has concluded that to provide assurance that high ethical standards of behaviour are capable of being upheld and to sustain core policing values14 there needs to be a strong and continuing focus on: - clarity of responsibility and accountability; - developing a sustainable culture of embedding high ethical standards; and - robust effective ethical leadership. Details: London: The Committee, 2015. 141p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 29, 2015 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439208/Tone_from_the_top_-_CSPL.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/439208/Tone_from_the_top_-_CSPL.pdf Shelf Number: 136254 Keywords: Police AccountabilityPolice BehaviorPolice EffectivenessPolice EthicsPolice LegitimacyPolice Performance |
Author: International Crisis Group Title: The Future of the Afghan Local Police Summary: The Afghan Local Police (ALP) began as a small U.S. experiment but grew into a significant part of Afghanistan's security apparatus. In hundreds of rural communities, members serve on the front lines of a war that is reaching heights of violence not witnessed since 2001, as insurgents start to credibly threaten major cities. The ALP also stand in the middle of a policy debate about whether the Kabul government can best defend itself with loosely regulated units outside the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) structure. The mixed record suggests that the ALP contribute to security where local factors allow recruitment of members from the villages they patrol and where they respect their own communities. But such conditions do not exist in many districts. The ALP and pro-government militias are cheap but dangerous, and Kabul should resist calls for their expansion. Reforms are needed to strengthen oversight, dismiss ALP in the many locations where they worsen security and incorporate the remaining units into the ANSF. Since 2001, when intelligence officers arrived in northern Afghanistan to raise local militias against the Taliban, the U.S. presence has been associated with a proliferation of irregular or semi-regular forces backed by American sponsors. None has approached the scale of the ALP, which has perhaps 29,000 men deployed in 29 of 34 provinces. Its predecessors were invented to meet short-term tactical requirements, such as assisting counter-terrorism teams in border regions; the ALP is a broader effort to correct strategic problems in the war against the Taliban. U.S. planners realised they were sending Afghan forces into rural communities that treated them as outsiders because of their tribe, ethnicity or urban background. Senior Afghan officials were reluctant to endorse community-based units, in part because they circumvented central government authority, but also because they resembled militias that had contributed to the civil wars of the 1990s. President Hamid Karzai eventually accepted the ALP concept after insisting the armed villagers would at least nominally be categorised as "police" and answer to the interior ministry. He approved a 10,000-man roster as a two- to five-year temporary measure to address growing instability, although the program rapidly expanded. Five years later, officials in President Ashraf Ghani's government are considering plans to increase the roster to 45,000 and seeking money to continue the program after the scheduled September 2018 expiration of U.S. funding. U.S. and Afghan security officials also continue experimenting with other irregular units. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the first vice president and an ex-militia leader, has publicly called for a new force of 20,000. Already, security officials are attempting to raise about 5,000 militiamen in at least seven provinces as a stopgap against rising insecurity. Afghan officials who feel qualms about hastily-raised forces with little training may lose the internal argument if insurgent attacks continue growing in 2015-2016 as forecast, leading to more pressure for quick fixes. However, the ALP program has not improved security in many places and even exacerbated the conflict in a number of districts. A minority of villagers describe it as an indispensable source of protection, without which their districts would become battlegrounds or insurgent havens, but it is more common to hear complaints that ALP prey upon the people they are supposed to guard. Such behaviour often provokes violence: in 2014, an ALP officer was three to six times more likely to be killed on duty than his ANSF counterpart. At times, this reflected the way ALP units have become a central part of the war, singled out by Taliban as important targets. In other places, the high rate resulted from abuses - extortion, kidnapping, extrajudicial killings - that instigated armed responses. Teachers who feel outraged by ALP behaviour and pick up guns to attack an ALP outpost may have no connection to insurgents and may quickly return peacefully to civilian life. Such cases illustrate how ALP can inspire conflict, instead of quelling it. The chequered history suggests further expansion of such forces would be a mistake, but an abrupt halt to the program would give insurgents a military edge, and ex-fighters might also be drawn to banditry and other forms of lawlessness if not carefully reintegrated into society or the ANSF. New policies are needed to extend ALP units with proven good behaviour, while reducing the overall force and ultimately ending the program. The mix of interventions required - strengthened oversight and integration into ANSF of units that would remain after poor ones are disbanded - includes additional training, vetting and discipline. Many domestic and international actors should be empowered to identify where the ALP contributes to instability, including the councils of elders originally convened to approve the program. Oversight mechanisms should have power only to reduce or eliminate ALP where the program is not working, not authorise bigger rosters or shift resources to new locations. Only a minority of the existing ALP would likely pass muster in such a stringent system, but those remaining should receive pay increases equivalent to those received by the national police (ANP), and adequate support from the government and international community. Washington's allies have been reluctant to get involved with the program, but they should set aside their concerns as ALP members become bona fide policemen and leave behind the ALP's history as a U.S. military project. Details: Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2015. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Asia Report No. 268: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-asia/pakistan/268-the-future-of-the-afghan-local-police.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-asia/pakistan/268-the-future-of-the-afghan-local-police.pdf Shelf Number: 136338 Keywords: Counter-TerrorismPolice BehaviorPolice Education and TrainingPolice EffectivenessPolice PerformancePolice ReformPolicing |
Author: Ratcliffe, Jerry H. Title: Harm-Focused Policing Summary: Many of modern policing's accountability mechanisms and performance criteria remain rooted in a narrow mandate of combating violence and property crime. Police chiefs across the country are discovering however that a focus on crime and disorder is too limiting for policing in the 21st century. While crime has decreased significantly over the last 20 years, the workload of police departments continues unabated, with growing areas of concern such as behavioral health and harmful community conditions dominating the work of departments. There is also an increasing recognition that some traditional police tactics, such as stop-and-frisk and other approaches to enforcement, come with a price in terms of community support and police legitimacy. This Ideas in American Policing paper examines how a refocus towards community harm can help police departments integrate more of their actual workload into measures of harmful places and harmful offenders. For example, drug overdoses and traffic accidents are community problems that can be tackled within a cohesive harm framework rather than addressed independent of the crime and disorder problem. This can improve targeting of police resources and choices about places and suspects who should be the object of crime reduction services. The approach can also be integrated with metrics that help police departments weigh the impact of proactive enforcement strategies against any crime control benefits. Details: Washington, DC: The Police Foundation, 2015. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Ideas in American Policing no. 19: Accessed August 17, 2015 at: http://www.policefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/PF_IIAP_Ratcliffe_8.01.15_RGB.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.policefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/PF_IIAP_Ratcliffe_8.01.15_RGB.pdf Shelf Number: 136436 Keywords: Place-Based PolicingPolice AccountabilityPolice EffectivenessPolice PerformancePolice Reform |
Author: Silva, Rolondo Title: Palm Beach County, Florida Smart Policing Initiative: Increasing Police Legitimacy and Reducing Victimization in Immigrant Communities Summary: The Palm Beach County, Florida Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) addressed robberies in the Guatemalan community in Lake Worth using strategies that reflect core principles of Community Policing: data-driven analysis of the problem, community engagement, problem solving, and partnerships. Analysis showed that many of the robbery victims are day laborers who make easy targets for criminals because they tend to carry cash payments from their labor on their person; they solicit employment from potential, but unknown employers; and they loiter in public places at night, often engaging in public consumption of alcohol. This problem is complicated by a trust gap between law enforcement and the Guatemalan community, due to language and cultural barriers, as well as a variety of complications linked to illegal immigration, migrant workers, and enforcement of immigration laws. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PBSO) SPI included targeted efforts to increase police legitimacy, to improve residents' awareness of their victimization risk, and to empower residents to embrace crime prevention in their community. The centerpiece of the Palm Beach County SPI involved the hiring of a Community Liaison and the re-assignment of a dedicated robbery detective to the target area. The Community Liaison served as a community advocate and as an intermediary between law enforcement and the immigrant community. For this project, the Community Liaison was a Guatemalan-born naturalized citizen who speaks English, Spanish, and the Mayan language, Kanjobal. His central goal was to build a bridge between PBSO and the migrant community by engaging residents and law enforcement in positive outreach events. He also collaborated extensively with the line and leadership levels of the PBSO, the Guatemalan Consulate, community-based organizations, banks, business leaders, and the media. In addition, a dedicated robbery detective investigated all robberies in the target community, worked closely with the Community Liaison, conducted proactive patrols throughout the target area, and monitored known offenders and ex-offenders. Surveys of residents in the target area indicate that immigrants' attitudes toward the police improved notably during the SPI, including higher levels of satisfaction, and greater levels of comfort speaking to police and reporting crimes (i.e., greater trust). Crime data indicate a short-term spike in robberies during the initial phase of the project, possibly resulting from increased reporting due to successful engagement of the residents, followed by a longer-term decline in robberies. At the same time, arrests for robberies have increased. The Palm Beach County SPI highlights a number of lessons that may be useful for other law enforcement agencies seeking to engage immigrant communities, such as the importance of hiring a Community Liaison; coordinating with state and federal immigration authorities; anticipating brief spikes in crime as a result of greater crime reporting; and understanding the "big picture" with regard to community engagement, police legitimacy, and increased cooperation and compliance with the law. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, bureau of Justice Assistance, 2012. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Smart Policing Initiative: Site Spotlight: Accessed September 5, 2015 at: http://www.smartpolicinginitiative.com/sites/all/files/Palm%20Beach%20SPI%20Site%20Spotlight%202012%20FINAL.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.smartpolicinginitiative.com/sites/all/files/Palm%20Beach%20SPI%20Site%20Spotlight%202012%20FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 136680 Keywords: Immigrant CommunitiesPolice EffectivenessPolice LegitimacyPolice-Citizen InteractionsPolice-Community RelationsRobbery |
Author: Higgins, Andy Title: Safe as Houses? Crime an Changing Tenure Patterns Summary: The Police Foundation's Police Effectiveness in a Changing World project seeks to identify how the police, working with other agencies and the public, can effectively tackle crime at a time when both the context in which it occurs, and the resources available to address it, are changing rapidly. Working in Luton and Slough - two English towns that have felt the local impacts of global change acutely - the project aims to develop locally-tailored, evidence-based solutions to persistent crime problems, which are responsive to the local effects of socio-economic, technological and geo-political change. In doing so, it seeks to better understand the impacts these changes are having on public services tasked with tackling crime and associated social problems. The project has taken a problem-oriented approach. A preliminary scanning phase focused attention on two challenging neighbourhoods in each town and on the most relevant crime problems - violence in Slough and burglary in Luton - before a multi-method research and analysis phase sought out new insights and perspectives on these local issues, to inform new ways of responding to them. In both towns, analysis suggested that housing factors, particularly the prevalence of lower quality, privately rented accommodation, were relevant to understanding the contemporary drivers of the crime problems being faced. In Luton, higher rates of private renting were found to be associated with local area burglary rates. Although the predictive value is modest, over the longer term, the amount of private renting accounted for more of the variance in neighbourhood burglary rates than deprivation, employment, social renting or any of the other socio-demographic Census variables available for analysis. As well as deprivation and overcrowding, neighbourhood burglary rates were also found to correlate with population growth, the proportion of residents born outside of the UK and (negatively) with the proportion of households comprising families. These findings led us to consider whether there were deficits of home security at the lower-cost end of the local private rented sector and whether these transient areas with 'churning' tenant populations might lack the community resources to resist criminal predation. In Slough, analysis drew attention to the sizable proportion of violent crime that, although not domestic violence, occurred within residential dwellings. In one neighbourhood this was found to be associated, in part, with the proliferation of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), leading to the hypothesis that the particular stresses and insecurities of living in low-quality, crowded accommodation, with shared facilities and little or no choice of co-habitees, may increase the risk that incidents of violent crime occur. These considerations prompted a number of questions as the project turned to designing new crime reduction initiatives; how could Luton's private landlords be encouraged to invest in proper home security for their properties? Could anything be done to persuade landlords to value longer-term tenancies so that tenants stay in an area for longer and communities might establish firmer roots and become more resilient? How could 'tinder-box' conditions inside Slough's HMOs be defused and landlords encouraged to take more interest in - and responsibility for - what goes on within their properties and the local neighbourhood? The lack of encouraging answers, and the paucity of options available to local community safety partners faced with the task of mitigating the harmful by-products of some elements of the private rented sector (PRS), provide the 'jumping off point' for this paper. Details: London: The Police Foundation, 2015. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: Police Effectiveness in a Changing World Project: Accessed September 30, 2015 at: http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/uploads/holding/projects/housing_and_crime_final.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/uploads/holding/projects/housing_and_crime_final.pdf Shelf Number: 136896 Keywords: Crime PreventionEvidence-Based PracticesHousing and CrimeNeighborhoods and CrimePolice EffectivenessProblem-Oriented PolicingSocioeconomic Conditions and Crime |
Author: Elek, Bojan Title: Towards More Effective Police Cooperation Between Serbia and Kosovo Summary: The process of normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo has surfaced as a top priority for the EU's approach to enlargement in the Western Balkans. Belgrade and Pristina have embarked upon a laborious road to negotiate outstanding technical and political issues, under the auspices of an EU mediated dialogue. Although the EU's shiniest trophy thus far, the April 2013 Brussels Agreement, heralded a positive breakthrough in relations between the two sides, its implementation has met with significant obstacles on the ground. A number of issues are yet to be addressed at the bilateral level, including both political matters (to be negotiated under Chapter 35 of the accession talks) and technical questions stemming from the process of harmonising national legislation with the EU acquis. The most important issues are encapsulated by Chapter 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and Chapter 24 (Area of Freedom, Security and Justice). Within the latter the European Commission explicitly requested from Serbia to raise cooperation with Kosovo to the same level as with any other neighbouring country for a number of policy areas, including police cooperation. Although an elaborate web of mechanisms for exchange of information is in place, the establishment of direct police cooperation remains to be addressed as a part of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. Police cooperation is still at a nascent level, which significantly affects the ability of the competent authorities to enforce the law and fight organised crime, while also having detrimental effects on the level of human security in the region. Based on the analysis of the Serbian Government's strategic approach to the transposition and implementation of the best EU standards and practices in the area of police cooperation and also taking into account agreements already reached and mechanisms put in place, a set of recommendations is proposed to Belgrade and Pristina, as well as to the EU institutions. Details: Belgrade: Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, 2015. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Brief: Accessed November 16, 2015 at: http://www.bezbednost.org/upload/document/towards_more_effective_police_cooperation_between_.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Serbia and Montenegro URL: http://www.bezbednost.org/upload/document/towards_more_effective_police_cooperation_between_.pdf Shelf Number: 137290 Keywords: Organized CrimePolice EffectivenessPolicing |
Author: Bayliss, Anda Title: Risk, bureaucracy and missing persons: An evaluation of a new approach to the initial police response Summary: Key findings Three forces piloted a new approach to missing persons for a three month period. While officers were previously required to attend all incidents as the default initial response, the pilot introduced a new risk assessment process and 'absence' category. During the pilot, this category of incidents (involving a person who was not where they were expected to be but not thought to be at risk of harm) were to be monitored by police call handlers without officers being deployed immediately. The evaluation found promising qualitative evidence of the pilot having achieved its primary aim - to make the initial police response to missing persons reports more proportionate to risk. It was thought - as a side benefit - that a more proportionate approach might also help free up police capacity. The evaluation found consistent evidence of the pilot having achieved this secondary aim. Did the pilot result in a more proportionate and risk-based response? - The qualitative research found a widespread perception among officers that the pilot had helped to better identify those at risk, and ensured that higher risk incidents received the attention they required. - This result was not reflected in some of the survey findings. Based on officer descriptions, a high proportion of incidents in the pilot sites were assessed to be low risk. Did a more proportionate response help free up police capacity? - Despite an increase in the number of recorded incidents in the pilot sites, around a third were classified as absences and, thus, did not require officers to attend. - By being more proportionate, the pilot forces were able to target resources better and free up capacity. A saving of 200 shifts over the three month period was estimated as a result of officers not attending absences. The amount of time spent on the initial response to missing persons was also reduced in the pilot sites (-23%) relative to the comparison sites (-3%). In theory, these resources could be redirected towards higher risk incidents. Did the pilot improve officer attitudes and job satisfaction? - Most response officers and supervisors who were interviewed welcomed the pilot, and said their attitudes about attending missing persons incidents had improved. - A survey of officers, however, did not reveal a consistent pattern of attitude change. How did partners view the pilot? - There was widespread view among partners that the police should move away from a 'one size fits all' approach to missing persons. - About two-thirds of respondents were positive or neutral about the pilot. A third were more critical, mainly raising concerns about the application of the new category. - The quality of the engagement partners reportedly received from the police before implementation seemed to affect their level of support for the pilot. - The reduction in missing person coordinators in the pilot forces - an organisational change that was unconnected to the pilot - was potentially regarded as a greater problem. How was the pilot perceived to have affected police safeguarding work? - There was no evidence to suggest the pilot had undermined forces' ability to carry out proactive safeguarding work (though it was a perceived concern for some partners). - The reduction in missing person coordinators in the pilot forces reportedly would have placed pressure on monitoring and partnership work after the pilot (though it continued). Details: London: College of Policing, 2013. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 2, 2015 at: http://whatworks.college.police.uk/Research/Documents/Missing_persons_PUBLICATION_PQ.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://whatworks.college.police.uk/Research/Documents/Missing_persons_PUBLICATION_PQ.pdf Shelf Number: 128750 Keywords: Criminal InvestigationMissing PersonsPolice EffectivenessRisk Assessment |
Author: New York City Police Department Title: Broken Windows and Quality-of-Life Policing in New York City Summary: VIBRANT AND DENSE, New York City is inhabited by people from every continent and every country, speaking every language in every accent, representing every culture and every creed. It "orbits around eight million centers of the universe," as New York's poet laureate Billy Collins once wrote. Today that figure is closer to 8.4 million, and doesn't include the additional millions who come each day, to work, or visit, or otherwise enjoy America's greatest city. Mayor Bill de Blasio and I have pledged to make a safer, fairer city for residents and visitors alike, and this report describes one of the main tools for doing so: quality-of-life policing. Details: New York: NYPD, 2015. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 3, 2015 at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_planning/qol.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_planning/qol.pdf Shelf Number: 137429 Keywords: Broken WindowsPolice EffectivenessPolice PerformancePolice Policies and PracticesPolicingUrban Areas |
Author: European Commission. Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs Title: Europeans' Attitudes Towards Security Summary: Overall perception of security - Around 90% of people say that their immediate neighbourhood and their city, town or village are safe places to live. - Around 80% say that their own country and the EU are secure places to live. - Respect for fundamental rights and freedoms is thought to have the most positive impact on one's personal sense of security - 42% of respondents say this. Perceived threats and challenges - Terrorism is seen as the EU's most important security challenge, with half of all respondents describing it as important. - However, the level of concern varies considerably from country to country: 62% of people in Malta, but only 22% in Latvia, think terrorism is an important challenge. - Since 2011, the proportion of people identifying terrorism and religious extremism as important challenges has increased substantially. Fewer people now think that economic and financial crises are the most important challenge to security. - 65% of people think that terrorism is a very important internal security challenge for the EU, and 92% think it is important. - Over two-thirds of people think that the threat of terrorism is likely to increase over the next three years, with over half also saying that cybercrime and organised crime will increase. - Over eight out of ten respondents think that extremist ideologies, war and political instability, and poverty and social exclusion, are potential sources of threats to EU security. - Only seven out of ten people see climate change and pollution as a potential source of security threats. Responses to address security challenges - The police and the judicial system are seen as being chiefly responsible for ensuring the security of citizens: around nine out of ten respondents say this. - The police are seen as the organisation with the biggest role in ensuring the security of citizens in all but five Member States, where the judicial system is listed first. - Over half of the respondents think the police are doing enough to fight terrorism and drug trafficking, but less than half say enough is being done to fight other crimes. - A majority of respondents think that citizens' rights and freedoms have been restricted for reasons related to fighting terrorism and crime. - People are generally positive about the impact of new technologies, but a quarter think they will have a negative impact on the security of citizens. Details: Luxembourg: The Commission, 2015. 108p. Source: Internet Resource: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_432_en.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Europe URL: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_432_en.pdf Shelf Number: 137809 Keywords: CybercrimeExtremist GroupsOrganized CrimePolice EffectivenessPublic SafetySecurityTerrorism |
Author: van der Laan, Franca Title: The Future of Police Missions Summary: The current security situation in the world, and specifically the zones of instability that surround and affect Europe, provide the Netherlands with many good reasons to contribute police capabilities to international crisis management missions. The EU, UN and OSCE struggle with both quantitative and qualitative personnel shortages when it comes to deploying police in missions. In qualitative terms, the increasing complexity of police mandates in missions, the multi-dimensional approach to security sector reform and other forms of crisis management and the shift of attention from observation and monitoring missions to mentoring, training, and capacity-building missions asks for high quality experts and senior leaders. NATO will continue to need police capabilities that can operate under a military command structure for the performance of its executive police duties, and, in exceptional cases, for urgent SSR tasks, in conflict situations where no other actors are present that can take up these tasks. Providing that the efforts in creating stability are successful, police deployment in multilateral operations abroad can prevent or reduce future spill-over effects from the crises these operations address. With both the Royal Marechaussee and the Netherlands' Police as donor organisations, the Netherlands has a broad and well developed policing toolkit that can in many ways meet, or adapt to, the demand of the IOs. In order to match the increasing demand for police contributions, increasing the contribution of NP and/ or KMar staff to multilateral operations should be taken into consideration. The study argues to focus these contributions on a set of niches that fits both the IOs' demand and national (security) policy objectives. More specialisation can enhance the quality of deployed staff or teams, it can streamline the relative competency discussion between the KMar and NP and it would sharpen the profile of the Netherlands as a supplier of policing capabilities. Details: The Hague: The Clingendael Institute, 2016. 141p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 19, 2016 at: http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/The%20Future%20of%20Police%20Missions.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Netherlands URL: http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/The%20Future%20of%20Police%20Missions.pdf Shelf Number: 137921 Keywords: Crisis ManagementNational SecurityPolice EffectivenessPolice Policies and PracticesPolicing |
Author: McCandless, Rhydian Title: Do initiatives involving substantial increased in stop and search reduce crime? Assuming the Impact of Operation BLUNT 2 Summary: Stop and search is a well-established police power. Over the last decade use of the power has varied widely but at its peak, in the final quarter of 2008/09, a search was undertaken every 20 seconds on average nationwide. The evidence base on the effectiveness of stop and search on crime is limited. This paper examines whether a police initiative that involved a large increase in the number of stop and searches was effective at reducing crime. As part of Operation BLUNT 2 - a Metropolitan Police initiative aimed at reducing knife crime that began in the spring of 2008 - there was a marked increase in the number of weapons searches conducted in London. London boroughs were assigned to one of three tiers based on intelligence on their knife crime problem. Resources were prioritised to ten Tier 1 boroughs, and to a lesser extent to six Tier 2 boroughs. The ten Tier 1 boroughs recorded a more than threefold increase in the number of weapons searches, up from 34,154 in the year before BLUNT 2 to 123,335 in the first year of the operation. Over this period, the 16 Tier 3 boroughs also recorded an increase in weapons searches but on a smaller scale (up by 18,103, an 87% increase on pre-BLUNT 2 levels). Under normal circumstances, it is hard to interpret the relationship between changes in stop and search and crime rates. Because it is a form of responsive policing, trends in stop and search often mirror trends in crime, so it is difficult to establish whether stop and searches lead to a fall in crime, or simply reflect it. However, the scale of the increases in searches under Operation BLUNT 2 was less clearly the result of changes in short-term crime rates. This strengthens the robustness of the evaluation. The analysis focuses on crimes that might be affected by large increases in weapons searches, and compares changes in offence numbers across the three tiers. If a large increase in weapons searches is effective at reducing knife crime then a drop in offences in Tier 1 boroughs would be expected, compared with boroughs that recorded smaller increases in stop and searches. Nine measures of police recorded crime were used in the analysis. These included: different types of assault involving sharp instruments; robbery; weapons and drugs possession offences; and three types of acquisitive crime. A difference-in-difference regression analysis, which controlled for other factors that might affect crime trends, found no statistically significant crime-reducing effect from the large increase in weapons searches during the course of Operation BLUNT 2. This suggests that the greater use of weapons searches was not effective at the borough level for reducing crime. London Ambulance Service data on calls for weapons-related injuries were also analysed. Unlike recorded crime measures, these should be unaffected by police recording or victim reporting issues. The number of London Ambulance Service callouts for weapons injuries did not fall more in the Tier 1 boroughs than in the other boroughs. Rather, ambulance call-outs actually fell faster in those boroughs that had smaller increases in weapons searches. Knife homicides were examined separately, as the small numbers involved prevent meaningful difference-in-difference analysis. Both Tier 1 (high resource) and Tier 3 (low resource) boroughs saw reductions in knife homicides, so it is unlikely that the falls in Tier 1 boroughs can be attributed to the Operation BLUNT 2 increases in weapons searches. Overall, analysis shows that there was no discernible crime-reducing effects from a large surge in stop and search activity at the borough level during the operation. However, it does not necessarily follow that stop and search activity does not reduce crime. This study is based on data at the London borough level, with an average population of over 200,000 per borough. It is possible that there are localised crime-reducing effects of stop and search activity that are masked when analysing data on such a large geographic area. This might be a useful focus of future research. It is also possible that a base level of stop and search activity does have an effect after which there are diminishing, or even zero, returns. This current study has not been able to shed light on what that level would be. Details: London; Home Office, 2016. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 17, 2016 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508661/stop-search-operation-blunt-2.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508661/stop-search-operation-blunt-2.pdf Shelf Number: 138320 Keywords: Crime ReductionKnife CrimePolice EffectivenessStop and SearchWeapons |
Author: Drew, John Title: An Independent Review of South Yorkshire Police's Handling of Child Sexual Exploitation 1997-2016 Summary: The review was announced in March 2015 by the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, following the publication of reports by Professor Alexis Jay and Louise Casey that highlighted the scale of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, and a BBC report that alleged child sexual exploitation in Sheffield had been ignored by South Yorkshire Police. All this severely damaged public confidence in the Force. The review has been commissioned to look at how the Force has handled reports of child sexual exploitation across the whole of South Yorkshire to ensure that everything that can be reasonably known about the past is known and that matters are now being dealt with in a very different manner. Led by Professor Drew, the report will establish whether South Yorkshire Police has understood and acted upon the findings of reports and inspections into matters of child sexual exploitation. It will also look at whether the Force's response to safeguarding children and young people has been adequate across all districts - Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield. In setting out the Terms of Reference, Dr Billings has considered the scope of other ongoing investigations and inspections by the National Crime Agency (NCA), the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) to avoid unnecessary duplication as well as the ongoing criminal investigations by South Yorkshire Police and pending prosecutions the Crown Prosecution Service. The review launched on 30 September, following a period of scoping, and will last for 3 months. A report will be presented to the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner and will be made public early in 2016. Details: The Author: 2016. 107p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 1, 2016 at: http://www.drewreview.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/SYP030-Final-report.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.drewreview.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/SYP030-Final-report.pdf Shelf Number: 138523 Keywords: Child PornographyChild ProtectionChild Sexual AbuseChild Sexual ExploitationPolice EffectivenessPolice Performance |
Author: Kochel, Tammy Rinehard Title: St Louis County Hot Spots in Residential Areas (SCHIRA) Final Report: Assessing the Effects of Hot Spots Policing Strategies on Police Legitimacy, Crime, and Collective Efficacy Summary: The St. Louis County Hot Spots in Residential Areas (SCHIRA) study was a joint project between Dr. Tammy Rinehart Kochel, Principal Investigator (PI), Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), and St. Louis County Police Department, MO (SLCPD). The purpose of this project was to conduct an experiment to study how a collaborative problem solving approach (PS) versus directed patrol (DP) versus standard policing practices (SPP) (the control group) differently impact crime in hot spots, but more importantly how the varied strategies impact residents' opinions about police, their neighborhoods, and their willingness to exert collective efficacy. The expected effects are outlined in Figure 1. Changing the amount of visibility and the nature and quantity of police interaction and response were expected to impact crime and also residents' perceptions about police services and conduct, affecting police legitimacy, perceptions of safety and victimization, and residents' willingness to promote collective efficacy. Project milestones are depicted in the timeline, Figure 2 in the Appendix. Details: Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University, 2016. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 13, 2016 at: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=ccj_reports Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=ccj_reports Shelf Number: 138644 Keywords: Collective EfficacyHot Spots PolicingPolice EffectivenessPolice LegitimacyProblem Solving Policing |
Author: Bruce, David Title: Unfinished Business: The architecture of police accountability in South Africa Summary: The African National Congress that emerged in South Africa after its unbanning in February 1990, the return of its exiled members and 'surfacing' of those who had been operating underground, was a political party with little expertise in the field of policing. But the first formal positions on policing issues that emerged from its 1992 policy conference, articulated in the ANC policy document Ready to govern, gave substantial emphasis to police accountability. Not only did this say that the new police service would be 'accountable to society and the community it serves through its democratically elected institutions' but also that policing should be 'based on community support and participation' and that policing priorities would be 'determined in consultation with the communities they serve'. To some degree these ideas were carried forward. An elaborate architecture of oversight of police was established by means first of the 'interim' Constitution that came into effect on 27 April 1994, and then by the 1995 South African Police Service Act and the 1996 'final' Constitution. Police in South Africa are indeed by law accountable to democratically elected institutions. At first it may also have appeared that direct accountability to communities was to become a central building block of policing in South Africa. Major emphasis was given to the role of Community Police Forums (CPFs) in the 'interim' Constitution, their foremost function described as 'the promotion of accountability of the Service to local communities.' But there was one factor that trumped all others in shaping the structure of control of police that emerged in South Africa. The police had been principal instruments of maintaining apartheid and were seen as potentially a key threat to the transition, particularly if they remained in the hands of regionally powerful groups opposed to full democracy. Police reform, it was understood, needed to take place at a national level. Fearing that 'the devolution of powers to the regions would insulate lower levels from change' the ANC believed that the South African Police 'could only be reformed from the centre'. At a conference in 1992 for instance, one of the key architects of ANC policy on the police argued that a regionalised system of policing 'would lead to jurisdictional problems and inadequate civilian control' and that 'a more centralised force would also ensure that uniform standards could be applied to police conduct'. The ANC's position was thus that a regionalised system of policing 'would be dangerous as it would allow transformation to take place at different speeds across the country and would offer the opportunity for regionally-based political parties to use the police for their own ends'. It therefore resisted any model of government that conceded substantial levels of regional autonomy in relation to the police. This, it feared, would enable regions to resist its transformative agenda, at worst feeding into the danger of regional instability and secession. Ironically, despite the fact that their erstwhile political masters were in favour of a regional system9, senior South African Police (SAP) officials who were involved in discussions over the structure of policing in South Africa were inclined to align themselves with the ANC position, as regionalising the police would undermine their own 'ability to control change'. This paper raises questions about whether the strongly centralised system of governance of police that has emerged in South Africa as a result of decisive influence of these concerns continues to be functional to policing in South Africa. As a result of the process of en masse recruitment over recent years the SAPS now employs over 190 000 people, making it one of the biggest police services in the world. Centralised political control over such a large bureaucracy may have drawbacks such as limiting the potential for responsiveness, innovation or new ideas. In the US for example it is apparent that the highly decentralised system of policing has supported innovation and experimentation and the advancement of policing. This paper is not however concerned to advance the US or any other model of policing governance but to focus on the current architecture of control of policing in South Africa and examine questions about possibilities for strengthening this architecture in such a way as to support a greater degree of flexibility, innovation and responsiveness within the policing system. Details: Cape Town: African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF), 2011. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Paper no. 2: Accessed April 14, 2016 at: http://www.apcof.org/files/9437_Brief2Unifnished%20Business.pdf Year: 2011 Country: South Africa URL: http://www.apcof.org/files/9437_Brief2Unifnished%20Business.pdf Shelf Number: 138667 Keywords: Police AccountabilityPolice EffectivenessPolice LegitimacyPolice ReformPolicing |
Author: Williams, Simon Alan Title: Do Visits or Time Spent in Hot Spots Patrol Matter Most? A randomised control trial in the West Midlands Police Summary: We are now in an era of policing where public expectation is greater than ever and it is only right that we are held responsible for our commitment to service our communities and protect them from harm (Foulkes, 2014). Set this against the fact that UK Policing and, in particular the West Midlands Police, are facing austerity unlike that seen by any previous generation of policing and as a result have an ever smaller workforce it is paramount that we prioritise demand reduction and tightly focus resources in an evidence based manner. This experiment is set against the backdrop of targeted place based demand reduction implementation across the West Midlands Police force area in an unprecedented time of austerity and uncertainty for those charged with delivering patrol; Neighbourhood Police Constables and Police Community Support Officers, both of which are an endangered species. This paper reports on a practitioner led randomised control trial that took place in the West Midlands Police during the summer of 2015. The main objective of this study was to assess if shorter and more frequent patrols (9 units of 5 minute patrols per day) in hot spots reduced crime and anti-social behaviour more than less frequent longer patrols (3 units of 15 minute patrols per day). The second objective of this study was to capture officers patrol outputs in order to examine which activities, if any, are high or low in frequency; do these outputs matter as much as providing visible capable guardianship? An experiment was designed in which 7 hot spots were randomly allocated to one or other patrol mode for a period of 150 days between June and November 2015. Patrol visits were tracked using patrolling officers' personal issue G.P.S (global positioning system) 'Airwave' radios where patrol information was fed back and officers help to account for the number of patrols conducted. Although this research took place over 150 days the results presented are based on 100 days of patrol as a result of a breakdown in 'geo-fencing' software during the last 50 days. Fewer units of longer duration are associated with greater crime falls, indicating that they are more effective than more frequent shorter patrols. The findings from this experiment confirm Koper's (1995) finding that longer units of 10-15 minutes duration are more effective. Additionally activity analysis of police constable and police community support officers overwhelmingly indicates that the highest frequency outputs, accounting for nearly 90% of all activity during 15 minute patrol days, do not require police powers (i.e. Community engagement and visits to high demand crime and ASB micro-locations within hot spots). Details: Cambridge, UK: Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University, 2015. 89p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed April 15, 2016 at: http://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/alumni/theses/Simon%20Williams.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/alumni/theses/Simon%20Williams.pdf Shelf Number: 138683 Keywords: Crime AnalysisHot Spots PolicingPolice EffectivenessPolice Patrol |
Author: Klinger, David A. Title: Multi-Method Study Of Special Weapons and Tactics Teams Summary: Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams, first appeared in American policing in the later half of the 1960s when a series of high-profile incidents -- such as Charles Whitmans murderous sniping from a tower on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin that claimed over a dozen lives -- showed that a single violent episode could easily outstrip the capacity of "standard" law enforcement tactics, weapons, and officers to respond effectively. Innovative police officials thus developed SWAT teams to provide their agencies with the means to handle such extra-ordinarily dangerous incidents (see, e.g., Hudson, 1997; Kolman, 1982). In the years since the first teams came on line, SWAT units have grown in number, sophistication, and frequency of operations, so that today the vast majority of the police agencies serving populations over 50,000 have some sort of tactical team, and yearly SWAT deployments nationwide number in the tens of thousands (e.g., Kraska and Kappeler, 1997). Despite the crucial role they currently play in dealing with the high-risk incidents that are commonplace in contemporary policing, we know very little about how SWAT teams around the nation are organized, and even less about what they do and how they do it. The primary reason for this is that very little research on tactical teams and operations has been conducted. A second is that the small body of research literature that has been produced is quite limited in scope. In 1998 the National Institute of Justice funded a study designed to help develop a better picture of the role that SWAT plays in contemporary American law enforcement. This study included four distinct data collection components. The first was a nationwide survey of law enforcement agencies with 50 or more sworn officers (N=2,027) that sought information about their emergency response capabilities and structures (henceforth referred to as the SWAT 2Operations Survey, or SOS). The second aspect of the study was the collection of standardized after-action reports from SWAT teams that agreed to provide information about select aspects ofincidents they handled (henceforth referred to as the Post Critical Incident Report, or PCIR). The third element of the research was a series of site visits to several police departments during which the PI observed their SWAT teams. Finally, both the PI and the second author of this report conducted intensive observation of SWAT teams in areas near where they resided, accompanying these teams during training and field deployment at critical incidents. The proposed research was designed to pursue three specific goals to accomplish its objective of enhancing knowledge about SWAT teams and the role they play in contemporary American policing. The first goal was to develop a better picture of the structure and nature of SWAT teams in American law enforcement (e.g., the mix of full and part-time teams, how crisis negotiations and emergency medical services are structured, etc.). The second goal of the research project was to increase the amount of knowledge about how SWAT teams prepare for and execute operations (e.g., what sorts of training they do, how they plan for specific operations, and what they do during actual operations). The projects third goal was to develop information about one specific aspect of SWAT operations; the use of force, especially deadly force, by both officers and suspects. Where SWAT officers goes, we sought information about matters such as how frequently they fired shots, the types of cases in which officers fired shots, officers' team assignments when shootings occurred, the types of weapons they used, and the number of rounds they fired. Where use of deadly force by suspects is concerned, we sought data on the sorts of weapons possessed by individuals SWAT was called upon to deal with and how these citizens used them against police officers, other citizens, and themselves. Details: Final report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2008. 142p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 25, 2016 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/223855.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/223855.pdf Shelf Number: 138804 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolice Use of Force Special Weapons and Tactics Teams (SWAT) |
Author: Painter, Anthony Title: Safer Together: Policing a global city in 2020 Summary: 'Safer together: policing a global city in 2020' is an analysis based on an extensive consultation, wide-ranging research, and the RSA's public service and institutional reform specialisms. It is an ambitious set of proposals to generate a public conversation about the future of London's safety - a critical component of its success as a global city. Following an extensive engagement with 500 of the most senior Met officers and others throughout the service and a consultation involving more than seventy external organisations, Safer Together establishes a shared mission. This mission involves public agencies, the voluntary sector, companies, the public and the police themselves. In a context of severe budgetary constraints and a changing pattern of crime, which is becoming more complex, the risk for London is that all those involved in its safety could be overwhelmed. The report outlines an approach that relies on deeper co-operation, better use of information and 'what works' analysis, and more extensive engagement of the police with London's communities and members of the public who need its support. The RSA proposes: - A Community Safety Index for London that will combine objective measures of crime and incidence of risk and harm with subjective measures such as feelings of safety, absence of anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood quality. - A London Policing Impact Unit that would combine operational, academic, and strategic knowledge. The Impact Unit would analyse data and learn from on-the-ground experience of 'what works'. These lessons would then be applied in the Met. A representative Citizens' Panel would inform its work. - New forms of collective impact to focus on particular challenges should be extended. These will broaden and widen the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub approach where agencies work in close cooperation. This means a permanent engagement on shared issues of concern such as domestic violence, mental health, or anti-social behavior. - A deepening of the Met's engagement with victims and witnesses, for example through greater deployment of restorative justice and greater analysis of victim needs and more continuous communication with them. Only through devolution of more powers over the criminal justice system to London can this take place convincingly. And there is a need for deeper community engagement - especially through the Safer Neighbourhood Boards and through the smart use of social media. 'Safer Together' is a considered yet ambitious response to the challenges of next few years in London. It provides a wider lens for current concerns on the future of public services and the public's relationship with them. It will be of interest to all those involved in changes to the public sector and those who rely on these changes succeeding - the public themselves. Details: London: RSA Action and Research Centre, 2015. 78p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 5, 2016 at: https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/reports/safer-together-policing-a-global-city-in-2020/ Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/reports/safer-together-policing-a-global-city-in-2020/ Shelf Number: 138955 Keywords: Community ParticipationCrime PreventionNeighborhoods and CrimePolice EffectivenessPolicingPublic SafetyUrban Areas |
Author: Pearson-Goff, Mitch Title: Police Leaders and Leadership Development: A Systematic Literature Review Summary: The purpose of this document is to report on a systematic review of the research literature pertaining to police leadership, and specifically to report on what the academic literature tells us about police leadership and leadership development. In doing this, this review provides a consistent, replicable, and transparent approach to identifying and synthesising the existing body of knowledge, and will provide a foundation on which further research can be built. In order to orientate our analysis of the literature we asked three questions. - Who are police leaders? - What do police leaders do that makes them leaders? - What is the best way to develop police leaders? A systematic literature review uses systematic, explicit and accountable methods to review research literature. This has the benefit over a non-systematic literature review of ensuring that undue weight and attention is not paid to a small, and potentially biased, collection of studies. Central to a systematic review is the setting of a series of appropriate inclusion and exclusion criteria in order to specify the nature of the literature to be collected and to assist in distinguishing relevant works. We searched five academic databases for literature pertaining to police leadership by using terms and truncations relating to policing and leadership. A total of sixty-six empirical articles were identified through this process, published between 1990 and 2012 in Australia, the UK, Canada, New Zealand or the US. Fifty seven articles were of suitable quality to be analysed as part of this review. Through our review we identified that a key limitation of the literature was the absence of objective measures of successful leadership practice and development, with the bulk of the research focusing on the perceptions of good leadership from the perspective of police and stakeholders instead. Across the literature there was broad agreement about what individual characteristics are necessary in order to be regarded as a good police leader, with good leaders perceived to be: - Ethical - Role models - Good communicators - Critical and creative thinkers - Decision makers - Trustworthy - Legitimate The activities that good police leaders were seen to undertake were varied, and included: - Problem solving - Creating a shared vision - Engendering organisational commitment - Caring for subordinates - Driving and managing change Our review of the literature pertaining to police leadership development was less fruitful, and there was little in the body of work we analysed that covered this. Nonetheless we were able to conclude that there was a perception, at least, that good leadership was best encouraged through a combination of: - Formal education - On the job experience - Mentorship Details: Manly: Australian Institute of Police Management, 2013. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 25, 2016 at: http://www.aipm.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Police-leaders-and-leadership-development-A-systematic-review.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Australia URL: http://www.aipm.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Police-leaders-and-leadership-development-A-systematic-review.pdf Shelf Number: 130008 Keywords: Police AdministrationPolice Education and TrainingPolice EffectivenessPolice Leadership |
Author: Matrix Consulting Group Title: Final Report on Community Policing: City of Austin, Texas Summary: Summary of Austin Community Policing Report Key Findings 1 "Community Policing" is not the coherent philosophy and strategy in the Department that it needs to be. 2. Steps need to be taken to ensure that internal support for community policing in the Department is consistent with these strategies. 3. The Police Department's performance delivering proactive services and responding to calls needs to be measurable and transparent. 4. Patrol resources have limited opportunities to be more proactive - proactivity levels are at an overall level of approximately 22%, which is less than the typical 35% - 45% considered an effective level of patrol service. Note APD has been reporting a lower percentage (17% - 19%) due to methodological differences. 5. District Representatives (DRs) provide a valuable link in addressing problems in each Region. Summary of Recommendations The report makes a total of 61 specific recommendations categorized as follows (pp. 5 ‐ 9): Community Policing and Management (13 recommendations) Support for Community Policing in the Department (27 recommendations) Patrol Operations and Staffing (4 recommendations); this includes: o Adding 12 civilian Community Services Officers (CSO) to function in a field role handling certain types of low priority/non ‐ emergency calls. o Adding 66 officers and 8 corporals beyond what has already been authorized and an average of 17 officers in the next four years. This is independent of the addition of CSOs. District Representatives and Other Community Support Units (17 recommendations); this includes: o Adding 12 civilian CSOs to replace 3 of the 4 District Representatives in each of the four Regions, thereby returning 12 officers to patrol duties. o Adding 4 officers to the Motorcycle Units. Matrix recommends a collaborative process with the community to determine specific targets and metrics for use in evaluating community engagement and proactive/problem oriented policing efforts. The report identifies processes and potential measures to evaluate (1) how time is being spent in support of community policing and (2) evaluating the effectiveness of community policing. Details: Austin, TX: City of Austin, Texas: 2016. 239p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 6, 2016 at: http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/pio/document.cfm?id=260144 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/pio/document.cfm?id=260144 Shelf Number: 140218 Keywords: Community PolicingPolice EffectivenessPolice Patrol |
Author: Police Executive Research Forum Title: Austin Police Department: Patrol Utilization Study. Final Report Summary: The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) was retained by the City of Austin to provide the Austin City Council and City Executives with recommendations for an innovative, sustainable method to determine current and future police department staffing needs. The objectives of the study include: reviewing the current demand for sworn law enforcement, including calls for service, investigative workload, staffing for special events, and utilization of support staff; examining benchmarks for police staffing that are used in a sample of U.S. cities with populations from 500,000 to one million; gathering information on local community expectations regarding perceptions of safety, crime reduction strategies, community policing, and patrol utilization; recommending a methodology for the calculation of police staffing needs that can be updated and replicated by city staff in the future; and providing recommendations regarding three- to five-year staffing projections based on the community-based goals. Details: Washington, DC: PERF, 2012. 138p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 7, 2016 at: https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Police/PERF_Final_Report_-_Austin.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Police/PERF_Final_Report_-_Austin.pdf Shelf Number: 147896 Keywords: Police AdministrationPolice EffectivenessPolice PatrolPolice StaffingPolice WorkloadPolicing |
Author: Mandic, Sofija Title: The Citizens' Opinion of the Police Force: The Comparative Analysis of Public Opinion Surveys Conducted in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia Summary: The second round of the public opinion survey "The Citizens' Opinion of the Police Force" was conducted in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. The questionnaire based on which the public opinion survey was conducted was devised by the regional network POINTPULSE to provide answers concerning the citizens' opinion of the police. The questionnaire included six groups of questions: 1. The level of citizens' trust and confidence in institutions; 2. The perception of the police as an institution, but also of policemen and policewomen as individuals; 3. The perception of corruption in the society and the police force; 4. Opinions of citizens regarding the fight against corruption; 5. Opinions of citizens on the work of civil society organisations; 6. Demographics. The field research was conducted in April 2016 by IPSOS Strategic Marketing, on a representative sample of 6,000 adult persons, male and female citizens of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. A questionnaire was used as a research instrument. In Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia interviews were conducted using the "face to face" technique, which involves direct contact with respondents, while computer-assisted telephone survey was used in Macedonia. The report was published as part of the project titled "Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust", which aims to contribute to increasing the trust and confidence in the police by promoting its accountability and strengthening its integrity. For this reason, the following seven civil society organisations from the region came together to form the POINTPULSE network: Analytica from Skopje, Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) from Belgrade, Centre for Security Studies (CSS) from Sarajevo, Alternativa Institute (IA) from Podgorica, Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) from Tirana, and the Kosovo Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) from Pristina. Citizens of the Western Balkans have a high level of trust and confidence in the education system, the health system and the police. However, even in the case of institutions they trust most - such as the police, trusted on average by 58% of the population - many believe that they cannot be relied on. Representative bodies (the Parliament), the judiciary, the prosecutors' offices and the media are trusted the least. In comparison with the survey conducted in 2015, trust in most key institutions has increased. The respondents see the average policewoman first as polite and good looking, and only then as a professional ready to perform her job. Male members of the police force are associated primarily with their professional engagement - protection of citizens, someone who is strong and trustworthy - and to some extent with behaviour and method of communication, whereas assessments concerning their physical appearance are completely absent. Citizens of the Western Balkans believe that the dominant mode of employment in the police is through friends and relatives, political affiliation, or by giving bribes. Many of them also believe that police officers operate mainly to protect the interests of the government, political parties and police officials, and only then those of the citizens. Similarly, they believe that politicians have a strong influence on the operational decision-making in the police. Although more than half the citizens have confidence in the police, this institution is simultaneously also considered deeply corrupt. This suggests that corruption is percieved as something that is acceptable and normal. Awareness of corruption in the police thus persists together with a sense of trust, without these two perceptions excluding each other. Border and traffic police are believed to be the most corrupt, together with the close (political) associates of ministers of interior affairs. Special police units are viewed as least vulnerable to corruption. Citizens are divided in their opinions as to whether they would or would not report corruption, and those who would do it would first contact the local police station or its chief. Citizens believe that repressive measures would be most effective for preventing corruption. They also believe that the Government, the Minister of Interior Affairs and the internal police control should be the first to address this problem. Respondents recognise civil society as actors in the fight against corruption, but mostly as direct actors and associates of the state in this task. Only then do they recognise their contribution through research, documentation and protection of victims of corruption. Details: Belgrade: Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, 2016. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 26, 2016 at: http://www.bezbednost.org/upload/document/the_citizens_opinion_of_the_police_force_-_wb.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Europe URL: http://www.bezbednost.org/upload/document/the_citizens_opinion_of_the_police_force_-_wb.pdf Shelf Number: 140455 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolice IntegrityPublic Opinion |
Author: Trickett, Loretta Title: Hate Crime training of Police Officers in Nottingham: A Critical Review Summary: The aim of this research in Nottinghamshire was to gain a police perspective on responding to hate crime in the region. The research was designed to find out how the police were dealing with hate crime, what sorts of crime and incidents they came across, how they perceived the training provided by the force, how useful they found the hate crime risk assessment forms, how they worked with other agencies, what problems and barriers they may have encountered and how these may be tackled. It was most important to find out about these issues given a number of developments including the publication of the Government's Hate Crime Strategy (HO 2012), two CJJI (2013; 2015) inquiries into Disability Hate Crime and the publication of Police Hate Crime Strategy and Operational Guidance by The College of Policing (2014). Qualitative interviews were undertaken with both response officers and those on beat teams. Details: Nottingham, UK: Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, 2016. 225p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 28, 2016 at: http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/28089/7/5642Trickett.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/28089/7/5642Trickett.pdf Shelf Number: 140481 Keywords: Hate CrimesPolice Education and TrainingPolice Effectiveness |
Author: Morin, Rich Title: The Racial Confidence Gap in Police Performance: Blacks, whites also have dramatically different views on causes of fatal encounters between blacks and police Summary: The deep racial tensions seen in many areas of American life underlie how blacks and whites view police in their communities, as well as their reactions to the deadly encounters in recent years between blacks and law enforcement officers, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center. Only about a third of blacks but roughly three-quarters of whites say police in their communities do an excellent or good job in using the appropriate force on suspects, treating all racial and ethnic minorities equally and holding officers accountable when misconduct occurs. Roughly half of all blacks say local police do an excellent or good job combatting crime - a view held by about eight-inten whites. Blacks and whites also differ over the root causes of the fatal incidents between police and blacks in recent years. Even before the recent lethal encounters between police and black men in Tulsa and Charlotte, the survey found that blacks are 25 percentage points more likely than whites to say the deaths of blacks during encounters with police in recent years are signs of a broader societal problem and not merely isolated incidents. At the same time, whites and blacks both see the complexity of the situation. Majorities of each race say that both anti-police bias and a genuine desire to hold officers accountable for their actions play a part in fueling the protests that have often followed these fatal incidents, though whites are more skeptical than blacks about the demonstrators' motives. There is less agreement on which is the more important motivator: For whites, it is anti-police bias (85% vs. 63% who see a sincere desire to promote accountability); for blacks it's reversed (79% of blacks cite accountability, 56% opposition to the police). The survey, conducted Aug. 16-Sept. 12 online and by mail among 4,538 U.S. adults, also found that about eight-in-ten blacks and a larger share of whites favor the use of body cameras by police to record encounters with citizens. Majorities of both races also believe that the use of so-called body cams would prompt officers to act more appropriately when dealing with the public. The survey was completed before a recent deadly encounter in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that left a black man dead and the white officer who shot him charged with manslaughter, as well as a fatal shooting of a black man in Charlotte, North Carolina, that sparked two nights of unrest in that city. Details: Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, 2016. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/09/29/the-racial-confidence-gap-in-police-performance/ Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/09/29/the-racial-confidence-gap-in-police-performance/ Shelf Number: 140528 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolice LegitimacyPolice Use of ForcePolice-Community Relations |
Author: Felbab-Brown, Vanda Title: Human Security and Crime in Latin America: The Political Capital and Political Impact of Criminal Groups and Belligerents Involved in Illicit Economies Summary: Organized crime and illegal economies generate multiple threats to states and societies. But although the negative effects of high levels of pervasive street and organized crime on human security are clear, the relationships between human security, crime, illicit economies, and law enforcement are highly complex. By sponsoring illicit economies in areas of state weakness where legal economic opportunities and public goods are seriously lacking, both belligerent and criminal groups frequently enhance some elements of human security of the marginalized populations who depend on illicit economies for basic livelihoods. Even criminal groups without a political ideology often have an important political impact on the lives of communities and on their allegiance to the State. Criminal groups also have political agendas. Both belligerent and criminal groups can develop political capital through their sponsorship of illicit economies. The extent of their political capital is dependent on several factors. Efforts to defeat belligerent groups by decreasing their financial flows through the suppression of an illicit economy are rarely effective. Such measures, in turn, increase the political capital of anti-State groups. The effectiveness of anti-money laundering measures (AML) also remains low and is often highly contingent on specific vulnerabilities of the target. The design of AML measures has other effects, such as on the size of a country‟s informal economy. Multifaceted anti-crime strategies that combine law enforcement approaches with targeted socioeconomic policies and efforts to improve public goods provision, including access to justice, are likely to be more effective in suppressing crime than tough nailed-fist approaches. For anti-crime policies to be effective, they often require a substantial, but politically-difficult concentration of resources in target areas. In the absence of effective law enforcement capacity, legalization and decriminalization policies of illicit economies are unlikely on their own to substantially reduce levels of criminality or to eliminate organized crime. Effective police reform, for several decades largely elusive in Latin America, is one of the most urgently needed policy reforms in the region. Such efforts need to be coupled with fundamental judicial and correctional systems reforms. Yet, regional approaches cannot obliterate the so-called balloon effect. If demand persists, even under intense law enforcement pressures, illicit economies will relocate to areas of weakest law enforcement, but they will not be eliminated. Details: Miami: Florida International University, Western Hemisphere Security Analysis Center, 2011. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 6, 2016 at: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/09_latin_america_crime_felbab_brown.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Latin America URL: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/09_latin_america_crime_felbab_brown.pdf Shelf Number: 147800 Keywords: Illicit EconomiesMoney LaunderingOrganized CrimePolice EffectivenessPolice Legitimacy |
Author: Weisburst, Emily Title: Safety in Police Numbers: Evidence of Police Effectiveness and Foresight from Federal COPS Grant Applications Summary: Understanding the impact of police on crime is critical to designing policies that maximize safety. In this paper, I use a novel estimation approach to measure the impact of police hiring, which exploits variation in federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) hiring grants, while also controlling for the endogenous decisions of police departments to apply for these grants. Using data from nearly U.S. 7,000 municipalities, I find that a 10% increase in police employment rates reduces violent crime rates by 13% and property crime rates by 8.5%. The model also provides suggestive evidence that law enforcement leaders are forward-looking. Details: Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin, Department of Economics, 2016. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 7, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2845099 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2845099 Shelf Number: 145111 Keywords: Economic of CrimePolice EffectivenessPolice HiringPolice StaffingPolicing |
Author: Australian Federal Police Title: Review of Police Pursuits Conducted by ACT Policing in the Australian Capital Territory Summary: Background 1. On 17 April 2014 the Chief Police Officer for the ACT (CPOACT) established a Working Group and endorsed the Terms of Reference for a review of police pursuits conducted in the ACT by ACT Policing. 2. The Working Group was directed to provide advice and recommendations on the AFP's police pursuit governance, procedures and framework. In particular, an emphasis was to be placed on analysing recent pursuits in the ACT to fully explore whether AFP procedures provided appropriate protection to the community and police. 3. The Working Group was directed to provide an analysis of the adequacy of legislation surrounding pursuits, and if deemed deficient, to provide recommendation for legislative reform. Review Objective and Scope 4. The objective of the review was to evaluate the appropriateness of the governance, procedures and legislative framework of police pursuits. 5. In line with the Terms of Reference, the criteria established for review included: a. Current operational practices regarding police pursuits, with a focus on case studies b. Adequacy of current pursuit policy c. Compliance with workplace health and safety legislation, policy and practices d. Jurisdictional comparison to identify best practice e. Analysis of the sufficiency of legislation 6. The scope included an assessment of: a. Existing AFP governance framework b. State and Territory legislative framework, best practice and procedure c. Terms of Reference of the ACT Policing Police Pursuit Review Committee d. Coronial recommendations in recent pursuits 7. The scope included consultation with: a. Community groups or individuals affected by road trauma b. Key ACT Government stakeholders Key Findings 8. The current AFP governance framework surrounding pursuits provides the best protection for the community against the expectation that police will ensure the safety of all road users. The pursuit governance framework has withstood significant scrutiny, however should be continually reviewed to ensure compliance with best practice. 9. The ACT Government has demonstrated confidence in ACT Policing's pursuit governance, policy and procedures. 10. The existing pursuit reporting regime needs to be amended to capture additional data to support the work of the Police Pursuits Review Committee. 11. The Police Pursuit Review Committee is a key governance mechanism that must be retained and requires periodic review of its Terms of Reference. 12. Present legislation does not contain adequate penalties and deterrents for drivers who flee from police and does not sufficiently enable police to take strong action against drivers who engage in dangerous behaviour when fleeing from police. Overall Conclusion 13. ACT Policing has in place an adequate governance framework for conducting police pursuits within the ACT. 14. Notwithstanding this, this review should inform a continued best practice approach to police pursuit policy for ACT Policing. 15. The legislation in the ACT is deficient and does not deter individuals from initiating pursuits. Recommendations 16. The review has made 42 recommendations to the CPOACT which encompass amendments to AFP policy and procedure and reform to current ACT legislation. 17. Endorsement of all 42 recommendations will provide a contemporary evidence based legislation and governance framework which will achieve best practice and meet the needs of ACT Policing and the expectations of the ACT community. 18. The benefits to be realised from this review and subsequent endorsement of recommendations include: Risk: Reduce prevalence of fleeing drivers; Options: provide alternatives for police to not engage in pursuits; Legislation: adequate penalties and deterrence; Accountability: fleeing drivers will be identified; Deterrence: to deter drivers who may want to flee from police; Consequences: harsher penalties for the offence; Community safety: minimise risk to community; and Police officer safety: mitigate risks to officer safety. 19. The recommendations for legislative reform will impose significant penalties for drivers who flee from police, and have maximum impact to deter drivers fleeing from police. 20. The recommendations seek to implement strict and/or absolute liabilities for the identified vehicle, as is currently the case for traffic camera offences, by applying the same principles to the registered operator of a fleeing vehicle. 21. The recommendations seek to impose penalties on fleeing drivers similar in nature to the Road Transport (Alcohol and Drugs) Act 1977 offence for Level 4 Prescribed Concentration of Alcohol (PCA). The level of risk posed to the community for a driver fleeing from police is comparable to a high-range PCA offence. 22. This review strongly recommends the following penalties for a first offender be imposed on the driver of the fleeing vehicle, or the registered operator of the fleeing vehicle who has refused or failed to identify the driver: 15 penalty units equivalent to a $2100 fine; Immediate Suspension Notice of three months with a court imposed minimum disqualification of six months and a default disqualification of three years; Court imposed maximum nine months imprisonment; and Seizure, for a period of three months, of the vehicle that was engaged in the pursuit. 23. This review strongly recommends the following penalties be imposed for a repeat offender on the driver of the fleeing vehicle, or the registered operator of the fleeing vehicle who has refused or failed to identify the driver: 20 penalty units equivalent to a $2800 fine; Immediate Suspension Notice of six months with a court imposed minimum disqualification of 12 months and a default disqualification of five years; Court imposed maximum 12 months imprisonment; and Seizure and subsequent forfeiture of the vehicle that was engaged in the pursuit. 24. It is incumbent on ACT Policing to work in partnership with ACT Government and key stakeholders to progress the recommended legislative reforms as a complete package so as to provide alternative options to police pursuits. Details: Canberra: AFP, 2015. 148p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 8, 2016 at: https://www.police.act.gov.au/sites/default/files/PDF/Review%20of%20police%20pursuits%20conducted%20by%20ACT%20Policing%20in%20the%20Australian%20Capital%20Territory.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Australia URL: https://www.police.act.gov.au/sites/default/files/PDF/Review%20of%20police%20pursuits%20conducted%20by%20ACT%20Policing%20in%20the%20Australian%20Capital%20Territory.pdf Shelf Number: 145373 Keywords: Police BehaviorPolice EffectivenessPolice Policies and PracticesPolice Pursuits |
Author: Great Britain. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary Title: PEEL: Police legitimacy 2015: A National Overview Summary: As part of HMIC's annual inspections into police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL), this programme assessed how legitimate the force is at keeping people safe and reducing crime. The inspection focused on whether forces are consistently behaving in a way that is fair, reasonable, effective and lawful, and if they have the consent of the public. HMIC has reported on legitimacy at a force level, as well as drawing out overarching themes which are set out in this national report. Details: London: HMIC, 2016. 67p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 12, 2016 at: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/wp-content/uploads/peel-police-legitimacy-2015.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/wp-content/uploads/peel-police-legitimacy-2015.pdf Shelf Number: 145429 Keywords: Police AccountabilityPolice EffectivenessPolice Legitimacy |
Author: Constitution Project Title: Demilitarizing America's Police: A Constitutional Analysis Summary: Our military's core function is to fight and deter foreign enemies, which often requires speed, surprise, and the use of specialized weapons and heavy artillery. Civilian police, in contrast, are meant to keep the peace and to protect local communities while safeguarding civil liberties. Regrettably, and to a dangerous degree, those lines are blurring. High-profile encounters—many deadly—between law enforcement and community members in Ferguson, Baltimore, New York, Chicago, North Charleston, and elsewhere have renewed a public discussion around policing reforms and the troubling trend of police militarization. This trend has serious constitutional and public policy implications. An over-militarized police culture threatens our constitutional guarantees of free speech and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. The use of military equipment often begets unnecessarily aggressive tactics and over-enforcement, which are more prevalent in communities of color and poor neighborhoods, and raises serious concerns about disparate treatment and constitutional deprivations in those communities in particular. From a policy perspective, the use of military equipment and tactics by law enforcement risks eroding public trust and poisoning the crucial, but often precarious, relationship between communities and local law enforcement. Indeed, militarization breeds an ethos of adventure over service; encourages the use of force over innovative and collaborative problem-solving; and inhibits the development of meaningful, sustainable partnerships between police and the people they serve. The Constitution Project Committee on Policing Reforms believes that we must take steps to reverse this trend. While there are a variety of factors that contribute to police militarization, federal programs providing military equipment to state and local law enforcement greatly exacerbate the problem. Such programs—to the extent they provide military equipment or facilitate its acquisition —must be severely curtailed due to those programs' corrosive impact on constitutional and community policing. To its credit—as discussed in further detail in Section IV—the Obama administration has reviewed several federal programs that provide state and local governments with military equipment or facilitate its acquisition. The administration also conducted a review of effective policing strategies and has pushed for law enforcement agencies to commit to community policing models. In early 2015, a task force appointed by the President held several nationwide listening sessions and issued a report aimed at strengthening the relationship between local law enforcement and the communities that they serve. The Department of Justice has also published practical guidance in implementing the task force's recommendations. The administration’s efforts have resulted in a number of recommendations for reform that we applaud. However, we believe that more must be done to address the substantial constitutional and public policy concerns described in this report, which stem from the use of military equipment and tactics in local communities. Details: Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 26, 2016 at: http://www.constitutionproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Demilitarizing-Americas-Police-August-2016-FINAL.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.constitutionproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Demilitarizing-Americas-Police-August-2016-FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 140836 Keywords: Community-Oriented Policing Deadly Force Military Equipment Police Accountability Police EffectivenessPolice Reform Police Use of Force |
Author: Fundacion Ideas para la paz Title: Impact evaluation of the national plan for community policing in quadrants: Metropolitan areas of Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cúcuta, Bucaramanga, Pereira and Cartagena Summary: The monitoring and evaluation of the National Plan for Community Policing in Quadrants (PNVCC) by the Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP) responded to the National Police’s interest in involving an independent institution in the observation of the strategy’s progress and the identification of ways to improve the plan. Similarly, the Police requested an objective evaluation of the strategy’s impact on crime and misdemeanor rates, and on citizen perceptions of security in the eight metropolitan areas in which the first phase of the PNVCC was implemented: Bogotá, Cali, Barranquilla, Medellín, Cúcuta, Cartagena, Bucaramanga and Pereira. The purpose of this document is to delineate this process and present the results of the monitoring and impact evaluation of the PNVCC in the eight metropolitan police departments that initiated implementation of the strategy in the period from July 2011 to July 2012. The National Police provided crime and misdemeanor information for 25 crimes and 25 misdemeanors over the period 2007 to 2012. The information related to perception and victimization was provided by the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce, which was involved in the evaluation in its entirety, in particular with respect to the evaluation of the city of Bogotá. The framework in which the evaluation was developed is presented in the first section of this report, taking into account the objectives and goals of the PNVCC as illustrated in institutional documents and revisions. The evaluation examines the adoption of the PNVCC in the technical, operational, and organizational conditions established by the police, and whether or not this implementation impacts crime and misdemeanor rates. Secondly, this report describes the evaluation methodology used to analyze the implementation, impact, and results of the PNVCC. As will be demonstrated, the Police is adopting the PNVCC gradually, as was stipulated in the implementation methodology, resulting in improvements in organizational and criminal indicators during the first year of execution. Finally, the document presents conclusions about the implementation and the impact of the PNVCC, put forth by FIP after the application of the evaluation methodology. It is worth noting that this document does not constitute a definitive evaluation of the police strategy, given that the methodology has not been applied to the full extent planned and should therefore be considered only as a progress update in the development of the methodology and its application. Details: Bogota: The Fundacion, 2012. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Reports Series No. 18: Accessed October 26, 2016 at: s550ee9e7fd146a90.jimcontent.com Year: 2012 Country: Colombia URL: s550ee9e7fd146a90.jimcontent.com Shelf Number: 140857 Keywords: Community PolicingPolice EffectivenessPolice Reform |
Author: Krzalic, Armin Title: The Citizens' Opinion of the Police Force: The Results of Public Opinion Survey Conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina Summary: The police happens to be most trusted part of the system of Bosnia and Herzegovina -- more than half of the population has confidence in this institution. However, the image of the police among the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina is divided -- while the opinion of some is quite positive, others list corruption, lack of politeness and discomfort as things that first come to mind at the mention of police officers. In the opinion of the population, one of the biggest problems with the police is the excessive influence of politicians on their work. The police officers are, thus, perceived as protectors of the interests of political parties instead of those who are there to serve the citizens. Citizens believe that corruption in the police force is widespread, but when we look at individual parts of the institution we see that this assessment varies and pertains mostly to traffic police, border police (especially the customs officers) and the closest associates of ministers of interior affairs. Citizens say that the process of employment in the police also happens to be problematic, i.e. that employment is gained through friends, family members, political connections and bribery. The number of those who say that they would report cases of corruption in the police, if they had the opportunity, is quite small. Such an attitude best illustrates the image of the police in public, that is, its disappointment with their work and lack of interest in their affairs. Details: Sarajevo: Centre for Security Studies, 2016. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 28, 2016 at: http://css.ba/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina-The-Citizens-Opinion-of-Police-Force-2016.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina URL: http://css.ba/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina-The-Citizens-Opinion-of-Police-Force-2016.pdf Shelf Number: 144835 Keywords: Police CorruptionPolice EffectivenessPolice LegitimacyPolicingPublic Opinion |
Author: Goff, Phillip Atiba Title: The Science of Policing Equity: Measuring Fairness in the Austin Police Department Summary: This report represents a partnership between Urban and the Center for Policing Equity's National Justice Database, in collaboration with the White House's Police Data Initiative. The report analyzes publicly available data in 2015 vehicle stops and 2014 use of force incidents on the part of the Austin Police Department. Findings indicate that even when controlling for neighborhood levels of crime, education, home-ownership, income, youth, and unemployment, racial disparities still exist in both use and severity of force. We also document that APD has a high level of transparency, and the analysis demonstrates the value of that democratization of police department data in examining whether community-level explanations are sufficient to explain observed racial disparities. Details: Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2016. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 8, 2016 at: http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/85096/the-science-of-policing-equity_2.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/85096/the-science-of-policing-equity_2.pdf Shelf Number: 141035 Keywords: Police BehaviorPolice EffectivenessPolice IntegrityPolice LegitimacyRacial DisparitiesRacial Profiling in Law EnforcementStop and Search |
Author: Carter, Jeremy G. Title: Impact of Mobile Broadband Data Access on Police Operations: An Exploratory Case Study of One Medium-Sized Municipal Police Department Summary: As used in this study, “mobility” refers to “an inherent ability to move about,“ and “mobile computing” is a generic term that refers to the functional capabilities possible for end users as they complete tasks from various physical locations. “Broadband” refers to the relatively wide bandwidth characteristics of the wireless transmission medium and its corresponding ability to support multiple users and/or transport suitable quantities of data. “Mobile broadband” is used as a generic term to collectively refer to both terms in the context of the aggregate capabilities made possible through their use compared to other available mobile solutions and/or data. This study notes the lack of public-safety access to wireless broadband data, given resource limitations and a lack of independent evidence that would justify procurement of such technologies for police work. The current study’s deployment and assessment of this technology involved its use by the Brookline Police Department (BPD). Overall, the semi-structured interviews suggest that the wireless broadband technology was implemented with minimal difficulties and produced a number of perceived benefits for the BPD. The most direct benefit was the ease with which departmental technologies could be managed. Additional benefits were associated with increased access to timely information, increased information flow, and increased quality of reports. Structured interviews indicated that a few weeks of training sessions and ongoing informal bulletin and email disseminations were needed to overcome skepticism about the transition to wireless broadband. Most of the uniform personnel did not oppose the implementation nor did they perceive that the department was opposed to the transition. Details: Rome, NY: Engility Corporation, 2014. 185p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 2, 2016 at: https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/handle/1805/11434 Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/handle/1805/11434 Shelf Number: 147864 Keywords: Police CommunicationsPolice EffectivenessPolice Technology |
Author: Kabia, Victor Sylvester Title: The Relationship Between Increased Police Patrols and Violent Crime Rates in Seven United States Cities Summary: Large, metropolitan areas across the nation have experienced high rates of violent crime over the past 2 decades. As a consequence, law enforcement agencies have increased patrol efforts, but little is known about whether the decrease in violent crime rates was correlated to increased police patrols or to the economic variables of unemployment, inflation, level of education, unemployment compensation, and home-ownership. The purpose of this non-experimental, correlational study was to examine the nature of the relationship between increased police patrols, the 5 economic variables, and violent crime rates in 7 large US cities for a 10-year period. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Paternoster's deterrence theory and Becker's economic theory of crime causation. Data were acquired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and used a sample of 114 cases of reported violent crimes for each city included in the study for the years 2000 – 2010 (n = 798). A multiple regression analysis was initially performed with inconclusive results. Spearman's correlations between each of the independent and dependent variables of violent crime indicated that all the independent variables except for home-ownership had statistically significant inverse correlations with violent crime rates. The findings of this study may be used by law enforcement agencies and policy makers to develop crime prevention interventions that address those economic factors associated with violent crime, thereby promoting positive social change through creating safer communities. Details: Minneapolis, MN: Walden University, 2016. 156p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed December 10, 2016 at: http://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3420&context=dissertations Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3420&context=dissertations Shelf Number: 146044 Keywords: Communities and CrimeCrime RatesPolice EffectivenessPolice PatrolsSocioeconomic conditions and CrimeUrban Areas and CrimeViolent Crime |
Author: Higgins, Andy Title: A natural experiment in neighbourhood policing Summary: Neighbourhood policing is widely considered to be the bedrock of policing in England and Wales, yet as forces have responded to changing demand and shrinking budgets, the form in which it is delivered has diversified and in some cases become diluted and diminished. In this paper we describe the implications of two starkly contrasting neighbourhood policing models for enabling the mode of police working that evidence shows to be most effective. Drawing on the findings of our five-year Police Effectiveness in a Changing World project, we argue for the on-going importance of a well informed and locally engaged, proactive, neighbourhood-level capability to tackle the new challenges and priorities confronting the police. We end by highlighting some of the key questions, including about purpose and remit, resource allocation, service integration, workforce and support structures, which will need to be addressed in developing a new neighbourhood policing, capable of delivering the Policing Vision 2025 and fit for a changing world. Details: London: Police Foundation, 2017. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Police Effectiveness in a Changing World, PAPER 4: Accessed February 18, 2017 at:http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/uploads/holding/projects/changing_world_paper_4.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/uploads/holding/projects/changing_world_paper_4.pdf Shelf Number: 147287 Keywords: Neighborhood PolicingPolice EffectivenessPolice Reform |
Author: Denyer-Willis, Graham Title: Smarter Policing: Tracking the Influence of New Information Technology in Rio de Janeiro Summary: Technological advancements are changing the architecture of police-society relations around the world. New modes of oversight, whether applied by public security entities or citizens, are dramatically transforming the way policing is conducted. This is especially the case in digitally connected cities in the North and South. Surprisingly little is known, however, about how technology can be used to drive reform in police institutions including in Rio de Janeiro, where the relationships between police and residents are characterized by mistrust. A key objective of the Smart Policing project, a partnership of the Igarapé Institute and the Policia Militar do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (PMERJ), is to explore ways to enhance police accountability through technology. The following Strategic Note considers how the recently installed pacification police units (Unidades de Policia Pacificadora or UPP) are using technology to recapture urban territory from drug trafficking groups while simultaneously expanding trust and reciprocity with citizens. It examines how technological innovations at the street level, including mobile phone applications, can potentially strengthen the integrity of police work and the social contract. Details: Rio de Janeiro: Igarapé Institute, 2013. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: Strategic Note 10: Accessed March 4, 2017 at: https://igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Smarter_Policing_ing.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Brazil URL: https://igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Smarter_Policing_ing.pdf Shelf Number: 141323 Keywords: Drug TraffickingInformation TechnologyMobile PhonesPolice AccountabilityPolice EffectivenessPolice Technology |
Author: Subramanian, Ram Title: To Protect and Serve: New Trends in State-Level Policing Reform, 2015-2016 Summary: In 2015 and 2016, 34 states and the District of Columbia passed at least 79 bills, executive orders, or resolutions to change some aspect of policing policy or practice. This is significant, since policing reform is largely the province of local jurisdictions or specific police departments. In contrast, in the three years prior to the study period-between 2012 and 2014-there were few pieces of state legislation that dealt with policing. In reviewing legislative activity over the last two years, the Vera Institute of Justice found that states focused reform efforts in the following three areas: > improving policing practices around use of force, racial profiling, and vulnerable populations; > documenting police operations through the increased use of body-worn cameras, enhanced protections for public recordings of police, and new requirements for maintaining and reporting data on police operations; and > improving accountability in instances of police use of force and misconduct cases, especially those incidents that result in death. By providing concise summaries of representative legislation in each area, this report aims to inform policymakers and members of the public who are looking to understand state-level changes in policing policy and practice. Details: New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2017. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 8, 2017 at: https://www.vera.org/publications/protect-and-serve-policing-trends-2015-2016 Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.vera.org/publications/protect-and-serve-policing-trends-2015-2016 Shelf Number: 144751 Keywords: Deadly ForcePolice AccountabilityPolice AdministrationPolice EffectivenessPolice LegitimacyPolice ReformPolice Use of ForcePolicing |
Author: Small Arms Survey Title: Policing in South Sudan: Transformation Challenges and Priorities Summary: Over the past three years, ongoing conflict in South Sudan has fundamentally reshaped donor engagement with the security sector. In the wake of the conflict that began in December 2013, major bilateral donor support was suspended to the security services, including the police. More recent efforts to support transitional security arrangements under the terms laid out in the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS), signed in August 2015, have been met with criticism in the face of persistent conflict and human rights abuses. Although the South Sudan National Police Service (SSNPS) is meant to serve as the lead agency for internal security, some operational responsibilities have fallen to competing security services and ethnically aligned militias. These include rival factions within the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and the National Security Service (NSS). The SSNPS is among the weakest and most under-resourced security services in South Sudan. Even before December 2013, donor efforts to support police transformation were fraught with challenges. While donors piloted a community-focused approach to police reform, the SSNPS essentially continued to operate as a paramilitary force. Police recruits receive paramilitary training, use military ranks, and are legally mandated to support the SPLA by order of the president. Interviews with police commanders suggest that the high number of militias integrated into the SSNPS after independence has also had a negative impact on overall command and control. In addition, the economic crisis facing South Sudan has intensified predatory behaviour towards civilians in an environment that lacks accountability for human rights abuses. In the absence of broader political and economic reforms, donor engagement with the police under the terms laid out in the ARCSS is unlikely to curb rampant insecurity and crime. Based on extensive in-depth interviews with the police leadership, rank-and-file SSNPS, donors, legal and security experts, and civil society groups, this Issue Brief reviews the state of the police in South Sudan in order to draw attention to shortcomings that may be addressed as part of ongoing donor engagement with the SSNPS. Key findings of this Issue Brief include: South Sudan lacks a culture of democratic policing. Police officers generally do not have a clear enough understanding of their mandate to distinguish themselves from the SPLA. Since the conflict erupted in 2013, high levels of insecurity throughout the country have reinforced a paramilitary style of policing. The SSNPS faces many of the same challenges as the SPLA, including low salaries and delayed payments, high levels of illiteracy, inadequate training on human rights, and a culture of impunity. The SSNPS has far less access to resources and essential equipment than the SPLA. In the absence of adequate oversight and accountability, some police officers form predatory relationships with the very communities they are charged to protect. There is little access to justice for victims of human rights violations, which has reinforced a culture of impunity. Cronyism and entrenched patronage networks undermine the overall effectiveness of the police force. In some cases, favouritism prevents promising junior officers from advancing while permitting militia members to be integrated into the SSNPS. As a result, it is even more difficult to professionalize the police force and to establish clear lines of command and control. The formation of the Joint Integrated Police (JIP), a transitional security arrangement required by the ARCSS, has proceeded without due transparency measures or consultations with communities or civil society groups. Moreover, it is unclear how opposition forces will participate in the JIP given the split within the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). Donor efforts to implement the transitional security arrangements laid out in the peace agreement despite ongoing conflict in South Sudan are unlikely to succeed in the absence of renewed political negotiations and broader political and economic reforms. Details: Geneva, SWIT: Small Arms Survey, 2017. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: HSBA Issue Brief: Accessed April 8, 2017 at: http://www.smallarmssurveysudan.org/fileadmin/docs/issue-briefs/HSBA-IB26-Policing-in-South-Sudan.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Sudan URL: http://www.smallarmssurveysudan.org/fileadmin/docs/issue-briefs/HSBA-IB26-Policing-in-South-Sudan.pdf Shelf Number: 144755 Keywords: Police AccountabilityPolice AdministrationPolice EffectivenessPolice ReformPolicing |
Author: Association of Municipalities Ontario Title: Building a new public safety model in Ontario. AMO's Policing Modernization Report Summary: For the past three years, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) has been a member of the Future of Policing Advisory Committee being led by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS). The Committee consists mainly of Ministry officials, police chiefs, police officers, and various police association representatives. This is a laudable initiative. However, it should be noted that the Committee's work is rooted in a consensus seeking process. This has limited the scale and scope of many draft recommendations and the Committee's advice to the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services. AMO fundamentally believes in the need to advance the agenda of reform. This paper is designed to broaden the discussion and inject a change of pace in shaping the future. The issue of cost has certainly been a catalyst. Whether negotiated or arbitrated or through the accumulation of years of incremental increases - cost is without a doubt, shining a bright light on this public service. When we combine cost with aging legislation and standards, demographic shifts, and the immediate challenges on the horizon, we find ourselves returning to a basic question: how do we want to be policed? What should it look like? To talk about the future, AMO established a task force of mayors and police board representatives from across the province to explore key questions about policing. The task force interviewed experts, reviewed the best academic research available, sent representatives to the 2015 Summit on the Economics of Policing and Community Safety in Ottawa, and had thorough and lengthy discussions on specific issues about the future of policing. What follows are a series of topics and some recommendations on the path forward. These ideas are not set in stone; they are a starting point for municipal and provincial elected officials and others. These recommendations, many borrowed from experts outside the municipal realm, represent the consensus of the task force. Details: Toronto: The Association, 2015. 47p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 11, 2017 at: https://www.amo.on.ca/AMO-PDFs/Reports/2015/AMO-Policing-Modernization-Report-Final-2015-04-27.aspx Year: 2015 Country: Canada URL: https://www.amo.on.ca/AMO-PDFs/Reports/2015/AMO-Policing-Modernization-Report-Final-2015-04-27.aspx Shelf Number: 144787 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolice PerformancePolice ReformPolicing |
Author: Wu, Xiaoyun Title: Do Police Go to Places with More Crime? A Spatial and Temporal Examination of Police Proactivity Summary: Over the last four decades, research has shown that police officers can reduce and prevent crime when they employ proactive, problem-solving, and place-based strategies. However, whether this research has translated into daily police activity is seldom examined. Are police being proactive when not answering calls for service? Do they target that proactivity in places that need it the most? Using calls for service data in a progressive police agency, the authors examine both the spatial and temporal relationship between proactive activity by officers and concentrations of crime using multiple methods, including Andresen's Spatial Point Pattern Test. Results suggest that police in Jacksonville are highly proactive, place-based, and micro-scaled in allocating their resource. They spent a large proportion of their resources conducting proactive work in accordance with the spatial distribution of crime, and they specifically concentrated significant proactive resources in the most crime-ridden areas, making the relationship an increasing curvilinear one between police proactive work and crime at places. More specifically, each crime at a micro place is related to around 40 additional minutes of police proactive work there, the figure of which becomes even higher at places with high enough crime. Details: Fairfax, VA: George Mason University, 2014. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed April 12, 2017 at: http://digilib.gmu.edu/jspui/bitstream/handle/1920/10502/Wu_thesis_2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://digilib.gmu.edu/jspui/bitstream/handle/1920/10502/Wu_thesis_2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Shelf Number: 144818 Keywords: Crime and PlaceCrime HotspotsHigh Crime AreasPolice Effectiveness |
Author: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Police Disruption and Performance: Evidence from Recurrent Redeployments within a City Summary: More policing reduces crime but little is known about the mechanism. Does policing deter crime by reducing its attractiveness, or because it leads to additional arrests of recurrent criminals? This paper provides evidence of a direct link between policing and arrests. During shift changes a peculiar redeployment of police patrols belonging to separate police forces disrupts policing and lowers the likelihood of clearing robberies with an arrest by 30 percent. There is no evidence that criminals exploit these dips in police performance. A back of the envelope calculation suggests that incapacitation explains 2/3 of the elasticity between robberies and policing. Details: Berlin: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2015. 66p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA DP No. 8799: Accessed April 21, 2017 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp8799.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Italy URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp8799.pdf Shelf Number: 145063 Keywords: Deterrence Police Deployment Police EffectivenessPolice Patrol Policing Robbery |
Author: Meares, Tracey Title: Programming Errors: Understanding the Constitutionality of Stop-and-Frisk as a Program, Not an Incident Summary: his Essay takes seriously the relevance of law enforcement effectiveness and the role of empiricism in understanding the constitutionality of the police practices at issue in the Floyd case and urban police practices more generally; it also recasts the debate a bit. A critical but obscured issue is the mismatch between the level of analysis at which the Supreme Court articulated the relevant test for constitutional justification of a stop-and-frisk in Terry v Ohio and the scale at which police today (and historically) engage in stop-and-frisk as a practice. To put this more succinctly, while the Court in Terry authorized police intervention in an individual incident-when the police officer possesses probable cause to believe that an armed individual is involved in a crime-in reality, stop-and-frisk typically is carried out by a police force en masse as a program. Although the constitutional framework is based on a one-off investigative incident, many of those who are stopped-the majority of them young men of color-do not experience the stops as one-off incidents. They experience them as a program to police them as a group, which is, of course, the reality. That is exactly what police agencies are doing. Fourth Amendment reasonableness must take this fact into account. I make an argument here about how we should approach this issue. Details: New Haven, CT: Yale University, 2015. 23p. Source: Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper 4921: Accessed June 7, 2017 at: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5930&context=fss_papers Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5930&context=fss_papers Shelf Number: 146226 Keywords: Police Behavior Police Discretion Police EffectivenessPolice Legitimacy Stop and Frisk |
Author: Pope, Andrew Lee Title: A Study of Field Training Programs in the Ohio Valley Region Summary: Research on law enforcement's Field Training Programs, in the Ohio Valley, has been limited to date. Field Training Officers (FTOs) of six police departments, of different sizes, were interviewed to determine the nature of their field training programs and their roles in training new officers. Within each department, this study identified field training models and curricula. Responses were summarized and analyzed to determine which dimensions of effective training (Kaminsky, 2002) were utilized in each department's training program. Results show that each department had unique field training programs. Each department used different modifications of the San Jose Model of training. Details: Bowling Green, OH: College of Bowling Green, 2013. 132p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed June 17, 2017 at: https://oatd.org/oatd/record?record=%22oai%5C%3Aetd.ohiolink.edu%5C%3Abgsu1363553281%22 Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://oatd.org/oatd/record?record=%22oai%5C%3Aetd.ohiolink.edu%5C%3Abgsu1363553281%22 Shelf Number: 146251 Keywords: Police Education and Training Police EffectivenessPolice Performance Police Recruits |
Author: Higginson, Angela Title: Policing Interventions for Targeting Interpersonal Violence in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review Summary: Developing countries are particularly affected by violent crime, with interpersonal violence a leading cause of death and disability. In addition, violent crime has been found to suppress social and economic development in developing countries and fear of violence alone hampers growth. Violent crime is a complex problem with multiple interacting causes, and interventions aimed at reducing its incidence vary widely. These interventions can be broadly separated according to the societal sector in which they are implemented, and the underlying theory of the intervention process. Criminal violence may be addressed by multiple sectors within the justice system, however the largest and arguably the most important sector addressing interpersonal violent crime is policing. This review has two key objectives. The first objective is to review the evidence on the effectiveness of policing interventions in reducing interpersonal violent crime in developing countries, and whether effectiveness differs according to intervention type and across different populations. The second objective is to assess the reasons that policing interventions addressing interpersonal violent crime may fail or succeed in developing countries. The systematic search identified 2,765 records. After extensive screening, 54 documents were found to relate to policing interventions targeting violence in developing countries. After excluding documents that did not evaluate either the effectiveness or the implementation of interventions, 5 studies were included in the review of intervention effectiveness and 37 studies were included in the narrative review of reasons for intervention success or failure. The review located studies across Africa, Asia and Latin America; however the majority of studies report on interventions from Latin America. The interventions that were evaluated took place in 13 developing countries: Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Guatemala, Uruguay, Jamaica, South Africa, Nigeria, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Pakistan. Seven key policing interventions were identified in the evaluation literature: gender-based interventions (n=7); policing partnerships (n=4); training and education strategies (n=6); community-oriented policing (n=13); police-enforced bans and crackdowns (n=3); visible policing and increased police contact (n=2); crime observatories (n=2). Details: London: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), 2015. 142p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 29, 2017 at: http://www.3ieimpact.org/media/filer_public/2015/10/01/policing_interventions_review.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: http://www.3ieimpact.org/media/filer_public/2015/10/01/policing_interventions_review.pdf Shelf Number: 146467 Keywords: Family Violence Interpersonal Violence Intimate Partner Violence Police EffectivenessPolice Interventions Police Response |
Author: Weisburd, Sarit Title: Police Presence, Rapid Response Rates, and Crime Prevention Summary: This paper estimates the impact of police presence on crime using a unique database that tracks the exact location of Dallas Police Department patrol cars throughout 2009. To address the concern that officer location is often driven by crime, my instrument exploits police responses to calls outside of their allocated coverage beat. This variable provides a plausible shift in police presence within the abandoned beat that is driven by the police goal of minimizing response times. I found that a 10 percent decrease in police presence at that location results in a 1.2 to 2.9 percent increase in crime. These results shed light on the black box of policing and crime and suggest that routine changes in police patrol can significantly impact criminal behavior. Details: Tel Aviv University, 2016. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 17, 2017 at: https://econ.tau.ac.il/sites/economy.tau.ac.il/files/media_server/Economics/PDF/seminars%202016-17/Sarit%20Weisburd_Police%20Presence%2C%20Rapid%20Response%20Rates%2C%20and%20Crime.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://econ.tau.ac.il/sites/economy.tau.ac.il/files/media_server/Economics/PDF/seminars%202016-17/Sarit%20Weisburd_Police%20Presence%2C%20Rapid%20Response%20Rates%2C%20and%20Crime.pdf Shelf Number: 147707 Keywords: Crime PreventionDeterrencePolice EffectivenessPolice PatrolPolice Response |
Author: Santos, Roberto Title: A Quasi-Experimental Test and Examination of Police Effectiveness in Residential Burglary and Theft from Vehicle Micro-Time Hot Spots Summary: This dissertation tested, through a quasi-experimental design, whether traditional policing strategies are effective in preventing residential burglary and theft from vehicle. A new unit of analysis is examined called micro-time hot spots which are clusters of crime incidents (i.e., crime flare-ups) that occur in micro-time at micro-places. Five years of data from a large police department in the Eastern Florida metropolitan region of the United States were examined. The data were gleaned from crime analysis bulletins as well as the department's intranet system that tracked all police responses to micro-time hot spots. In the quasi-experiment, residential burglary and theft from vehicle were examined separately. The treatment and comparison groups were selected using a robust propensity score matching method. Logistic regression was used to compute the propensity scores which were subsequently matched through greedy 1 to 1 matching, without replacement, and with calipers of .05 and .10 of the standard deviation of the logit for residential burglary and theft from vehicle, respectively. Cases that fell outside the region of support were eliminated. The analysis resulted in 140 pairs - 54 residential burglary and 86 theft from vehicle. Tests of means showed that for both residential burglary and theft from vehicle, separately, there was a significant reduction in crime (p < .001). The reduction in residential burglary was 20.76 percent, for theft from vehicle, 19.65 percent, and for both together, 20.0 percent. An examination of spatial displacement of crime found that there was no spatial displacement in micro-time hot spots that received response. The multivariate analysis of the 140 micro-time hot spots with police response showed that the amount of police response and the quickness of response were significant (p < .001). The more police response and the more quickly the response was implemented, the less crime in the micro-time hot spot. Consequently, this study showed that increased police presence in micro-places of emerging concentrations of crime can lead to significant reductions in residential burglary and theft from vehicle without spatial displacement. These findings have direct implications for police practice, in that to be more effective in crime reduction, police organizations should consider responding to residential burglary and theft from vehicle hot spots of shorter temporal scales. Details: Fort Lauderdale, FL: Nova Southeastern University, 2013. 250p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed October 27, 2017 at: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1466031463?pq-origsite=gscholar Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1466031463?pq-origsite=gscholar Shelf Number: 147840 Keywords: Crime AnalysisCrime Hotspots Police EffectivenessPolice ResponseResidential BurglaryTheft from Vehicle |
Author: Fu, Chao Title: Structural Estimation of a Becker-Ehrlich Equilibrium Model of Crime: Allocating Police Across Cities to Reduce Crime Summary: We develop a model of crime in which the number of police, the crime rate, the arrest rate, the employment rate and the wage rate are joint outcomes of a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. The local government chooses the size of its police force and citizens choose among work, home and crime alternatives. We estimate the model using MSA-level data. We use the estimated model to examine the effects on crime of targeted federal transfers to local governments to increase police. We nd that knowledge about unobserved MSA-specific attributes is critical for the optimal allocation of police across MSAs. Details: Unpublished paper, 2017. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 2, 2017 at: https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~cfu/PoliceCrime.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~cfu/PoliceCrime.pdf Shelf Number: 147978 Keywords: Police Deployment Police EffectivenessPolice Patrol Police Resources Policing |
Author: San Diego. Office of the City Auditor Title: Performance Audit of the Police Patrol Operations Summary: A main function of the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) is to patrol the City's neighborhoods and respond to calls for service. In fiscal year 2012, SDPD responded to over 400,000 incidents. SDPD assigns approximately 60 percent of its employees to its Patrol Operations Division. SDPD staffing has remained stable for the past three years, with about 1,500 personnel assigned to Patrol Operations, of whom 800-850 are patrol officers. To determine an appropriate staffing level and optimize shift schedules for patrol officers across the City, SDPD uses a model that analyzes dispatch records for the prior year and estimates demand for services for the coming year. Finding 1 - We examined SDPD's staffing model and found it effective and in conformance with best practices for police staffing. Police management retains the flexibility to adjust staffing in response to changing conditions such as seasonal demand, special events, or emergencies. Since Patrol Operations is currently meeting response time performance measures, SDPD has not shown that staff reductions and budget cuts have affected patrol performance. However, Patrol Operations' continued ability to meet its performance targets does not prove that the division is adequately staffed; it may simply indicate that the response time performance measure cannot detect any developing strains in Patrol Operations staffing. By analyzing dispatch data, the SDPD can obtain more detailed information on the consumption of patrol resources to inform staffing, deployment, and response decisions. We recommended that the SDPD use dispatch data to establish service levels and performance standards, and that it survey residents periodically to elicit community preferences for police services. Finding 2 - Publically reported performance measures are an integral part of an organization's ability to convey meaningful results from taxpayers investment. Although SDPD has several internal channels for monitoring and reporting performance, its performance measure reporting has largely been confined to the City's annual budget document. We found that the goals included in the budget are too broad to inform a public discussion of police staffing or to help police justify additional resources. A benefit of enhancing its performance reporting will be to move beyond traditional measures such as response time or sworn officer per capita staffing. Details: San Diego: Office of the city Auditor, 2013. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 3, 2017 at: https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/14-006_Patrol_Operations.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/14-006_Patrol_Operations.pdf Shelf Number: 147985 Keywords: Police Administration Police EffectivenessPolice Patrol Police Performance |
Author: O'Brien, Timothy M. Title: Audit of Police Operations - District Patrol - Audit Report - January 2016 Summary: The Denver Police Department (DPD) has adopted a community-oriented policing philosophy, which is widely regarded among law enforcement professionals and researchers as an effective method of deterring crime and reducing fear. Police departments, through community policing tactics, seek to build trust and mutual respect between police and the communities they serve. However, we found that DPD does not have sufficient data to determine whether its community policing efforts are effective and equitable. Effectiveness - DPD began incorporating community-oriented policing tactics into its operations in the 1980s and has steadily increased its efforts over time. Today, the department has a Community Relations Division, Community Resource Officers, and participates in youth outreach programs. Further, DPD has instituted team policing and redistricting to better carry out community policing activities. However, DPD does not have a comprehensive approach or mechanism by which to measure the effectiveness of these efforts. To support state and local law enforcement agencies who are dedicated to the community policing philosophy, the Community Oriented Policing Service (COPS Office) created the Community Poling Self-Assessment Tool (CP-SAT), to help state and local law enforcement agencies with informing strategic planning, identifying training needs, promoting community policing initiatives to the public, and enhancing overall community policing efforts. Equitability - DPD officers do not always capture demographic data when carrying out self-initiated - or Class 2 - actions, unless the contact leads to a citation, arrest, or street check. Without capturing demographic data for all pedestrian and traffic stops, DPD cannot determine if or to what extent Class 2 actions are conducted fairly and effectively, and specifically, if officers are in compliance with the department's Biased-Policing Policy. Other Pertinent Information - DPD is implementing the use of body worn cameras (BWCs) into its policing strategy. Some studies show that BWCs reduce officer uses-of-force and citizen complaints against officers. In December 2014, DPD concluded a pilot BWC project that was carried out in DPD District 6 to test the use of BWCs on a small scale. The City entered into a five-year contract with Taser International for $6 million to provide BWC equipment and data storage. DPD's draft BWC policy establishes a retention schedule for recordings captured through BWCs. Details: Denver, CO: Office of the Auditor, Audit Services Division, City and County of Denver, 2016. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 6, 2017 at: https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/741/documents/Audits_2016/PoliceOperationsDistrictPatrol_AuditReport_Jan2016.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/741/documents/Audits_2016/PoliceOperationsDistrictPatrol_AuditReport_Jan2016.pdf Shelf Number: 148045 Keywords: Community-Oriented Policing Police Administration Police EffectivenessPolice Performance Policing |
Author: Bell, Brian Title: Fighting Crime: Cant he Police do more with less? Summary: - There were just over 3.7 million crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2013-14, a fall of 21% since 2008-09. - The decline is even more substantial using another measure of crime: the Crime Survey of England and Wales (in which respondents report whether they have been victims of crime, and which therefore includes crimes not reported to the police). This shows a fall of 29% since 2008-09, though the number of crimes is higher, at 7.3 million. - Over the same period, the number of police officers has fallen by just over 16,000, a drop of 11%. There has been an even larger decline in the numbers of police staff and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs). - The evidence suggests that fewer police officers would tend to lead to a rise in crime. Given the reduced crime figures, this suggests that either the productivity of the police has risen or fewer people are turning to crime - or both. - On productivity, there is evidence that forces have realised substantial efficiency gains and are policing in a more effective way. - On criminal behaviour, there are long-run trends, such as an ageing population, that point in the direction of reduced criminality. In addition, technological change appears to have reduced some opportunities available to criminals. - Whether the pace of reductions in the police workforce that have occurred so far can be sustained without slowing - or reversing - the decline in crime is an open question. Details: London: Centre for Economic Performance. London School of Economics and Political Science, 2015. 11p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 20, 2017 at: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/EA031.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/EA031.pdf Shelf Number: 148270 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolice PerformancePolicing |
Author: Chapman, John Title: Police Effectiveness in a Changing World: Slough site report Summary: Between 2011 and 2015, the Police Foundation's Police Effectiveness in a Changing World research team worked closely with the police and their community safety partners in Luton and Slough - two English towns that had experienced the local impact of global change particularly acutely. This is one of two concluding reports from the project which details the process, experience and research findings from Slough. The research started with a problem orientated, multi-agency approach to tackling violence. Using action research we took a problem-oriented approach by identifying local crime problems, improving the way they were understood and developing interventions to tackle them. Then we assessed the outcomes of these and the challenges of implementing them. Throughout the project we drew on the wider evidence-base on police effectiveness to promote local partnerships, to better deal with the 'changing world' and to find sustainable solutions to local crime problems. Most importantly we sought to learn lessons from the process of working with forces on the ground. Details: London: Police Foundation, 2017. 138p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 2, 2018 at: http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/2017/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/slough_site_report.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/2017/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/slough_site_report.pdf Shelf Number: 148978 Keywords: Crime PreventionPolice EffectivenessPolice PerformancePolice ReformProblem-Oriented PolicingViolenceViolence Prevention |
Author: Allnock, Debbie Title: What Do We Know About Child Sexual Abuse and Policing in England and Wales? Summary: 1.1 The purpose of this briefing is to provide the National Policing Lead for Child Protection and Abuse Investigation with evidence for consideration in the development of a National Policing Safeguarding Action plan. The methodology can be found in an associated document. This briefing distils key messages from research evidence on policing and child protection in the United Kingdom (UK). 1.2Evidence on policing and child protection/ safeguarding in the UK primarily relates to child sexual abuse (CSA), including child sexual exploitation (CSE), although the evidence base is relatively limited. The review identified no significant UK evaluations of police response in tackling child abuse more broadly, or CSA or neglect specifically. The most substantial area of evidence relates to police forensic interviews in cases of CSA. There are a number of small and discrete research studies that have been carried out in relation to particular child protection issues within the criminal justice system (CJS). These have highlighted promising practice and areas for improvement in relation to some aspects of the process, such as attrition and the experiences of children and young people proceeding through 'the system'. Historically, the research on forensic interviews focussed on the aim of obtaining the best evidence for court but there has been a more recent focus on safeguarding and children's well-being during the process. Experts hypothesize that these two issues are inseparable however; improving children and young people's experiences and addressing their well-being can be also seen as a means of improving attrition rates and gathering better quality evidence. 1.3This briefing is structured to reflect the journey through the CJS with additional messages from research on police preparation and planning. In order to limit the briefing to police-relevant information, findings on the court process have been omitted except where they are relevant for policing. The areas covered align in various ways to the four Ps of policing - a framework for responding to serious and organised crime: 1) Prepare: reduce the impact of this criminality where it takes place 2) Protect: increase protection against serious and organised crime 3) Prevent: prevent people from engaging in serious and organised crime 4) Pursue: prosecute and disrupt people engaged in serious and organised crime. Details: Bedfordshire, UK: University of Bedfordshire, Institute of Applied Social Research, 2015. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 9, 2018 at: https://www.uobcsepolicinghub.org.uk/assets/documents/CSA-and-policing-briefing-FINAL.pdf-DA.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.uobcsepolicinghub.org.uk/assets/documents/CSA-and-policing-briefing-FINAL.pdf-DA.pdf Shelf Number: 149734 Keywords: Child ProtectionChild Sexual AbuseOrganized CrimePolice Effectiveness |
Author: Scottish Institute for Policing Research Title: Policing 2026 Evidence Review Summary: Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority commissioned a series of evidence reviews from the Scottish Institute for Policing Research which have helped inform the development of the 2026 strategy. Written by an international group of leading policing scholars and practitioners, the reviews bring together the best research evidence from the last 30 years on key topics, including prevention, performance and partnership working. Each review combined important insights into what good practice looks like with concrete suggestions for how policing in Scotland can use this evidence to ensure that they are at the cutting edge of policy and practice. The specially commissioned papers collected together to form this Evidence Review have been written by a group of international policing experts with extensive experience as academic researchers, senior practitioners and policy makers. The strategic importance of this evidence review is that it embodies an evidence-based approach to policing, which values the role of research, science, evaluation and analysis to inform decision making within police organisations. As Professor Fyfe highlights in the first paper, such an approach has several wider benefits: - Politically, evidence-based approaches are central to the governance, accountability and legitimacy of policing and citizens expect police forces to draw on evidence to identify effective and efficient practices as well as emerging threats; - Economically, developing policy and practice on a robust evidence base of effective and cost-efficient activities is vital to the future sustainability of the police service; - Organisationally, evidence-based approaches are vital to claims about police professionalism so that the building of a body of knowledge on which good practice is based is key to achieving an enhanced professional status. There are also more immediate operational benefits to policing of an evidence-based approach: - Employing strategies and tactics that have been shown to reduce harm means more effective responses to community concerns and an increase in police legitimacy; - Evidence based approaches requires the police to access and analyse their own data which can lead to improvements in managerial accountability and better data recording and analytics; - The use of evidence to support innovative and creative ways of tackling problems can increase satisfaction with police work among officers and staff. Policing in Scotland is in a strong position to play a world-leading role in evidence-based approaches given the established strategic partnership between Scotland's universities, Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority embodied in SIPR. Established in 2007 and now with an international reputation for research and knowledge exchange, SIPR plays a key role in contributing to evidence-based approaches in policing, supporting a strategic approach to innovation, contributing to education, professional development and organisational learning; and building research and analytical capacity in policing and universities. The use of evidence is central to the arguments about prevention addressed by Professor Laycock who focuses on the importance of Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) as the core of a preventative approach and how this should be rooted in the SARA model of Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment: - Scanning provides insight into the nature, frequency and impact of problems; - Analysis focuses on understanding the problem, collecting relevant data, and assessing the effectiveness of the response; - Response involves assessing what type of response would work in different contexts and them implementing an appropriate mechanism drawing on relevant knowledge and experience, including the on-line Crime Reduction Toolkit developed by the College of Policing. - Assessment focuses on whether an intervention was implemented effectively (a 'process' evaluation) and what the impact was. By embracing POP and experimentation, analysis, and assessment as a means of clearly defining the problems faced by communities and of developing evidence-based means of addressing these problems, Police Scotland has the potential to establish itself as a Learning Organisation. But to do this they need a different kind of police training and a supportive infrastructure that values experimentation, accepts risk, and encourages trust and delegation. Prevention must be focused in particular places because problems are not distributed evenly or randomly and the evidence clearly demonstrates that targeting specific locations where crime concentrates yields the best effects on crime prevention, and will also typically involve some form of partnership working between police and other organisations. These are the key message of the following 2 reviews. That on place-based policing by Professors Lum and Koper reinforces the conclusions of the Prevention paper, by identifying the key pillars of a place-based policing strategy: - Conducting geographic crime analysis of micro-places (neighbourhoods, street intersections etc.) and long term time trends so that a better understanding is achieved of the social, environmental and routine activity characteristics of hot spots - Proactively directing patrol to hot spots - Optimizing deterrence at hotpots - Problem solving at hotspots - Community engagement at hotspots Embracing these elements is vital to both more efficient and more effective policing. Their conclusion is unequivocal: 'Problem-solving and community-oriented approaches at crime hot spots can enhance long-term effectiveness of police actions and help strengthen police-citizen relationships'. These conclusions are echoed in the paper on partnership by Dr O'Neill which spells out the ways in which partnership needs to be recognised as an essential component of contemporary policing. The Christie Commission has set the broader strategic context for this in Scotland and this is reinforced by the Policing Principles set out in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012: the main purpose of policing is to improve the safety and well-being of persons, localities and communities in Scotland, and that the Police Service, working in collaboration with others where appropriate, should seek to achieve that main purpose by policing in a way which (i) is accessible to, and engaged with, local communities, and (ii) promotes measures to prevent, crime, harm and disorder' (para.32). The research evidence base clearly highlights a number of key ingredients for successful partnerships which include relationships of trust, stability in staffing, co-location and pooled budgets. Within police organisations, there is also a need to ensure people have to the right skills for partnership working, that they receive appropriate training and that there are internal processes to support and reward partnership work. Officers also need to think differently about performance and success in relation to partnership working by focusing on broader outcomes, like harm reduction, and long term benefits rather than quick fixes. More generally, O'Neill makes the points that there needs to be a shift from viewing partnership work as 'nice to have' to seeing it as a core component of contemporary policing which allows the police to learn about which organisations are best placed to address particular problems. This problem solving focus is also central to Stanko's assessment of performance frameworks in policing. She cogently argues that a focus on crime narrows public discussion about the wider benefits of policing and disables the police from playing a broader partnership role in delivering safety and security in local communities. A good performance frameworks requires command of evidence and analysis and for the police this means that they must not only have command of the information they hold on the needs of users, the nature of problems, and the resources they can mobilize to deal with these issues, but also the ability to convert this 6 information into a joined up conversation with other partners in the public, private and third sectors and with communities. In this way, it is possible to develop a 'whole of government' approach to the delivery of safety and security in a local area strongly aligned with the Christie principles. Stanko points to specific example of performance frameworks which begin to allow this more joined up, outcome focused approach. In New Zealand, for example, the police have 3 high level outcomes: - Protected communities and preventing harm - Minimizing harm to victims - Delivering valued police services What this offers is a way of seeing the NZ police as part of a whole of government approach to improving security and justice for New Zealanders and the interconnectedness of what the police do with other parts of the public, private and third sectors. The focus of performance measurement therefore needs to be on outcomes and, through the use of evidence and analytics, allow informed debates of the underlying problems affecting communities which can then bind public, private and third sectors together in problem solving partnerships. As Stanko observes, numbers of crime don't tell you whether crime or security has changed within a community - it just counts what people have told the police. If the focus of performance is to be on reducing harm and vulnerability through collaborative partnerships then there need to be a range of key measurement indicators to reflect this, which might include: a reduction in repeat violent offending, reductions in repeat victimizations for domestic and sexual violence, a reduction in the number of repeat visits for knife in juries in A&E, an increase in the reporting of sexual violence etc. The police would play a key part in some of these but each indicator would also need contributions for others (in health, victims' services, probation etc.). Furthermore, there needs to be local analysis of this information to feed into problem-solving at a local level. Drawing on their data, Police Scotland can lead a conversation about safety and security at national and local levels, but this needs to be integrated with data from other organisations to create a shared evidence base focused on outcomes relating to key questions such as: is violence getting better or worse in Scotland? what drivers of well-being should government focus on to improve safety to which the police can contribute? and is Scotland getting safer? Police performance is scrutinised through governance and accountability mechanisms and Dr Henry draws on a wide body of work to distil some key principles of what good democratic governance of policing should look like. This includes a focus on: - Equity in terms of organisational resource allocation and priorities in delivering services and in terms of individual experiences in police encounters; - Delivery of services that are responsive to public needs and which benefit all citizens and are based on fair, transparent processes and procedures; - Responsiveness in that policing should in part reflect the will and interests of people in terms of delivering the priorities and services they need but also draw on the knowledge of other professionals and partner organisations. It is also crucial that responsiveness does not compromise equity if being responsive to public demands would create discriminatory actions; - A distribution of power which balances central and local interests, with the centre contributing stability, consistency and equity, and the local focusing on responsiveness, flexibility and public participation; - The provision of information given that the viability of the principles of good governance depends on good information which is needed to ensure efficiency and effectiveness, to gauge public sentiment and document processes and procedures. This information might come from the police but would also include other knowledge from a range of other sources including neighbourhood data, academic research and information from other partner organisations; - Redress which relates to the need for organisational accountability of senior management and the individual accountability of officers in exercising their powers; - Participation in that the public should have a sense of ownership of how their society is policed and that there is an opening up of deliberation around policing to a breadth of voices. All the different thematic areas covered in the Evidence Review require good leadership and in the final paper by Dr Brookes the focus is on the need to think differently about police leadership. This means moving beyond thinking about the 'who' of leadership (i.e. the heroic leader) and asking other questions about the 'what', 'when', 'where', 'how' and 'why' of leadership. In addressing these questions, Brookes argues, a much more holistic view of leadership emerges, less focused on the traits of individual leaders, and more on the importance of setting a long term vision and developing shared norms that are adaptive and respond to changes in the external environment. This is the basis for transformational rather than transactional leadership and creating an organisation which prioritises professionalism, information sharing, quality assurance, an orientation towards service users, working with others and a problem-solving focus. Details: Edinburgh: The Institute, 2017. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 12, 2018 at: Year: 2017 Country: United Kingdom URL: Shelf Number: 149795 Keywords: Evidence-Based PolicingPolice AdministrationPolice EffectivenessPolice PatrolPolice PerformancePolice Problem-Solving |
Author: Matrix Consulting Group Title: Police Department Comprehensive Workload Study: Kauai County, Hawaii Summary: In October, 2016 the Matrix Consulting Group began the project to conduct a Police Department Comprehensive Workload Study for Kauai County. This document is the final report of the project team's work that includes an analysis of department staffing and organizational structure and key operational elements that notably impact staffing levels. The Matrix Consulting Group is a management consulting group established in 2002 that focuses entirely on public sector analytical services and specializes in public safety services. These services include staffing studies, organizational structure evaluations, operational efficiency and effectiveness reviews, patrol deployment alternatives and organizational culture evaluations. The Matrix Consulting Group has provided analytical services to public safety agencies for over 30 years and has conducted over 250 individual studies of law enforcement services. The Police Department desired a staffing analysis to serve as the foundation for police services in Kauai County. However, the efficiency and effectiveness of Police Department operations was also evaluated, identifying many improvement opportunities relating to service delivery, organization and staffing as summarized in the following specific study objectives: - Understand, document and analyze all workloads and service levels as well as the resources needed to handle these workloads in every function. - Compare current and alternative approaches to staffing, deployment and utilization of personnel - Ensure that community expectations are addressed and met by obtaining their input during this process. - Develop a defensible fact based analysis of resource needs. - Evaluate the choices that the Department has in meeting resource commitments. - Provide the tools necessary for Department and County personnel to evaluate needs as conditions change. The County and the Police Department undertook this important step to identify resource requirements, operational efficiencies, management and customer services goals are met. Details: Mountain View, CA: Matrix, 2017. 152p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 16, 2018 at: https://www.matrixcg.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Kauai-Police-Staffing-Report-6-15.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.matrixcg.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Kauai-Police-Staffing-Report-6-15.pdf Shelf Number: 149799 Keywords: Police AdministrationPolice DepartmentPolice EffectivenessPolice PersonnelPolice Workload |
Author: Fleming, Jennie Title: 'Evidence-informed Policing: An Introduction to EMMIE and the Crime Reduction Toolkit'. A Pilot Training Evaluation Summary: In March 2013, the Cabinet Office launched the 'What Works Network', a nationally co-ordinated initiative aimed at positioning the research evidence on 'what works' at the centre of public policy decision-making, developed in a political environment increasingly amenable to the idea of evidence-based decision-making, particularly in the context of 'austerity' and cost effectiveness. Currently there are seven research centres focusing on six key areas of public policy, intended to build on existing models of delivering evidence-based policy - such as the well-established and well-funded National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). For some years now, the College of Policing (the College) and its predecessor the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) have been promoting the importance of research evidence to inform practice in policing and crime reduction. The College Five Year Strategy (2014a) outlines its intentions to promote understanding of 'what works' in policing and use this understanding to set standards and enable members to share knowledge and evidence around 'what works' (College of Policing, 2014a). Within a context of austerity and changing policing demands (e.g. Brain & Owens, 2015; http://www.college.police.uk/Documents/COP_infographic.pdf) the College is promoting 'professionalisation' of police. As part of achieving many of the aforementioned aims, the 'What Works Centre for Crime Reduction' (WWCCR) was established in 2013 to develop a strong evidence base for decision-making around crime reduction. It is led by the College and supported by a Commissioned Partnership Programme (CPP). A key component of the WWCCR programme is the development and piloting of a Police Development Programme (Work Package 6/7) to enable police officers to appraise and use evidence to inform their decision-making. The purpose of the current research was, therefore, to design, pilot and evaluate the implementation of a police development training programme to develop officers' theoretical and practical understanding of evidence-informed approaches, equip them with the skills required to use evidence to inform their decision-making and support them to appraise evidence and commission research (Hereafter referred to as 'Evidence-based Policing': EBP3 ). See Fleming, Fyfe & Wingrove (2016a) for an overview of the design methodology and the training programme outline. This report focuses on the evaluation of the pilot training programme. The main objective of the evaluation of the pilot training was to assess and understand trainee reaction and to note aspects of learning following training. The following research questions were addressed: - To what extent do police officers/staff respond positively to EBP? - To what extent do police officers/staff believe EBP training will enhance their role? - To what extent does the training enable police officers/staff to use the Crime Reduction Toolkit? Details: London: College of Policing, 201. 101p. Source: Internet Resource: What Works Centre for Crime Reduction Work Package 7 Final Report : Accessed May 3, 2018 at: http://whatworks.college.police.uk/About/Documents/EIP_pilot_evaluation.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://whatworks.college.police.uk/About/Documents/EIP_pilot_evaluation.pdf Shelf Number: 150038 Keywords: Crime PreventionCrime ReductionEvidence-Based PolilcingEvidenced-Based PracticesPolice EffectivenessPolicing Training |
Author: Fleming, Jennie Title: Evidence-informed Policing: The Design of a Pilot Training Programme Summary: In March 2013 the Cabinet Office launched the 'What Works Network', a nationally co-ordinated initiative aimed at positioning the research evidence on 'what works' at the centre of public policy decision-making. Currently there are seven research centres1 focusing on six key areas of public policy. These 'research hubs' are intended to build on existing models of delivering evidence-based policy - such as the well-established and well-funded National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). This provides independent evidence-based guidance to the NHS and health professionals about the targeting of funding and the most effective ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease and ill health. The What Works centres are being developed in a political environment increasingly amenable to the idea of evidence-based decision-making, particularly in the context of 'austerity' and cost effectiveness. Government White Papers (e.g. Cabinet Office, 2011; HM Government, 2012) assert a government commitment to scrutiny and transparency across departments, and initiatives are in place which aim to facilitate access to government administrative data for the purposes of research and evaluation (Mulgan and Puttick, 2013; UK Administrative Data Research Network, 2012). However, a recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO) (2013) suggests that these ambitions are not yet embedded in practice. The NAO's assessment of the frequency and quality of impact and cost-effectiveness evaluation across key government departments, and the use of such evidence to support resource allocation and policy development, highlighted a number of issues. These included a lack of robust impact evaluations, a lack of clarity in government decisions about what to evaluate and a failure to effectively apply learning from evaluative research. Details: London: College of Policing, 2016. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: What Works Centre for Crime Reduction, Work Package 6 Final Report : Accessed May 3, 2018 at: http://whatworks.college.police.uk/About/Documents/EIP_pilot_design.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://whatworks.college.police.uk/About/Documents/EIP_pilot_design.pdf Shelf Number: 150039 Keywords: Crime Prevention Crime Reduction Evidence-Based PolilcingEvidenced-Based Practices Police Effectiveness Policing Training |
Author: Rosenbaum, Dennis P. Title: Community-based Indicators of Police Performance: Introducing the Platform's Public Satisfaction Survey Summary: The National Police Research Platform is seeking to advance knowledge of policing by looking both inside and outside of police agencies. The external question addressed by the Platform is, "How well are departments performing during their encounters with the public?" Hence, we are field testing alternative community survey methods as tools to evaluate the quality of policing on the streets. Public satisfaction surveys have been developed by the Platform team to achieve several goals. First, there is a need for validated measures of police-civilian encounters that can be used as standardized benchmarks or indicators of organizational excellence at the local, regional and national levels. Second, these methods are designed to generate timely feedback regarding police performance that can be used by local agencies to assist them in building smarter, evidence-based learning organizations. Third, these methods will address the growing public demand to have a voice in government services. Creating a visible mechanism for community input will go a long way toward building trust, transparency, and legitimacy. Police organizations that have strong community support understand the need to meet public expectations. In the 21st century, community stakeholders expect the police to reduce crime and be fair and sensitive to the needs of persons they encounter. The public and policy makers also expect better systems of accountability for police behavior. Finally, in today's economic environment, police executives are seeking "smarter" and more efficient methods of policing, relying on better evidence to achieve organization goals and garner public support for police initiatives. To achieve these goals police executives will need to be responsive to a new "information imperative" and work with researchers to "measure what matters" to their constituents. To achieve organizational effectiveness in crime reduction, Compstatlike systems have been adopted to measure police performance in assigned areas using traditional crime indicators such as arrests, crime incidents, clearances and calls for service. To achieve the newer goal of fairness and equity in police performance, however, experts have argued that data systems will need to incorporate new measures of the quality of police activity. Furthermore, in separate surveys of employees as part of the National Police Research Platform, eight out of 10 police officers reported that their agency is "more interested in measuring the amount of activity by officers (e.g. number of tickets or arrests) than the quality of their work." Details: Washington, DC: U.S. National Institute of Justice, National Police Research Platform, 2011. 11p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 3, 2018 at: http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/733761/11089087/1299437174827/Public+Satisfaction.pdf?token=i2OZS7uynBF8WFqFCl2191rK3LA%3D Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/733761/11089087/1299437174827/Public+Satisfaction.pdf?token=i2OZS7uynBF8WFqFCl2191rK3LA%3D Shelf Number: 150448 Keywords: Police EffectivenessPolice PerformancePolice-Citizen InteractionsPolice-Community Relations |
Author: International Association of Chiefs of Police Title: 10 Things Law Enforcement Executives Can Do To Positively Impact Homicide Investigation Outcomes Summary: Homicides are challenging events for communities and they are often complex from an investigative standpoint. Although the crime may be clear-cut, the multifaceted issues surrounding it (public perception of safety and police effectiveness, witness cooperation, media and political pressures, etc.) can be daunting to a police agency and, in particular, the executive. Careers are often made or broken by a chief's response to and management of homicides. One of the standard benchmarks of police effectiveness is the homicide closure rate, which is a critically important figure that demands attention at the highest level of law enforcement leadership. However, focusing on the homicide closure rate alone can offer a limited perspective on public safety and police performance overall. In this report, executives are encouraged to consider additional activities and measures to supplement the closure rate in evaluating and improving performance in a homicide unit. Further, this shift should be made with community involvement to increase its understanding of how units and agencies function. This report does not suggest that introducing additional measures of performance and safety will be accepted immediately nor that case closure rates are less deserving of attention; rather, the process of looking more holistically at homicide investigation outcomes must start now and develop in partnership with others - to improve perception, understanding, and overall effectiveness. This begins with the executive making improved homicide investigation outcomes (including closure rates) a priority and being willing to implement change. This report offers a starting point for executives and highlights 10 recommendations that will help executives support homicide investigations, investigators, and the communities they serve. A critical step in this process is for an executive to connect his/her commanders, supervisors, and investigators with the tools and resources they need to be successful. While this report focuses on the administrative environment necessary to support successful homicide investigative outcomes, a companion guide - Homicide Process Mapping: Best Practices for Increasing Homicide Clearances, which was made possible with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and available through the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) - details effective investigative practices. Both components - administration and investigation - are essential for effectively impacting homicide investigation outcomes. Details: Alexandria, VA : International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2013. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 10, 2018 at: https://www.nationalpublicsafetypartnership.org/Documents/10%20Things%20Law%20Enforcement%20Executives%20Can%20Do%20to%20Positively%20Impact%20Homicide%20Investigation%20Outcomes.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://www.nationalpublicsafetypartnership.org/Documents/10%20Things%20Law%20Enforcement%20Executives%20Can%20Do%20to%20Positively%20Impact%20Homicide%20Investigation%20Outcomes.pdf Shelf Number: 131631 Keywords: Criminal Investigations Homicide Investigation Homicides Police EffectivenessPolice Performance |
Author: Great Britain. House of Commons. Home Affairs Committee Title: Policing for the future. Report, together with formal minutes related to the report Summary: This wide-ranging report examines changing demands on policing, and considers the extent to which the service is able to meet the challenges that these create. We look first at changing trends in crime and policing and the overarching problems facing the police service in England and Wales, such as funding and investment; then at three specific areas of growing pressure on policing-online fraud, child sexual abuse, and safeguarding vulnerable people; and finally at the wider, cross-cutting reforms that are required. Our inquiry has found that police officers across the country continue to perform a remarkable and immensely valuable public service, often in the most exacting of circumstances. However, figures on police welfare paint a picture of a service under serious strain, and we conclude that forces are badly overstretched: the number of traditional volume crimes is rising, but the number of arrests and charges brought by the police is falling. Policing is struggling to cope in the face of changing and rising crimes, as a result of falling staff numbers, outdated technology, capabilities and structures, and fragmented leadership and direction. Without significant reform and investment, communities will be increasingly let down. We found that: - Many 'volume' crimes, including robbery, theft from the person, and vehicle-related theft, have been increasing sharply after a long period of decline. While recorded crimes have risen by 32% in the last three years, the number of charges or summons has decreased by 26%, and the number of arrests is also down. - Neighbourhood policing, which is vital to the service's response to many types of crime, is being eroded: we found that forces had lost at least a fifth of their neighbourhood policing capacity, on average, since 2010. - Without additional funding for policing, we have no doubt that there will be dire consequences for public safety, criminal justice, community cohesion and public confidence. We strongly recommend that police funding is prioritised in the Autumn Budget and the next Comprehensive Spending Review. The current police funding model is not fit for purpose: it is time to stop kicking the problem into the long grass, and recognise the true cost of policing. We make a number of specific recommendations about three growing areas of demand: online fraud, child sexual abuse, and safeguarding vulnerable people. Whilst the police and Home Office have worked together very effectively on investment and reform to counter the changing terror threat, in these other areas in which demand is changing, they are struggling to respond. We reach the following conclusions: - Only a tiny proportion of online fraud cases are ever investigated, and the police response to this form of crime is in desperate need of a fundamental restructure, with investigations undertaken at a national and regional level and local forces focusing on victim support. - The private sector must do much more to reduce demand on policing from online fraud and child sexual abuse, and we make specific recommendations about the regulation of internet companies, including those taking insufficient action against indecent images of children. - Police forces are woefully under-resourced for the number of online child abuse investigations they now need to undertake, and the demands created by the management of registered sex offenders. - The Government should appoint a Commissioner for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse to work across departments and agencies, and who should produce a bold and comprehensive cross-Government strategy on child protection and the prevention of child sexual abuse. - Forces should be mandated to provide a minimum two-day training course on mental health to all officers and police community support officers (PCSOs), and the Government should use the NHS funding uplift to achieve a significant reduction in the level of police involvement in mental health crisis work. Drawing on over 90 pieces of written evidence and nine oral evidence sessions, we also reach a number of overarching conclusions about the future of policing in England and Wales, which must be addressed with urgency if the police service is to meet the challenges of the 21st century: - Forces are failing to meet the challenges of the digital age. Police forces' investment in and adoption of new technology is suffering from a complete lack of coordination and leadership, which is badly letting down police officers, who are struggling to do their jobs with out-of-date technology. We fear that the lack of digital capability has become a systemic problem through the service. The Government should urgently cost and scope a prestigious national digital exploitation centre for serious crime, in time to account for the required funding in the next Comprehensive Spending Review. - Above all, policing is suffering from a complete failure of leadership from the Home Office. As the lead department for policing, it cannot continue to stand back while crime patterns change so fast that the police struggle to respond. Only a central Government department has the clout to drive national partnerships with organisations such as the NHS or with global internet companies, for example. - Before the end of November, the Home Office should launch a transparent, root-and-branch review of policing, publishing proposals by the end of February, which should focus on the reallocation of responsibilities and capabilities at a local, regional and national level. The Government should also set up a National Policing Council-a transparent, policy-making body chaired by the Home Secretaryand a National Policing Assembly, comprising all police and crime commissioners (PCCs) and chief constables. Details: London: House of Commons, 2018. 117p. Source: Internet Resource: Tenth Report of Session 2017-19; HC 515: Accessed October 29, 2018 at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmhaff/515/515.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmhaff/515/515.pdf Shelf Number: 153131 Keywords: Police Administration Police EffectivenessPolice Performance Police Reform Policing |