By Danielle Watson · Loene Howes · Sinclair Dinnen · Melissa Bull · Sara N. Amin

This open access book brings together insights into Pacific policing, conceptualising policing broadly as order maintenance involving the actions of multiple local, regional and international actors with sometimes competing and conflicting agendas. A complex and multifaceted endeavour, scholarship on this topic is relatively scarce and widely dispersed across diverse sources. It examines how Pacific policing is shaped by changing state-society relations in different national contexts and ongoing processes of globalisation. Particular attention is given to the plural character of Pacific policing, profound challenges of gender equity, changing dynamics of crime, and the prominence of transnational policing in resource and capacity constrained domestic environments. The authors draw on examples from across the Pacific islands to provide a nuanced and contextualised account of policing in this socially diverse and rapidly transforming region.

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. 208p

By Luke Bonkiewicz

The author of this report notes that recruitment and retention are critical issues in law enforcement, and that in order to address those issues, many agencies consider implementing a type of flexible scheduling called job sharing, in which two people share the duties of a single position while dividing the benefits. The author suggests that law enforcement agencies that are unable to implement job sharing may be able to utilize other flexible scheduling arrangements such as part-time positions or extended leave for qualifying events. The author identifies potential benefits of job sharing, including the retention of two people on one salary, improves employee work-life balance, reduces stress and burnout, supports greater productivity, and more. Potential drawbacks discussed by the author include training and equipping two people for one position, more employees to supervise and evaluate, it may require benefit reduction for job sharers, and it may not be allowed by local union contracts or local laws. The author makes several recommendations for the implementation of job sharing programs, including to conduct a focus group or survey to gauge interest in such a program, to identify and evaluate state legislation and local ordinances that may affect the implementation of job sharing, evaluate which units may benefit from a job sharing program and develop specific policies for those units and the specific positions, train employees and supervisors on the topic, and once a program has been implemented, to conduct ongoing evaluations. Alternative options to job sharing may include other types of flexible scheduling, such as the expansion of part-time officers and assignments, working from home, or extended leave policies. The author suggests that proper implementation can improve both recruitment and retention for police agencies as well as prolong officers’ careers and alleviate staffing shortages.

Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2023. 21p.

By Michael Gennaco, Stephen Connolly and Julie Ruhlin

In the summer of 2019, Vallejo officials were responding to a time of transition for the City’s Police Department. The chief was newly retired, and the search for a new leader was underway against a backdrop of recent incidents – including fatal officer-involved shootings – that had prompted public concern and even demonstrations. It seemed as if a number of individual encounters were fitting all too well into larger, troubling narratives about American law enforcement: deadly force under disputed circumstances that affected minority subjects to a disproportionate extent, and strained relationships with residents that arose from and contributed to that reality while raising issues of trust and public confidence. Leadership within Vallejo’s city government decided that the time was right to take a step back and to assess the Department’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities in a new way. The City engaged an outside consultant to conduct this assessment.

This report is the product of that review. It was prepared by OIR Group, a team of private consultants that specializes in police practices and the civilian oversight of law enforcement. Since 2001, OIR Group has worked exclusively with government entities in a variety of contexts related to independent outside review of law enforcement, from investigation to monitoring to systems evaluation. Our members have provided oversight in jurisdictions throughout California, as well as in several other states.

Playa del Rey, CA:  OIR Group, 2020. 74p.

By The Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science

 In 2019, the Chicago Police Department, in partnership with the Policing Project at New York University (NYU), implemented the Chicago Neighborhood Policing Initiative (CNPI). This initiative is composed of two interrelated goals: To measure CNPI’s impact, CORNERS built a multi-method research design capturing perspectives of residents and police in CNPI districts through in-depth interviews, systematic observations at police and community meetings and events, quasi-experimental statistical analyses, and analysis of key documents detailing CNPI activities.

Chicago: The Center, Northwestern University, 2023. 66p.

By The Center for Public Safety Management

The Center for Public Safety Management, LLC (CPSM) was commissioned to review the operations of the Little Rock Police Department. While our analysis covered all aspects of the department’s operations, particular areas of focus of this study included: identifying appropriate staffing of the department given the workload, community demographics, and crime levels; the effectiveness of the organizational structure; and efficiency and effectiveness of division/unit processes. We analyzed the department workload using operations research methodology and compared that workload to staffing and deployment levels. We reviewed other performance indicators that enabled us to understand the implications of service demand on current staffing. Our study involved data collection, interviews with key operational and administrative personnel, focus groups with line level department personnel, on-site observations of the job environment, data analysis, comparative analysis, and the development of alternatives and recommendations. Based upon CPSM’s detailed assessment of the Little Rock Police Department, it is our conclusion that the department, overall, provides quality law enforcement services. The staff is professional and dedicated to the mission of the department. Through this report, we will strive to allow the reader to take a look inside the department to understand its strengths and its challenges. We sincerely hope that all parties utilize the information and recommendations contained herein in a constructive manner to make a fine law enforcement agency even better. As part of this Executive Summary, we offer general observations that we believe identify some of the more significant issues facing the department. Additionally, we also list key recommendations for consideration; we believe these recommendations will enhance organizational effectiveness. Some of these recommendations involve the creation of new job classifications; others involve the reassignment/repurposing of job duties to other sections and units. Oftentimes these types of recommendations require a substantial financial commitment on the part of a jurisdiction. In the case of the Little Rock Police Department, some may be accomplished by a realignment of workload and/or reclassification of job descriptions. It is important to note that in this report we will examine specific sections and units of the department and will offer a discussion of our observations and recommendations for each.

• More...

  The list of recommendations is extensive. Should the Little Rock Police Department choose to implement any or all recommendations, it must be recognized that this process will not take just weeks or even months to complete, but perhaps years. The recommendations are intended to form the basis of a long-term improvement plan for the city and department. It is important that we emphasize that this list of recommendations, though lengthy, is common in our operational assessments of agencies around the country and should in no way be interpreted as an indictment of what we consider to be a fine department. While all of the recommendations are important, we suggest the Little Rock Police Department in conjunction with other city departments, the city council, the city manager, and members of the community decide which recommendations should take priority for implementation.   

Washington, DC: Center for Public Safety Management, 2022. 212p.

By Liberty, et al.

Whatever our postcode or the colour of our skin, we all deserve to grow up in communities where we are cared for and given the tools we need to flourish in life. But instead of investing in young people or providing support to deal with the causes of social problems, the government has given the police more powers to try and tackle the symptoms of these issues. This has led to more and more people being treated unfairly by the police, rather than being given the help they need. Our communities need investment, so that together we can create spaces and services that we know will give our young people the best chance in life. And we need to roll back the powers of the police so no-one faces harsh and traumatising treatment at the hands of police. That’s why a coalition including Liberty, have launched a groundbreaking report calling for a new approach to tackling serious youth violence, with the powers of the police rolled back and more funding and support given for young people to thrive., 

London?: 2023,Liberty, 133p.

By Kevin Petersen, David Weisburd, Sydney Fay, Elizabeth Eggins and Lorraine Mazzerole 

Police stops are associated with reductions in crime but also a broad range of negative individual-level outcomes.

Police stop interventions produce meaningful and significant reductions in crime without evidence of spatial displacement. However, people subject to stops are associated with significantly less desirable mental and physical health outcomes, attitudes toward police, and self-reported crime/delinquency. For some outcome measures, the negative effects of pedestrian stops are considerably more pronounced for youth, though the data did not permit a comparison of individual effects by race.

What is this review about?

Police stops have become one of the most controversial yet widely-used crime prevention strategies in modern policing. This intervention involves the police-initiated stop of an individual (or group of individuals) on the street, for the purpose of investigation and/or questioning. Police stops have been commonly used as a tactic to combat violent and gun-related crime.

Campbell Systematic Reviews. 2023;1

By Cameron Holley, Tariro Mutongwizo, and Clifford Shearing

  This review explores past and future shifts in policing and criminology scholarship that have shaped, and been shaped by, what is done to enhance safety within political domains. Investigating established policing conceptualizations, the review demonstrates how the ideal of state-delivered safety as a public good was challenged by a sizeable policing industry, giving rise to debates about legal context, service provision, and conceptualizations of policing and security nodal arrangements. This review argues that these understandings are now confronted by new harms and new conceptualizations of social institutional affairs. Interrogating these claims through an examination of the Anthropocene and technologies of cyberspace, we canvass debates and show that a shared focus of attention for the future of policing will be a decentralization of security and an expansion of private security governance professionals (both human and nonhuman)  

Annual Review of Criminology,  3:341-358, 2020

By Rachel Harmon

Coercive policing is conducted mostly by means of commanding officers usually cannot use force unless they have first issued an order. Yet, despite widespread concern about force and coercion in policing, commands are both underregulated and misunderstood. Officers have no clear legal authority to give many common commands, almost no departmental guidance about how or when to issue them, and almost no legal scrutiny for many commands they give. Scholars rarely study commands, and when they do, they get them wrong. As a result of vague law and inadequate analysis, basic questions about police commands—what role they play, where officers get authority to issue them, and how law regulates them—remain unanswered. Instead, officers interact with the public in a legal gray zone, a recipe for illegitimacy and conflict. This Article offers initial answers to these questions. First, it explains the constitutivecommands play in policing: Long-standing law dictates that officers usually cannot compel people, including by stop or arrest, without issuing commands that impose new legal duties. Second, it contends that although statutes sometimes authorize specific commands, officers’ authority to issue many orders comes from—and is limited by—officers’ authority to stop, search, and arrest suspects. Third, the Article argues that the legal functions commands serve—namely, generating and communicating legal duties—dictate that lawful orders must satisfy three constraints: They must be authorized by state law; they must obey constitutional limits; and they must provide adequate notice and opportunity for individuals to comply. These constraints are embedded in the law, but few avenues exist for challenging commands. Courts have therefore not defined or enforced limits on command authority well, except when commands violate constitutional rights. Courts can easily do better, and legislative and departmental action could clarify, extend, and enforce appropriate limits on police authority.

Rachel Harmon, Law and Orders, 123 Colum. L. Rev. 1 (2023).

By 21CP Solutions.

From the Introduction: The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing was established by Executive Order under then President Barack Obama on December 18, 2014. President Obama charged the task force with identi- fying best practices and offering recommendations on how policing practices can promote effective crime reduction while building public trust. Since the publication of the task force’s final report in May 2015, there have been more than 133 national, state, or local task forces, councils, and working groups responding to police violence in communities throughout the country.1

The nation remains in a policing crisis, and too many poor communities of color face the adverse conditions of poverty and economic exclusion that aggravate the relationship between communities and police. The 2015 report by the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing remains a significant influence on policing reform, but the country still confronts police violence that undermines community trust and confidence.

Task Force on 21st Century Policing: A Renewed Call to Action. Chicago: 21CP Solutions, LLC. 2023. 40p.

By Emilee Green and Orleana Peneff

Local police are expected to use the least amount of force necessary against citizens, both in self-defense and in defense of others. Although relatively rare, many incidents of excessive, and even lethal, force used by police have been documented, particularly in situations involving people of color. Specifically, Black Americans are more likely to be killed during a police encounter than White Americans. The public has called for further investigation, data collection, and research on police use of force. This literature review provides an overview of theories on why police use of force occurs. Theories are based on officer characteristics, types of situations, organizational norms, and police policies and procedures. The review includes data and research on use of force including disparities in its use.

Chicago: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, 2022. 18p.

By Harvey Treger

This book examines the empirical evidence demonstrating the efficacy of police–social work crisis teams, barriers to effective teamwork, and the tasks and situations that police social workers are likely to experience. Descriptive data obtained from a police–social work team within a midsize law enforcement agency located in the northeastern U.S. is used to illustrate the situations and tasks that social workers encounter. Implications for the use of such teams with assisting law enforcement agencies with their community service and community policing functions, and research implications for conducting program evaluations to determine the efficacy of police–social teams are discussed.

Illinois. Charles C. Thomas. 1975.

Edited by Ronald V. Clarke

Situational prevention originated in Great Britain, but its development was soon influenced by policy research in the United States. Research over the last 10 years has demonstrated the usefulness of situational prevention in dealing with a broad range of crime problems. Situational prevention requires design or modification of the immediate environment to reduce opportunities for crime by increasing the efforts and risks and decreasing the rewards as perceived by a wide range of offenders. Its 12 techniques include target hardening, access control, deflecting offenders, control of factors that facilitate crime, entry and exit screening, formal surveillance, surveillance by employees, natural surveillance, target removal, property identification, removal of inducements, and rule setting. Many of these measures are unobtrusive, others actually reduce fear of crime, and others increase convenience while increasing security. The case studies describe the use and outcomes of situational prevention focused on specific crimes in the United States, England, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

NY. Harrow and Heston. 1992. 289p.

By David Garland

From the cover: The past 30 years have seen vast changes in our attitudes toward crime. More and more of us live in gated communities; prison popula­tions have skyrocketed; and issues such as racial profiling, community policing, and “zero- tolerance” policies dominate the headlines. How is it that our response to crime and our sense of criminal justice have come to be so dramatically reconfigured? David Garland charts the changes in crime and criminal jus­tice in America and Britain over the past twen­ty-five years, showing how they have been shaped by two underlying social forces: the dis­tinctive social organization of late modernity and the neoconservative politics that came to dominate the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Garland explains how the new policies of crime and punishment, welfare and security— and the changing class, race, and gender rela­tions that underpin them—are linked to the fundamental problems of governing contempo­rary societies, as states, corporations, and pri­vate citizens grapple with a volatile economy and a culture that combines expanded person­al freedom with relaxed social controls. It is the risky, unfixed character of modern life that underlies our accelerating concern with con­trol and crime control in particular. It is not just crime that has changed; society has changed as well, and this transformation has reshaped criminological thought, public policy, and the cultural meaning of crime and crimi­nals. David Garland’s The Culture of Control offers a brilliant guide to this process and its still-reverberating consequences..

Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 2001. 304p.

By Special Advisor Board of Police Commissioners on Civil Disorder in Los Angeles.

Motion: “In light of the events that have consumed this City since the verdict in the criminal prosecution of the four officers involved in the arrest of Rodney King, the Police Commission will undertake an investigation to examine the Police Department's preparations in the event of a civil disturbance and to understand what worked and what did not work In the days following April 29, 1992, with a view toward improving Departmental systems intended for that purpose.”

Board of Police Commissioners on Civil Disorder in Los Angeles. 1992. 227p.

By William H. Webster.

“The firestorm of April, 1992 burned deeply into the fabric of Los Angeles. The toll of death, destruction and human misery left this time compels us to recall another such tragedy — one that scorched the ground of the City and its people lust over a quarter of a century ago. To read the reporr of the Governor's Com­mission impaneled to study that tragedy causes us to experience a profound sense that, while much has changed since 1965, much remains the same,…..We have discovered a general lack of emer­gency preparedness, and a specific lack in the period before the Simi Valley verdicts of preparedness for the possibility of civil disor­der. As we describe in Chapters Three and Four of our report, the City and the police department each have created general mecha­nisms intended to cope with emergencies. As we describe in Chapters Five and Six. to varying degrees, each has devoted modest effort to preparedness planning and training, However, the preparedness efforts of neither have resulted in anything that reasonably can he considered a "plan" for response to an emergency. Rather, it appears to be more accurate to state that each has collected and summarized a variety of materials having to do generally with emergency powers of gov­ernment and the subject of emergency re­sponse. However, neither the City nor the police department has produced much in the way of substantive guidance with regard to specific emergency response objectives, pri­orities, tasks or assignments….”

By The Police Executive Research Forum

For decades, enforcing laws against illegal drug trafficking, drug dealing, and drug possession was the primary role of police departments and sheriffs’ offices across the United States. During the Just Say No era of the 1980s and 1990s, arrests for illegal drug possession more than doubled as part of law enforcement’s efforts to deter and diminish drug use. Through time, however, the role of police and sheriffs has evolved and expanded as “demand-reduction policies” have become increasingly prominent. Today, for example, many police agencies administer naloxone, a life-saving medication that quickly reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. Police in some cities and towns also work to connect addicted persons with drug treatment and other services. In many jurisdictions, police have reprioritized their enforcement of laws against possession or use of illegal opioids. Police have had to adjust to what remains a major—and evolving—public health crisis. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an average of 128 people in the United States died every day in 2018 after overdosing on opioids. And there are reports that the COVID-19 pandemic may be resulting in higher numbers of overdose deaths.Through time, police responsibilities have grown to encompass at least three different roles on the frontlines of responding to the opioid crisis: 1. Emergency response. Preventing an opioid overdose from becoming a fatal opioid overdose. 2. Public safety. Helping individuals protect themselves from opioid-related harms. 3. Law enforcement. Investigating and disrupting opioid-related criminal activity.   

Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. 2021  88p.  

By The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF)

When a police officer or sheriff’s deputy is killed in the line of duty, either in an act of violence by a criminal offender or in a motor vehicle crash or other accident, there is a time-honored response. Agencies conduct a thorough investigation to understand every detail of what happened, how it happened, and why. There is typically extensive news media coverage of the tragedy, and police executives and other leaders speak about the incident and the fallen officer. Officers are laid to rest with honors, and their survivors can receive emotional support and financial assistance through a combination of local, state, and federal programs. At the national level, the FBI, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, and other groups collect detailed data about line-of-duty deaths—how, when, and where they occurred—and these organizations issue periodic reports examining trends in officer fatalities. This information is used to develop policies, new training programs, and procurement of equipment that can help keep officers safe and prevent tragedies in the future.  

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2019. 72p.

By Kim Shayo Buchanan, Hilary Rau, Kerry Mulligan, Tracie Keesee and Phillip Atiba Goff

Whether a group is dedicated to racism (a “hate group”), or advocates the overthrow of elected governments (a “paramilitary gang”), or both—no police officer or law enforcement agency should support or affiliate with it. Officers who support or affiliate with hate groups and paramilitary gangs undermine the mission of their law enforcement agency by allying themselves with lawbreakers and by undermining the department’s efforts to ensure equitable policing and earn community trust. These guidelines aim to assist law enforcement to 1) identify, discipline, and remove officers who intentionally affiliate with hate groups or paramilitary gangs, and 2) adopt institutional values, policies, and rules that will allow for no mistake about the department’s position: it is not appropriate for a law enforcement agency or a police officer to support or affiliate with hate groups or paramilitary gangs. We recommend that law enforcement agencies (“LEAs”) adopt the rules and best practices set out below, and make them public.   

West Hollywood, CA: Center for Policing Equity, 2021? 24p.

By The International Association of Chiefs of Police

This guide provides evidence-based policing practices (EBPP) for small, rural, and tribal agencies. The information comes from published research studies and working group conversations with command staff from various small, rural, and tribal agencies. In this guide, we use the terms small and rural or small, rural, and tribal broadly. The types of agencies that fall within these categories vary in terms of size, crime rates and types, and community characteristics. More than 12,000 local police agencies in the United States are “small” or serve small populations—75 percent employ fewer than 25 sworn officers, and 71 percent serve populations of fewer than 10,000 residents (Hyland and Davis 2019). However, not all small agencies serve rural communities. For example, some small agencies serve independent towns within densely populated metropolitan areas. On the other hand, some county police agencies with hundreds of sworn officers serve predominantly rural communities (e.g., Yang et al. 2018). Police agencies that serve tribal communities operate within a unique cultural, historical, and legal context. While we use the terms small, rural, and tribal somewhat interchangeably, the main guiding principle for police agencies trying to implement evidence-based policing is that strategies, interventions, and practices must be specific, tailored, and based on the best available information relevant to the department and jurisdiction. This is with the understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all approach.   

Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2021. 64p.