SOCI 2310 Module 6 Lecture Notes

police now and then

• composition of nation’s police force

  • 50 years ago

    • primarily white males

    • high school degrees

  • today

    • more racial and gender diversity

    • higher education

reasons for diversity in law enforcement

• improves the overall policing function

• bring special skills and capabilities to the force

minority police officers

• double marginality

  • members of their own community expect to be given preferential treatment

  • as officers, targets of institutional racism

• is there any improvement now?

women in policing

• first woman police officer: 1910, LAPD

• experienced discrimination

  • separate selection requirements

  • assigned menial tasks

• today

  • struggling for acceptance

  • may be targeted for more disciplinary action, face higher levels of job-related stress

educational characteristics

• most agencies don’t require a college degree

  • 1/3 of all departments require some college

• benefits

  • improved knowledge of the criminal knowledge justice system

  • better communication skills with the general public

  • more efficient performance

  • fewer citizen complaints

cynicism

• most people’s behavior is motivated by personal needs and selfishness

• cops are perceived as cynic

blue curtain

• secretive, insulated, isolates officers from society

• ever notice how police associate nearly exclusively with each other?

  • holiday events

  • children involvement in activities

  • camping and hunting

  • family vacations

core beliefs

• police are only real crime fighters

• no one else understands police work

• loyalty above all else

• public is unsupportive

• must bend rules to win war against crime

• patrol work is the pits

benefits and detriments of police culture

• benefits

  • helps adjustment

  • emotional support

  • decisiveness on the job

• unhealthy consequences

  • us against them mentality

  • promotes violence and brutality

general perception of who cops are

• dogmatic, authoritarian, and suspicious

• negative values cause secretive beliefs and isolation from society

• contributes to the blue curtain

decision points and emotional intelligence

• use of personal decision making and choice in carrying out operations in the criminal justice system; “decision points”

• emotional intelligence

  • monitoring one’s own, and others’, feelings and actions in order to guide action

police discretion

• legal factors (crime and victim)

  • discretion reduces with seriousness of crime

• environmental factors

  • expectations of the community, such as cultural tolerance for various behaviors

• departmental factors

  • the size of the police department

    • under-resourced may = greater enforcement

  • performance expectations

    • vary from department to department

    • quota system?

• peer factors

  • greater cohesion among officers = greater follow norms

  • behavioral expectations

  • seek status, prestige, and reward from peers

• situational factors (suspect behavior)

  • demeanor of the suspect

  • contextual factors; witnesses?

• extralegal factors

  • offender and victim characteristics

  • race, class, gender, age, religion, etc

job stress

• causes of stress

  • constant vigilance (on duty 24/7)

  • internal conflict with administrative policies

  • difficult to leave the job when not on duty

  • lack of equipment, training, or supervisory support

• combating stress

  • support in the workplace

  • training in stress management

fatigue

• can cause injury

• can diminish decision making

• controlling fatigue

  • limiting overtime

  • limitations on second jobs

police use of force

recent depictions on the media would seem to indicate that police use of force is a widespread, even an out of control phenomenon. is this the case of is it the case that it has received greater media scrutiny with the introduction of technology such as cell phones, youtube, facebook, etc.?

an uncommon event

• 17% US residents (16 or older) had a face to face contact with the police

• 90% felt officers acted properly

• 1.4% of all stops, the officer used or threatened to use force

differential experiences

• these numbers alone may in and of themselves indicate there isn’t that great of a problem in America with police use of force, however…

• the problem is in the differential experiences of persons of color, in particular African-American and Hispanic males

• again, we run into the issue concerning racial profiling, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination

% of officers physically struggled with suspect

• all officers » 33%

• gender

  • men, 35%

  • women, 22%

• race/ethnicity

  • whites, 36%

  • blacks, 20%

  • hispanics, 33%

% officers fired service weapon

• all officers, 27%

• gender

  • men, 30%

  • women, 11%

• race/ethnicity

  • whites, 31%

  • blacks, 21%

  • hispanics, 20%

use of deadly force

• force that’s likely to cause death or bodily harm

• suicide by cop

  • victim precipitated

  • role of mental illness

• controlling deadly force

  • Supreme Court and fleeing suspect ruling

factors related to police shootings

• local and national violence levels

• exposure to violence

• workload

• firearms availability

• social conflict

• administrative policies

• race

use of force continuum and objective reasonableness

• non-lethal force → any force not likely to cause death or bodily harm

• Graham v. Connor: objective reasonableness

non-lethal mesures training

• % no training

  • shoot/don’t shoot scenarios, 15%

  • non-lethal methods, 18%

  • mental health crises, 19%

  • de-escalation techniques, 24%

• % four plus hours training

  • shoot/don’t shoot scenarios, 31%

  • non-lethal methods, 31%

  • mental health crises, 34%

  • de-escalation techniques, 32%

technology and reduction in force

• reducing or capturing police violence

  • body cams

  • dashboard cams

  • presence of cell phones

police believe body cams change behavior?

• affect behavior

  • all officers, 50%

  • whites, 46%

  • blacks, 71%

  • hispanics, 53%

• doesn’t affect behavior

  • all officers, 44%

  • whites, 49%

  • blacks, 25%

  • hispanics, 42%

curbing violence - thought?

• early identification

  • complaints, firearm, use of force reports, resisting arrest reports, high speed pursuit

• specialized training (i.e. anger management)

• proactive discipline programs

• active review of use of force incidents

police as victims

• roughly 50 officers per year feloniously killed

• approximately 1,000 officers assaulted for every 1 slain

• national law officers memoral

• officer down memorial page

how public sees police, and police see themselves (community as a whole)

• protectors or enforcers?

  • majority see officers in both roles, but…

  • police are twice as likely to see themselves as protectors, but…

  • 3 in 10 of public see the police as enforcers

police officers’ views (more officers and what they do)

• police

  • 80% want more officers

  • majority think public does not understand their job

• public

  • 60% doesn’t

  • majority thinks they do understand

nature and difficulty of job

• police are 3x more likely than general public to report nearly always or often feeling unsafe at their jobs

• overwhelming proportion of police report their jobs are harder after shootings and protests

sufficient changes for equality

• have their been sufficient changes to bring about equality between whites and blacks/hispanics?

  • sufficient changes

    • 8 in 10 police

      • 90+% white officers

      • <30% black officers

    • 50% general public

      • 57% whites

      • 12% blacks

views of deaths among blacks (primarily officer shootings)

• one of the greatest differences in the study pertains to police violence and shootings of young black men

• question: are the shootings isolated incidents or a reflection of a broader social pattern or concerns?

• they are isolated incidents

  • 69% officers vs 39% public

  • 70% white officers vs 50% black officers

  • black officers approximately 2x as likely as black population

why are there protests? (anti-police bias)

• 9 in 10 of all police officers believe there is an anti-police bias that motivates the protests

• 8 in 10 of public believe there is an anti-police bias that motivates the protests

• similar, yet larger, disparities between black officers and black population — officers believing the protests are anti-police bias motivated

why are there protests? (accountability)

• 1/3 police say accountability was the motive

• 2/3 of public feels the same

• white officers by far the lowest level of support for this explanation; majority believe anti-police protests

body cams and gun reform

• public/police agreement

  • body cams

  • gun control — mentally ill; background checks; federal database

• public/police disagreement

  • law enforcement — gun ownership rights more important than gun control

  • assault ban support — twice as high for public