By Beatriz Magaloni, Edgar Franco Vivanco, Vanessa Melo

State interventions against drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) sometimes work to improve security, but often exacerbate violence. To understand why, this paper offers a theory about different social order dynamics among five types of criminal regimes – Insurgent, Bandit, Symbiotic, Predatory, and Anarchic. These differ according to whether criminal groups confront or collude with state actors; predate or cooperate with the community; and hold a monopoly or contest territory with rival DTOs. Police interventions in these criminal orders pose different challenges and are associated with markedly different local security outcomes. Evidence for the theory is provided by the use a multi-method research design combining quasi-experimental statistical analyses, extensive qualitative research and a large N survey in the context of Rio de Janeiro’s “Pacifying Police Units” (UPPs), which sought to reclaim control of the slums from organized criminal groups.

American Political Science Review. 2020. 51p.

By  Martin Lundsteen &  Miquel Fernández González 

Recent studies have argued for more nuanced understandings of zero tolerance (ZT) policing, rendering it essential to analyze the significance and actual workings of the policies in practice, including the context in which they are introduced. This article aims to accomplish this through a comparison of two case studies in Catalonia: one in the neighborhood of Raval in Barcelona and one in Salt—a municipality in the comarca (or county) of Girona. We identify a transformation in the use of ZT policies in Catalonia and a con‑tradiction between their social effects and proclaimed objectives. This article attempts to address how specific sociocultural groups gain power and privilege from these policies. The main argument is that a set of commonsensical ideas have become hegemonic, which allows and naturalizes certain sociocultural practices in urban space, while persecuting oth‑ers, fundamentally pitting two categories against each other: the desired civil citizen and the undesirable and uncivil stranger

Critical Criminology volume 29, pages837–852 (2021)

By Graeme Blair et al.

More than one-fourth of the world's population lives in conditions of in-security because of high levels of crime and violence, especially in the Global South. Although the police are central to reducing crime and violence, they are also often per-petrators of unjust harm against citizens.We investigated the effects of community policing, a set of practices designed to build trust between citizens and police, increase the co-production of public safety, and reduce crime. Community policing is meant to improve outcome by increasing engagement between citizens and police through increased foot patrols, community meetings, and the adoption of problem-oriented policing strat-egies that address concerns raised by citizens.When cooperation leads to effective police responses, this approach reinforces citizen trust and facilitates further cooperation, creating a virtuous cycle. Community policing has beenimplementedaroundtheworldoneverycon-tinent. However, although there is evidence for its positive effects in rich countries, there is no systematic evidence about whether com-munity policing effectively generates trust and reduces crime in the Global South.

Science. 2021 Nov 26;374(6571):eabd3446. doi: 10.1126/science.abd3446. Epub 2021 Nov 26. PMID: 34822276.

By  Annabelle Heckler, Gin Armstrong, Derek Seidman, and Katie Unger , et al.

  This dangerous truth has never been clearer. After the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks sparked the largest sustained mass mobilization in U.S. history in 2020, conversations about police accountability and police budgets moved from activist circles to the mainstream. At the same time, after years of deafening silence, some of the largest corporations in the world made public statements in support of Black Lives Matter. Yet, beyond the black squares on Instagram and tweets demanding justice for Black people murdered by police, many of these same corporations have continued to fund the very systems that put Black lives in danger.

Color of Change. Public Accountability Initiative (LittleSis), 2021. 53p.

By The Calgary Police Commission   

   Both Indigenous and Black participants want better treatment by CPS. They want CPS to appreciate where they have come from, what they’ve experienced, and to understand how this impacts their impressions of and experiences with CPS. They believe this level of understanding can help improve their interactions with CPS. They also would like to see CPS trained on cultural sensitivities to improve the outcome of interactions with all BIPOC citizens. Alternative call response received support from both groups, stemming from the shared perception that there are other professionals who possess the skills and expertise needed to diffuse and de-escalate calls requiring crisis response. For Indigenous participants, negative associations with social workers and health care workers means they are not an appropriately trained profession to respond to crisis calls with Indigenous people. Both Black and Indigenous participants spoke of the need for: ▪ More BIPOC diversity within the ranks of CPS, ▪ Mandatory anti-racism and cultural competency training for CPS officers to enhance relations with all BIPOC groups, and ▪ Inclusion initiatives to encourage greater involvement of CPS in the communities it serves that cultivates positive interactions with Indigenous and Black citizens.eractions. The officer’s role should be to deescalate situations and use of force should be a last resort  

Calgary: Calgary Police Commission, 2021. 71p.

By The Calgary Police Commission

  The Commission’s community perception research has evolved over the past five years from annual quantitative surveys to quantitative and qualitative methods alternating annually. The research is customized and updated annually to provide insights that are relevant for CPS and the Commission each year. In 2023, we conducted qualitative research focused on the impact of communications and transparency on trust in CPS. The research was designed to focus on two specific groups to understand potential differences in communication needs: 1. Calgarians who trust CPS 2. Calgarians who do not trust CPS This research will help inform actions to improve communications and trust in the Calgary Police Service (CPS).

Calgary: The Police Commission 2023. 52p.

By Jessica Reichert, Brandon Del Pozo, and Bruce Taylor

Fatal opioid overdoses continue to break historical records. Stigma toward people with opioid use disorder (OUD) can negatively impact treatment access, retention, and recovery. Attitudes and beliefs of police officers can profoundly shape key discretionary decisions. Therefore, we examined police officer views indicating stigma toward those with OUD. We administered an online survey to select Illinois police departments using a stratified random sampling strategy with a final sample of 248 officers from 27 police departments. We asked officers questions measuring stigmatizing attitudes toward people with OUD including distrust, blame, shame, and fear. We found officers held somewhat stigmatizing views with a mean score of 4.0 on a scale of 1 (least stigmatic) to 6 (most stigmatic). Regression results showed certain officer characteristics were associated with more stigmatizing attitudes of blaming and distrust of those with OUD, including gender, education, race, years in policing, and department size. Since most officers in the sample held at least some stigmatizing views toward people with OUD, this may impede the feasibility and acceptability of criminal justice interventions meant to improve behavioral health, such as police deflection programs that link people who use drugs to treatment in lieu of arrest. Departments should offer officer training and education on substance use disorders, treatment for addiction, and the potential for a person’s recovery. Training should allow officers to hear directly from, or learn about, personal experiences of people who use drugs and have been in recovery, as this type of interaction has been shown to reduce stigma.

Chicago: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, 2023. 23p.

by Adam Cotter 

  Perceptions of and experiences with police and the justice system among the Black and Indigenous populations in Canada: Highlights  The Black population and Indigenous people (First Nations people, Métis, and Inuit) living in Canada have distinct histories, backgrounds, geographic distributions, and current conditions and situations. These factors should be taken into account when interpreting and evaluating data focusing on these populations. While these groups are distinct, their perceptions and experiences are explored in this article to highlight similarities and differences relative to the population who is neither Indigenous nor a member of a population group designated as visible minority.  According to the 2020 General Social Survey (GSS) on Social Identity, one in five Black (21%) and Indigenous (22%) people have little or no confidence in police, double the proportion among those who were neither Indigenous nor a visible minority (11%).  Based on data from the 2019 GSS on Canadians’ Safety (Victimization), Black and Indigenous people are more likely to rate police performance poorly. About one in three Black (30%) and Indigenous (32%) people said that police were performing poorly in at least one part of their job, a higher proportion than non-Indigenous, non-visible minorities (19%).  Perceptions of the police varied among the Black population. Almost six in ten (58%) Canadian-born Black people rated at least one element of police performance poorly, well above the proportion of Black immigrants (15%).  Relative to the overall population, Black people and Indigenous people had particularly negative perceptions of the ability of police to treat people fairly and be approachable and easy to talk to.

Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2022. 31p.

By  Undercover Policing Inquiry (UK)

The report which this foreword introduces is the first fruit of the work undertaken by the Undercover Policing Inquiry, under the chairmanship of Sir Christopher Pitchford from July 2015 until July 2017, and under my chairmanship since then. It covers the first 14 years, approximately, of the Special Operations Squad (SOS)/Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a unit of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) set up in July 1968 (hereafter referred to as the SDS, unless specifically referring to the SOS). It attempts to set out the history of the unit and to draw conclusions about the purposes for which it was set up and continued, and their justification. The findings of fact and conclusions are mine and mine alone. These findings are based on multiple sources of evidence. As in the case of any historical inquiry, the starting point must be contemporaneous documents created by those who participated in the events being investigated. Sufficient documents from the MPS and public sources have survived to permit reliable findings to be made about the creation of the unit and the purpose it served in 1968. The documentary record then becomes sketchier until November 1974. From then on, Security Service files contain an extensive and substantially complete record of the intelligence gathered by the undercover officers deployed by the unit. I know that different views are held about the lawfulness and propriety of the retention of so much personal information for so long. I do not intend to enter into this debate, but only to make the trite observation that, without this evidence, accurate reconstruction of what occurred would not have been possible. I wish to express my gratitude to the Security Service for the collation and production of these files. Flesh was put on the bones of the documentary material by evidence given by surviving former undercover officers and their managers, and by members of the public with whom they interacted. As will be apparent from the content of this report, their evidence was, almost without exception, of significant value in enabling me to understand what had occurred, in particular about matters such as personal relationships, which were not documented. I acknowledge the inconvenience, at best, which the provision of this evidence has caused to them. I am grateful to all of them for the trouble they have taken to assist me in my task  

Undercover Policing Inquiry (UK), 2023. 120p.

By Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau

A penetrating and insightful study of privacy and security in telecommunications for a post-9/11, post-Patriot Act world.Telecommunication has never been perfectly secure. The Cold War culture of recording devices in telephone receivers and bugged embassy offices has been succeeded by a post-9/11 world of NSA wiretaps and demands for data retention. Although the 1990s battle for individual and commercial freedom to use cryptography was won, growth in the use of cryptography has been slow. Meanwhile, regulations requiring that the computer and communication industries build spying into their systems for government convenience have increased rapidly. The application of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act has expanded beyond the intent of Congress to apply to voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other modern data services; attempts are being made to require ISPs to retain their data for years in case the government wants it; and data mining techniques developed for commercial marketing applications are being applied to widespread surveillance of the population.In Privacy on the Line, Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau strip away the hype surrounding the policy debate over privacy to examine the national security, law enforcement, commercial, and civil liberties issues. They discuss the social function of privacy, how it underlies a democratic society, and what happens when it is lost. This updated and expanded edition revises their original—and prescient—discussions of both policy and technology in light of recent controversies over NSA spying and other government threats to communications privacy.

Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2010. 496p.

By John Kleinig • Peter Mameli • Seumas Miller • Douglas Salane Adina Schwartz

This study is principally concerned with the ethical dimensions of identity management technology – electronic surveillance, the mining of personal data, and profiling – in the context of transnational crime and global terrorism. The ethical challenge at the heart of this study is to establish an acceptable and sustainable equilibrium between two central moral values in contemporary liberal democracies, namely, security and privacy. Both values are essential to individual liberty, but they come into conflict in times when civil order is threatened, as has been the case from late in the twentieth century, with the advent of global terrorism and trans-national crime. We seek to articulate legally sustainable, politically possible, and technologically feasible, global ethical standards for identity management technology and policies in liberal democracies in the contemporary global security context. Although the standards in question are to be understood as global ethical standards potentially to be adopted not only by the United States, but also by the European Union, India, Australasia, and other contemporary liberal democratic states, we take as our primary focus the tensions that have arisen between the United States and the European Union.

Canberra: ANU Press, 2011. 304p.

By The European Parliament

Cannabis is by far the most commonly used illicit drug (referred to as drug in this briefing) in the European Union (EU), where its distribution, cultivation, possession and use (consumption) are largely prohibited. The prohibition of drug-related activities other than those performed for medical or scientific purposes is the defining feature of the international drug control system. Set up by the United Nations (UN), this system is composed of three complementary conventions, to which all EU Member States are parties. Various countries around the world have made use of the flexibility of the UN system, not applying criminal penalties in some cases (e.g. for possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use) or replacing them with administrative ones. The UN bodies monitoring compliance with the conventions seem to have come to accept these policy choices. However, they remain resistant to the still rare yet increasingly common practice of legalising the recreational use of cannabis, which may entail regulating drug distribution and sale in a manner akin to that for alcohol and tobacco. In the EU, drug policy has remained primarily the Member States' preserve. The EU has fostered the Member States' cooperation on law enforcement and health-related issues, while at the same time respecting their diverse philosophies on how to address recreational drug use. National approaches range from very restrictive policies that prioritise criminal law responses, to more liberal ones that focus primarily on reducing the health and social harms resulting from drug use. In 2021, Malta became the first Member State to legalise recreational cannabis, and since then several others have taken steps that could potentially lead to similar drug policy reforms.

Brussels: European Union, 2023. 12p.

By Bradley Ray, Steven J. Korzeniewski, George Mohler, Jennifer J. Carroll, et al.

Objectives. To test the hypothesis that law enforcement efforts to disrupt local drug markets by seizing opioids or stimulants are associated with increased spatiotemporal clustering of overdose events in the surrounding geographic area. Methods. We performed a retrospective (January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021), population-based cohort study using administrative data from Marion County, Indiana. We compared frequency and characteristics of drug (i.e., opioids and stimulants) seizures with changes in fatal overdose, emergency medical services nonfatal overdose calls for service, and naloxone administration in the geographic area and time following the seizures. Results. Within 7, 14, and 21 days, opioid-related law enforcement drug seizures were significantly associated with increased spatiotemporal clustering of overdoses within radii of 100, 250, and 500 meters. For example, the observed number of fatal overdoses was two-fold higher than expected under the null distribution within 7 days and 500 meters following opioid-related seizures. To a lesser extent, stimulant-related drug seizures were associated with increased spatiotemporal clustering overdose. Conclusions. Supply-side enforcement interventions and drug policies should be further explored to determine whether they exacerbate an ongoing overdose epidemic and negatively affect the nation’s life expectancy.

Am J Public Health. 2023;113(7):750–758

By  Erica Wennberg, Sarah B. Windle, Kristian B. Filion, Brett D. Thombs; et al. 

As more countries legalize recreational cannabis, roadside screening programs are imperative to detect and deter driving under the influence of cannabis. This systematic review evaluated roadside screening tests for cannabis use. We searched six databases (inception-March 2020) and grey literature sources for primary studies evaluating test characteristics of roadside screening tests for cannabis use compared to laboratory tests for cannabinoids in blood or oral fluid. The synthesis was focused on sensitivity and specificity of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) detection. 101 studies were included. Oral fluid tests were higher in specificity and lower in sensitivity compared to urine tests when evaluated against blood laboratory tests. Oral fluid tests were higher in sensitivity and similar in specificity compared to observational tests when evaluated against blood and oral fluid laboratory tests. Sensitivity was variable among oral fluid tests; two instrumented immunoassays (Draeger DrugTest 5000 [5 ng/mL THC cut-off] and Alere DDS 2 Mobile Test System) appeared to perform best, but definitive conclusions could not be drawn due to imprecise estimates. Specificities were similar. Overall, oral fluid tests showed the most promise for use in roadside screening for blood THC levels over legal limits; their continued development and testing are warranted. Urine tests are generally inadvisable, and observational tests require sensitivity improvements.

Heliyon, Volume 9, article id. e14630. 2023.

By Benjamin J. Goold  

Discretion is central to policing in Canada. Every day, the police make thousands of decisions that affect the lives of Canadians across the country, determining when the law should (or should not) be enforced, how public complaints and crimes are investigated, and what happens to those suspected of breaking the law. In many cases, these decisions are made by police officers in direct contact with members of the public and play a crucial role in shaping the relationship between those individuals and the state. While public officials in many capacities have discretion to make decisions in the ordinary course of their work, the decisions made by police officers are underpinned by their unique ability to use force in the execution of their duties, accompanied by extensive powers with respect to arrest, detention, search and seizure, and the gathering of evidence. This report aims to shed light on several key aspects of police discretion and decision-making, beginning with the fundamental issue of the relationship between discretion, law, and the legal duties of the police. The report is not a comprehensive overview of the extensive literature on police discretion in Canada and elsewhere but instead looks to provide a foundation for broader discussions about the scope of police discretion, the factors that influence its exercise, and whether it needs to be subject to more extensive and effective limitations. Fundamentally, the report considers whether the role of the police as a public institution and the demands placed on police officers as individuals are compatible with the notion of discretion as traditionally conceived. Given the many challenges facing the police in Canada today, there is a pressing need for a serious and structured discussion about the nature and scope of their discretion and whether it should continue to be regarded as an inescapable aspect of modern policing.  

Halifax, NS: The Joint Federal/Provincial Commission into the April 2020 Nova Scotia Mass Casualty, 2022., 65p.

By Geoffrey C. Barnes, Simon Williams | Lawrence W. Sherman | Jesse Parmar | Paul House | Stephen A. Brown

In this article, we examine how communities can maximize deterrence of crime while minimizing cost and police intrusion on public life. Using 3,720 hot spot-days, we show that the “sweet spot” duration of police absence, to maximize the residual deterrence of crime, was a full four days after the last day of targeting police patrol at each hot spot. Over a 248-day period, we randomly reshuffled 15 separate hot spots daily into either treatment (targeted police patrols) or control (no targeted patrols) for that day, so that all locations repeatedly switched between randomly assigned groups. This repeated crossover design (Cochrane & Cox, 1957; Fienberg et al., 1980) included random periods of up to 20 consecutive days in which individual hot spots remained in the control condition, allowing us to measure how soon, and by what trajectory, the residual deterrent effect of targeted patrolling wore off. After four days without patrolling, there was a sudden termination of residual deterrence, marked by a 66% rise in offense frequency, and a 395% spike in our index of crime harm (House & Neyroud 2018), compared to the treatment condition. It may be possible to deploy less, not more policing and still maximize deterrent effects.

Sweet Spots Pre-Print 2020-07

By Lawrence W. Sherman

Police are often criticized fordoing “too much” or “too little” policing in various sit-uations. These criticisms amount to testable hypothe-ses about whether “less” force, or intensity, or enforce-ment would have been enough, or whether “more” was needed. The rise of evidence-based policing provides a starting point for public dialogues about those hypotheses, in ways that could help to build police legitimacy.Such dialogues can be focused on the questions posed by the three “Ts”: (1) Is police actiontargetedin a way that is proportionate to the harm that it can prevent?(2) Has the action been tested and found effective with the kinds of targets, and their levels of harm, where it is being used? (3) Is police actiontrack to ensure it is delivered in the way that has been tested, and in compli-ance with relevant legal requirements? In this lecture, I frame the issue as follows:Can more widespread use of better research evidence on targeting, testing, and tracking police actions, shared more clearly among the public and police, help reduce the wide range of oscillation between over-policing and under-policing?PolicyImplications:Theuseofthesequestionsinpub-lic dialogue would be especially relevant to the three biggest threats to police legitimacy in the aftermath ofGeorge Floyd’s murder: (A) police killing people, (B)police stopping people, and (C) police under-patrolling 176SHERMANhigh-crime hot spots (while over-patrolling low-crime areas). One result of applying the three-Ts questions to these threats, for example, could be the end of the vast overuse of stop and search in low-violence areas. At The same time, this approach could also lead to reduc-tions in homicide by increasing stops in highest vio-lence hot spots. Such changes could demonstrate how the “Goldilocks principle” for the three Ts could get policing closer to “just right” for each place and person being policed.

 Criminology & Public Policy.2022;21:175–196

By Charles Fain Lehman

In the wake of the death of George Floyd and the summer of protests and riots that followed, left-wing activists and politicians have called not simply for reforms to policing, but for its abolition. In order to eliminate the possibility of wrongful killing of civilians, these advocates say, we should defund police departments, reroute their budgets to social services, and replace beat cops with unarmed civilian alternatives wherever possible. In the first half of this brief, I outline why such proposals would be a disaster for public safety. In short, they:

• Have little basis in evidence;

• Would increase the risk posed to civilian employees;

• Would diminish the crime-reduction benefits of current police work; and

• Would have little impact on the size, and therefore effect, of social welfare spending.

While replacing the police is a misguided idea, that does not mean that lawmakers should dismiss altogether the idea of nonpolice crime-fighting tools. Indeed, there are several evidence-based, effective means to mitigate crime through channels other than more police work. These complementary tools can help relieve stress on overtaxed and understaffed police forces. In the second half of this report, I lay out the evidence behind three options:

• Reducing crime through changes to the built environment, such as cleaning up vacant lots and green public spaces;

• Using “nonpolice guardians,” such as neighborhood watches and CCTV cameras, to extend the police’s reach;

• Targeting problematic alcohol use, a major cause of crime.

New York: The Manhattan Institute, 2021. 20p.

By Anne Nassauer

Officer-involved shootings (OIS) of people of color concern fundamental societal issues, including race, violence, and policing. While scholars have gathered extensive insights on contextual circumstances of OIS, the unfolding of encounters still remains a black box, and research is still debating whether racialized biases actually matter for shootings. To study this question, this article discusses findings from an in-depth analysis of real life OIS as they unfold. It triangulates video footage with document data to analyze the role of racial biases and situational interaction in shootings. It compares police shootings of black and white citizens, as well as a police-citizen encounter that did not end in a shooting. Findings suggest two intertwined processes of dehumanization contribute to the shootings of black citizens, one operating on the cultural and one on the situational level. The article contributes to research on race and racism, violence, police use of lethal force, and sociological theory.     

   Ethnic and Racial Studies , 2023.

By Eric Piza and Victoria A. Sytsma 

  The current study applies Systematic Social observation (SSO) to body-worn camera (BWC) footage of use of physical force events in Newark, NJ. The analysis tests the effect of suspect resistance and police officer interpersonal and informational justice tactics on time until use of physical force in police-citizen encounters. The results indicate police officer actions have a greater effect on the time until physical force than does suspect resistance. Officer adherence to informational justice is negatively associated to the time until both first use of force and highest level of force. Suspect resistance did not achieve statistical significance in any model. This study has implications for research and police practice, and demonstrates the benefits of leveraging video footage in criminological research.

Crime & Delinquency 2022.