By The National Police Foundation

The last few years have presented unprecedented challenges, both to our communities and to public safety officers and first responders—especially law enforcement. Current events, including COVID 19, political rhetoric and chaos, societal conflict and division, and attacks on the policing institution, individual officers, and officers’ families, have created a challenging environment where stress and trauma increased exponentially. High-stress police operations such as crowd management during periods of civil unrest is mentally and physically demanding. Crowd management often challenges officers to push their bodies beyond normal limits, leading to poor performance, fatigue, insomnia, and injury. In the summer of 2020, many officers repeatedly worked shifts that, at times, exceeded 12 hours, for 10 to 12 days straight, leaving little time for appropriate nutrition, rest, exercise, recovery, or sleep. Large numbers of arrests, long periods on bicycles, standing or moving in formations, or responding to threats are physically and mentally demanding. In light of the current environment, NPF has developed this brief guide for law enforcement agencies on ways to recognize and protect the physical and mental wellbeing of officers during responses to intense and protracted protests and demonstrations. Both physical and mental stressors are taking a toll on the women and men who have dedicated their lives to protecting our communities. This guidebook offers educational information and practical considerations for sworn officers of all ranks, particularly frontline…..

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  officers and mid-level supervisors, as well as their families, to better protect officers’ mental and physical wellbeing during times of heightened stress. Furthermore, this guidebook can be used as a resource by police leaders in promoting healthy organizational cultures that recognize and prioritize officer safety and wellness as an integral part of policing protests—which ultimately can help foster better outcomes for all involved. The content in this guidebook has been curated and derived from a review of research from professional medical organizations and has been peer reviewed by licensed mental health clinicians and law enforcement practitioners.   

Arlington, VA: National Police Foundation, 2021. 47p.

By Aaron Chalfin and Maxim N. Massenkoff

In 2015, for the first time in nearly forty years, the rate of motor vehicle fatalities for Black Americans exceeded that of white Americans. By 2020, the gap in death rates stood at 34%, accounting for approximately 4,000 excess deaths between 2014 and 2020. This disproportionate increase occurred in nearly all states, in rural as well as urban areas, and was shared by drivers of all ages and genders. We consider a variety of potential explanations for the emerging race gap including race-specific changes in time spent driving, the circumstances of driving, the quality of medical care for crash victims, decreases in other types of mortality, changes in policing, and risky driving behaviors such as speeding, driving without a seat belt and driving while intoxicated. We can rule out many of these factors as important contributors to the race gap, but find evidence for two of them. The first is opportunity: Relative to white Americans, Black Americans are spending more time in vehicles than they have in the past. Changes in time spent driving, while modest, likely explain an important share of the emergent race gap. The second is a relative increase in drug use, manifested by a quadrupling of the rate of overdose deaths among Black Americans after 2014. Increased drug use appears to have resulted in a concomitant increase in fatal crashes involving drivers under the influence of drugs. Finally, we consider whether the emerging race gap is explained by the so-called "Ferguson effect," the idea that police officers have pulled back from enforcement activity in recent years. On the one hand, traffic stops

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  made by police officers do appear to have declined after 2014. However, the decline in traffic stops does not appear to be race-specific and there is little evidence of a broad increase in risky driving behaviors like speeding and driving without a seat belt.

Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2022. 58p.

By Desmond Ang and Jonathan Tebes

Roughly a thousand people are killed by American law enforcement officers each year, accounting for more than 5% of all homicides. We estimate the causal impact of these events on civic engagement. Exploiting hyper-local variation in how close residents live to a killing, we find that exposure to police violence leads to significant increases in registrations and votes. These effects are driven entirely by Blacks and Hispanics and are largest for killings of unarmed individuals. We find corresponding increases in support for criminal justice reforms, suggesting that police violence may cause voters to politically mobilize against perceived injustice.

Unpublished paper, 2021. 30p.

By National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 

The US Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) provides assistance and supports capacity building for criminal justice systems and police organizations in approximately 90 countries. In order to support and inform that work, this report explores high-level corruption and its effects on police organizations, as well as strategies that police can use to effectively contribute to efforts to combat that corruption.

Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2022. 74p.

By National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Training police in the knowledge and skills necessary to support the rule of law and protect the public is a substantial component of the activities of international organizations that provide foreign assistance. Significant challenges with such training activities arise with the wide range of cultural, institutional, political, and social contexts across countries. In addition, foreign assistance donors often have to leverage programs and capacity in their own countries to provide training in partner countries, and there are many examples of training, including in the United States, that do not rely on the best scientific evidence of policing practices and training design. Studies have shown disconnects between the reported goals of training, notably that of protecting the population, and actual behaviors by police officers. These realities present a diversity of challenges and opportunities for foreign assistance donors and police training. At the request of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examined scientific evidence and assessed research needs for effective policing in the context of the challenges above. This report, the second in a series of five, responds to the following questions: What are the core knowledge and skills needed for police to promote the rule of law and protect the population? What is known about mechanisms (e.g., basic and continuing education or other capacity building programs) for developing the core skills needed for police to promote the rule of law and protect the population?

Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. 2022. 102p.

By Andrew Bacher-Hicks and Elijah de la Campa

In an effort to thwart crimes in progress and deter future incidents, police in the US conduct
millions of civilian street stops each year. Though this practice is commonplace in most large
urban police departments, little is known about the net impact of this strategy on crime. This
paper exploits the naturally-occurring movement of New York Police Department commanders
during the height of New York City’s Stop and Frisk program to estimate commanders’ effects on
civilian stops and their subsequent impact on crime. We generate predictions of commanders’ effects on stops in a precinct, conditional on neighborhood demographics, crime rates, and policing strategies. Commanders’ effects—estimated using data only from tenures in prior precincts—are highly predictive of observed stops in new precincts, which highlights the transferability of commanders’ tactical preference for stops. We find that a high-stop strategy decreases misdemeanor crime within a precinct, but has no effect on more serious felony offenses. Moreover, we find suggestive evidence that the decrease in misdemeanor offenses is partially offset by crime displacement to adjacent neighborhoods. We conclude by demonstrating that commander stop effects are uncorrelated with their effects on other proactive policing strategies, and that commanders trade off their ability to build police legitimacy in the community with their preference for stops. Contrary to broken windows theory, our findings suggest that stop and frisk tactics do not deter more

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  serious criminal behavior, and thus, police should consider alternatives to strategies that emphasize the proactive enforcement of low-level offenses.

Unpublished paper 2020. 71p.

By Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency:

From the Introduction: "Infrastructure is the backbone of our communities, providing not only critical services (such as water, transportation, electricity, and communications), but also the means for health, safety, and economic growth. These systems often extend beyond our communities providing service to entire regions and contributing to the delivery of National Critical Functions [hyperlink]. Given the vital importance of infrastructure to our social and economic well-being, it is imperative we ensure our networks are strong, secure, and resilient. [...] The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) developed the Infrastructure Resilience Planning Framework (IRPF) to provide an approach for localities, regions, and the private sector to work together to plan for the security and resilience of critical infrastructure services in the face of multiple threats and changes. The primary audience for the IRPF is state, local, tribal, and territorial governments and associated regional organizations; however, the IRPF can be flexibly used by any organization seeking to enhance their resilience planning. It provides resources for integrating critical infrastructure into planning as well as a framework for working regionally and across systems and jurisdictions."

United States. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency. Nov. 2022. 56p.

By Julie Grieco and Teresina G. Robbins

Several high-profile officer-involved shootings (OIS) in 2014 and 2015 stimulated a national debate and exposed the absence of reliable national data on police use of deadly force. To begin exploring this issue, the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) first asked their members to provide the number of OIS for their agencies for the years 2005-2015. While helpful in understanding the trends and frequency of these incidents, this data alone provides no insight into the circumstances of the encounters between officers and members of the public. To help develop a better understanding of these interactions, MCCA and the National Policing Institute (NPI) entered into a partnership in 2015 to collect more detailed OIS data. The partnership had two primary objectives. The first was to provide a basis for a more accurate and reliable estimate of firearm use by police officers in major cities. The second, covered in this report, was to provide better insight into OIS situations and, through the analysis of the data, improve officer safety and accountability. After developing a tool and a process, OIS data collection was launched in late March 2015. The NPI and the MCCA have developed three executive summaries on this project to share the information with practitioners on 1006 cases involving 1605 officers in 47 MCCA US agencies for the years 2015 to 2017. The first focuses on OIS incident characteristics. The second presents the findings of an analysis of officer-involved shooting incidents in the major cities. It looks at factors involved such as location, officer and suspect characteristics,

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  injuries, agency response to OIS, and issues in OIS data collection. The third is a broader discussion of OIS incidents, how their data are captured within law enforcement, and the gaps in our understanding of these encounters.

Alexandria, VA: Policing Institute, New York: Arnold Ventures, 2019. 65p.

By Canice Prendergast

We study LAPD police reforms after the Rampart scandal, when formal oversight rose discretely in 1998, and then fell in late 2002. We offer a simple model to interpret how police behavior is affected by changed accountability to the public. We show how officers responded by a practice they labeled “drive and wave”. The arrest-to-crime rate fell 40% after accountability to the public rose, then rebounded to its original level when accountability fell. For the “victimless” crimes of narcotics and prostitution, arrests fall almost 50% and then rebound. No such effects arise for the Los Angeles Sheriff Department, even for those stations surrounded by areas policed by the LAPD. We also see no effects on arrests made by other agencies within the LAPD’s jurisdiction. This impact was greatest in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods, and felt least in White communities. Other behavioral responses - use of force and street stops - tell a similar story. We argue that much of the response may be attributable to an imbalance between oversight done by suspects compared to that done by the victims of crime. We also document an impact on homicides.

Chicago: University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, 2021. 63p.

By Taeho Kim

Body-worn cameras (BWCs) have received extensive attention as a key reform to restore police legitimacy. I study the causal effects of BWCs on law enforcement outcomes by conducting a nationwide study of BWCs across 947 agencies that adopted BWCs between 2014 and 2016 in the US. I find that BWCs led to decreases in the use of force but the increased oversight did not reduce crime control activities. By examining social media usage from Twitter, I also find suggestive evidence that BWC adoption has improved public opinion toward the police.

Unpublished paper, 2019. 84p.

By Cynthia Lum, Christopher S. Koper, David B. Wilson, Megan Stoltz, Michael Goodier, Elizabeth Eggins, Angela Higginson, Lorraine Mazerolle

Body-worn cameras do not have clear or consistent effects on most officer or citizen behaviors, but different practices need further evaluation. Law enforcement agencies have rapidly adopted body-worn cameras (BWCs) in the last decade with the hope that they might improve police conduct, accountability, and transparency, especially regarding use of force. Overall, there remains substantial uncertainty about whether BWCs can reduce officer use of force, but the variation in results over studies suggests there may be conditions in which BWC could be effective. BWCs also do not seem to affect other police and citizen behaviors in a consistent manner, including officers’ self-initiated activities or arrest behaviors, dispatched calls for service, or assaults and resistance against police officers. BWCs can reduce the number of citizen complaints against police officers, but it is unclear whether this finding signals an improvement in the quality of police-citizen interactions or a change in reporting. Research has not directly addressed whether BWCs can strengthen police accountability systems or police-citizen relationships.

Campbell Systematic Review, 2020. 40p.

By The International Association of Chiefs of Policy (IACP)

As part of our long-standing commitment to advancing the profession of law enforcement and the practice of policing, eleven leading law enforcement leadership and labor organizations continued their work to provide guidance to the law enforcement profession on de-escalation techniques, less-lethal force, and deadly force. The extensive work of the participating organizations resulted in the development of a companion Discussion Paper to supplement the Consensus Policy on Use of Force that was originally published in 2017 and updated in 2020. The combined document represents our collaborative efforts to advance the law enforcement profession, while upholding our commitment and duty to serve the public and preserve all human life. The National Consensus Discussion Paper on Use of Force is designed to provide essential background material and supporting documentation to promote greater understanding of the developmental philosophy and implementation guidelines for the Consensus Policy. Law agencies are encouraged to utilize the Discussion Paper and the information contained therein to better inform their decisions on whether to implement the various elements found in the Consensus Policy in their own agencies.

Alexandria, VA: IACP, 2020. 16p.

By Brice Terpstra; Michael D. White; Aili Malm; Janne E. Gaub; Craig Uchida

This examination of the management of digital evidence captured by body-worn cameras (BWCs) pertains to “the process by which an agency manages, stores, and transmits the data generated by BWCs and other devices (e.g., other types of cameras, cell phones).” An earlier study of seven jurisdictions (Uchida et al., 2021) examined the way in which BWC footage flowed through policing agencies and in the criminal justice system. The report provided an understanding of the key challenges and issues faced by law enforcement agencies and prosecutor offices as they use BWCs routinely. To further our knowledge, we conducted an online survey of agencies receiving federal funds for BWC through the Bureau of Justice Assistance Policy and Implementation (PIP) BWC funding program to address this gap. We asked agencies approximately 30 questions related to digital evidence management (DEM), including basic program management, internal uses of footage, external sharing, challenges, and future developments. Sixty-eight agencies completed our survey, and this report details those results. The most common challenges identified were cost/staffing/resources (28 percent); storage/infrastructure requirements (25 percent); and video redaction (14 percent). Agencies also cited Freedom of Information Act public requests for BWC evidence footage. Perceptions of future developments were also discussed.

CNA Corporation with Justice & Security Strategies, Inc. (JSS) and Arizona State University (ASU):  2022. 17p.

By Thomas Woodmansee, John Markovic

As more police agencies have adopted BWCs on their own initiative, and at least seven states have recently moved to mandate their use, BWCs are becoming a permanent fixture for the majority of police agencies. As BWCs continue to garner widespread support across varied segments of the public and of law enforcement, the benefits of this technology are becoming firmly established and agencies are demonstrating novel ways to use BWCs to improve policing. The context in which agencies implement BWCs is important, and police understand that BWCs are quickly becoming another component of the required “toolbelt” that they take into the field every day. Command staff now realize that BWCs are part of the fabric of their policing operations, i.e., BWCs are affected by and are affecting many other dimensions of policing. BWCs have, for instance, added to police workload by generating public and media requests for footage that must be painstakingly reviewed and redacted before release. On the positive side, departments have realized some areas where BWCs serve to streamline existing practices, such as the investigation and resolution of citizen complaints. At the same time agencies also recognize some previously unidentified and unintended benefits of this technology. BWCs provide police with opportunities to enhance their patrol responses and investigations. In this article written by CNA's Thomas Woodmansee and BJA's John Markovic, we discuss these two applications and other unique benefits of BWCs.

2022. 9p.

By Craig D. Uchida; Shellie E. Solomon, Christine Connor, John McCluskey, Charles M. Katz, Michael D. White, Quin Patterson, Allie Land, John Markovic, with Kyle Anderson & Jennifer Schmitz

Digital Evidence Management (DEM) encompasses a wide variety of devices, technologies, tools, and data, particularly as they relate to the criminal justice system (Goodison, Davis, and Jackson, 2015). This report is about body-worn cameras (BWCs) and the digital evidence (footage) created by the technology. The main purpose of the study is to understand and explain the key challenges faced by law enforcement agencies and prosecutor offices as they use BWCs routinely. Taking a case study approach, we examine the process for managing BWC footage in seven agencies: Two large police departments (Phoenix, AZ and Los Angeles, CA); two mid-size police agencies (Glendale, AZ and Rochester, NY); a Sheriff's Office (Harris County, TX), and a collaborative effort in South Florida (Broward County State Attorney's Office and Fort Lauderdale Police Department).

Silver Spring, MD: Justice and Security Strategies, 2022. 83p.

By Luis V. De la Torre

Police officers working in countries plagued by drug trafficking are often offered a choice between "plata o plomo" ("silver or lead"). Given this option, it is not surprising that levels of police corruption are high in these nation-states. Significantly, however, levels of police corruption do differ radically between those countries where the levels of drug production and trafficking are similar. This thesis examines the case of Mexico, where corruption has been historically high and has increased in recent times; and the case of Colombia, where levels of police corruption have been relatively low and might even be said to be on the decline. Specialists in police reform and anticorruption typically look at administrative factors such as ethics, salary levels, the purging of corrupt officials, and the recruiting and training of "clean" officers as essential elements in the prevention of police corruption. While these factors explain some of the differences in levels of corruption, this thesis fills an important gap in the existing literature by moving beyond these conventional explanations. In particular, it introduces a country-specific approach to drug-related police corruption, including factors such as the organizational structure of the police force (centralized or decentralized), the legacy of the "political criminal nexus" in the country concerned, and both the size and "ideology" of the drug trafficking organizations involved.

Monterey, California:. Naval Postgraduate School, 2008. 142p.

By Paul Stott, Richard Ekins & David Spencer

‘Just Stop Oil’ protests: A legal and policing quagmire sets out how the police can more effectively tackle the chaos that disruptive protests are bringing to our streets. Over the last month ‘Just Stop Oil’ protestors have brought London to a standstill – causing Criminal Damage, obstructing the highway, blocking ambulances and fire engines, disrupting Londoners from going about their daily lives. These protests are also eating into police time, with 8,000 frontline police shifts diverted from fighting crime in local communities to deal with the protests

London: Policy Exchange, 2022. 37p.

By Chris Jones, Jane Kilpatrick, Yasha Maccanico

Attempts by the EU and its member states to step up identity controls by equipping police and immigration authorities with new biometric technologies are likely to see both ethnic minority citizens and non-citizens subjected to unwarranted intrusions into their everyday activities, argues a report published today by Statewatch. Building the biometric state: Police powers and discrimination looks at the gradual development and deployment of biometric technologies by EU institutions and member states over the last two decades. It finds that the EU has provided at least €290 million in public research funding to projects aiming to advance biometric techniques and technologies, and that policy development and implementation has been propelled by secretive police and policy networks that operate with little to no democratic scrutiny. It also provides case studies examining the deployment of biometric technologies in France, Italy and Spain, highlighting some of the issues that are likely to  arise as such technology becomes more widely used.

London: Statewatch, 2022. 34p.

By Jane Kilpatrick, Chris Jones

The new rules governing Europol, which came into force at the end of June, massively expand the tasks and powers of the EU’s policing agency whilst reducing external scrutiny of its data processing operations and rights protections for individuals, says a report published today by Statewatch. Given Europol’s role as a ‘hub’ for information processing and exchange between EU member states and other entities, the new rules thus increase the powers of all police forces and other agencies that cooperate with Europol, argues the report, Empowering the police, removing protections. New tasks granted to Europol include supporting the EU’s network of police “special intervention units” and managing a cooperation platform for coordinating joint police operations, known as EMPACT. However, it is the rules governing the processing and exchange of data that have seen the most significant changes.

London: Statewatch, 2022. 55p.

Edited by Mahesh K. Nalla and Graeme R. Newman

Indigenous communities are typically those that challenge the laws of the nation states of which they have become—often very reluctantly—a part. Around the world, community policing has emerged in many of these regions as a product of their physical environments and cultures. Through a series of case studies, Community Policing in Indigenous Communities explores how these often deeply divided societies operate under the community policing paradigm. Drawing on the local expertise of policing practitioners and researchers across the globe, the book explores several themes with regard to each region:

How community policing originated or evolved in the community and how it has changed over time The type of policing style used—whether informal or formal and uniformed or non-uniformed, whether partnerships are developed with local community organizations or businesses, and the extent of covert operations, if any The role played by community policing in the region, including the relative emphasis of calls for service, the extent to which advice and help is offered to citizens, whether local records are kept of citizen movement and locations, and investigation and arrest procedures.

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  The community’s special cultural or indigenous attributes that set it apart from other models of community policing Organizational attributes, including status in the "hierarchy of control" within the regional or national organization of policing The positive and negative features of community policing as it is practiced in the community Its effectiveness in reducing and or preventing crime and disorder. The book demonstrates that community policing cannot be imposed from above without grassroots input from local citizens. It is a strategy—not simply for policing with consent—but for policing in contexts where there is often little, if any, consent. It is an aspirational practice aimed to help police and communities within contested contexts to recognize that positive gains can be made, enabling communities to live in relative safety.

Boca Raton, FL: London; New York: CRC Press, 2013. 396p.