By Tamara D. Herold, Ph.D. Robin S. Engel, Ph.D. Nicholas Corsaro, Ph.D. Stacey L. Clouse

The gang and gun violence reduction project implemented in Las Vegas consisted of three components: hot spots deployment, focused deterrence, and place network investigations (PNI). This report focuses on a program review and process evaluation of the PNI initiative. The PNI strategy, also known as PIVOT (Place-based Investigations of Violent Offender Territories), is grounded in crime science theory and research, which consistently finds that crime is highly concentrated, and patterns of crime concentration generally persist in the same locations over time despite repeated police intervention (Andresen, & Malleson, 2011; Braga, Andresen, & Lawton, 2017; Weisburd, Bushway, Lum, & Yang, 2004, Wilcox & Eck, 2011). The strategy was designed and first implemented in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is based on the assumption that historical, or persistent, hot spots are the result of deeply entrenched crime place networks used by active offender groups. The PNI strategy requires police investigations to uncover crime place networks, and a local PNI Investigative Board to focus existing city/county resources to alter crime-facilitating place dynamics (Madensen et al., 2017). In early 2018, the LVMPD Command Staff, in consultation with the Director of Crime Analysis, selected a pilot project site within the bureau’s Northeast Area Command (NEAC) for PNI implementation. A specific condominium complex, small strip mall that housed a convenience store, and nearby multi-family unit housing was selected to serve as the primary focus of the intervention. The NEAC Captain assigned her FLEX (Flexible Deployment) team to implement the PNI strategy and serve as the primary investigative unit. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) / University of Cincinnati (UC) Center for Police Research and Policy arranged to provide technical assistance and training to LVMPD’s PNI investigative unit. An introductory training for investigators and internal/external partners was conducted in April 2018. On-going training and assistance were provided on a bi-weekly basis in the form of on-site meetings or telecommunication with strategy experts and police personnel involved in Cincinnati’s PNI implementation from May 1, 2018, until the end of the evaluation period (April 30, 2019). In order to better understand the process and influence of the pilot PNI program in Las Vegas, officials from LVMPD partnered with researchers from the Center for Police Research and Policy, along with academic partners from the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) to conduct a program review and process evaluation of the PNI initiative. Using bi-weekly investigative activity summaries and LVMPD reported crime incident data, this study addresses the following specific research questions: 1) What types of activities were conducted by the LVMPD PNI investigative unit in the targeted violent hot spot? Given that PNI is a recently developed strategy, LVMPD and other agencies interested in adopting the PNI strategy could benefit from systematic documentation of investigative and enforcement activities conducted by investigative units 2) What successes and obstacles were experienced by those responsible for implementing the PNI strategy in Las Vegas? For the purpose of this evaluation, 11 specific implementation dimensions (or general steps) were identified based on the process used to conduct previous place network investigations in Cincinnati, Ohio. The current assessment attempts to describe the general degree of program fidelity achieved by the LVMPD during PNI strategy implementation. 3) What was the impact of the LVMPD PNI strategy on gun-related crime in the targeted area? While the analysis presented within this evaluation is mostly exploratory in nature, given the relatively short intervention period and low overall crime numbers, it offers insight into how the PNI strategy, as implemented by the LVMPD, could impact violent crime targeted areas.

Cincinnati: UC Center for Police Research and Policy University of Cincinnati 2020. 35p.

By Karen Bullock , Iain Agar , Matt Ashby , Iain Brennan, Gavin Hales , Aiden Sidebottom and Nick Tilley

Knife crime remains a major concern in England and Wales. Problem-oriented and public health approaches to tackling knife crime have been widely advocated, but little is known about how these approaches are understood and implemented by police practitioners. To address this knowledge gap, this article draws on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 44 police personnel to consider the processes and challenges of applying problem-oriented and public health approaches to knife crime. Findings show that knife crime was seen as a complex social problem which would not be solved by ‘silver bullets’; prevention was prioritised and the limitations of enforcement were widely acknowledged; there was an emphasis on understanding and responding to vulnerability and risk; discussion of ‘holistic’ and ‘whole systems’ approaches was evident (but these concepts were rarely defined); and the problem of serious violence was viewed as a shared, multi-agency issue that the police could not tackle alone. Various challenges were also evident, most notably around analysis of the drivers and patterns of knife crime and the evaluation of knife crime interventions. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for knife crime prevention and the implementation and advancement of problem-oriented and public health approaches to policing

Crime Science, 12(2): 2023

By Andy Higgins and Ruth Halkon

Public support and approval sit at the heart of the British policing model and are critical dependencies for effective policing. Although citizen attitudes have slipped out of formal policy focus over the last decade, a complex combination of factors – most obviously the recent set of misconduct scandals and cultural failings exposed within the Metropolitan Police in particular – have pulled questions of trust, confidence, and police legitimacy back into the spotlight. The first data to emerge from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) following its hiatus during Covid, confirms a consistent deterioration in public sentiment towards the police, which has begun to spread into more ‘relational’ dimensions (of fairness and respectfulness), not just appraisals of service quality. The downturn in London is particularly stark. These conditions and their causes require action from police leaders and policy makers, and a range of ‘issue based’ reform efforts, reviews and change programmes are underway. Additionally, however, the strategic-level questions these shifts pose, about the future working relationship between police and public, demand that concerted attention should also be given to contact – the way that citizens experience ‘everyday’ interactions with the police, across a variety of contexts, and the attitudinal traces these episodes leave behind. Personal contact is what citizens consistently say affects their trust and confidence in police, and its impact can ripple beyond those directly involved, through ‘vicarious’ transmission (e.g., reports from family and friends) and media (and social media) coverage. It also seems to be an aspect of service delivery amenable to policy and practice change, drawing on a well-established evidence-base about what is likely to be effective. But contact is also an area of considerable flux and disruption. Right across society, technology is precipitating radical shifts in the way citizens communicate with each other and interact with businesses, organisations, and government services. Online commerce and service provision, social media, videoconferencing, artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbots, and advanced analytics are all contributing to a much more complex and plural contact environment. These developments are shifting public expectations and promise real benefits in terms of the speed, efficiency, convenience, and choice available to citizens in their everyday lives. The pace of change, however, is such that the wider social implications are difficult to comprehend. Policing, of course, is not immune to these shifts and technologically enabled developments such as in online crime reporting, self-service portals, social media engagement, Body-Worn Video, live chat and video-link responses are increasingly coming to augment and meditate the public experience of dealing with the police. At a strategic level, the service seems optimistic about the potential for these and future innovations to generate mission critical efficiencies, optimise effectiveness, enable the sector to keep pace with public expectations, and promote public trust and confidence – although the mechanisms through which the latter might occur remain largely under-theorised. This report begins to address the interconnections between those two trajectories: the deterioration in police/public relations (and associated imperatives on policing to halt and reverse this), and the technological transformation of police/public contact. More specifically, it asks: what are the implications, opportunities, and risks for public confidence (and related attitudes) arising from the introduction of new technology into police/public contact experiences? Our investigation proceeds in three parts: • First (in Section 2) we revisit and summarise what is already known about the way police/public contact impacts on public confidence (and related attitudes) from research conducted in more ‘analogue’ times and contexts. • Second (in Section 3) we ask: what evidence is emerging, what is promising and what can be hypothesised, about how various forms of technology might impact on public experiences of contact, and the lasting impressions these leave behind? We present six promising mechanisms and one pressing risk. • Third (in Section 4) we conclude by considering the strategic implications for policing and present eight recommendations. Our analysis is informed by a literature review, analysis of survey data collected by the London Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime (MOPAC), a survey of police contact management and community engagement leads, a roundtable discussion, and interviews and discussions with relevant experts and stakeholders.

London: Police Foundation, 2023. 57p.

By Uttara M Ananthakrishnan, Jason Chan, Yicheng Song

One of the most acute social justice problems in the United States is the direct conflict between police and minorities. Media coverage of police brutality instances not only allow such inequitable practices come to light, but is an important step towards the reform of inappropriate policing. However, it is theoretically unclear whether the reporting of excessive use of police force on minorities can have a tangible impact on subsequent policing outcomes. In this paper, we aim to answer the question of whether and how digital news on police brutality is effective in shaping subsequent police actions. To address this question, we construct a cross-sectional dataset of news reports of police violence and police traffic stop records. Under a difference-in-difference framework, we find that news reports on police brutality reduces police stops of minorities. Additionally, we find that news with sad frames are more effective in effectuating change in policing behaviors. Finally, we learn that the impact of news reports are less effective in minority-dominated areas and high-crime areas.

SSRN 2022. 40p.

John A. Shjarback

Objectives: To quantify nonfatal injurious police shootings of people and examine the factors associated with victim mortality.

Methods: We gathered victim-level data on fatal and nonfatal injurious police shootings from four states that have such information publicly available: Florida (2009–14), Colorado (2010–19), Texas (2015–19), and California (2016–19). For each state, we examined bivariate associations between mortality and race/ethnicity, gender, age, weapon, and access to trauma care. We also estimated logistic regression models predicting victim mortality in each state.

Results: Forty-five percent of these police shooting victims (N = 1,322) did not die. Black–white disparities were more pronounced in nonfatal injurious police shootings than in fatal police shootings. Overall, Black victims were less likely than white victims to die from their wound(s). Younger victims were less likely to die from their wound(s), as well as those who were unarmed.

Conclusions: Racial and age disparities in police shootings are likely more pronounced than previous estimates suggest.

Policy implications: Other states should strongly consider compiling data like that which is currently being gathered in California. Absent data on nonfatal injurious police shootings–which account for a large share of deadly force incidents–researchers and analysts must be cautious about comparing and/or ranking jurisdictions in terms of their police-involved fatality rates.

PLOS ONE, Nov. 2021. 14p.

By Jonathan S. Masur, Aurélie Ouss, John Rappaport

We document and discuss the implications of a striking feature of modern American policing: the stasis of police labor forces. Using an original employment dataset assembled through public records requests, we show that, after the first few years on a job, officers rarely change employers, and intermediate officer ranks are filled almost exclusively through promotion rather than lateral hiring. Policing is like a sports league, if you removed trades and free agency and left only the draft in place. We identify both nonlegal and legal causes of this phenomenon—ranging from geographic monopolies to statutory and collectively bargained rules about pensions, rank, and seniority—and discuss its normative implications. On the one hand, job stability may encourage investment in training and expertise by agencies and officers alike; it may also attract some high-quality candidates, including candidates from underrepresented backgrounds, to the profession. On the other hand, low labor mobility can foster sclerosis in police departments, entrenching old ways of policing. Limited outside options may lead officers to stay in positions that suit them poorly, decreasing morale and productivity and potentially contributing to the scale of policing harms. In turn, the lack of labor mobility makes it all the more important to police officers to retain the jobs they have. This encourages them to insist on extensive labor protections and to enforce norms like the “blue wall of silence,” which exacerbate the problem of police misconduct. We suggest reforms designed to confer the advantages of labor mobility while ameliorating its costs..

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Paper. Chicago: University of Chicago School of Law, Chicago Unbound, 2023. 60p.

By Kerry Carrington, Máximo Sozzo, Vanessa Ryan

Our ARC funded research team has been investigating how to enhance the prevention and policing responses to gender-based violence. Initially we undertook three months of field research in Argentina investigating how Women’s Police Stations – a unique invention that emerged in Latin America in the mid-1980s – respond to and prevent gender-based violence (Carrington et al. 2019; 2020b). A brief summary of our findings is included in this report. The second stage of our research has investigated what could be learnt from these unique approaches to policing in Australia and elsewhere in the world. This report presents the findings of two surveys we designed to explore whether the innovative strategies used by women’s only police stations in Argentina could improve the way we respond to and prevent gender violence in Australia. The report is presented in four parts. The first part presents an overview of our project on gendered violence. Part II presents the findings from the Workforce survey (n=277), followed by Part III which presents the findings from the Community survey (n=566). The final part of the report compares the responses to two key questions asked of both cohorts. The first asked, “In your opinion, which aspects of Women's Police Stations (in Argentina) could improve how Australian police stations respond to victims of gender violence?”. There were 12 aspects provided, and respondents were able to choose more than one response. Overall, Workforce respondents were positive about 11 aspects, and nine strongly, varying between 41 and 86 percent, with only one below 50 percent (see Figure 12). Community respondents were less enthusiastic with levels of endorsement varying between 32 percent and 67 percent, with only three aspects below 50 percent (see Figure 24). Nevertheless, when compared (see Figure 32) there was a considerable level of agreement across the surveys to nine aspects: Work in multi-disciplinary teams with lawyers, counsellors and social workers; Collaborate with local agencies to prevent gender violence; Provide emergency support to victims of violence; Police Stations specifically designed to receive victims; Provide childcare and a space for children; Carry out violence prevention work in the local community; Specially designed interview rooms for victims; and Work with victims and offenders to break the cycle of violence.

Brisbane: Centre for Justice, Queensland University of Technology: Brisbane, 2020. 52p.

By Kerry Carringtona, Máximo Sozzob, Vanessa Ryanaand Jess Rodge

When domestic violence was criminalised in countries like Australia, United States and United Kingdom, many saw this as a victory, as the state taking responsibility for violence against women. The problem was that its policing was delegated to a masculinised police force ill-equipped to respond to survivors of gender violence. Latin America took a different pathway, establishing women-led police stations designed specifically to respond to the survivors of gender violence. Our research team looked for inspiration to reimagine the policing of gender violence in the twenty-first century from the victim-centred women-led police stations that emerged in Argentina in the 1980s. By emphasising a preventative over a punitive approach, multi-disciplinary teams of police, social workers, psychologists and lawyers offer survivors a gateway to support, instead of just funnelling them into the criminal justice system. Surveying gender violence sector workers and members of the general public, we sought views on the potential of adapting the protocols of these specialist police stations to Australia. We argue that if staffed by appropriately trained teams to work from both gender and culturally sensitive perspectives, women-led victim friendly police stations could side-step some of the unintended consequences of criminalisation, pathing the way for reimagining the policing of gender violence. Framed by southern criminology the project aims to redress the biases in the global hierarchy of knowledge, by reversing the notion that policy transfer can only flow from the countries of the Global North to the Global South.

POLICING AND SOCIETY2022, VOL. 32, NO. 5, 577–597

By Charles Fain Lehman

Like other major cities, Portland, Oregon, has experienced a surge in crime and disorder over the past three years. But unlike other major cities, Portland is uniquely ill-equipped to deal with this problem, because its police department is uniquely understaffed. With just 1.26 officers per every 1,000 residents, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) ranks 48th among the nation’s 50 largest cities for its staffing-to-population ratio. As a result, PPB struggles to provide even basic service, taking up to half an hour to respond to high-priority calls. As this report shows, the staffing crisis has both short-run and long-run causes. In the short run, the city’s particularly harmful riots following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, as well as its leadership’s embrace of the “defund the police” movement, dealt a massive blow to police morale, driving mass resignations and retirements, which have continued to hamstring operations. But that shift was just the culmination of years of declining staffing-to-population ratios, driven by challenges in hiring and training that preexist • Increasing officer pay • Civilianizing PPB desk jobs • Increasing the number of employees working on processing job applications • Reducing the length of academy and field training • Conducting PPB training in Portland, rather than in the state facility in Salem • Working to regain the trust of police officers by unambiguously emphasizing support for them and their profession the protests. To their credit, Portland’s civilian leadership has belatedly recognized that increasing PPB staffing is the only way out of the current crisis. To that end, this report recommends a number of steps that Portland can take to address its staffing problems, including

New York: Manhattan Institute, 2023. 16p.

By Caitlin Chin

Ten years ago, when whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that U.S. government agencies had intercepted bulk telephone and internet communications from numerous individuals around the world, President Barack Obama acknowledged a long-standing yet unsettled dilemma: “You can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. There are trade-offs involved.” Snowden’s disclosures reignited robust debates over the appropriate balance between an individual’s right to privacy and the state’s interest in protecting economic and national security—in particular, where to place limitations on the U.S. government’s ability to compel access to signals intelligence held by private companies. These debates continue today, but the internet landscape—and subsequently, the relationship between the U.S. government and private sector—has evolved substantially since 2013. U.S. government agencies still routinely mandate private companies like Verizon and Google hand over customers’ personal information and issue non-disclosure orders to prevent these companies from informing individuals about such access. But the volume and technical complexity of the data ecosystem have exploded over the past decade, spurred by the rising ubiquity of algorithmic profiling in the U.S. private sector. As a result, U.S. government agencies have increasingly turned to “voluntary” mechanisms to access data from private companies, such as purchasing smartphone geolocation history from third-party data brokers and deriving insights from publicly available social media posts, without the formal use of a warrant, subpoena, or court order. In June 2023, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) declassified a report from January 2022—one of the first public efforts to examine the “large amount” of commercially available information that federal national security agencies purchase. In this report, ODNI recognizes that sensitive personal information both “clearly provides intelligence value” but also increases the risk of harmful outcomes like blackmail or harassment. Despite the potential for abuse, the declassified report reveals that some intelligence community elements have not established proper privacy and civil liberties guardrails for commercially acquired information and that even ODNI lacks awareness of the full scope of data brokerage contracts across its 18 units. Critically, the report recognizes that modern advancements in data collection have outpaced existing legal safeguards: “Today’s CAI [commercially available information] is more revealing, available on more people (in bulk), less possible to avoid, and less well understood than traditional PAI [publicly available information].” The ODNI report demonstrates how the traditional view of the privacy-security trade-off is becoming increasingly nuanced, especially as gaps in outdated federal law around data collection and transfers expand the number of actors and risk vectors involved. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan recently noted that there are also geopolitical implications to consider: “Our strategic competitors see big data as a strategic asset.” When Congress banned the popular mobile app TikTok on government devices in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), it cited fears that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could use the video-hosting app to spy on Americans. However, the NDAA did not address how numerous other smartphone apps, beyond TikTok, share personal information with data brokers—which, in turn, could transfer it to adversarial entities. In 2013, over 250,000 website privacy policies acknowledged sharing data with other companies; since then, this number inevitably has increased. In a digitized society, unchecked data collection has become a vulnerability for U.S. national security—not merely, as some once viewed, a strength. The reinvigorated focus on TikTok’s data collection practices creates a certain paradox. While politicians have expressed concerns about Chinese government surveillance through mobile apps, U.S. government agencies have purchased access to smartphone geolocation data and social media images related to millions of Americans from data brokers without a warrant. The U.S. government has simultaneously treated TikTok as a national security risk and a handy source of information, reportedly issuing the app over 1,500 legal requests for data in 2021 alone. It is also important to note that national security is not the only value that can come into tension with information privacy, as unfettered data collection carries broader implications for civil rights, algorithmic fairness, free expression, and international commerce, affecting individuals both within and outside the United States.

Washington, DC: The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) 2023. 60p.

By the Nashville Community Oversight Board

National and local high-profile police killings have brought greater scrutiny to police use of force and have spurred conversations about police accountability across the country and in Nashville. As Metro Nashville Community Oversight (MNCO) itself was born from community outcry in response to multiple fatal police shootings, MNCO believes it is imperative to track and analyze trends in the Metro Nashville Police Department’s (MNPD’s) use of force and to propose policy that will reduce excessive force interactions. This report is thus the first annual use of force report that will assess the types of force used by MNPD and how frequently they are used. We will track policy implementation and make further recommendations each year. Using existing datasets provided to MNCO by MNPD weekly, MNCO researchers began investigating MNPD’s current use of force incidents and identifying patterns within these force interactions. Key findings include that Black and Hispanic subjects, both adults and youth, are more likely to be recipients of use of force (especially firearm displays and soft empty hand control techniques); white and male officers are more likely to use force; subject resistance level is a significant predictor of force used; Black people are more likely to have force used against them when they are not coded as resisting officer commands; force usage concentrates in non-white and high-poverty areas of Nashville; and youth who had force used against them by school resource officers were 96% Black and 58% female in 2023. These findings prompted the COB to make the following recommendations: MNPD should include all soft empty hand control usages (regardless of injury status), firearm displays, Taser displays, and accidental discharges in departmental use of force analyses when there is a subject present, including on MNPD’s Use of Force Dashboard. MNPD should revisit and modify its use of force training and reporting mechanisms to include more consistent tracking of resistance levels across all Form 108 types (108, 108F, 108T, and 108NC). To accomplish this, MNPD should update the MNPD Manual to define all terms in the “Subject’s NonCompliance” section in Form 108s. Further, the data provided to MNCO should be updated to reflect this change. MNPD should randomly audit instances from 2022 onward in which officers use force and resistance was not tracked, or was coded as no resistance. This is to include all Form 108, 108F, 108T, and 108NCs. If officers are determined to have used a disproportionate level of force, MNPD should take appropriate disciplinary action. MNPD should create a Peer Review Panel where supervisors or peers can anonymously report officers who they believe are involved in an above-average number of violent encounters. This panel should be supported by part-time staff who, in addition to serving on the panel, study policecommunity violence and create interventions that would combat such violence. MNPD should use a comparative method based on their force and resistance continuums to evaluate when officers are using force that is disproportionate to resistance, even when force levels are low. The establishment of such a method should be done in consultation with MNCO and with community input such that community perception of force is prioritized in MNPD’s assessment of force and resistance. This comparative method should be incorporated into MNPD’s Early Intervention System and should flag officers who repeatedly use a level of force disproportionate to resistance. Additionally, a review of each officer’s use of force from the prior year should be included in their annual performance evaluation to identify officers who are involved in a disproportionate number of force incidents or who are frequently using excessive force. MNPD should develop use of force policies and training specific to interactions with youth, modeled after best practice policies from organizations like Strategies for Youth. These policies and training should discuss de-escalation, officer presence, communication style, allowed/disallowed uses of force, disparate force across race and gender, and other topics as deemed necessary. Such policies must address that force of any kind must be consistent with the age, body size, disability status, relative strength, and risk posed by the youth. MNPD should electronically notify MNCO staff every time MNPD staff use force in Metro Nashville Public Schools. Such notification should be delivered in a monthly report that includes information including but not limited to officer name, incident number, school location, subject demographics, type of force used, and incident report narrative. MNPD should modify its implicit bias training to address the bias officers may have against entire neighborhoods based on the racial and socioeconomic makeup of those neighborhoods. These trainings should include paid representatives and trainers from the Nashville community who can serve as consultants and speak to the histories of their community and the issues they face, and should be precinct- and neighborhood-specific. MNPD should train recruits and officers in procedural justice principles, focusing on both internal and external standards. Such training should be standalone, repeated annually, and follow evidence-based standards demonstrated to be efficacious. MNPD should modify its use of force forms to include checkboxes for all de-escalation techniques (as outlined in section 11.10.030(M)) used by officers. These techniques should be tracked and analyzed as to how they relate to officer use of force. MNPD should modify its de-escalation policy and training to include specific stipulations on procedural justice. These should address active/empathetic listening, nonverbal communication, word choice, and de-escalation techniques that are grounded in procedural justice principles such as rapport-building. MNPD should continue to focus recruitment on non-white and female candidates until all ranks of the department are staffed with representation at levels significantly closer to Nashville’s demographic makeup. While this report provides a comprehensive overview of current use of force patterns within MNPD, MNCO researchers hope to continue investigations into topics such as use of force by school resource officers, the impact of precision policing tactics on use of force patterns, and community perceptions around police use of force.

Nashville, TN: Community Oversight Board, 2023. 43p

By Robert A. Blair, Guy Grossman and Anna M. Wilke

Throughout the developing world, citizens often distrust the police and hesitate to bring crimes to their attention—a situation that makes it difficult for police to effectively combat crime and violence. Community policing has been touted as one solution to this problem, but evidence on whether it can be effective in developing country contexts is sparse. We present results from a large-scale field experiment that randomly assigned a home-grown community policing intervention to police stations throughout rural Uganda. Drawing on close to 4,000 interviews with citizens, police officers, and local authorities and on administrative crime data, we show that community policing had limited effects on core outcomes such as perceptions of police, crime, and insecurity. We attribute this finding to a combination of low levels of compliance and resource constraints. Our study draws attention to the limits of community policing’s potential to reduce crime and build trust in the developing world. EDI WORKING PAPER SERIES

Oxford Policy Management, 2021. 56p

By Nicholas Paul

While there is a substantial body of placed-based evaluations of drug enforcement strategies, little is known about the nature and effectiveness of the routine tactics used by local police to target individual drug offenders. This study used a mixed-method approach to build on existing research on the efficacy of drug enforcement by documenting the nature and consequences of street-level drug enforcement at the local level. First, a focus group of drug enforcement experts was conducted to identify the tactics used to generate arrests and various types of evidence believed to strengthen drug cases. Next, official data in the form of police reports and court records were coded from one year of proactive felony drug arrests in a large, urban police department. The relationship between offender-focused drug enforcement tactics and various court outcomes (e.g., felony prosecution, formal conviction, and incarceration) were examined through logistic regression analyses. Results indicate traffic stops were the most frequently used tactic to generate felony drug arrests. However, buy-walks were more effective than traffic stops at receiving felony prosecutions. In contrast, search warrants were significantly less likely to result in prosecution. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Orlando: University of Central Florida , 2022. 167p.

By Chris Giacomantonio https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3634-911 ch451698@dal., Yael Litmanovitz, Craig Bennell, and Daniel J Jones

Scholars and practitioners who develop evidence-based crime policy debate on how best to translate criminological knowledge into better criminal justice practices. These debates highlight the counterpoised problems of over-selling the contribution of scientific evidence; or, alternately, overemphasizing the limitations of science. This challenge attends any attempt to translate research findings into practice; however, and problematically, in criminology this challenge is rarely approached in a theoretically coherent fashion. This article therefore seeks to theorize uncertainty in criminology by examining insights on communicating scientific uncertainty in other fields, and applying these insights specifically to the field of Evidence-Based Policing (EBP). Taking the position that all science is inherently uncertain, we examine the following four aspects of the field: the particular uncertainties of criminology, variance in receptivity to research, the lack of evidence regarding effective communication, and the boundaries of evidence. Building on this analysis, we set out the normative challenge of how researchers should characterize and balance the implications and limits of scientific findings in the decision-making process. Looking ahead, we argue for the need to invest in an empirical project for determining meaningful strategies to express research evidence to decision-makers.

Criminology & Criminal Justice 1–19 © The Author(s) 2022

By Karen Bullock, Aiden Sidebottom, Rachel Armitage , Matthew P.J. Ashby, Caitlin Clemmow, Stuart Kirby, Gloria Laycock and Nick Tilley

This article analyses and critically reflects on the position of problem-oriented policing within England and Wales. Problem-oriented policing is a framework for improving police effectiveness. Its adoption has consistently been shown to be associated with sizable reductions in a wide range of crimes and public safety issues. However, many studies also find that problem-oriented policing is difficult to embed and sustain within police organisations. This article draws on the experiences and perspectives of 86 informed stakeholders to critically examine the position and practice of problem-oriented policing 40 years after its original formulation by Herman Goldstein in 1979. We argue that despite evidence of renewed interest in problem-oriented policing, the approach is not habitually conducted within police organisations in England and Wales. Where it is conducted, the practice of problem-oriented policing is found to lack discipline, the processes tend not to be faithfully followed, and there are weaknesses at all stages of the process. Implications of the findings for future research and police practice are discussed.

Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 15(4): 2021

By Karen Bullock, Aiden Sidebottom, Rachel Armitage, Matthew P.J. Ashby, Caitlin Clemmow, Stuart Kirby, Gloria Laycock & Nick Tilley

Evidence shows that the application of problem-oriented policing can be effective in reducing a wide range of crime and public safety issues, but that the approach is challenging to implement and sustain. This article examines police perceptions and experiences regarding organisational barriers to and facilitators of the implementation and delivery of problem-oriented policing. Drawing on surveys of (n = 4141) and interviews with (n = 86) police personnel from 19 police forces in England and Wales, we identify five key barriers and facilitators to problem-oriented policing: leadership and governance, capacity, organisational structures and infrastructure, partnership working and organisational culture. These factors provide important indicators for what police organisations need to do, or need to avoid, if they are to successfully embed and deliver problem-oriented policing. The article generates critical information about the processes that drive change in police organisations and offers recommendations for police managers who may wish to implement or develop problem-oriented policing. The paper also proposes a research agenda aimed at addressing evidence gaps in our understanding of the implementation and sustenance of problem-oriented policing.

Policing and Society, 32:9, 1087-1102, 2021.

By Julia Anne Yesberg and Ben Bradford

Collective efficacy is a neighbourhood social process that has important benefits for crime prevention. Policing is thought to be one antecedent to collective efficacy, but the mechanisms by which police activity and officer behaviour are thought to foster collective efficacy are not well understood. This article presents findings from a rapid evidence assessment conducted to take stock of the empirical research on policing and collective efficacy. Thirty-nine studies were identified and examined. Overall, trust in police was the aspect of policing most consistently associated with collective efficacy. There was also some evidence that community policing activities, such as visibility and community engagement, predicted collective efficacy. Police legitimacy, on the other hand, was relatively unrelated to collective efficacy: a finding which suggests perceptions of police linked to the ‘action’ of individual officers may be more enabling of collective efficacy than perceptions of the policing institution as a whole. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

International Journal of Police Science & Management , 2021. vol.23(4):417-430

By Cynthia Lum, Christopher S. Koper, and Xiaoyun Wu

The protests following the killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 led to contentious discussions and debates in many cities about policing, with some calling to “defund the police.” However, this debate has generally proceeded without adequate research about either the scale or nature of issues that the police handle and the potential consequences of the proposed reform efforts. To respond to this research gap, we analyze millions of 911 calls for service across nine U.S. agencies. We report on the types of calls for service that the police handle, including how frequently different calls arise, how much time agencies spend on different categories of calls, and the outcomes of those calls. We find that the amount and types of incidents for which people call the police are voluminous, with the vast majority not obviously transferable to other organizations or government sectors without significant resource expenditures or adjustments. However, if the police retain these responsibilities, they also need to reconsider how they can more effectively address community concerns.

Police Quarterly 2022, Vol. 25(3) 255–280

By Claudia Gross Shader, and David G. Jones

In recent years, the characteristics of retail crime have shifted and become more sophisticated. There is some emerging evidence that organized retail crime (ORC) has increased due, in part, to an increased use of online marketplaces for selling stolen goods. This audit is focused on fencing operations related to ORC. ”Fencing” is the practice of reselling stolen goods through online marketplaces, unregulated markets such as illegal street markets, storefronts that buy stolen goods, and by shipping goods for sale outside of the U.S. What We Found This audit presents seven steps for the City to improve its approach to addressing the organized fencing operations that underpin ORC in Seattle: . Support City participation in collaborative efforts among agencies, including collaboration with the new Organized Retail Crime Unit in the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. Leverage federal and state crime analysis resources. Use in-custody interviews of “boosters”—people who steal on behalf of fencing operations—to gather information on fencing operations. Explore new uses of technology to address ORC. Use place-based approaches to disrupt unregulated street markets. Follow the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office “prosecution checklist” for ORC cases. Consider City support of legislation that addresses ORC. Recommendations For each step, we have included specific recommendations for actions that the City could take to improve its approach to ORC. Given the City’s current resource constraints, especially for the Seattle Police Department (SPD), our recommendations largely focus on leveraging new and existing collaborations, using existing expertise and resources, and exploring new technologies.

Seattle Office of City Auditor . 2023. 43p.

By Marie Pryor, Kim Shayo Buchanan, and Phillip Atiba Goff

Swencionis & Goff identified five situations that tend to increase the likelihood that an individual police officer may behave in a racially disparate way: discretion, inexperience, salience of crime, cognitive demand, and identity threat. This article applies their framework to the realities of police work, identifying situations and assignments in which these factors are likely to influence officers’ behavior. These insights may identify opportunities for further empirical research into racial disparities in such contexts and may highlight institutional reforms and policy changes that could reduce officers’ vulnerability to risks that can result in racially unjust actions.

Annual Review of Law and Social Science , 16: 341-360. 2020.