Policing 2

Culture:

* Def.: the languages, customs, beliefs, rules, arts, knowledge, and collective identity and memory developed by a social group that make their social environment meaningful.
* No one person defines culture 
* You need a group

Police Culture

Def.: the languages, customs, beliefs, rules, arts, knowledge, and collective identity and memory developed among police that make their social environment meaningful.

Police culture ex.

* Cops who go against their fellow officers are branded as traitors
* The culture is a reflection of the structure

* Monolithic/Occupational Model of Police Culture

* Def: a model of police culture that emphasizes __consistency__ of police culture because of the __common working environment__ and pressures of the police occupation (i.e. police work).
* Consistent problems = consistent culture

Officers share a __common problem__

the threat of violence on the street.

* Cultural adaptations __common to officers__: 

* Suspicion of non-police: on the lookout for the “symbolic assailant”(potential threats) (1966) 
* skolnick
* Loyalty and cohesion w/ other officers

Fragmented/Style Model of Police Culture

Def: a model of police culture that emphasizes __variation__ of police culture and officers’ __agency/ discretion__.

Because there are  \~800,000 officer across \~18,000 departments 

* There __IS__ variation in police culture and how it affects officer behavior.

* Organization vs. Behavior

* James Q. Wilson (1968)
* Local political culture -> police exec & dept. Organization ->police behavior
* Main Question: Does local political culture (e.g. government structure) affect how officers’ use their discretion (i.e., their STYLE) and what predicts differences across departments?

* 1. Legalistic 

* __Frequent & formal__ interactions 
* The CRIMINAL LAW defines when & how police intervene 
* Closest to “crime fighting”: Highest # of citations / arrests

* 2. Service 

* __Frequent and informal__ interactions 

Officers treat __all__ issues as requiring equal responsiveness, even those not related to crime

* 3. Watchman 

* __Infrequent__ interactions w/ the public 
* Closest to a “order maintenance” 
* MOST discretion: officers decide when / how to intervene

* Individual vs Style

* But INDIVIDUALS make choices and there is variation WITHIN departments. 

* Muir (1977) focused on 2 key “attitudes”: 

1. Passion
Comfort and willingness to use force
2. Perspective
Willingness to empathize with others

* 1. Professional 

* Willing and able to use force BUT also evaluates situations carefully to decide on use. Views policing as a complex Understands and accepts the limits of police

* 2. Enforcer 

* Willing and able to use force and often default to using force as a solution Views policing as a simple: “us vs. them” Likely to become frustrated with policing and turn cynical
* Grows detached from job/ cynical

* 3. Reciprocator 

* Empathize with the public but uncomfortable with the use of force Tend to see the “good side” of people May become frustrated with the limited ability to solve social ills and create long-term change
* Also become cynical, you cannot help everyone, police do not have the tools to help everyone

* 4. Avoider 

* Cynical and also uncomfortable/unwilling to use force Uninterested in police work beyond their own benefits/pay. No motivation = low job satisfaction Summary: lazy, incompetent
* Don't like job

Monolith + Style = Filter Model

Def.: a model of police culture that recognizes both common occupational-level components of police culture and how police culture can vary across police organizations and individual officers.

* If we measure within the squads, is that a better predictor of culture?

* Workgroup (i.e., sqad) culture predicts officer behavior. Squad-level belief in “aggressive patrol” predicted more violence and more citizen complaints. 

Squad-level effect STRONGER than individual-level beliefs.

Does being involved in a previous complaint with high complaint officers influence likelihood of receiving complaints  yourself?

* Officers are more likely to receive be named in an excessive force complaint if they were named in prior complaints with officers who had already gotten excessive force complaints. 
* Misconduct is LEARNED within GROUPS over TIME.
* It is not the behavior from the academy, it is officers THEMSELVES that recreate culture and affect how they police

Is police culture in the U.S. special?

* The degree/intensity of the problems is what sets it apart from other countries

* Monolith + Style = Filter Model

Def.: a model of police culture that recognizes both common occupational-level components of police culture and how police culture can vary across police organizations and individual officers.

You can have similarities AND differences.

* The Production of Police Culture
* Problems:

1. No explanation of where culture comes from
2. No explanation of how culture changes
Culture exists because INDIVIDUALS express it and reproduce it.
Chan’s theory explains change and resistance to change.

* The (Re)production culture

* Culture is influenced by structure AND individuals. Culture is NOT destiny. Culture CAN change. But… Culture is powerful.

* Uncertainty and Danger

* Statistically, other professions have higher on-the-job death rates 
* BUT police have VERY high rates of violent death. 
* U.S. has \~ 400 mil. firearms 
* Policing is full of uncertainty: low but non-zero probability of violence.

* Seemingly irrational beliefs can be tied back to police safety

* “Now more than ever we see our officers in the cross hairs of these criminals”
* Felonious officer deaths
* Trend is flat over times
* Policing is SAFER than ever

* The Danger Imperative: 

* a cultural frame defined by the preoccupation with violence and officer safety
* Danger is not something you can separate from our perceptions about race
* “Officer safety”

* The Danger Imperative is a colorblind frame recreated through colorblind mechanisms.

* “Everybody wants to murder you”

* Artifacts eg symbols, images, stories, reflect and recreate culture. 

* Commemorative artifacts increase police cohesion and link officers across SPACE and TIME to a collective memory of violence and death
* The wall
* If you don't take this job seriously- you will die

* Tactical imagination: 

* a cognitive strategy in which officers mentally rehearse their hypothetical reaction to an emergent threat.

* The What If game

* Think about the worst possible scenario
* “What happens if the driver of the car in front of you jumps out and points a gun and starts firing rounds off at you? What are you gonna do? \[...\] In this profession, you do have to make those split-second decisions sometimes.”

* Officers must maintain CONTROL of every situation to prevent it from escalating. 

* Any resistance (even disrespect) is a sign that a situation might escalate.
* Becomes a clue of potential threat

* Command presence:

* a physical projection of confidence, control, and competence to elicit cooperation, compliance, and prevent resistance.

* “Command presence” + “maintaining the edge” can turn into…

* aggression and violence later justified as necessary to ensure officer safety. 

* Culture → behavior that can ESCALATE the situation into a dominance contest.

* Officers are trained to think lack of compliance is a threat

Cohesion

* Def: the strength of social ties or bonds between members of a group 

* In-group cohesion is built on…

* __trust__ and enhances __cooperation__ 

* Officers depend on one another for: 

* Solving complex problems 
* Sharing workload 
* Emotional support 
* Providing mutual aid (i.e. safety)

* First known Black police officers: 

* 1867 - Selma, AL 
* 1868 - Jacksonville, FL 
* 1870 - Houston and Galveston, TX

* First Black Chiefs in… 

* Detroit: 1976 
* New York City: 1984 
* Philadelphia: 1988 
* Boston: 2018

* Samuel Battle -

* hired as 1st Black NYPD officer in 1911

* Racial/ethnic diversity has increased MORE and FASTER than gender diversity in U.S. policing.

* More racial/ethnic diversity in larger agencies. The most most diverse departments have an OVERrepresentation of racial/ethnic minorities compared to the U.S. population.

the blue wall of silence

The blue wall of silence, also blue code and blue shield, are terms used to denote the supposed informal code of silence among police officers in the United States not to report on a colleague's errors, misconducts, or crimes, especially as related to police brutality in the United States.

* 1st recorded female “patrolman”:

* Marie Owens, Chicago, 1891 
* Did NOT do patrol work : worked almost exclusively with women and children.

* Pre-1950:

* women worked mostly in non-sworn roles, or were restricted to evidence processing, “desk jobs” 

* First Female Patrol Officers:

* 1967, Indianapolis

* Different data sources but… Representation of women in policing has largely plateaued around

* 12-14%.

* The “Hard Charger” and the “Station Queen” (Herbert, 2001)

* Crime fighting is seen as brave, dangerous, “men’s work.”  | HARD CHARGER 
* Community policing, consoling victims, dealing with children is seen as “soft,” “women’s work.” | STATION QUEEN

are a record of what police departments formally value and reward.

* Commendations / awards

* Who gets awards? What kind of police work is awarded?

* > 60% of all awards mention “real” police work, 28% mention “soft.” 
* No gender difference in proportion of “real” police work awards for men vs. women. 
* Some bias toward more rewarding soft police work by women (more of the “soft” awards went to women).

* Policing has elevated rates of:

* Alcohol/drug abuse \~25% meet medical diagnosis Domestic violence Estimates: 2-4x higher rate of domestic violence in police families PTSD \~19% diagnosed, \~34% have symptoms Suicide Police rate is \~25% higher than the general public

shot v suicide

* 2-3x as many police commit suicide  every year than are shot in the line of duty.

Copaganda

* information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a positive view of police __or__ a negative view of police critics, __with or without__ the direct involvement of police themselves.

* Police are both 

* **Subjects** and **Producers** of media

* Consumers of crime dramas more likely to believe believe: 

* Police are effective 
* Police use force only when necessary 
* Misconduct does not lead to false confessions.

* 2. COPS presents an inaccurate view of police work crime in the U.S. 

* The % of arrests on COPS for drugs is 3x the percentage of U.S. arrests that are drug-related. 
* Oversized emphasis on violence, drugs, chases.

* 3. COPS uses and perpetuates racialized stereotypes of minority criminality. 

* 46% of Black & 50% of Latino arrests for violence occur before 1st commercial break vs. 29% of White arrests for violence

* Police TV shows like COPS are designed to **make money**, not enhance police accountability. 

Participating departments use TV shows to **manage public perception** and **increase recruitment.**

* “If it bleeds, it leads.” News that generates fear is

* **profitable**.

* Homicide accounts for

* 61% of coverage (1% of total crimes)
* There is very little context (about WHY something is happening)

* Crime and violence are

* overrepresented in news media coverage relative to their real-world prevalence.

* Media coverage of crime influences public perception. 

* People who consume more television news are more fearful of crime.

* Callanan and Rosenberger (2011) 

* Effect of media consumption __varies by race__ 
* Whites: media consumption →  increased confidence in police. 
* Blacks: media consumption → no effect on confidence in police.

* **Procedural justice**:

* the fairness of processes used by police in their interactions with the public. 
* treating people with dignity and respect 
* giving citizens voice during encounters 
* being neutral in decision making 
* conveying trustworthy motives

* Graziano & Gauthier (2018) 

* TV news consumers saw police as more legitimate than internet news consumers. 
* Consuming negative media coverage is also related to lower perceived police legitimacy. 
* Procedural justice during REAL LIFE encounters the strongest predictor of perceived police legitimacy.

* Media influences how people perceive the police, positively AND negatively.

* The news media is not a neutral party. Media decides what to cover and how.

* News stories are simple; **reality is complicated**. 

* Police can be unreliable sources for reporting on issues of police violence and misconduct.
* The news is not designed to give you depth
* Local news market is quick 
* Police can be very unreliable sources

* Increasing use of social media by police departments. Why?

* Manage public image / community engagement Recruitment Solicit tips / issue alerts Investigations

* OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS 

* National Institute of Justice (NIJ) 
* Major funding for policing interventions and research. 


* Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) 
* Training and technical assistance to law enforcement agencies. 
* Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) 
* OJP research, reports, and statistics
* The research arm do research on behalf of the DOJ

* Bureau of Justice Statistics

* Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA) 
* National census: police workforce, training, policies, budget, operations. 
* Administered every 4 (to 10) years. 
* No info on individual officers.
* No age, race, 
* Basic information about police force overall
* Top information about police overall
* Don't get updated info very often

* Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) 

* National sample (\~3k agencies). 
* More detailed info than CSLLEA on dept. operations 
* Collected every 3-4 years

* An examination of police use of force utilizing police training and neighborhood contextual factors

* Combined LEMAS with department data on UoF and neighborhood-level data. 
* FOUND: In-service training hours → more and higher levels of force. 
* Can’t know if because training → force or force → training.

* Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS) 

* Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) 
* Nationally- representative, >=16 years old, demographic info 
* Contact with police in past 12 months, citizen or police initiated, force used or threatened, 
* Collected every 3 years
* Supplement to a much larger survey
* Number is way bigger than the number of arrests 
* Only captures ppl over the age of 16

* Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS)Problems:

* SLOW: Data released about 2 years after collection. Not super detailed.
* Federal data is slow
* Been fighting this for the past 50 years/ data slow and bad

* Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

* Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) 
* Started in 1929 (reform era) 
* Voluntary participation 
* Hierarchy rule”: most serious crime is what is recorded. 
* Only record the most serious offense 
* Major limitation of the UCR
* SLOW: \~18 months after EOY for full data to be released.

* Police-Employee Data (PE) 

* Part of UCR data collection. 
* Officer info: gender, sworn/not sworn. 
* No race, no age, no education.
* Voluntary reporting

* Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) 

* Part of UCR data collection. Fatal and non-fatal, injury or non injury, type of weapon, assault context, officer demographics and assignments, suspect demographics. Voluntary reporting
* Problems: Non-response bias. Ex: in 2019,

* National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) 

* Replaced Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) in 2021. 
* More detail about each incident, including officers assaulted (will feed LEOKA data)
* Got over the hierarchy rule
* Was supposed to update and solve a lot of problems
* Problem: Non-response bias. 
* In 2020-2022, NIBRS below 60% minimum reporting threshold
* Has never provided the baseline reporting numbers that are required

* National Use-of-Force Data collection

* Was going to be the national data set 
* Just implementing new data sources is not going to be the answer

* 2. Local/State Level Data

* Wide variation in what police data is publicly available at the state and agency level.

* The Good;

* Seattle PD

* The Bad:

* New Haven PD
* Broken down into pdf by the week
* Only way to access is by making friends in the police department

* The Ugly:

* NYPD
* NYC Open Data portal provides tons of data on calls for service, arrests, force, stop and frisk. 
* But was it always available? NO

* Floyd V. City of NY

* Data allowed for quantitative assessment of bias in stop and frisk. 
* SQF ruled unconstitutional in 2013. 
* NYC appeals. 
* Appeals Court rejects appeal in 2014

* Repeal 50-A

* Limited info intentionally 
* Departments have found a host of ways to shield disciplinary records

* Mapping Police Violence

* Activists + data scientists 
* Combines and investigates  new stories, official reports, and public tips about “police-involved deaths.” 
* Only people who have died 
* Much broader than fatal shootings. 
* Problem: Conceptual clarity Coding reliability

* Police Scorecard

* Compiles agency-level data on arrests, complaints, violence, funding, accountability, etc. 
* Allows quick comparison across departments. 
* Problem: Still depends on police reporting for many measures. 
* Quality of data used varies widely.

* The Counted

* Washington Post 
* News stories, official reports, and public tips about people fatally shot by police. 
* Does not depend on police reporting. 
* Updated every day. 
* Problem: Only captures fatal shootings since 2014.
* Doesn’t start further back

* Fatal Encounters

* News stories, official reports, and tips about “people killed during interactions with police.” 
* Does not depend on police reporting. 
* 2000 to Present \* 
* Quality of data in 2000 is really bad compared to today
* Problem: Quality of earlier years is lacking.

* Police Crime Database

* Only one of its kind that exists
* Compiles agency-level data on arrests, complaints, violence, funding, accountability, etc. 
* Allows quick comparison across departments. 
* Problems: Based on arrests of police officers. 
* Underestimates total cases. 
* Does not differentiate guilty/innocent.
* 12,500 officers, 15,200 crimes ranging from alcohol and gambling to sex offenses and homicide. 

* New Sources of Data

* Body-worn camera footage 
* Stanford social scientists analyzed BWC footage from \~1000 police stops. 
* Used human coders and computational linguistic models to assess “respect” and “formality” in how police spoke to drivers. 
* Officers speak to Black drivers less respectfully, even when controlling for officer race, infraction severity, location, and stop outcome.
* Language from police body camera footage shows racial disparities in officer respect
* There is little evidence that implicit bias changes uses of force

* Searches and seizures are regulated by the

* **4th Amendment**. 

4th Amendment …

* Included in Bill of Rights as a response to “writs of assistance” used by British to search colonial vessels and homes. 
* As a way to protect colonists
* Built on the English concept of “every man’s house is his castle.”
* There is no constitutional right for privacy
* Gives rise to assumptions of where police can and can’t go without a warrant

Police stops, arrests, and uses of force are all **seizures** under the 4th amendment.

* Police use of force/violence is considered as a seizure under the constitution

* In theory, officers must have probable cause to engage in searches and seizures:

* Probable cause is where the FACTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES within the officers knowledge and of which they have REASONABLY trustworthy INFORMATION are sufficient in themselves to warrant a belief by a man of REASONABLE caution that a CRIME is being committed. 
* Cannot be a gut feeling
* Needs to be based on things that can be seen and articulated

* Arrest warrants

* Signed by a judge/ have PROVEN probable cause

* Bench warrants

* Someone who was supposed to show up in court 

* Warrants 

* Must be based on **probable cause (PC)** 
* Issued by a “neutral and detached” magistrate (i.e., a judge) 

Described with “**particularity**” — must answer the “place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

* What is Probable Cause?

* Mere “suspicion” is insufficient
* Law on the street is different than the law on the books