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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 11:20 pm
Time: 11:20 pm
Results for police-citizen interaction
6 results foundAuthor: Myhill, Andy Title: It's a Fair Cop? Police Legitimacy, Public Cooperation, and Crime Reduction. An Interpretative Evidence Commentary Summary: This paper is an interpretative commentary rather than a straightforward summary of research findings. The paper draws on robust research evidence, but does not review or formally assess the quality of all the available evidence. • The next few years will be challenging for a police service expected to reduce crime with fewer resources. Forces will inevitably have to make hard choices on what to prioritise in order to achieve this goal. Ideally, these decisions should be based on a clear understanding of how crime can be prevented, and which policing activities are cost-effective. • New research by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) and London School of Economics suggests a policing approach that motivates the public to cooperate with the police and to not break the law could have significant benefits. As this approach seeks to encourage people to become more cooperative and socially responsible on a voluntary basis, by ‘winning hearts and minds’, it potentially offers a cost-effective way of reducing crime. • The NPIA study is in line with a growing international body of research. This research arguably has particular relevance to England and Wales because the relationship between the police and public has historically been defined in terms of ‘policing by consent’ – the idea that the police can only function because of the support given to it by the public. As public support is conditional and unlikely ever to be universal, ‘policing by consent’ raises important questions about the role the police are expected to perform and how officers are expected to act. This idea has continuing relevance to present day policing as it helps define the remit of the police service and mark out an important way in which it can fulfil its ‘core mission’. • The NPIA study – based on a robust national survey of the public – explored what motivated people to cooperate with the police (e.g. reporting crime and suspicious activity, and providing information to help catch offenders) and not breaking the law. Analysis found that the most important factor motivating people to cooperate and not break the law was the legitimacy of the police. When people thought the police were on the ‘same side’ as them, they were significantly less likely to say they had committed an offence and more inclined to say they would help with the police. Crucially, police legitimacy had a stronger effect on these outcomes than the perceived likelihood of people being caught and punished for breaking the law. • Trust and shared values were found to be key aspects of legitimacy. These attitudes were largely fostered by the perception of police fairness and not by the perception of police effectiveness (in terms of responding to emergencies, preventing and detecting crime, and keeping order). In other words, the legitimacy of the police in the eyes of the public was primarily based on people thinking officers would treat them with respect, make fair decisions and take time to explain them, and be friendly and approachable. • These findings have important implications for the police service. They show that fair decision-making and positive public interaction are not only important in their own right, but are also crucial for crime reduction in the longer term. The research suggests that the way officers behave is central to policing as it can encourage greater respect for the law and foster social responsibility. As the effect on crime would be largely preventive and rely on voluntary public cooperation, improved public encounters could help the police avoid the financial costs associated with enforcing the law, detecting crime, and processing offenders. • When forces decide how best to reduce crime with fewer resources, they should consider whether their proposed approach would enhance or undermine police legitimacy in the eyes of the public. While a narrow focus on enforcing the law might appeal to traditional ‘cop culture’, it was not found to have the strongest effect on cooperation and compliance, and might even be counter-productive in the longer-term if it is perceived to be unfair. • Widespread cultural change is likely to be required if the police are to capitalise on public cooperation. Other research by the NPIA on the police use of time, for example, has highlighted a prevailing view among officers that visible patrol is key to being effective, and that less value was place on interacting positively with the public. To help address these wider issues, the NPIA is currently providing support to two forces to understand the role leadership plays in shaping the values of frontline officers, and to evaluate the impact of innovative training on police contact with crime victims. Details: London: NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency), 2011. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 17, 2011 at: http://www.npia.police.uk/en/docs/Fair_cop_Full_Report.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.npia.police.uk/en/docs/Fair_cop_Full_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 123036 Keywords: Police LegitimacyPolice-Citizen InteractionPolice-Community Relations (U.K.)Public Opinion |
Author: Dvorak, Lisa Title: Designing and Implementing a Citizen Police Academy Summary: Police-community relations programs are typically established to help the community understand the role and problems of the police officer. In our ever-changing society the role and expectations of a police officer is not well-defined. This can contribute to misperception on the part of the police and the citizens. The police may be seen as inefficient or exceeding their authority and the citizens as uninterested or critical, wanting to exercise more control over police operations. To be effective, policing must involve a cooperative relationship between the citizens and the police. In his principles of law enforcement, Sir Robert Peel identified public approval, citizen cooperation, and crime prevention as necessary elements of policing. Police-community relations and citizen involvement programs attempt to combine these elements through a learning process. Historically, the learning process has been one-way geared towards educating the citizens. It is clear that citizen involvement programs should be expanded to ones that also include the education of the police. The police must gain a better understanding of the citizens’ needs and solicit their views, perceptions, and inputs. By creating a two-way learning process a much more effective cooperative relationship can be established. A program which may best define the total concepts of police-community relations, crime prevention and the two-way learning process between citizens and the police is the Citizen Police Academy. A Citizen Police Academy (CPA) is an interactive program that is designed to educate the public about its police department’s policies, rules, regulations, the criminal justice system, and crime prevention. Through blocks of instruction over a period of weeks the program allows citizens and police to meet and share ideas and information in a positive and proactive environment. The open dialogue fosters mutual understanding and respect. The idea of the CPA was developed in England in 1977 by the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, Middlemoor, Exeter. Originally known as the “Police Night School,” the program was designed to familiarize private citizens with the nature of police work and the organization of the police system in England. Police personnel taught the Police Night School on a volunteer basis. The success of the program inspired several other British police departments to imitate it. In 1985, the Orlando, Florida Police Department introduced the concept of the Police Night School in their agency and created the first CPA in the United States. With the success of the program, other U.S. cities have followed Orlando’s lead. The first Texas CPA was started in Missouri City in 1986. The theme of these and all CPA programs is to create better understanding and awareness between citizens and police through education. Details: San Marcos, TX: San Marcos Police Department, 1995. 33p. Source: Copies Available from the Don M. Gottfredson Library Year: 1995 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 125621 Keywords: Police-Citizen Academy (U.S.)Police-Citizen InteractionPolice-Community Relations |
Author: Graham, John Title: Policing Young Adults: A Scoping Study Summary: This report presents the findings of a small scoping study on the policing of young adults. Its main aim is to highlight key issues and challenges and identify a future agenda for research, policy and practice. It draws on a small number of interviews with young adults, police officers and individual experts (e.g. policy makers, community safety experts and relevant literature). The study focuses on encounters between young adults and the police, particularly those involving stop and search and the night-time economy, and how well the police handle – and are trained to handle – such encounters. Details: London: Police Foundation, 2013. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 5, 2013 at: http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/uploads/catalogerfiles/policing-young-adults/policing_young_adults.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.police-foundation.org.uk/uploads/catalogerfiles/policing-young-adults/policing_young_adults.pdf Shelf Number: 127846 Keywords: Police BehaviorPolice LegitimacyPolice-Citizen InteractionPolice-Community RelationsPolicing (U.K.)Young Adult Offenders |
Author: Wassel, Todd Title: Institutionalising community policing in Timor-Leste: police development in Asia's youngest country Summary: As part of ODI's Securing Communities project, which aims to understand different models of community policing around the world, this case study examines the development of community policing policy and practice in Timor-Leste. As with the Securing Communities project more broadly, the focus is on the diversity of objectives, approaches and methods of community policing, the 'messy politics' of its development and what this means for those who aim to support this policing model. This case study examines some key features of community policing policy development and practice in Timor-Leste. Details: London: Overseas Development Institute, 2014. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 9, 2014 at: http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/8841.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Asia URL: http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/8841.pdf Shelf Number: 133620 Keywords: Community Policing (Timor-Leste)Police ReformPolice-Citizen InteractionPolice-Community RelationsPolicing |
Author: Bennett, Paul Anthony Title: Identity performance and gendered culture: becoming and being a Neighbourhood Officer Summary: In recent years the police service has undergone a number of changes with the introduction of neighbourhood policing (NP) being one of the most significant. NP represents the latest in a long line of government endorsed attempts to introduce a more community orientated and customer focussed approach to policing. NP encourages police constables (PCs) and, the recently introduced, police community support officers (PCSOs) to spend more time engaging with the public, supporting vulnerable members of community and working in partnership with other agencies. This style of policing represents a significant departure from established understandings of policing which have become synonymous with 'response policing' with its focus on maintaining public order and arresting criminals. A great deal of research over the last 30 years has referred to the highly gendered culture of policing which has also been the subject of a great deal of criticism. This research focuses on the identity performances of NP officers and the different ways that NP is enacted within different contexts and situated interactions. My conceptual framework draws on both ethno-methodological and post-structural approaches in understanding how officers in different contexts constructed, reconstructed and resisted discourses in the performances of particular identities. This framework is therefore sensitive to how power and resistance works through discursive constructions within particular contexts. To further improve our appreciation of context, emphasis is given to the importance of cultural meanings as an important source of discursive constraint. However, the research clearly shows that while some discourses may be dominant in influencing identity performances, these are always contested and it is though the clash of competing discourses that the agency of NP officers is revealed (Holmer-Nadesan 1996). The study adopts an ethnographic methodology, using participant observation and semi-structured interviews to examine four broad NP contexts. These are the PCSO training course and the three neighbourhood teams, all of which are located in a different policing environment. Drawing on ethno-methodology, my approach focused on the front and back stage contexts of neighbourhood policing, examining the relationships between discourses and performances within these contexts. The findings reveal the strength of dominant policing discourses linked to gender, police professionalism, 'real' policing and community and also shows the ways that these discourses are also infused and subverted by different sets of meanings and ways of being. The PCs and PCSOs involved in the study were seen to manoeuvre and navigate these contested discourses in the ways they enacted NP in different contexts. The research also reveals the contested and fragmented nature of policing cultures and how these cultures may be best understood as a coexistence of multiple constructions of discourse (Mumby, 2011). The concluding discussion of the thesis presents a number of contributions in relation to the discursive construction of identities, the influence of gendered cultures as well as the challenge of introducing NP into British policing. Details: Cardiff: Cardiff University, 2011. 251p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed March 9, 2015 at: http://orca.cf.ac.uk/26175/ Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://orca.cf.ac.uk/26175/ Shelf Number: 134768 Keywords: Neighborhood Policing (U.K.)Police ReformPolice-Citizen InteractionPolice-Community Relations |
Author: Muggah, Robert Title: Filling the Accountability Gap: Principles and practices for implementing body cameras for law enforcement Summary: New technologies are revolutionizing the way governments provide services, including law enforcement. Around the world, police departments are investing in predictive analytics, digital forensics, data mining systems and crime mapping platforms to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their work. They are also experimenting with mobile technologies to strengthen communication and outreach. One such device - on-officer recording systems, or body-worn cameras (BWC) - is catching on. Police are experimenting with "cop cams" in dozens of cities across North America and Western Europe while sparking debate and some controversy in the process. There are also small-scale pilots using open source and mobile phone-operated BWCs in Latin America and South Africa. There is growing awareness of their effectiveness. The introduction of BWCs has the potential to transform policing. If implemented with appropriate checks and balances, BWCs can potentially improve oversight over police officers and strengthen their accountability to citizens. Many civil liberties groups are already advocating for cameras due to their ability to check the abuse of power by police while also helping to protect them (and citizens) against false accusations. What is more, cumulative data harvested by such devices can improve the targeting of crime prevention efforts as well as overall law enforcement performance. With safeguards in place, citizens, too, will benefit from these technologies since the use of cameras changes the nature of police-civilian interaction, most often for the better Of course, there are also risks associated with cop cams. This is particularly the case if broader policy and institutional questions related to the deployment of the technology are not adequately thought through. On the one hand, if deployed inappropriately and without proper oversight, body cameras can violate citizens' rights to privacy.4 Body cameras used without restrictions are tantamount to pervasive surveillance. They can be used invasively since police routinely enter citizens' homes and often encounter individuals in extreme situations. On the other, the use of body cameras without adequate consideration of how such tools will be implemented can lead to cost overruns (especially in relation to storing and redacting data) and, ultimately, the rejection of the tool itself. Guidance on the best practices of cop cams is urgently needed. Note too that the other end of the spectrum - complete officer discretion over when to activate a camera - has been shown to increase, not decrease, both officer use of force and assaults on police. This Strategic Note sets out some of the opportunities and challenges associated BWCs. It builds on several years of experience of the IgarapeInstitute in testing body cameras in Brazil and South Africa, as well as consultations with dozens of specialists in law enforcement and civil liberties communities. It focuses especially on key political and institutional questions regarding the management of these new tools. The first section highlights the emergence of new technologies in law enforcement and, in particular, the rise of cop cams. Section two underlines some of the controversies - both operational and ethical - associated with these technologies. The third section presents a shortlist of emerging principles for institutionalizing cop cams, as well as practices that flow from them. The note is not exhaustive; it is a first pass over a complex and rapidly-evolving public policy area. Details: Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Igarapé Institute, 2016. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Strategic Note 23: Accessed February 28, 2017 at: https://igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/AE-24_Filling-the-accountability-gap-body-worn-cameras-14-11.pdf Year: 2016 Country: International URL: https://igarape.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/AE-24_Filling-the-accountability-gap-body-worn-cameras-14-11.pdf Shelf Number: 145580 Keywords: Body-Worn CamerasPolice AccountabilityPolice CamerasPolice SurveillancePolice TechnologyPolice-Citizen Interaction |