By The Police Executive Research Forum

  This final report summarizes and synthesizes what we have learned from our research on the implementation of FirstNet over the past three years. This report is intended for both public safety leaders and technical audiences. • For agency leaders, the report provides an overview of what FirstNet is, including how and why it came into being, how it is being managed through a public-private partnership, and the current status of the network and its build-out. This background is important for police chiefs, fire chiefs, and other public safety executives who are trying to make informed decisions about their mobile broadband needs. • The report also contains technical details about FirstNet operations and performance that should be valuable to an agency’s information technology and emergency communications staff. PERF’s Findings Four key findings emerged from our research: 1 FIRSTNET IS PROVIDING PUBLIC SAFETY AGENCIES WITH RELIABLE, HIGH-SPEED ACCESS TO MOBILE DATA. In performance tests run during two large public demonstrations in Washington, D.C. (the March for Life on January 18, 2019, and the Women’s March the following day), and during everyday police patrols in Camden, NJ, the PERF team found that mobile devices operating on FirstNet had faster data upload and download speeds, and experienced fewer service reliability problems, than devices operating on commercial networks (including AT&T’s own commercial network). 

2 FIRSTNET PROVIDES CRITICAL SUPPORT DURING NATURAL DISASTERS AND MAJOR EVENTS. Throughout this project, PERF heard examples of how FirstNet helped public safety agencies respond to hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and other natural disasters. Often, one of the first casualties of these events is cell phone towers and other communications infrastructure, which can be damaged or destroyed. Through its nationwide deployables program, FirstNet has been able to get mobile communications assets – both land-based and airborne – to disaster locations to reestablish data and voice communications for first responders. Over the past three years, FirstNet also has supported public safety at major events, like the Super Bowl, which attract large crowds that can tax or overwhelm cellular networks. And when the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged parts of the country, FirstNet deployables were brought in to support the medical community and first responders. 3 FIRSTNET IS HELPING AGENCIES STREAMLINE OPERATIONS AND IMPROVE EFFICIENCY. FirstNet users reported being able to more easily access information in the field; complete and upload reports; transmit photographs, video and other large data files; and carry out other everyday tasks. For police agencies, these efficiencies are allowing officers and deputies to remain out in the community, available to answer calls for service and engage in prevention activities, and not have to return to a police facility to access information or file a report. For fire and EMS personnel, reliable access to mobile data is speeding up dispatching and improving situational awareness when battling fires and tracking patients from incident scenes to hospitals.    4 FIRSTNET IS ENABLING AGENCIES TO EXPERIMENT WITH NEW WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS. For example, agencies are using FirstNet to conduct video roll calls; live-stream video of fires, accidents, or disaster scenes to improve situational awareness; provide TeleHealth services to first responders who come upon persons in crisis; and even remotely dispatch 911 calls during the COVID-19 pandemic, so that social distancing and other safety protocols could be maintained in the Emergency Communications Center. These and other innovations are made possible because agencies have access to a dedicated and secure mobile broadband network. These findings are explored in greater detail throughout this report.  

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum , 2022. 60p.

By The Police Executive Research Forum

  The 2019 Chicago Police Department Executive Development Program for Sergeants (EDPS) pilot training was part of a larger PERF initiative to promote leadership development within the CPD, support reform strategies, and address violence in Chicago. The multi-year PERF initiative was funded jointly by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Joyce Foundation. This project was carried out in two phases. Phase I provided CPD Command personnel with leadership and management training needed to manage change and better address the issues of crime and violence in Chicago. In the spring of 2017 and winter of 2018, PERF facilitated a Senior Management and Leadership Development Program for CPD Command staff members. Modeled after PERF’s Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP), this program was designed to quickly and dramatically boost the management and leadership skills of CPD leaders, many of whom were new to their current leadership roles. A series of day-long workshops for Command members covered topics such as organizational change, negotiation strategies, strategic communications, and developing leadership values and capacity. Phase II was the development and delivery of the EDPS, which was completed in the fall of 2019. This phase also included an assessment of the program and publication of this report.  

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum,2022. 16p.  

By The Police Executive Research Forum

  Engaging the community is a key step in the planning and preparation phase of building a drone program. Once you determine your agency’s needs and decide that a drone program is right for your agency, it is important to develop a comprehensive outreach strategy. Community engagement should occur very early in the process—even before your agency purchases a drone and related equipment. This early engagement will help build community support for the program and prevent misunderstandings about how and when your agency intends to use its drones. A comprehensive outreach strategy should • solicit input from a wide range of community voices; • explain the police department’s planned approach and specific reasons for using drones (i.e., the missions in which you intend to use drones); • provide detailed assurances about privacy, accountability, and other issues of concern; • ensure that questions and concerns are adequately addressed. To accomplish these objectives, the method of engagement and the specific content to include are addressed'  

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2022. 44p. 

By The Police Executive Research Forum

  The United States has traditionally trained police officers on the cheap. The survey PERF conducted for this project (see page 10) found that more than 71% of agencies devote less than 5% of their total budget to recruit training. And while nearly half of the agencies responding to the survey said that spending on recruit training had increased over the past five years, that was before police budgets faced the dual challenges of cuts related to the COVID-19 pandemic and calls to “defund” the police. Investments in training could be stalled or reduced at the very time they need to be increased to bring about needed changes in American policing. In many jurisdictions, the goal seems to be moving as many recruits as possible through academy training as fast as possible and at the lowest possible cost. This approach has been driven, in part, by the desire to get more officers on the street, quickly – a challenge that became particularly acute as officer hirings declined and retirements and resignations increased because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as homicides and other violent crimes surged  But there can be serious consequences – legal, financial, and reputational – for agencies that fail to adequately invest in training for their recruit and veteran officers. In the United States, the Courts have consistently held that municipalities can be held liable for failing to adequately train police officers under Section 1983 of the U.S. Code.8 While these claims can be difficult for plaintiffs to prove and the total cost of failure-to-train judgments is hard to ascertain, police agencies that fail to invest in training run the risk of losing the trust and support of the community when they are sued. Compared with other countries and other often demanding professions, the duration of police recruit training in the United States is limited, especially given the levels of crime and disorder that today’s police officers are expected to address, and the challenges of policing during an opioid addiction crisis, an underfunded behavioral health system, a protracted pandemic, and a largely unchecked firearms market. In 37 states, recruits are permitted to begin working as police officers even before they have completed their basic training course. Furthermore, recruit training is not necessarily aligned with research on what works, although the research in this area is limited. As the Council on Criminal Justice Task Force on Policing recently pointed out, “Despite the critical importance of police officer training to the onboarding of new recruits, there is very little evidence about its effectiveness. The scant research that does exist is not promising.”  So not only does the policing profession need to invest in training itself; it also needs to invest in rigorous research about what works and what doesn’t in police recruit training. For example, there should be research not just on what topics need to be covered, but also on the best sequence for delivering those courses.   The current state of recruit training demands that we rethink – and remake – the system for how new police officers are trained. We need national consensus and national standards on what the training contains, how it is delivered, and by whom. This report may present a grim picture of the current state of recruit training, but it also puts forth a series of principles that can help guide the transformation of training to meet the challenges of policing for today and tomorrow.

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2022. 84p.

By The Police Executive Research Forum

  Understanding the Barriers … and the Opportunities for Change This project sought to answer a simple question: Why? Why are women underrepresented in the leadership ranks of most police agencies? What are the barriers to advancement for women, and what are the strategies for overcoming those barriers? What can women do themselves to enhance their opportunities for attaining leadership positions? And, more importantly, what can police agencies do to help women along their career pathways? To help answer those questions, we reached out to hundreds of women in law enforcement and asked for their opinions and perspectives. Based on these information-gathering efforts, plus a review of the literature on women in policing, several key themes emerged, which are examined throughout this report: • Women have a strong interest in leadership roles. • Women don’t feel they need special consideration in hiring or training standards. • Agency culture is key. • Opportunities – for assignments and training – are not always equal. • Mentors play a crucial role for women looking to advance in policing. • Men are a crucial part of the equation. 10 Action Items for Advancing Women in Police Leadership Based on these and other themes, PERF developed 10 Action Items that police agencies can implement to help level the playing field and create more opportunities for women to advance in their departments. Some of these are steps that agencies can take right away, with little or no cost. Others will take more time and planning, and they may require dedicated resources or new spending. But all of the Action Items will demand a commitment on the part of agency leaders – police chiefs, sheriffs, their command staffs, and other upper- and mid-level managers. Implementing these Action Items will benefit more than the women currently in law enforcement and those who aspire to careers in policing. It will also benefit the agencies they work for. As many people – women and men – pointed out during the course of our research, increasing diversity at all levels makes police agencies stronger and more effective. Erika Shields, Chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department and a member of the PERF Board of Directors, summed it up during the discussion at the PERF Annual Meeting: “We’re stronger when we’re listening to people who don’t look like us. Diversity builds strength.”  

Washington DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2023. 64p.

By The Police Executive Research Forum

  Police agencies face no greater challenge today than recruiting and retaining enough qualified officers to meet rising demands to provide services and address violent crime. So when the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic made it possible for PERF to resume holding large in-person issue forums, the workforce crisis was the logical topic for our first such conference. “Innovations in Recruitment and Retention to Meet Tomorrow’s Challenges,” held on November 3, 2022 in Washington, DC, drew roughly 275 participants from across the country and was a striking success. Nearly 100 people signed up to attend in just the first 24 hours after registration opened, and before long we reached the venue’s maximum capacity. This swift, sizable response — and the animated discussion we had throughout the day — is a testament to the significance of this issue for law enforcement and the commitment of those stakeholders to addressing it. I hope this report, which builds on PERF’s 2019 report “The Workforce Crisis, and What Police Agencies Are Doing About It,” will help members of the profession address this vital issue. Participants at the conference agreed that we are at a critical moment in policing. Many younger officers are resigning and older officers are retiring, even as applications plummet. Departments are competing for existing officers, making one department’s solution another department’s problem. Departments also are struggling to attract younger and more diverse candidates. The conference gave representatives from a wide range of departments — small and large, urban and rural — a chance to share their struggles and frustrations, but also to   describe changes they’ve made that have had an impact. As you will read in this report, many of those changes are designed to help officers see the organization as a place where they can grow and thrive, and where they can earn respect and hono

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum . 2023. 75p.

By The Police Executive Research Forum

  This report addresses one of the most critical issues in policing today: the role of police in responding to calls for service involving people in mental or behavioral health (MBH) crisis. This has been a serious challenge for policing for decades, ever since mental health institutions were closed, people were discharged without adequate provision of help to live in the community, and many of them landed on the streets. Police found themselves responding to incidents involving people in crisis and doing the best they could. It has been more than 30 years since then-Commissioner of the NYPD, Lee Brown, said that “this country’s social problems are well beyond the ability of the police to deal with on their own.”  Yet that is what they are often called upon to do. The issue has come into sharper focus in debates about policing reform, especially since the murder of George Floyd. While many calls to reallocate funds from police to social services were not well thought out, many police agree that responsibility for responding to MBH calls for  service should not fall to the police alone, and in some instances not at all. The scope of the problem is enormous. The American Psychological Association reports that 60 percent of psychologists currently have no openings for new patients.  Emergency room visits by children and young adults surged by almost 60 percent between 2011 and 2020, and suiciderelated visits increased five-fold. In 2021 more than 100,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses, more than twice as many as in 2015.  Nearly 600,000 people in the U.S. experience homelessness on a given night.  All these individuals risk falling victim to crimes, and some pose risks to the safety of themselves or others. Whether or not there is a threat to safety, police are likely to be called to MBH incidents, which can account for anywhere from 1 to 10 percent of all 911 calls. There are several reasons why calls come to police even when there is no immediate threat to safety. As a deployed service, patrolling the streets 24/7, police are usually in a position to respond quickly. Many people call 911 for help without thinking about whether another service provider may be more appropriate. And often, no one else is available to call; few mental health and social service providers have rapid response capabilities and even fewer operate during nights and weekends. MBH calls are resource intensive. They can be time consuming both on-scene and during the follow-up, which can include transporting subjects to the hospital and writing reports. Often, the subject is arrested; about 2 million times  annually, people with serious mental illness are booked into U.S. jails. MBH incidents can also be fraught with risk. The great majority of encounters are handled safely but some end tragically. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, the risk of being killed is 16 times higher for people with untreated serious mental illness than for others approached or stopped by police. The issue therefore touches on three significant aspects of our current policing crisis, which is the worst in a generation: • First, a crisis of public trust in policing, driven in large part by high-profile incidents of police shootings and fatalities in police custody. • Second, a workforce crisis. Recruiting shortfalls in many departments — and budget tightening — have made patrol officers’ time more precious than ever. • Third, gun crime rates appear to have risen since 2019 (though early data from 2023 suggest they may be subsiding), and violent    crime clearance rates have been declining for decades. This third point also affects public trust in the police. If the role of police officers in mental health-related calls can be focused on instances where the potential risk of the encounter necessitates an armed presence or police powers, police departments should be able to divert their limited resources toward actions that require immediate police response, as well as toward crime prevention and investigation. We have made significant progress over the years in preparing police for MBH encounters. Mental health awareness training has been widely implemented. Thousands of agencies have conducted Crisis Intervention Training (CIT), which has been shown to increase understanding and empathy for individuals in crisis. Yet police often have to deal with MBH incidents with inadequate mental health resources. And tragically, some of those encounters end in a fatality

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2023. 59p.

By The Police Executive Research Forum

  ICAT – Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics – is a training program that is transforming how law enforcement officers are trained to de-escalate critical incidents and minimize the use of force whenever possible. Created and managed by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), ICAT was developed with input from hundreds of police officers, trainers, researchers, and others from across the United States and overseas. The curriculum includes classroom instruction split into seven modules, video case studies, and, importantly, live-action scenario-based exercises where students can practice what they learned in the classroom. Rolled out by PERF in 2016, ICAT was originally created for patrol officers, who are typically the first responders on the scene of dynamic encounters where the potential for use of force exists. Since then, ICAT has been adopted by hundreds of police departments and sheriffs’ offices across the country for their patrol divisions. And the training has been successful. In a randomized controlled study of the Louisville Metro Police Department, researchers found that ICAT was associated with substantial reductions not only in use of force by officers, but also in injuries to both subjects and officers (see page 7). Other agencies have experienced similar reductions since adopting ICAT. The good news is that ICAT is making    things safer for everyone – police officers, subjects they encounter and, by extension, the community at large. The success and growth of ICAT in police departments led us to think: if the training works for patrol officers, why wouldn’t it work for correctional officers as well? After all, both groups face similar challenges. They are regularly involved in stressful, dynamic, and potentially violent encounters with people who may have mental health challenges, substance use disorders, and extensive criminal histories. In addition, police officers and correctional officers share common goals: to de-escalate these types of encounters and minimize the use of force, all while securing the safety of both officers and subjects, whether they are on the street or in a jail or prison. ICAT is built on the guiding principle of the sanctity of human life, the goal that everyone goes home safely at the end of the day. ICAT is designed primarily for incidents in which subjects are either unarmed or armed with a knife, baseball bat, or other impact weapon. The presence of a firearm changes the equation when it comes to use of force and de-escalation, and while ICAT principles can still be applied in some of these encounters, the training is largely designed for those situations where the subject is not armed with a firearm. This focus makes ICAT particularly relevant to jails, where firearms are not an  issue but potentially violent inmates may still be armed with other, home-made weapons. Recently, some sheriffs’ offices that train their patrol deputies in ICAT have begun to adopt the training for their detention personnel as well. (See Chapter 3 for case studies of two such agencies: the Harris County, TX and Santa Cruz County, CA sheriffs’ offices.) They have found that not every part of ICAT applies to their jail personnel; for example, the module on “suicide by cop” is not necessarily a close fit in the jail environment. However, these agencies have discovered that the core elements of the training – communications, assessment, tactics, and decision-making – do apply to correctional officers, as does the concept of “stepping up and stepping in” with fellow officers when a situation is not going as planned. Agencies have found that the bulk of the ICAT curriculum can seamlessly be adapted for their jail personnel. The early adopters have also found that the curriculum works best when they use scenarios and video case studies that are customized to the corrections environment. (The videos and scenarios in the core ICAT curriculum focus on street encounters.) But the basic ICAT curriculum transfers easily. This publication is designed to help sheriffs’ offices, as well as other agencies that operate lockups or other detention facilities, to implement the ICAT curriculum in their facilities. This report draws heavily on the experiences of the sheriffs’ offices in Harris County and Santa Cruz County, which have been teaching ICAT to their patrol and detention personnel for well over a year. The report also reflects the ideas and insights of close to 20 individuals – sheriffs and other sheriffs’ office personnel, experienced ICAT  instructors, and PERF staff – who participated in a two-day meeting in November 2022 at PERF’s National ICAT Training Center in Decatur, IL. This report is not a new curriculum for teaching ICAT to correctional personnel. What we have learned from the early adopters, as well as many of the experts we consulted with, is that the existing ICAT curriculum is a solid foundation for teaching ICAT in jails. Rather, this report serves as a guide for sheriffs’ offices that are interested in how to deliver ICAT training to their jail personnel. The following chapters summarize the key elements of the ICAT curriculum, review how they apply to correctional officers, and provide examples of how sheriffs’ offices have customized the curriculum and rolled out the training in their jails

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2023. 48p.

By The Police Executive Research Forum

  The United States is facing a migration crisis that has placed unprecedented strains on communities across the country. The U.S.-Mexico border is overwhelmed with arriving asylum seekers. In fiscal year 2023, there were 2.5 million encounters between U.S. border authorities and migrants attempting to cross into the U.S., a new high. Encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have surged since the federal Title 42 policy, under which most asylum seekers were expelled without being allowed to apply for asylum, ended in May 2023. Also in 2023, for the first time ever, migrants from beyond Mexico and northern Central America represented a majority of the irregular arrivals at and between ports of entry. These individuals, resettling in communities all across the U.S., bring with them a wide range of cultures that local police agencies must take into account when serving their communities. For more than two decades Congress has been unable to pass meaningful immigration reform, and the near-term outlook for legislation remains bleak. The combination of rising migration and a broken immigration and border enforcement system has created unsafe environments. State and local authorities are desperate for solutions, and some are turning to anti-immigration policies that instill fear and confusion over the role of local law enforcement. Texas lawmakers, for example, passed legislation in November 2023 (blocked by a federal judge on February 29th, 2024 and, as of the  publication of this report, likely heading to the Supreme Court9 ) that would empower police to arrest immigrants suspected of entering the country illegally, blurring the lines between local law enforcement and what has historically been a federal government responsibility.10 Other state and local authorities are committed to welcoming immigrants but have struggled to cope with the sheer number of new arrivals. Police need the cooperation of the communities they serve to promote public safety through increased crime reporting and participation in investigations. It is critical that police form trusting relationships with immigrant populations, both recent arrivals and those already established in this country. PERF conducted this project to explore how law enforcement agencies are working to engage and build trust with the immigrant communities they serve and to identify promising practices.   

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2024. 69p.

By The Police Executive Research Forum
 

  The Santa Cruz County, CA Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) is a full-service law enforcement agency that is embracing technology and training to meet the challenges of 21st century policing. The SCSO was an early adopter of the Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics (ICAT) training program developed by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). The agency initially trained all its patrol deputies in ICAT. In 2022, the SCSO was one of the first agencies to certify all its correctional officers in ICAT. The SCSO is also expanding its use of drones in law enforcement operations, adding a state of-the-art DNA laboratory, and embracing civilianization in the agency. Like many other law enforcement and first-responder agencies across the country, the SCSO has faced many challenges in recent years. In 2020, a rising leader in the agency was ambushed and killed in the line of duty. The agency has also had to respond to multiple catastrophic weather emergencies, and, because the sheriff is also the county coroner, an increase in fentanyl-related deaths. Since 2011, the agency has been required to house felons in its jail in addition to those charged with misdemeanor crimes, causing housing and supervision challenges. 

Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum, 2024. 12p.  

National Crime Victimization Survey, 2017–2019

By  Andrew R. Flores , Bianca D. M.Wilson, Lynn L. Langton, Ilan H. Meyer

Introduction: Prior research has found that experiences with violence in the U.S. differ across individual demographic characteristics, including race, gender, and sexual orientation. However, peer reviewed studies have yet to examine the relationship between the intersections of race, gender, and sexual orientation, victimization risk, and characteristics of victimization.

Methods: We use data from three years (2017-2019) of the National Crime Victimization Survey, the primary source of information on criminal victimization in the United States, to examine victimization at the intersection of sexual orientation, gender, and race/ethnicity. We test whether non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White sexual and gender minority (SGM) persons aged 16 or over are victimized at greater rates than their non-SGM counterparts and assess whether there are differences between sexual minority females and males of each racial group. We further document characteristics of victimization such as reporting to the police by SGM status and race or ethnicity.

Results: We find that SGMs are disproportionately more likely to be victims of violent crime than non-SGM people, and these disparities are present across the assessed racial and ethnic groups (non-Hispanic Black odds ratio [OR] = 3.3, 90% CI [CI] = 1.36, 5.16; Hispanic OR = 4.5, CI = 2.25, 6.71; non-Hispanic White OR = 4.8, CI = 2.25, 6.71). However, sexual orientation disparities are statistically distinguishable for lesbian or bisexual (LB) non-Hispanic White and Hispanic females but not for non-Hispanic Black LB females. Among LB females, the overall differences in victimization were primarily driven by bisexual respondents. We further find racial and ethnic differences among SGM victims in the likelihood of having the victimization reported to the police, in the utilization of community (non-police) resources, and in other aspects of victimization experiences, such as whether arrests occurred or in the suspicion that the violent incident was a hate crime.

Conclusions: Our findings raise indicate a complex picture of how sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, and race and ethnicity interact in victimizations and their characteristics that should be further explored.

  PLoS ONE 18(2): e0281641.

By Evelyn F. McCoy, Natalie Lima

Pima County, Arizona, has designed and implemented several probation-focused programs and revised probation policies and practices with support from the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC)—an initiative funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to reduce overincarceration and disparities in jail populations. With these efforts, the county aimed to reduce its overall jail population, jail incarceration for people on probation, and the number of probation violations.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Probation is often intended as an alternative to incarceration, but probation supervision can often lead to incarceration when a person is unable to comply with often strict and extensive supervision conditions. On any given day, approximately 280,000 people are incarcerated for violations of supervision standards, including technical violations and new offenses. Twenty percent of people in the total US jail population are incarcerated for probation violations.

Incarcerating people for probation violations further burdens already strained jail systems and contributes to mass incarceration in the United States. Reducing the number of people incarcerated for probation violations is therefore an important carceral reform strategy.

WHAT WE FOUND

In this case study, we describe Pima County’s implementation experiences and lessons that other jurisdictions implementing probation reform may find informative. The county’s main probation reform strategies included creating a new program to reengage people who abscond, reducing petitions to revoke, reducing barriers to success on probation, and decreasing jail stays for people on probation. We explore stakeholders’ perceptions of these efforts and their experiences with their implementation.

Lessons that other jurisdictions might find informative from Pima County include the following:

• Using data-driven approaches and research can increase effectiveness. Many jurisdictions may be hesitant to evaluate their strategies and interventions or unable to because they do not have the resources to support hiring a data analyst. But being able to track and analyze outcomes can help increase effectiveness and efficiency.

• Delivering individualized support for people on probation requires more support options. Having one or two strategies to support people on probation has not been enough for Pima County, especially as it has transitioned to more individualized supervision.

• Rebuilding trust with people directly impacted by the criminal legal system takes significant time and energy from probation officers. If community members do not trust representatives of the probation department to help them, even the best-designed programs will be underutilized.

HOW WE DID IT

To develop this case study, the research team relied on four data sources: semistructured interviews with Pima County stakeholders; analysis of relevant materials (such as SJC progress reports and publicly available documents); a recent study by Khalid and coauthors on the use of probation in Pima County; and Institute for State and Local Governance analysis of jail population trends.

Between December 2022 and March 2023, we conducted one-on-one interviews with Pima County stakeholders representing the public defender’s office, the adult probation department, the superior court, the sheriff’s department, and county service providers.

We collected information on participants’ professional backgrounds and roles in probation work, Pima County’s probation reform landscape, specific probation reform strategies and policies, the design and implementation of those strategies, and challenges, successes, and impacts. After data collection, we transcribed the interviews and uploaded them to NVivo, a qualitative analysis software, where we analyzed stakeholders’ responses for trends using a codebook developed for this case study.

RESEARCH AREAS

Washington, DC: Urban Institute, Justice Policy Center, 2024. 32p.

 By Tom Shipley

Organisations implementing anti-corruption interventions regularly evaluate their work but to date the quality of the research produced has not been subject to any rigorous review. Analysis based around a new framework for assessing evaluation quality changes this picture and provides new insights on how evaluation is conducted in practice in this field. While some examples of good practice are identified, there are widespread issues with evaluation quality. These issues limit the potential of evaluation to generate valuable learning around anti-corruption interventions.

 Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Issue 2024:04)

 2024. 75p.

By Nick Robinson

The fear of riots has long loomed large in the public imagination. This fear is at least partly justified. Riots can present unique challenges, both in the harm they can cause and in the government’s ability to control them. However, from the American colonies to the Civil Rights era, there is also a history of members of largely nonviolent social movements being tarred as “rioters.”

This use of the label of “rioting” to undermine dissent is not just a political problem but also a legal one, and it has once again reemerged. Although the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 were overwhelmingly nonviolent, in the year that followed, state lawmakers pointed to violence that did occur to introduce legislation in over half of U.S. states that would strengthen or expand rioting offenses. This wave of new anti-rioting legislation has been criticized as an attempt, not to address violence, but rather to target and intimidate peaceful protesters.

Despite the prominence of rioting in U.S. history, the criminal offenses of rioting and incitement to riot have been strikingly understudied. To help fill this gap and better situate this recent surge of legislation, this Article provides the first systematic analysis and critique of these crimes in the United States. It traces how these offenses are rooted in an English common law heritage where the crime of rioting was a blunt tool that the government frequently used to suppress political and religious dissent. It then shows that although today’s U.S. anti-rioting legal measures vary considerably by jurisdiction, in an age of mass protest movements, they can often undermine the freedom of peaceful assembly.

The core offense of rioting—violence or property destruction by individuals as part of a group—is already unlawful under other parts of the criminal law. However, many rioting offenses expand criminal liability to those who engage in no violence themselves but are simply part of a crowd that is “rioting” or create liability for conduct that only threatens property destruction or violence. Meanwhile, incitement to riot provisions can frequently capture merely provocative speech. These crimes against rioting provide law enforcement wide discretion—a discretion which has a history of politicized and racialized abuse.

Government has a clear interest in stopping riots. However, this Article argues that, given a range of other tools available to achieve this goal and the history of these crimes being used against nonviolent protesters, jurisdictions are better off eliminating the offenses of rioting and incitement to riot altogether. Where that is politically infeasible, this Article lays out a framework to better target these crimes to minimize the risk of their misuse.

Minnesota Law Review, November 21, 2022

By Anthony A. Braga, John M. MacDonald, James E. McCabe

Research summary

The concern of crime in New York City public housing complexes motivated heightened police patrol of buildings and the enforcement of trespass laws. The 2013 federal court settlement of Davis et al. v. City of New York et al. mandated that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) implement a series of reforms, including the deployment of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on officers, to address unconstitutional use of criminal trespass enforcement and stop and frisk practices in public housing developments. This study employed a stepped wedge quasi-experimental design that involved the sequential crossover of public housing service area clusters from control to BWC implementation until all NYPD housing bureau officers were equipped with BWCs. Panel regression models at the individual officer and service area levels were used to estimate BWC program impacts on outcomes between 2015 and 2019. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the impact of the BWCs on the lawfulness of officer stop reports that were randomly selected for audit between 2017 and 2019. Results show that BWC deployment in public housing reduced excessive enforcement, citizen complaints, and use of force by NYPD housing officers. Findings further suggest that BWCs can help reduce constitutionally problematic stops and frisks of citizens.

Policy implications

Problematic police activities in public housing contexts can be reformed using BWCs. When coupled with routine supervisory review of video footage, the deployment of BWCs on public housing officers can improve compliance with department directives to reduce enforcement actions and increase documentation of citizen stops.

Public housing provides an important source of affordable homes for more than 900,000 low-income households in the United States, the majority of which are minority residents with incomes below the poverty line (Fischer et al., 2021). Unfortunately, many public housing developments have unsafe and unhealthy environments driven by persistent problems related to a legacy of segregation, poor funding for maintenance and repair, and lack of oversight from agencies administering public housing programs (Finkel et al., 2010; Popkin et al., 2020). In 2017, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which administers 17% of public housing in the United States, estimated that their developments needed $32 billion in capital improvements over 5 years to improve living conditions for their residents (STV Incorporated & AECOM USA, 2018). Many public housing developments experience higher levels of crime and violence relative to contiguous communities due to the concentration of vulnerable populations in sometimes substandard living conditions (Fagan et al., 2006; Holzman, 1996).

The connection between crime and public housing has long been recognized as one of the motivations behind increased police surveillance and enforcement in public housing complexes (Austen, 2012; Schill, 1993). The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is well known for their use of proactive policing strategies that encouraged its officers to make very high numbers of citizen stops and misdemeanor arrests to control crime during the 2000s and early 2010s. Guided by mapping and spatial analyses of crime incidents (Eterno & Silverman, 2012), these aggressive enforcement actions were concentrated in public places that experienced high levels of violent crime such as NYCHA public housing developments. Although there is evidence that these NYPD strategies were associated with modest crime control gains (MacDonald et al., 2016; Weisburd et al., 2016), numerous studies suggested that these policing efforts generated racially disparate impacts on police stops and arrests of Black and Hispanic residents (e.g., Fagan & Davies, 2000; Gelman et al., 2007; Jones-Brown et al., 2010). Fagan et al. (2012) estimated that NYPD stops, frisks, and arrests of Black and Hispanic NYCHA residents and their visitors were much higher in public housing settings relative to enforcement patterns in adjacent neighborhoods.

In 2010, a group of NYCHA residents and their visitors filed a federal class action lawsuit against the City of New York, Davis et al. v. City of New York et al. (10 Civ. 0699), which accused the NYPD of unconstitutional use of stops and arrests for criminal trespass in NYCHA housing complexes. Ultimately in 2015, the City of New York settled with the Davis plaintiffs and agreed to undergo a series of reforms to NYPD criminal trespass enforcement practices specifically. The City of New York also agreed to ongoing federal court monitoring with other plaintiffs in cases involving unconstitutional use of stop, question, and frisk (Floyd et al. v. City of New York et al.—08 Civ. 1034) and trespass enforcement in privately owned buildings (Ligon et al. v. City of New York et al.—12 Civ. 2274). The combined settlement agreement included a broad set of remedies to reduce racial disparities and improve the lawfulness of NYPD stops of citizens (see 959 F. Supp. 2d 668, 685; S.D.N.Y. 2013, Remedial Order). The deployment of body-worn cameras (hereafter, BWCs) on NYPD officers was mandated to create objective records of stop-and-frisk encounters, encourage lawful and respectful police-citizen interactions, and offer a way to substantiate whether NYPD officers engage in alleged misconduct. These same issues were specifically mandated to apply to the NYPD's trespass enforcement activities in NYCHA housing as part of the Davis et al. case.

The existing program evaluation evidence on the impact of BWCs on police officer work behaviors is largely mixed with some indication that the presence of the technology may improve the civility of police-citizen encounters (Lum et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2021). Scant research assesses the impact of BWC technology on the lawfulness of police actions during encounters with citizens, and, to date, no studies evaluate the use of BWCs in public housing contexts. In this study, the impact of BWC deployment on officers working in NYCHA public housing developments is measured. The Davis et al. settlement specifically identified problematic trespass enforcement practices in NYCHA developments, making it important to examine the impact of the 2018 BWC deployment on Housing Bureau officers and their interactions with civilians. This evaluation assesses whether the deployment of BWCs on Housing Bureau officers affected the civility of police-citizen encounters, the level of police enforcement activity, and the lawfulness of police encounters, comparing those outcome measures both before officers were equipped with BWCs and for a year after BWCs were deployed. These are particularly important issues to examine in the context of NYCHA housing, which are areas with the highest rates of violent crime in NYC, have undergone extensive surveillance of residents and their guests, and have experienced decades of intensive law enforcement activities.

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Criminology & Public Policy

Early View, July 2024.

By William A. Galston

Author and Publication: Written by William A. Galston, "Justice and theHuman Good" was published by The University of Chicago Press in 1980.

Main Themes: The book explores justice and the human good, discussing utopian thought, elements of the human good, and principles of justice.

Philosophical Approach: Galston adopts aquasi-Aristotelian approach, integrating ethical naturalism and Aristotle's analysis of justice.

Critical Reception: The book includes extensive critiques and responses to various philosophical arguments, aiming to address contemporary political and moral issues.

University of Chicago, 1980, 324 pages

By F. A. Hayek

Critique of Social Justice: Hayek argues that the term "social justice" is empty and meaningless, often used without a clear definition or understanding.

Justice and Market Processes: He believes that justice applies to individual conduct and not to the outcomes of market processes.

Abstract Rules: Emphasizes the importance of abstract rules in a free society, which serve unknown particular ends and facilitate the pursuit of individual goals.

Spontaneous Order: Hayek highlights the spontaneous order of the market, where individuals' actions lead to an efficient allocation of resources without central planning.

University of Chicago Press, 1978, 195 pages

 By Christi M. Smith

Across the nation, jails and prisons are primarily occupied by individuals experiencing mental health conditions, substance-related issues and housing and employment instability. The deinstitutionalization of mental health asylums in the 1950s and 1960s resulted in American jails and prisons becoming the de facto treatment facilities for the mentally ill. The overrepresentation of individuals with these issues has overwhelmed the criminal justice system for decades, which prompted the federal government and private organizations to fund the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project two decades ago. This multisystem collaboration among criminal justice, mental health and policy professions sought several outcomes:

Define the measures that state legislators, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, corrections administrators, community corrections officials, and victim advocates, mental health advocates, consumers, state mental health directors, and community-based providers agree will improve the response to people with mental illness who are in contact (or at high risk of involvement) with the criminal justice system.

Despite this interagency effort and its resulting 2002 report, the problem persists. The consensus is that jails and prisons are a costly, ineffective intervention that may exacerbate negative social conditions. Available evidence indicates that police-led deflection, which empowers police officers to use their discretion to refer individuals to the appropriate rehabilitative and social service systems instead of arrest, is a less expensive, more effective intervention for nonviolent people whose alleged law violations stem primarily from social service issues. Diversion is also supported by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and is currently in use at approximately 850 sites across the country.

Police leaders attempting to incorporate data-driven strategies and best practices into their departments are likely to encounter pushback from the rank and file because deflection from the criminal justice system tends to be inconsistent with traditional recruitment messaging, training approaches and police practices. Police culture, often characterized by an “us versus them” mentality, skepticism and distrust of outsiders, is difficult, though not impossible, to change. In order for law enforcement officers and agencies to move toward deflection and away from the historic reliance on arrest for law violations stemming from social-service issues, leadership must commit to the new model. For this effort to be successful, the efficacy and value of the approach must be woven into daily police practices; officers have to be trained differently and collaborative partnerships with the appropriate community-based resources need to be established. In addition, deflection can only work to the degree that robust resources are available for diversion in lieu of arrest and incarceration.

In this paper, we present the typical characteristics of police cultures, explain the concept of deflection and articulate how law enforcement leaders can cultivate organizational cultures that support police-led, pre-arrest diversion.

R Street Shorts No. 118 

Washington, DC: R Street, 2022. 6p.

 By Lisel Petis  

 Prosecutors hold tremendous power to fill and empty jail cells. As administrators of justice, they have a duty to use this power effectively to uphold justice for victims, the community and the accused. In other words, they must balance their commitment to support public safety with their duty to protect the rights of the accused. Importantly, research has shown that limiting individuals’ exposure to jail can improve public safety and effective alternatives to incarceration can ensure that those who have committed a crime are still held accountable. Thus, to strike a balance between upholding public safety and implementing effective alternatives that can reduce jail populations, prosecutorial power and discretion must be used strategically. To help prosecutors’ offices achieve this balance, we have created a SWOT analysis to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of taking action and leveraging prosecutorial power to safely lower jail populations.

  R Street Policy Study No. 268  

Washington, DC: R Street, 2022. 18p.

By Stacey McKenna and Chelsea Boyd  

Often referred to as the world’s oldest profession, prostitution was largely legal in the United States until the early 1900s. Since that time, the commercial sex trade—encompassing prostitution, pornography, exotic dancing, escort services, erotic massage and more—has come under a flurry of regulations, primarily at the state level. In particular, prostitution, or “full-service” sex work (the focus of this policy paper, and heretofore referred to simply as sex work), is criminalized to varying degrees in all 50 states, with few jurisdictional exceptions.

The definition of prostitution and its associated laws are reflections of “cultural, economic, political, and sexual dynamics.” Research demonstrates that people of varied gender identities; sexual orientations; and racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds choose to enter the commercial sex industry. In addition, as with most jobs, sex workers report a range of reasons for entering the trade, including limited alternative job options, superior earning potential, flexible schedules, enhancement of self-worth, enjoyment and more. Importantly, while existing research demonstrates that many sex workers choose the profession freely and report benefits from that choice, a subset of people involved in sex work are victims of sex trafficking, and finding ways to assist these victims is critical. Equally vital to the conversation about the harms of criminalizing sex work is recognizing that many organizations, politicians and activists promote strict, gendered narratives and conflate consensual sex work with sex trafficking to justify prohibition.

Evidence from diverse political, cultural and socioeconomic contexts across the globe indicates that prohibitionist policies “undermine the rights and safety of sex workers,” which harms sex workers who have been coerced as well as those who enter the trade voluntarily. Indeed, a growing body of international research shows that any criminalization of sex work—including the so-called “end-demand” model in which only buyers and third parties are targeted for arrest and prosecution—is associated with a range of health and safety consequences. For example, sex workers who have experienced criminalization or who live in even partially prohibitionist policy environments have an elevated risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs); experiencing violence at the hands of clients and law enforcement officers; and having difficulty accessing health care services. Furthermore, the stigma and isolation associated with sex work’s social and legal status can be harmful to mental health.

Recognizing these harms, sex worker advocates around the world are calling for decriminalization. Although the movement has yet to garner substantial traction in the United States, some jurisdictions have implemented alternatives to the full criminalization of sex work, albeit temporarily in some cases. In this policy study, we review the scientific literature and present perspectives from interviews we conducted with activists and scholars to explore real-world examples of alternatives to criminalization and their associated public health implications.

Washington DC: R Street, 2023. 7p.