Police Role and Subculture

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Police Role and Subculture
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Police role in a democracy

• Police are the only agency of government charged
  with accomplishing public purposes through force
  and coercion
• The more that citizens voluntarily comply with
  the police, the less the police need to use force
  and coercion
• Police are the final recourse when civility and
  law observance break down
• The more that citizens voluntarily comply with
  societys expectations, the less they need the
  police
• Persistent issues
• Who decides what is a legitimate public purpose?
• Who decides what civility means? What laws
  should be enforced?
• Is there sufficient consensus? How much is
  enough?

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What do the police actually do?

• Identify and arrest criminals
• Specific deterrence
• Deter crime through patrol and othermeans
• General deterrence
• Promote civility and order
• Provide emergency services
• Help those at risk of being victimized
• Facilitate movement of traffic
• Resolve conflicts
• Promote a feeling of community security

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What is real police work?

• Bill owns a loud dog. Jack is sick and tired
  ofbeing woken up by the pooch. So Jack goes
  tothe backyard, hooks up a water hose, sticks
  itover the fence and drenches Fido. Bill yells
  atJack. They start calling each other names
  andchallenging to fight. Mary, another
  neighbor, calls the cops.
• Steve and Jane live in an apartment. They start
  arguing about money. It gets louder, turns into
  cussing, then pushing and shoving, then objects
  being thrown. Nancy, who lives in the apartment
  next door, calls the cops.

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Is crime-fighting overstated?

• Conventional academic perspective
• Police like to think of themselves as
  crime-fighters (robbery, burglary, etc.) but in
  fact theyre mostly peacekeepers (neighbor
  disputes, family fights)
• The police crime-fighting role is vastly
  overstated supposedly takes only 20 percent of
  an officers time
• Most officer time is spent on peacekeeping and
  paperwork
• Are peacekeeping and crime fighting
  fundamentally different?
• Crime (Calif. Penal Code, sec. 15) A crime or
  public offense is an act committed or omitted in
  violation of a law...
• Disturbing the peace (415 P.C.) Assault (240
  P.C.)

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Family dispute shots fired

• February 22, 1994 LAPD OfficerChristy
  Hamilton, Devonshire Division
• Officers Hamilton and others respondedto a
  family disturbance with shots fired in a
  residential neighborhood. As she stood by her
  patrol car a 17-yearold youth who had just
  murdered his father fired a.223 caliber assault
  rifle, striking officer Hamiltonabove her
  ballistic vest. The assailant committed suicide.

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Petty larceny

• October 22, 1996 LAPD OfficerMario Navidad,
  Wilshire Division
• Officer Navidad and his partner wereflagged down
  by a convenience store clerk who saida young man
  walking down an alley had just stolentwo
  six-packs of beer. As the officers approached
  intheir vehicle the suspect pulled a .380 pistol
  andfired, striking officer Navidad, the
  passenger, multiple times in the chest, between
  the panels of his ballistic vest. The suspect
  was killed in an exchange of gunfire.

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Abuse of domesticpartner

• February 20, 2004 LAPD OfficerRicardo
  Lizarraga, Newton DivisionOfficer Lizarraga and
  his partner were flaggeddown by a battered woman
  who asked them to expel a boyfriend from her
  apartment. As officer Lizarraga entered the
  residence the male emerged with a pistol and
  started shooting, striking officer
  Lizarraga under his ballistic vest.
  The suspect, a gang
  member and convicted
  felon, escaped but was
  arrested several hours later. He
  hung himself in his jail cell the
  next day.

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Environment of policing

• Demographics
• Community size, population density, urban/rural
• Socioeconomic factors
• Nature of police work
• Legal, social and political constraints
• Risk and uncertainty
• Ready availability of firearms
• Unrealistic expectations
• Crime and disorder are social problems with few
  fixed solutions
• Departmental variables
• Resources (personnel, training and equipment)
• Leadership and oversight

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James Q. Wilson --Varieties of Police Behavior

• Different social and political environments lead
  agencies toadopt different policing styles
• WatchmanFocus on order maintenance. Ignore
  minor infractions, less bothered by vice.
  Preference to resolve issues informally.
• LegalisticEager to invoke formal sanctions
  (arrests and citations). Disorderly persons
  viewed as a criminal threat. Reluctance to
  intervene when legal authority is unclear.
• ServiceBlend of the above styles, with less
  emphasis on making arrests. Preference to
  resolve situations through conciliation and by
  making referrals to social service agencies.

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Discretion

• Police Issues
• LASD Lt. Bill Evans memo about Biola college
  student caught with illegal knife
• Are you really going to put a felony on this
  guy? Here is a kid that could have been planning
  on going into the military, being a cop or
  fireman....
• Police experts divided.
• President of Police Foundation thought that
  taking the individual into account opens
  department to charge of bias
• Merrick Bobb asked what if the same kid was a
  black student with long dreadlocks at Dorsey
  High?
• Policies governing discretion lack detail because
  facts are often lacking or too ambiguous or
  politically incorrect to articulate or put into
  writing
• Are there benefits to taking official action when
  someone is caught with an illegal knife?

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Factors affecting theexercise of discretion

• Seriousness of an offense, harm committed
• Mandates to arrest (e.g., spousal abuse)
• Presence of weapons, criminal record, suspect
  attitude
• Immediately available resources (e.g., partner,
  backup)
• Workload
• Department policy (formal)
• Accepted practices (informal)
• Presence and attitude of supervisors
• Peer expectations
• Community and citizen pressures
• Presence and attitudes of victims and witnesses

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Individual differencesare important

• Personality characteristics
• Training and experience
• Knowledge, skills and abilities
• Political views, moral codes
• Physical factors
• Strength and endurance
• Ability in unarmed combat
• Psychological factors
• Decision-making abilities
• Self-control
• Aggressiveness
• Tolerance for risk

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Lessons of the jobaffect what officers do

• Recruits learn caution at the academy
• Police work can be dangerous
• Stories of officers hurt and killed
• Patrol work teaches powerful lessons
• Reality ?? altruistic, helping orientation
• Badge gun ¹ compliance
• Almost anyone can prove dangerous
• Justice not always possible
• Constant exposure to the unpleasantaspects of
  human nature
• Some consequences
• Pre-existing characteristics ?? environment of
  policing
• Shortcuts to decision-making profiling, the
  symbolic assailant
• Territoriality , solidarity, code of silence

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Tolerance for risk

• Blog post
• In El Monte, police tried to pull over a
  vehiclecontaining three gang members
• The driver, a parolee-at-large took off. After a
  wild pursuit, he crashed the vehicle into a
  parked car and fled on foot.
• He was quickly corralled in a rear yard and lay
  down on the grass, proned out
• For no clear reason, the first police officer to
  approach severely kicked him in the head
• The officer would later say that the suspect
  alarmed him by turning his head in the officers
  direction
• The officer was heavily criticized by use of
  force experts. But the D.A. declined to
  prosecute him for assault.
• Question what drove the officer to take that
  action?

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Self-control

• Police Issues
• Cambridge (MA) admin sergeant on his way to the
  station jumps on a possible residential burglary
  call
• 9-1-1- caller told the dispatcher about two
  males, one possibly Hispanic, and that one seemed
  to force his way into the residence
• The sergeant met with the caller. His report
  will later say that she told him there were two
  black males with backpacks. She will deny it.
• There was no burglary. After identifying
  himself, the resident, a black Harvard professor,
  challenged the sergeants reason for being there.
  He then followed him outside and kept yelling.
• The sergeant arrested the homeowner for
  disorderly conduct. Prosecutors quickly
  dismissed the charges.
• A report on the incident laid blame on both
  parties.

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Such issues are notunique to the police

• Many service occupations have similarcareer
  tracks
• Medical student ? intern ? physician
• Certain personality types are drawn to certain
  occupations
• Interaction between individual characteristics
  and the workplace environment can...
• Threaten helping orientation
• Cause cynicism
• Provoke us versus them attitude
• Exaggerate occupational solidarity, resulting in
  a code of silence

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Back to Wilsonwhy do policing styles differ?

• Article Police Culture and Coercion,
  Criminology, 414, 2003

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Indianapolis v St. Petersburg

• Based on article policing styles differ
• Indianapolis impersonal traditional approach
• St. Petersburg personalized community approach
  
• Why?
• Police decided?
• Ruling class decided?
• Community determined?
• Consider differences between communities
• Demographics
• Crime
• Police coverage
• Consider effects of these differences
• Officer backup / number on scene
• Response time
• Pressures to move on (calls waiting)
• Opportunity for investigation crime solving
• Always remember individual officer styles do vary