By Brian Rappert, Otto Adang, Aline Daillère, Jasper De Paepe (UGent) , Abi Dymond, Marleen Easton (UGent) and Stephen Skinner

The use of force by the police and other law enforcement officers has long been a significant topic of concern, especially when it results in death. This issue and the controversies around it have recently been highlighted by a series of high-profile deaths in 2020. Police Lethal Force and Accountability assesses the frequency of deaths, and the availability and reliability of information regarding deaths, associated with the application of force by law enforcement agencies in four jurisdictions: Belgium, England & Wales, France and the Netherlands. By adopting a common set of considerations for assessing the policies and practices within these individual jurisdictions, this report enables comparisons to be made across them. In doing so, we look to provide those in policing agencies, campaigning groups, government ministries and others, with sound information with which they can identify priorities to ensure uses of force are being accurately recorded and investigated. By enabling those concerned to understand how uses of force are recorded and addressed in comparison with other jurisdictions, we hope this report will help them to build a stronger case when holding public institutions accountable and identifying points for improvement. As documented, while deaths from the use of force appear relatively rare across these four jurisdictions when compared to countries such as the US1 , the procedures 1 In the US, roughly 1,110 police killings have taken place annually over recent years, see https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/national trends, (accessed 4 December 2020). and policies for recording, investigating and disclosing details associated with deaths are wanting. The availability of official information on the number of deaths associated with the use of force, its reliability, and the extent of details collected on those that die at the hands of the state vary from country to country. While there are elements of good practice, the procedures and policies are often lacking in critical respects. As a result of such deficiencies, it is difficult to assess many important dimensions of policing, including whether some communities are disproportionality subjected to the lethal use of force. Ultimately, reducing the extent of police force requires addressing underlying societal conditions associated with employment, health, housing and education. However, more can be done by law enforcement agencies, as well as by their oversight bodies and government ministers. Assembling data and evidence that is accessible, relevant and useful to those concerned with lethal force is a necessary step to enhance accountability for, and possibly prevent, deaths. In the context of democratic societies, the police and police-related bodies not only need to act on what they know in order to learn lessons, but also to demonstrate they are doing so to the populations they are meant to serve. Every death associated with the use of force by law enforcement officials should be recorded, recognised and investigated. No one’s death should go unacknowledged and unexamined.

Exeter, UK: University of Exeter, et al. 2020. 63p.

By Susan McVie*, Kath Murray, Victoria Gorton, Ben Matthews

This report examines data on Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) issued in England and Wales under the Coronavirus Regulations between 27 March 2020 and 31 May 2021 in relation to illegal travel and movement, social gatherings, and failure to follow instructions. It focuses on who received fines, where and why they were issued, and how patterns of usage varied over time as the restrictions changed. It also examines how policing changed over time, looking at three distinct time-periods defined by patterns of enforcement during the pandemic and related policy and legislative change. Overall, the analysis in this report provides valuable insights into the profile and patterning of police enforcement during one of the most tumultuous periods in recent history. The report was commissioned by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) as part of its commitment to openness

Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Law School, 2023. 104p.

By University of Chicago Law School - Global Human Rights Clinic,

This Report is being published in the midst of a long series of horrifying incidents of police abuse of power in the United States. The deaths of George Floyd, Lacquan McDonald, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Breonna Taylor and many others, have echoed throughout the communities of this nation and prompted protests across the country. The video and testimonies from these incidents provide grim illustrations of the power law enforcement officers have over the people they are sworn to serve and protect, and the deadly consequences when they abuse that power. Society vests law enforcement with the responsibility to protect public safety and enforce the law when necessary. For these reasons, and these reasons only, law enforcement officers are granted the immense power to use force, including lethal force. This authority—state sanctioned violence—necessarily comes with limits and obligations to ensure those who enforce the law do not abuse it. These limits and obligations require that police use their power in a manner that protects and serves the entire community that has vested them with this privilege. The exercise of this authority also requires accountability when abuses occur. Without accountability, state sanctioned violence is nothing but the exercise of arbitrary brute force, a common tool of tyrannical and despotic governments. Yet, as endless reports and studies have indicated, the police in the United States do not always use their power in a manner that reflects the restraint, care and humility promised to its people. The many and terrible deaths of unarmed African Americans, the targeting of poor communities and communities of color, and the absence of a mandate to protect individuals from domestic violence, all sanctioned by the Supreme Court of the United States in the name of police discretion, have scarred many and raised questions of whether the police sufficiently serve their mandate.2

Chicago: University of Chicago Law School, 2020. 105p.

By Ian Loader

The question of the police mission – ‘what are the police for?’ – is a recurring and contested one in British public life. So much so that there are good reasons to be weary of another ride over this well-trodden ground. The debate has long circled around the same set of dilemmas, the same binary oppositions. Are the police a law enforcement, crime-fighting agency or are they a 24/7 social service doing whatever is necessary to maintain and repair order? Should they focus on reacting to calls for assistance (so-called fire brigade policing) or be proactively engaged in and with communities seeking to prevent crime and safeguard the vulnerable? Are the police the thin-blue-line that delineate order from chaos and keep the ‘law-abiding majority’ safe or do their powers present an ever-present risk to minority rights and require constant oversight and tight cabining within the rule of law? Debate between these alternatives recurs with seemingly little hope of progress or satisfactory resolution, but rather, it seems, repetitive back and forth between adherents of one pole or another. The value of a further foray into this barren territory is not therefore self-evident. It stands in need of justification. Within police circles, this sense of weary repetition tends to prompt one of two responses. The first is to default to a list of all the tasks that the police are unavoidably called upon to undertake. Such a list typically includes emergency response, crime prevention, criminal investigation, keeping the peace, social service, reassurance, national security, regulating public protest, traffic control and, these days, safeguarding vulnerable groups. This is arguably the approach taken by the 1962 Royal Commission on the Police, who categorised police functions in the following terms: 1. The maintenance of law and order and protection of persons and property. 2. The prevention of crime. 3. The detection of criminals. 4. Controlling of road traffic and advising local authorities on traffic questions. 5. Carrying out certain duties on behalf of government departments. 6. Befriending anyone who needs help and being available at any time to cope with minor or major emergencies

London: Police Foundation, 2020. 20p.

By Council on American Islamic Relations Michigan (CAIR-MI)

In September 2021, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) filed a notice of claim on behalf of Mrs. Helena Bowe, an African American Muslim, due to her being compelled to remove her hijab (Islamically required headcover for women) during the booking process of her detainment by the Ferndale Police. Bowe, who was driving eastbound on 8 Mile Road, was stopped in Detroit, which is located in Wayne County, without having driven through Ferndale, which is located in Oakland County, on the occasion of her traffic stop which led to her detainment. Bowe was pulled over by Ferndale Police on the bogus claim that her license plate tags might have been expired or were improper. Though Bowe was detained by Ferndale Police and her constitutional rights were violated regarding the forced removal of her hijab, her license plate tags were not expired which led to her traffic citation being dropped. In October 2021, CAIR-MI filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court on behalf of Bowe alleging that Ferndale had violated her rights under the U.S. Constitution as well as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). Subsequently in May 2022, CAIR-MI reached settlement of this matter that involved the city instituting new policies allowing Muslim women to maintain their hijab during the booking photo process and the prohibition of cross-gender searches in the absence of an emergency. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Ferndale also paid Bowe a monetary settlement. Although settlement was reached pertaining to this case regarding issues of religious rights during the booking process, CAIR-MI still held concerns about the initial reason why Bowe was stopped and the potential of continued racial profiling of Black motorists on 8 Mile Road. In September 2014, ACLU of Michigan urged the Ferndale Police Department to hire an independent firm to investigate possible racial profiling based upon “citing alarming statistics” of Black motorists being pulled in traffic stops.[1] Moreover in November 2020, Moratorium NOW! Coalition placed a billboard on 8 Mile Rd with the text[2]:

Canton, MI: CAIR MI, 2023. 19p.

By Irena Leisbet Ceridwen Connon, Mo Egan, Niall Hamilton-Smith, Niamh MacKay, Diana Miranda, C. William R. Webster

This report has been compiled for the Scottish Government’s “Emerging Technologies in Policing” project, and was commissioned by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) acting on behalf of the Scottish Government. It is based on a review of emerging technologies in policing undertaken between January and July 2022. The review was completed by a research team based at the University of Stirling.

The review considered: 1) the social and ethical implications of particular types of emerging technologies in policing practice, 2) the legal considerations associated with the adoption of emerging technologies in policing, 3) recommendations from the existing research examining the trial and adoption of new emerging technologies in policing, as well as for ethical and scientific standards frameworks and guidelines, for informing best practice and wider dissemination of these technologies in police practice, 4) recommendations for the use of emerging technologies in policing based on experiences from other sectors (Health, Children and Family), and 5) the lessons learnt and recommendations that can be made from the analysis of existing case law concerning emerging technology. The report provides a descriptive overview of the relevant literature and case law available, as well as a series of recommendations for best practice in the implementation and dissemination of the different forms of technology in police practice

Edinburgh, Scottish Government, 2023. 486p.

By Seleeke Flingai, Mona Sahaf, Nicole Battle, and Savannah Castaneda

The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 spurred a national reckoning around how Black people are viewed and treated by law enforcement and the criminal legal system. Some elected officials, prosecutors, and police have acknowledged their moral responsibility to pursue racial justice by examining racial disparities and inequities. This report addresses one such practice—non-traffic-safety stops. These occur when police stop and detain people for minor traffic violations that pose no identifiable risk of harm to people outside of the vehicle. Vera partnered with the Suffolk County (Massachusetts) District Attorney’s Office from July 2020 to March 2022 to study racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Vera’s analysis revealed that non-traffic-safety stops in Suffolk County are worsening racial disparities in traffic enforcement. This report shares findings from Vera’s analysis, along with proposed solutions that prohibit or deter such stops.

New York: Vera Institute of Justice 2022. 37p.

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 Public Safety Canada

This report presents the results of the evaluation of the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program (FNIPP).

What we examined

The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the continuing need (relevance), achievement of outcomes (effectiveness) and efficiency of program administration of the FNIPP. The evaluation covered the period from fiscal year 2015-16 to 2020-21 and was conducted in accordance with the Treasury Board Policy on Results and Directive on Results.

What we found

Positive perceptions of safety were found in communities with FNIPP-funded police services. Survey data shows 87% of respondents from communities with SA agreements and 77% of respondents from communities with CTA agreements felt very safe or reasonably safe.

Crime rates for First Nations and Inuit communities continue to be higher than in other Canadian communities, and there is an overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system as both victims and offenders. Moreover, prior to increased program funding announced in Budget 2021, the FNIPP’s allocated budget and existing authorities did not support program expansion and one-third of eligible communities do not have access to FNIPP-funded policing services. As such, there is a continuing need to strengthen and expand Public Safety Canada (PS) support of policing arrangements provided through the FNIPP.

The finite amount of the Program’s allocated budget has led to underfunding of FNIPP-funded policing agreements. As a result, the scope and nature of policing services that are available to participating communities are limited and face ongoing operational challenges that hamper the working conditions of FNIPP-funded officers and can impact their physical and mental wellbeing. This can have long-reaching effects on the public safety of communities with FNIPP-funded policing services. Other aspects of the contribution agreement funding model, including the time-limited nature of agreements, expense eligibility and the FNIPP’s fiscal framework, by which funding allocations are determined, were found to exacerbate these issues as well.

Limited program resources were also found to impact the implementation of culturally appropriate and responsive policing services in communities with FNIPP policing agreements. Two key areas requiring increased PS support were identified for improvement, these are: the formal mechanisms to facilitate community-police engagement which are required under FNIPP contribution agreements (i.e. CCGs and police boards/commissions); and encouraging the development, implementation and sharing of best practices for localized, community-specific cultural training activities for police service providers.

The Federal Government has recognized there are gaps in the current funding model and has mandated the Minister of Public Safety to co-develop, with the Minister of Indigenous Services, a legislative framework that recognizes First Nations policing as an essential service and for PS to expand and stabilize the FNIPP. Accordingly, funding to support these activities was identified in Budget 2021 and work is underway to meet these commitments.

Efforts to improve engagement, transparency and flexibility in governance and administrative processes were noted over the past five years. These included a stakeholder engagement process to inform agreement renewals; a collaborative process, co-developed with PT funding partners to allocate additional officer positions; and updated Terms and Conditions increasing the maximum amount payable to SA police services to alleviate operational pressures resulting from emergency situations, such as response measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some concerns were raised with respect to PS’s management of key stakeholder relationships. These included timely agreement renewal negotiations with funding partners. PS was also found to not sufficiently engage in renewal negotiations with funding recipients and communities have limited input and access to FNIPP governance structures. As well, PS continues to experience ongoing challenges with inconsistent collection and monitoring of performance data.

Recommendations

While work is underway to co-develop a legislative framework for First Nation policing, the evaluation findings also support the need for First Nations policing to be recognized as an essential service. In support of this work, Public Safety should:

1. Examine options for other funding mechanisms beyond the contribution agreement model, in consultation with all implicated stakeholders.

2. Ensure that formal mechanisms to facilitate community-police engagement (i.e. Community Consultative Groups and police boards/commissions), which are required under FNIPP contribution agreements, have the appropriate support to identify community safety priorities and facilitate effective engagement between communities and their police services.

3. Develop, implement and monitor a consistent performance measurement and data collection strategy, that does not unnecessarily burden recipient communities and provides relevant and timely information to communities/police services, and decision makers.

4. Explore, with partners and communities, opportunities to support and encourage the sharing of best practices in localized cultural training activities for FNIPP-funded police services.

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, 2022. 42p.

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 Kerry Carrington, Máximo Sozzo, María Victoria Puyol, Marcela Parada Gamboa, Natacha Guala, and Diego Zysman

This is the first report of a study into the role of women’s police stations in Argentina in responding to and preventing gender violence. The study is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and includes a multi-country team of researchers from Australia and Argentina. Violence against women and girls is a global policy issue with significant social, economic and personal consequences. A World Health Organization (2013) prevalence study found that 35 per cent of women in the world had experienced violence or sexual abuse by a partner or ex-partner, and that women who are murdered by a partner or ex-partner account for 38 per cent of all female homicides. However, the burden of violence against women and girls is distributed unequally, with rates of violence significantly higher in low to middle income countries of the Global South. Yet, the bulk of global research on gender violence is based on the experiences of urban communities in high-income English-speaking countries mainly from the Global North. Only 11 per cent of research on gender violence has been conducted in Africa and 7 per cent in South Asia (Arango et al. 2014, 19). This body of research also tends to promote policy interventions that are either unsustainable (such as specialised domestic violence courts) or mono-cultural (based on white women’s experiences) and consequently of little assistance in designing interventions to eliminate gender violence in culturally diverse, low income and post-conflict, post-colonial or neo-colonial contexts in the Global South (Carrington et al. 2019). It is in this context that women’s specialist police stations, which first emerged in Latin America over 30 years ago and have since grown exponentially in countries of the Global South, warrant serious consideration as a more effective method for responding to violence against women, than reliance on traditional models of policing.

Brisbane: School of Justice, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology:2019. 29p.

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 Shirin Sinnar

The recent surge in hate crimes alongside persistent concerns over policing and prisons has catalyzed new interest in hate crime prevention outside the criminal legal system. While policymakers, civil rights groups, and people in targeted communities internally disagree on the value of hate crime laws and law enforcement responses to hate crimes, they often converge in advocating measures that could prevent hate crimes from occurring in the first place. Those measures potentially include educational initiatives, conflict resolution programs, political reforms, social services, or other proactive efforts aimed at the root causes of hate crimes.

Focusing on the public conversation around anti-Asian hate crimes, this Essay argues that very different conceptions of the hate crime problem lie beneath the support for hate crime prevention. Broadly speaking, proposals for hate crime prevention fall into three categories: 1) prejudice reduction measures; 2) political and structural reforms; and 3) socioeconomic investments in communities. Prejudice reduction measures, such as educational programs to reduce stereotyping, stem from a view of hate crimes as an extreme manifestation of bias. Advocacy for political and structural reforms corresponds to a conception of hate crimes as the product of intergroup struggles over power and resources often influenced by the state. Calls for socioeconomic investments link hate crimes to the conditions that produce interpersonal harm more generally, such as economic distress or public health failures.

This Essay maps out these different conceptions of hate crime prevention and relates them to theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence from social psychology, sociology, criminology, and other fields. Drawing on this review, it argues that the project of hate crime prevention faces several empirical and normative conundrums. In addition to disagreements over conceptualizing hate crimes, these puzzles include the relationship between attitudes and behavior, the potential tension between hate crime prevention and other socially desirable policy goals, and the difficulty of maintaining support for long-term, structural change.

112 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 801 (2023).

By The National Policing Institute

The Brooklyn Center Police Department (BCPD) partnered with the National Policing Institute (the Institute) to conduct a workload study and organizational assessment in 2022. Police and City leaders wanted an independent assessment of the number of officers necessary to respond to service demand from the community in conjunction with an examination of the overall operations of the department. As talks were progressing, the City of Brooklyn Center became the focus of national attention after BCPD Officer Kim Potter shot and killed an unarmed African-American man, Daunte Wright, during a traffic stop. In the following months, numerous officers and non-sworn employees resigned, and the ones that remained felt they were under increased scrutiny. The resignations and resulting increased workload made the study even more important for the department as they sought to renew themselves and provide safety for the community.

The report presents the key findings from the following groups: surveys of department employees: key findings from the interviews and the focus group with the community: key findings from the quantitative analyses:

The following are selected key recommendations based on the findings: • The department should authorize a total of 36 officers for patrol to ensure officers have adequate time for problem-solving, training, and vacation time. • The department should authorize two additional sergeants in the Patrol Division to ensure sergeants are able to attend training and proactively supervise officers. • The department should add an additional detective to lower the workload of detectives. • The department should immediately hire individuals to fill the authorized records technician positions and add an additional position to compensate for the recommended officer increase. • The department should champion and expand the department employee wellness program and seek grants to provide additional resources. • The department should create a comprehensive crime reduction strategy in collaboration with the community and communicate it internally and externally. • The department and City should initiate programs with the community to foster positive interactions between community members and department employees.

Arlington, VA: The National Policing Institute, 2023. 90p.

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 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 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.

By Amy Nivette,Christof Nägel &Emily Gilbert

High-profile incidents of police misconduct can have serious conse-quences for public trust in the police. A recent study in the British Journal of Political Science found that Eric Garner’s death in NYC led to more negative attitudes towards the police in London among Black residents compared to White and Asian residents. The current study aimed to replicate this transnational effect by assessing the impact of George Floyd’s death on Londoners’ perceptions of police. Using the same data and methodological approach, we did not replicate the immediate effect on Black Londoners’ attitudes. We did find that attitudes across ethnic groups became more negative when using a wider temporal bandwidth. However, we discovered violations to the excludability assumption, meaning we cannot be certain that the effect is solely due to the murder of George Floyd, or at least partly due to different dynamics, like the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying policies. This means that while it is possible that police killings in other contexts play a role in shaping attitudes towards local police, these effects are difficult to disentangle from other global and local factors. misconduct can reduce trust and confidence in the police among the wider public (Kochel, 2019; Nägel & Lutter, 2021; Reny & Newman, 2021).

Police Practice and Research, 2023.