By Oeindrila Dube, Sandy Jo MacArthur and Anuj Shah

Prevailing views suggest that adverse policing outcomes are driven by problematic police officers and deficient policies. This study highlights an overlooked factor – cognitive demands inherent in police work. A training designed to improve officer decision-making under stress and time pressure, two key cognitive demands, lead to 23% fewer uses of force and discretionary arrests, and 11% fewer arrests of Black civilians. The results demonstrate the power of leveraging behavioral science insights to make policing more effective and equitable.

Policing practices have increasingly come under public scrutiny, spurring widespread calls for police reform. To date, prevailing views have attributed adverse policing outcomes (such as excessive force and unnecessary arrests) to factors such as prejudiced officers and deficient departmental policies. In this paper, the authors introduce a new focus that explores the role of cognitive demands in contributing to poor policing outcomes. Police work often involves making complex decisions in situations that produce stress, trigger many emotions, and require officers to act quickly. These cognitive demands make it more likely that officers will act without sufficient deliberation and that their actions will be driven by cognitive biases. In this paper, the authors explore this overlooked perspective, which suggests an additional avenue for improving policing outcomes.

WORKING PAPER · NO. 2023-118 . Chicago: University of Chicago, 2023. 99p.

By the American Civil Liberties of North Carolina; Sam Davis, et al.

Over the past seven years, North Carolina schools have devoted more than $100,000,000 dollars to placing more police officers in more schools.1 These massive investments have come in lieu of funding the kinds of support proven to enhance student well-being and learning. According to 2015–2016 federal data, North Carolina ranks near the top nationally in terms of the presence of police officers in schools,2 but among the worst states in terms of school funding.3 Additionally, schools in North Carolina have struggled to recruit and retain adequate staffing levels.4 The choice to prioritize funding police officers instead of teachers, counselors, and other schoolbased mental health providers has harmful and long-lasting consequences for North Carolina’s children, especially children of color and children with disabilities. Indeed, North Carolina was recently ranked as one of the worst states for overall youth mental health.5 And children are experiencing more acute mental health needs after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated existing inequities for students of color, as is visible in rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide, particularly for Black youth,6 and contributed to worsening conditions for students with disabilities.7 North Carolina’s massive investments in police are not paying off: police officers do not improve safety in schools. Instead, the presence of police officers harm students, including by criminalizing typical adolescent behavior that police choose to deem disorderly or otherwise criminal. For example, police officers are empowered to arrest students for disorderly conduct in schools—a criminal offense in North Carolina—that then funnels them into the criminal legal system. This report presents and discusses the implications of federal data regarding the staffing its schools with police officers instead of the mental health providers that students need like counselors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and community health workers. The report analyzes the consequences of this choice by reviewing federal data regarding school referrals to law enforcement, with particular attention to disparities by race and disability status. In addition, the report highlights state data that shows disturbing racial disparities regarding school-based complaints, and charges for disorderly conduct in schools in particular. In sum, North Carolina fails to meet the recommended ratios for school-based mental health providers across the board despite the fact that today’s children—and Black children in particular—need access to mental health support now more than ever before. Instead, North Carolina continues to maintain a high number of police officers in its schools who have expansive discretion to decide which students to refer into the criminal legal system and for what. The consequences of this choice are dire, especially for Black students and students with disabilities.

Raleigh: ACLU of North Carolina, 2023. 29p.

By Deepak Premkumar

After a spate of protests touched off by high-profile incidents of police use of force, there has been a renewed focus on whether public scrutiny shapes policing behavior, otherwise known as the Ferguson Effect. This question has gained additional urgency as the country grapples with increases in murders. This paper provides the first national analysis showing that after police killings that generate significant public attention and scrutiny, officers reduce effort and crime increases. The effects differ by offense type: Reduced police effort yields persistently fewer arrests for low-level offenses (e.g., marijuana possession) but limited changes in arrests for violent or more serious property crimes. I show that decreased interaction with civilians through police stops may be driving the results. However, the increase in offending is driven by murders and robberies, imposing significant crime costs on affected municipalities. The effects only occur after there is broad community awareness of the incident. These findings are robust to numerous changes in empirical specification, transformations of the dependent variable, and varying levels of fixed effects that control for changes in state law and treatment spillovers. I also present evidence that suggests these effects are not driven by a pattern-or-practice investigation or a court-mandated monitoring agreement. To distinguish between the potential effects that may simultaneously impact arrest levels following a high-profile police killing, I develop a theoretical model that provides empirically testable predictions for each mechanism. I find that the reduction in low-level arrests corroborates public scrutiny as the causal channel. Finally, I provide evidence that the increase in offending is driven by both a response to the reduction in policing effort and a reaction to the police killing itself, suggesting that measures to reduce use of force should be prioritized.\

Unpublished paper, 2019, revised 2022. 132p.

By Daniel AC Barbosa Thiemo Fetzer Caterina Soto & Pedro CL Souza

We provide experimental evidence that monitoring of the police activity through body-worn cameras reduces use-of-force, handcuffs and arrests, and enhances criminal reporting. Stronger treatment effects occur on events classified ex-ante of low seriousness. Monitoring effects are moderated by officer rank, which is consistent with a career concern motive by junior officers. Overall, results show that the use of body-worn cameras de-escalates conflicts

Warwick Economics Research Papers . Coventry, UK: University of Warwick, 2021. 56p.

By Gabrielle T. Isaza

De-escalation training has been widely promoted as a best practice to reduce harms during police-citizen encounters, particularly as it relates to police use of force. Despite this wide promotion, very little is known about the training’s effectiveness. This dissertation explores the impacts of a well-known de-escalation training, Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT), on a sample of police officers in Southwest Ohio. Specifically, this dissertation examines changes in officer attitudes and perceptions as well as self-reported use of the training using T-Test comparisons, ordinary least square regressions, descriptive statistics, and an examination of focus group discussions. Pilot survey instruments were developed and tested for use in future de-escalation training evaluations. This study found significant changes in officer attitudes related to the use of force, understanding of persons in crisis, and officer confidence in handling critical incidents in the hypothesized directions. However, minor levels of training decay were detected, indicating the importance of continual reinforcement of the training curriculum. Additionally, counter-intuitive findings related to one component of the training were found. Nonetheless, these empirical results demonstrated that ICAT training influenced officers in a way that made them more amenable to the principles and practices of de-escalation. This study adds to the very limited evidence base on de-escalation training effects for police. These findings are critical because the effective use of de-escalation techniques to diffuse conflicts can save lives and reduce the injuries of both citizens and police officers.

Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati, 2020. 200p.

By Jessica A. Reichert, Kaitlin Martins, Bruce Taylor, and Brandon Del Pozo

Police encounter individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) during their routine work and are often called to the scene of overdoses. Despite this frequency, officer knowledge and attitudes about addiction, treatment, and harm reduction vary. Views held by officers, and the extent of their knowledge, can impact the decisions they make regarding people with OUD, yet our understanding of these factors is limited. Using stratified random sampling, we surveyed 248 officers from 27 Illinois police departments on their knowledge of addiction and the means to address it. We performed descriptive and regression analyses to examine differences based on officer characteristics. We found a high proportion of officers lacked knowledge of addiction, treatment, and harm reduction. Our findings suggest the need for police training to improve understanding of addiction. Community collaboration and coordination of resources may give officers the tools to better address OUD, reduce harm, and decrease overdose.

Chicago: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority 2023. 22p.

By Emilee Green, Brian Kuczynski, Morgan McGuirk and Jessica A. Reichert

Repeated and deadly encounters between law enforcement officers and Black Americans have given way to mounting calls for police reform. Reformers have proposed reallocating funds from policing to communities and social services, rethinking police use of force policies, and improving measures for officer accountability. This literature review briefly describes the impetus for police reform, reviews proposed police reforms, and examines available research on the effectiveness of police reforms. Overall, research indicates police agencies should not only focus on reducing crime, but also protecting and fostering the relationship between the public and police.

Chicago: Illinois 2022. 20p.

By Jody van der Heyde, Andrew Faull and Martin Sycholt

Trust in the police is vital to a functioning democracy, but relations between South Africa’s residents and police have long been characterised by mistrust. This report introduces procedural justice as a cost-effective, evidence-informed practice that can increase public trust and confidence in the police, and enhance police legitimacy and social cohesion. The report provides an overview of the theory and presents data on trust, customer satisfaction and police morale in South Africa.

South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, 2023. 16p.

By Carole McCartney and Louise Shorter

The seizure, safe handling and secure storage of evidence during criminal investigations is pivotal to the successful detection and prosecution of offences. The safe retention of materials after an investigation closes, even post-conviction, is also critical both to the ability of the appellate system to function and for ‘cold cases’ to be reviewed. Yet despite periodic high-profile instances in which failures to ensure the integrity and retention of evidence have occurred, there is a reticence to admit to evidence being lost; in particular, to consider the issue on an aggregate rather than a case-by-case basis. This lack of transparency is compounded by an accountability deficit, in which the issue falls through regulatory gaps. Provoked to locate proof of lost evidence, this article examines police retention of investigative materials, and details the results of surveys undertaken with lawyers and miscarriage of justice campaigners (n = 65) and police (n = 87), and 21 interviews with serving and retired police officers. We identify ‘weak links’ in the evidence chain that need strengthening, including the enhancement of training, improved physical packaging and storage facilities, sufficient training of police staff and the creation of specialised ‘exhibits’ roles. Further to practical resource demands, the issue requires accessible data so that the problem can be acknowledged, and accountability and oversight mechanisms created to assure processes.

International Journal of Police Science & ManagementOnlineFirst 2023

By The City & County of San Francisco Police Department

In 2018, the San Francisco Police Department formed a Task Force on Strategic Police Staffing (“Staffing Task Force”) per direction from the Board of Supervisors and the Police Commission as adopted in Resolution No. 63-17. Resolution No. 63-17, supported and signed by the Mayor, “[urged] the San Francisco Police Commission to form a Task Force, in collaboration with the San Francisco Police Chief, on Strategic Police Staffing and with the purpose of determining the best methodology for establishing staffing levels in the San Francisco Police Department.” Resolution 63-17 was adopted to initiate an update to the 1994 Proposition D Charter amendment by determining SFPD staffing levels using a workload methodology based on the demand for police services rather than utilizing other metrics such as population size. As prescribed in Resolution No. 63-17, the Staffing Task Force included a cross-section of community stakeholders, nationally recognized police staffing experts, data analysts, City and County of San Francisco agency partners, and Police Commissioners. In early 2019, the San Francisco Police Department hired police staffing expert Matrix Consulting Group, Ltd (“Matrix”) to conduct a comprehensive staffing analysis of the Department. Matrix was directed to develop an understanding of SFPD staffing, operations, and workload; and to develop methodologies to use in the analysis. In 2019, Matrix developed the staffing analysis framework and presented the methodologies throughout the duration of the project to the Staffing Task Force to seek input and direction. In early 2020, Matrix released its report that described the methodologies used to establish SFPD staffing levels, developed in collaboration with the Staffing Task Force; and provided the results of the staffing analysis. In November 2020, San Francisco voters approved Proposition E, amending the City Charter to remove the previously established 1,971 baseline staffing level and requiring the Police Department to submit a report and recommendation on staffing levels every two years to the Police Commission for consideration when approving the Department’s budget. The purpose of this report is to recommend baseline staffing levels for the San Francisco Police Department using the rigorous, industry-reputed methodologies developed and used by Matrix Consulting Group and vetted by the Staffing Task Force.

City & County of San Francisco Police Department. 2023. 213p.

By Marcus Felson, Shanhe Jiang and Yanqing Xu

The spread of the coronavirus has led to containment policies in many places, with concomitant shifts in routine activities. Major declines in crime have been reported as a result. However, those declines depend on crime type and may difer by parts of a city and land uses. This paper examines burglary in Detroit, Michigan during the month of March, 2020, a period of considerable change in routine activities. We examine 879 block groups, separating those dominated by residential land use from those with more mixed land use. We divide the month into three periods: pre-containment, transition period, and post-containment. Burglaries increase in block groups with mixed land use, but not blocks dominated by residential land use. The impact of containment policies on burglary clarifies after taking land use into account.

Crime Science 2020 9:10

By Manja Nikolovska, Shane D. Johnson and Paul Ekblom

Crisis and disruption are often unpredictable and can create opportunities for crime. During such times, policing may also need to meet additional challenges to handle the disruption. The use of social media by officials can be essential for crisis mitigation and crime reduction. In this paper, we study the use of Twitter for crime mitigation and reduction by UK police (and associated) agencies in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest that whilst most of the tweets from our sample concerned issues that were not specifically about crime, especially during the first stages of the pandemic, there was a significant increase in tweets about fraud, cybercrime and domestic abuse. There was also an increase in retweeting activity as opposed to the creation of original messages. Moreover, in terms of the impact of tweets, as measured by the rate at which they are retweeted, followers were more likely to ‘spread the word’ when the tweet was content-rich (discussed a crime specific matter and contained media), and account holders were themselves more active on Twitter. Considering the changing world we live in, criminal opportunity is likely to evolve. To help mitigate this, policy makers and researchers should consider more systematic approaches to developing social media communication strategies for the purpose of crime mitigation and reduction during disruption and change more generally. We suggest a framework for so doing.

Crime Science 2020 9:20

By Jason L. Payne , Anthony Morgan and Alex R. Piquero

Confronted by rapidly growing infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths, governments around the world have introduced stringent containment measures to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. This public health response has had an unprecedented impact on people’s daily lives which, unsurprisingly, has also had widely observed implications in terms of crime and public safety. Drawing upon theories from environmental criminology, this study examines officially recorded property crime rates between March and June 2020 as reported for the state of Queensland, Australia. We use ARIMA modeling techniques to compute 6-month-ahead forecasts of property damage, shop theft, residential burglary, fraud, and motor vehicle theft rates and then compare these forecasts (and their 95% confidence intervals) with the observed data for March through to June. We conclude that, with the exception of fraud, all property offence categories declined significantly. For some offence types (shop stealing, other theft offences, and residential burglary), the decrease commenced as early as March. For other offence types, the decline was lagged and did not occur until April or May. Non-residential burglary was the only offence type to significantly increase, which it did in March, only to then decline significantly thereafter. These trends, while broadly consistent across the state’s 77 local government areas still varied in meaningful ways and we discuss possible explanations and implications.

Crime Science. (2021) 10:7 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-020-00136-3

By Maite Dewinter, Christophe Vandeviver, Philipp M. Dau, Tom Vander Beken and Frank Witlox

COVID-19 impacts the daily lives of millions of people. This radical change in our daily activities affected many aspects of life, but acted as well as a natural experiment for research into the spatial distribution of 911 calls. We analyse the impact of the COVID-19 measures on the spatial pattern of police interventions. Crime is not uniformly distributed across street segments, but how does COVID-19 affect these spatial patterns? To this end, Gini coefficients are calculated and a proportion difference spatial point pattern test is applied to compare the similarity of the patterns of incidents before, during, and after the first lockdown in Antwerp, Belgium. With only essential mobility being allowed, the emergency call pattern has not significantly changed before, during or after this lockdown, however, a qualitative shift in police officer's daily work may have had an effect on the daily operation of the Antwerp police force.

Crime Science 2021 10:20

By Jacek Koziarski

Drawing upon seven years of police calls for service data (2014–2020), this study examined the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on calls involving persons with perceived mental illness (PwPMI) using a Bayesian Structural Time Series. The findings revealed that PwPMI calls did not increase immediately after the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. Instead, a sustained increase in PwPMI calls was identified in August 2020 that later became statistically significant in October 2020. Ultimately, the analysis revealed a 22% increase in PwPMI calls during the COVID-19 pandemic than would have been expected had the pandemic not taken place. The delayed effect of the pandemic on such calls points to a need for policymakers to prioritize widely accessible mental health care that can be deployed early during public health emergencies thus potentially mitigating or eliminating the need for increased police intervention, as was the case here.

Crime Science 2021 10:22

By William A. Chernoff

Objective: The opportunity for web camera theft increased globally as institutions of higher education transitioned to remote learning during COVID-19. Given the thousands of cameras currently installed in classrooms, many with little protection, the present study tests the effectiveness of anti-theft signage for preventing camera theft. Methods: Examined web camera theft at a southern, public university located in the United States of America by randomly assigning N=104 classrooms to receive either anti-theft signage or no signage. Camera theft was analyzed using Blaker’s exact test. Results: Classrooms not receiving anti-theft signage (control) were 3.42 times more likely to exhibit web camera theft than classrooms receiving anti-theft signage (medium effect size). Conclusions: Using classrooms as the unit of analysis presents new opportunities for not only future crime prevention experiments, but also improving campus safety and security. Also, preventing web camera theft on campus is both fiscally and socially responsible, saving money and ensuring inclusivity for remote learners

Crime Science 2021 10:23

By Peter Stout

Houston TX experienced a widely known failure of its police forensic laboratory. This gave rise to the Houston Forensic Science Center (HFSC) as a separate entity to provide forensic services to the City of Houston. HFSC is a very large forensic laboratory and has made significant progress at remediating the past failures and improving public trust in forensic testing. HFSC has a large and robust blind testing program, which has provided many insights into the challenges forensic laboratories face. HFSC’s journey from a notoriously failed lab to a model also gives perspective to the resource challenges faced by all labs in the country. Challenges for labs include the pervasive reality of poor- quality evidence. Also that forensic laboratories are necessarily part of a much wider system of interdependent functions in criminal justice making blind testing something in which all parts have a role. This interconnectedness also highlights the need for an array of oversight and regulatory frameworks to function properly. The major essential databases in forensics need to be a part of blind testing programs and work is needed to ensure that the results from these databases are indeed producing correct results and those results are being correctly used. Last, laboratory reports of “inconclusive” results are a significant challenge for laboratories and the system to better understand when these results are appropriate, necessary and most importantly correctly used by the rest of the system.

PNAS 2023 vol. 120, no. 41

By Melissa M. Labriola, Samuel Peterson, Jirka Taylor, Danielle Sobol, Jessica Reichert, Jon Ross, Jac Charlier, Sophia Juarez

Many law enforcement and other first responder agencies have adopted deflection as a front-line response to the increasing number of drug overdoses and deaths in the United States over the past two decades. Deflection programs aim to connect individuals with substance use disorder (not necessarily limited to opioids or one particular substance) who encounter the criminal justice system with treatment and other services according to the individual's needs.

This report describes the findings from a multi-site evaluation of law enforcement deflection in the United States. The authors describe how each program is implemented and identify key program facilitators and barriers. For two of the six sites, the authors conducted outcome analyses to determine whether the model is effective in reducing drug-related deaths and overdoses, arrests, and treatment admissions.

Key Findings

• Deflection programs in the United States can take many shapes and forms, but there are some trends emerging: gradual incorporation of additional pathways; an overall move toward greater complexity and breadth of service provision, including the coexistence of other diversion programs in the area; and a move toward the professionalization of deflection (e.g., needing own staff, formulation of best practices).

• Qualitatively, perspectives from stakeholders suggest positive results in terms of (1) individual participant journeys, (2) change in policing practice and views, (3) reductions in stigma, and (4) stakeholder and community buy-in.

• Facilitators of implementation can also be identified, primarily as strong partnerships and champions.

• Barriers include persistence of stigma, distrust of police, and challenges pertaining to services for people who use drugs writ large, such as treatment capacity and payment methods.

• The outcome analyses for one site (Lake County, Illinois) suggest a reduction in fatal overdoses and in property crime arrests, but findings for the other site (Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts) are mostly null, likely because of the small sample

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2023. 52p.

By Dulani Woods, John S. Hollywood, Jeremy D. Barnum, Danielle Fenimore, Michael J. D. Vermeer, Brian A. Jackson

The advent of blockchain-based technologies has opened a new frontier for individuals wishing to conduct financial and other transactions remotely, anonymously, and without the need for a third party like a bank. Blockchain technology has various uses but is perhaps best known as the foundation for a certain type of digital currency called cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is increasingly an accepted form of payment in many legitimate business transactions, but it is also used to facilitate many illegal activities, in large part because of its capacity to facilitate mostly anonymous transactions remotely. As a result, law enforcement investigators need to develop new skills, competencies, and tools for ensuring justice. In support of the National Institute of Justice, researchers from RAND and the Police ExecutiveResearch Forum conducted a workshop with law enforcement practitioners, academics, and other experts. Workshop participants identified and priorit ized 24 research and development needs that, if invested in, would improve law enforcement's ability to adapt to these societal changes. These needs pertain to policies for digital key management, resources for law enforcement training on blockchain and cryptocurrency, and tools for investigations involving cryptocurrency.

In this report, the researchers detail the proceedings of the workshop, discuss the ten highest-priority needs identified by the participants, and provide additional context based on the participants' discussions. The participants prioritized needs associated with raising the level of knowledge for officers and investigators, training or hiring experts who can assist with investigations, and adapting existing policies and procedures to ensure that cryptocurrencies are handled responsibly.

Key Findings

• There are not enough law enforcement–specific blockchain and cryptocurrency training and experts to meet the demand for educating justice practitioners.

• Cryptocurrency can be transferred by anyone in possession of an easy-to-copy digital key. Individuals with copies of the keys may move assets before an agency can take possession.

• This digital key is merely a unique set of letters and/or numbers (i.e., text). This text allows the bearer to control digital assets of high value and should not be treated like other text-based information within a case file.

• Seized cryptocurrency assets can be transferred by anyone in possession of a digital key to a digital wallet of unknown ownership. This presents opportunities for officer misconduct.

• Blockchain and cryptocurrency are fast-moving, rapidly evolving technologies. Justice practitioners are having difficulty keeping up with the changes.

• There is a lack of expertise in all aspects of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies across the justice system.

• Commercial cryptocurrency-tracking tools can be more expensive than an agency can afford. Open-source tools can require significant computing power.

• Once a problematic cryptocurrency wallet is identified by law enforcement (via subpoena or another method), there is no good way to notify other interested investigators in other jurisdictions.

Recommendations

• Identify best-practice policies and procedures for rapidly securing cryptocurrency assets during investigations.

• Develop best-practice policies and procedures (e.g., two-person systems) to minimize opportunities for mishandling cryptocurrency.

• Identify best-practice policies and procedures for handling, storing, transferring, and redacting digital cryptocurrency keys within record-management systems.

• Catalog and publicize the training resources that are already available, including training that is not tailored for justice practitioners.

• Develop regional or national sharing systems that facilitate sharing of training materials and actionable intelligence for ongoing cases (e.g., digital or cyber fusion centers).

• Develop model materials that can be easily adapted for training recruits, investigators, forensics experts, prosecutors, judges, and others.

• Conduct research to examine the balance of skills and expertise that law enforcement agencies look for when hiring and assess whether those are likely to meet current and future needs.

• Convene a standing group of practitioners and experts who can examine the “state of the possible” and generate requirements for research and development organizations.

• Work with federal, state, local, and private entities (e.g., the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, Lawyers Without Borders) to make available appropriate cryptocurrency-tracking resources so that costs can be more easily shared.

• Assess the costs and benefits of developing a private-sector clearinghouse that will allow the public sector and vetted private-sector entities to coordinate (similar to how the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children screens potentially abusive materials.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2023. 28p.

The Police Foundations report contains 56 recommendations regarding how the structure, skill sets, and training of the police service in England and Wales should change to meet today’s challenges.

Under the direction of The Independent Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales, the report lays out a long-term strategic direction for the police service so that it will be capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century. Announcing the final report at an event in London, Sir Michael Barber, Chair of the Review, said, “Policing in this country is at a crossroads, and it cannot stand still whilst the world changes so quickly around it. Now is the moment to move forward quickly on the path of reform.”

The report calls for:

• Increasing trust between the police and the public

• Equipping to take on new forms of crime through a complete overhaul of training systems

• Changing the police service’s existing organization, adding special agencies dedicated to cybercrime, cross-border crime, and police modernization

London: Strategic Review of Policing in england and Wales, Police Foundation, 2022. 196p.