Day 7: Selected Issues in Policing

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Day 7 Selected Issues in Policing

• Diversity (in police personnel)
• Discretion
• Police Misconduct
• Terrorism as emerging problem

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1. Diversity Who are the police? Do they
represent the community?

• What do the police look like (as individual
  police officers)?
• How well does this seem to correspond to the
  community being policed?
• Traditional structural patterns (as
  quasi-military organization)
• Policing is male-dominated
• Policing is majority-dominated
• Policing has been predominately working class

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1. Diversity in Gender

• First women police officer in 1910 (LA), but
  limited participation continued
• Some opportunities during WWII but these were not
  permanent
• Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 made hiring
  discrimination less viable, but it has persisted
  it has been expanded
• Greater efforts have been made in last two
  decades as result of
• Legal changes and decisions
• Research showing problems, benefits, and outcomes

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1. Diversity in Gender (cont.)

• In 2003, 11.3 of police officers in U.S. are
  female (up from 7.6 in 1987)
• This varies considerably across different size
  communities departments
• Large communities (lt1 million) over 17
• Small communities (lt 10,000) only 6
• Note the multiple marginality of minority females
• Things have changed but even more change is likely

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1. Diversity in Race

• Earliest identifiable hiring of minority officers
  occurs in 1860s-1870s ? very restricted
  jurisdictions
• African-American officers in black neighborhoods
• American Indian officers on reservations
• Few significant changes until 1960s 1970s
• Currently 11.7 of officers Black (vs. 12.3 of
  the general population)
• But significant variation by community size

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1. Diversity in Race (cont.)

• Note significant variation in black police by
  community size
• Large cities (gt 500,000) 20.6 of officers
• Small cities (lt 10,000) 5.0 of officers
• Latino/Hispanic officers slightly less prevalent
  ? Overall 9.1 of officers (14.8 of
  population)
• Large cities (gt 500,000) 13.6 of officers
• Small cities (lt 10,000) 3.4 of officers
• Other minorities much less frequent
• Overall 2.8 (vs. 13.7 of population)

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1. Diversity in Education level

• Policing has historically been a working class
  occupation
• August Volmer attempted to change that (but
  without much effect)
• 1970s beginning of push for education of police
  (through educational assistance)
• Some slight increase in education requirements of
  largest departments
• but most still require only High School diploma
• Largest emphasis on education in Administration
  and Federal Hiring

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2. Discretion What does it involve? Why is it a
problem?

• Discretion authority or latitude to decide how
  to act when judgment seems clear cut
• Subjectivity in perception is it actionable?
• Discretion to act what action to take?
• What is the problem with discretion?
• Value the rule of law where the enforcement is
  impartial, constant, and equal
• Yet most people see full enforcement as
  intolerable and undesirable
• Full enforcement is also impractical (if not
  impossible) to achieve

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2. Discretion (cont.)

• Discretion presents a dilemna
• Discretion may violate ideas of equality
• Discretion is necessary seemingly unavoidable
• Discretion occurs without much oversight
• Where discretion applies
• Patrolling -- Search
• Surveillance -- arrest
• Pursuits -- Charging
• Stops -- Use of force
• Interrogation -- Use of restraint

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2. Discretion (cont.)

• What shapes the exercise of discretion
• Legal
• Departmental
• SOP (Written Departmental Policy)
• Administrative oversight
• Reporting procedures
• Environmental resources expectations rewards
• Peer culture shared values and customs
• Situational (victim offender witnesses
  backups other officers physical conditions)
• Personal

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2. Discretion (cont.)

• Is Discretion a good thing or a bad thing?
• The answer seems to be It depends
• Who is exercising it
• What kinds of judgments it involves
• What are the outcomes
• How to control Discretion?
• Well-defined implemented departmental policy
• Training and standardization
• Transparency and documentation of actions
• Consider the use of Profiling as an application
  of discretion that is controversial

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2. Discretion (cont.) - Profiling

• Consider Use of Profiling as case-in-point
• Profiling Reliance on patterns of
  information (profiles) about criminal offenders
  to arbitrarily select persons for differential
  enforcement actions
• Surveillance
• Stopping/detaining
• Searching
• Use of force
• Investigating
• Arresting/Accusing

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2. Discretion (cont) -- Profiling

• Why is profiling used?
• To improve the effectiveness of enforcement
  ?catch more bad guys
• To improve the efficiency of enforcement ? less
  time looking at the wrong people
• Assumption is It works it makes sense
• Why is profiling controversial?
• Selectivity loss of due process
• Bias and discrimination
• ineffectiveness

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Profiling as controversial

• Of particular concern is race-based profiling
• Explicit profiling using racial or ethnic
  categories for selective enforcement
• Implicit profiling by using of racial proxies
• De Facto profiling using neutral criteria that
  result in racial differentials

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Does profiling really occur?

• How much profiling occurs?
• According to police very little
• According to minority communities a lot
• According to research?
• Studies show racial bias is very common but not
  universal
• Less bias in who gets stopped
• More bias in who is searched or arrested
• Greatest bias in discretionary tasks

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Does profiling really occur?

• Why so much disagreement about whether it occurs?
• Research is not definitive limited data
  skepticism about proof-by-statistics
• Being unbiased is a strong social value strong
  incentive not to admit it
• Few people recognize their own biases
• Persistent belief that profiling works is an
  sensible way to deal with criminals

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How well does profiling work?

• Intuitive evidence and ease of confirming
  personal biases
• What does does research show?
• Research shows that profiling seldom improves law
  enforcement
• Hit rates almost always about the same for
  profiled and nonprofiled groups
• Is profiling a useful tradeoff or a bad bargain?

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3. Police Misconduct Misuse of Discretion and
Authority

• Misfeasance ? failure to follow departmental
  procedures
• Abusive behavior ? improper actions in violation
  of citizens rights (e.g., excessive force,
  harrassment, bias)
• Corruption ? improper use of authority for
  personal gain

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3. Police Misconduct Why does it occur?

• Systemic (subcultural) vs. Individual (bad
  apple)
• Meat-eaters vs. Meat-eaters ? recognize wide
  variation in offenders
• Opportunity Issues ? special incentives and weak
  controls exist in some areas of policing (e.g.,
  vice, special ops)

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3. Police Misconduct Remedies and Responses

• Civil Suits (torts) ?victim sues agencies and
  officer (most common)
• Criminal Prosecutions ? state prosecute
  individual officers
• Administrative Discipline ? Internal review
  procedures and External review boards

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4. Terrorism as Emerging Police Issue

• Terrorism becomes a domestic policing problem
• Domestic terrorism locally organized
• International terrorism on local soil
• What is terrorism?
• Is it different from ordinary crime?
• Does it call for special treatment/tactics?

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What is terrorism?

• Definition of terrorism?
• Difficulty in eliminating ideological bias
• Essential features of terrorism
• How is terrorism different from crime?
• Different forms or types of terrorism
• By cause or motivation
• By target
• By methods
• By organizational structure

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What is terrorism?

• Does terrorism call for special tactics and
  procedures?
• Inadequacy of ordinary CJ procedures?
• Adoption of Warfare framework
• Adoption of martial law framework
• Use of extraordinary procedures (e.g., profiling
  warrantless searches detention without charges)
• Dichotomization polarization of thinking
• Jurisdictional ambiguity of terrorism