Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Notre thèse porte sur les interactions entre policiers et population et plus particulièrement sur l’expérience policière des pratiques interactionnelles par lesquelles les policiers et la population coordonnent leurs activités dans l’espace public, aussi dans une dimension fortuite et éventuellement non problématique.<p>Inscrite dans une perspective inductive et compréhensive, notre analyse se fonde sur un matériau récolté en recourant aux techniques d’observation in situ et d’entretiens informels. Les policiers qui font l’objet de cette étude appartiennent à deux groupes a priori différents dans la police locale en région bruxelloise :d’une part, les policiers patrouilleurs dont le référentiel professionnel s’inscrit dans le modèle de police traditionnel, et d’autre part, les inspecteurs de quartier dont le référentiel doit s’inspirer du modèle de police de proximité. Ce processus de recherche articulé autour d’une immersion de type ethnographique en milieu policier repose également sur la dimension réflexive de l’engagement du chercheur, ce dont nous rendons aussi compte dans notre travail. <p>Notre analyse des routines d’interactions des policiers et de la population s’appuie sur la sociologie de Goffman (1973, 1974, 1991). Sa théorisation des cadres sociaux nous a soutenu dans l’élaborons des outils « cadre policier » et « cadre ordinaire » pour référer aux routines d’interactions que nous distinguons. L’analyse de ces interactions s’inscrit dans la diachronie des rencontres observées. Plus concrètement, entre la première séquence de coprésence et la dernière dédiée à la séparation des participants, l’analyse porte successivement sur l’entrée en contact, les formes de la rencontre, les changements de lieux et l’imprévisibilité qui caractérisent ces interactions. Les modalités de la mise en œuvre des routines policières d’interactions révèlent alors les caractéristiques du cadre policier. <p>Celui-ci se manifeste à travers différents ajustements au contact du cadre ordinaire. Les attentes et les pratiques des policiers en interaction s’adaptent aux attentes et aux pratiques de la population et ce dans une relative flexibilité. Le cadre policier emboîte, tolère ou simule le cadre ordinaire. Il peut aussi faiblir devant lui ou s’imposer à lui à moins qu’in fine le cadre policier ne résiste. Toutefois cette flexibilité connaît des limites et des conditions défavorables, voire extrêmes quand les policiers sont dans l’impossibilité de mettre en œuvre le cadre policier qui dès lors ce rompt. La violence des pratiques policières est une manifestation de la rupture du cadre policier. Par ailleurs, la flexibilité du cadre policier est restreinte dans les lieux policiers tels que la voiture de patrouille et le commissariat où les procédures formelles limitent l’autonomie des policiers. En contraste, l’espace public se présente comme le lieu qui réunit les conditions soutenant la plus grande variété d’ajustements du cadre policier au cadre ordinaire, jusqu’à rendre possible des rencontres « heureuses » et spontanées.<p>Au terme de cette analyse, nos résultats participent de façon innovante aux discussions en sociologie policière. Car, au-delà des traditionnelles divergences entre les métiers de policier patrouilleur et de quartier, nous soulignons leurs similitudes quand leurs routines d’interactions tendent à intégrer celles de la population tout en poursuivant les objectifs institutionnels. La reconnaissance de l’engagement de la population se présente alors comme un déterminant de l’activité policière qui est davantage de nature à la soutenir qu’à la restreindre. <p> / Doctorat en Criminologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

According to the Home Office Memorandum (1992), a rapport-building phase should always be included at the start of an interview with a child undertaken for criminal proceedings. Research on rapport-building in investigative interviews with children has tended to focus on interviewer techniques in motivating children to give more detailed narratives in the substantive phase of the interview. Little is understood about the way rapport is built or the importance of the relationship between the police officer and the child. Research on the relationship in psychotherapy, however, has found that it is an important predictor of outcome, and that therapists' in-session behaviours differ in high and low alliance therapies. This study was undertaken to investigate how police officers build rapport in evidential interviews with children, and to explore difference in interviewer verbal behaviour between police officers and clinical child psychologists in initial therapeutic interviews. A brief survey of police officers' and clinical child psychologists' perceptions of the initial phase of an interview with a child was conducted. Verbal behaviours of police officers in the rapport-building phase of investigative interviews with children were explored using Stiles' (1992) verbal response modes (VRM) coding system. These behaviours were then compared with those of clinical child psychologists in initial therapeutic interviews with children. Comparisons were also made between police officers talking to children and published profiles of conversations investigated using Stiles (1992) taxonomy. The results of the survey revealed that police officers (N = 18) and clinical psychologists (N = 22) had similar perceptions of the initial phase of interviews with children. Whilst some differences were found in VRM profiles, with respect to Edification, Advisement, Acknowledgement and Reflection Intents, the speech acts of police officers (N = 44) and clinical psychologists (N = 8) were generally similar. Further analysis of police officers' verbal behaviour revealed significant main and interaction effects of child and interviewer characteristics. Comparisons were made between police officers'VRMs and speakers in other conversational settings. These revealed that police officers spoke to children in rapport-building most like parents talking to children, the clinical child psychologists in this study, and radio programine hosts talking to callers with psychological issues, and least like attorneys questioning witnesses. This study has raised a number of issues for further investigation. Future research should emphasise the importance of investigating the interpersonal processes of rapport-building in evidential interviews with children, and explore differences in the quality of rapport built and the effects of such differences.

The situations and problems that police officers face are more complex in today’s society, due in part to the increase of technology and growing complexity of globalization. Accordingly, to solve these problems and deal with the complexities, law enforcement organizations develop and apply new techniques and methods such as geographic information systems (GIS). However, the successful implementation of a new technology does not just depend on providing perfect technical support, but effective and active interaction between the user and system. For this reason, research examining user acceptance of GIS technologies provides a valuable source to investors and designers to predict whether the results of the technology will meet user expectations; understanding the factors that influence user acceptance is vitally important to make the system more usable and preferable. This study attempts to explain Turkish National Police officers’ beliefs about and behaviors toward GIS applications by using the technology acceptance models. It contributes to the technology acceptance literature by testing the proposed model in a rarely studied organization: law enforcement. Regarding methodology, I distributed a survey questionnaire in Turkey; the unit of analysis was the law enforcement officers in the Turkish National Police (TNP). In order to analyze the data derived from the survey instrument, structural equation modeling (SEM), a multivariate statistical technique, was used to analyze the quantitative data by utilizing the AMOS 16.0 software. The analysis resulted in good model fit, and 6 of the 7 hypotheses were supported.

This study examined the impact that a stress inoculation training (SIT) program had on a small-sized city police department in the southwestern U.S. Specifically, the aim of this study was to investigate how a SIT program impacted police officer self-reported levels of organizational stress, operational stress, perceived life stress, and mood states. All 24 participants were recruited from a population of 132 sworn, active duty police officers and were pre-tested through administration of a questionnaire packet containing a host of measures related to demographics, organizational stressors, operational stressors, general life stressors, and mood states. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of the following treatment conditions: (1) delayed training; (2) SIT program; and (3) SIT plus booster program. On completion of the SIT program, members of each of the treatment conditions were re-assessed through the administration of the aforementioned questionnaire packet. Subsequent to conducting the booster sessions, participants from each treatment condition took part in a second, and final, follow-up assessment. Results suggested that organizational stress was decreased for participants in the SIT program, particularly at follow-up. Results also suggested that energy (i.e., vigor) was increased for participants in the SIT plus booster program at both post-test and follow-up. Furthermore, results suggested that there was a statistically significant decrease in perceived life stress at both post-test and follow-up, yet statistically analysis was unable to tease out which group contributed to this significance. These findings support the efficacy of an SIT program in assisting police officers combat organizational stressors.

The disproportionate number of police-involved shootings reflect the underlying conditions of traditionally conservative, racist policing. Recent updates and communication refinements to police training methodologies could improve training processes, which in turn, may improve societal perceptions of police in the United States. Law enforcement officers in the United States have become the focus of public policy outcry and generalized distrust, further complicating the dangers of contemporary policing. Concealed weapons and the close proximity of civilians policing the police with cellphone cameras complicate issues of officer safety. State and national incidents have resulted in police processes and behaviors being broadcast and violently challenged. In response to these challenges, Texas police academies and law enforcement training agencies are changing the way police learn to police. During the preparation of this study, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement adopted a legislatively mandated update to the Basic Peace Officer Certification training. After a three-year revision process, in late 2019, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement replaced the former 643-hour Basic Peace Officer Course with the newest Basic Peace Officer Course #1000696. Through its goals, definitions, and instructional guides, the Course #1000696 could potentially stimulate occupational identity, unify community policing culture, and foster community perception repair.

Includes bibliographical references ( leaves 192-227). / In the contemporary era policy-making is increasingly being shaped by non-domestic influences and actors. The mobility of policy ideas and mechanisms across time and space provides a challenge: How best to conceptualise the routes and modes of travelling whereby ideas and instruments are transported from one location to another? Conceptual tools originally designed in public policy circles - such as lesson-drawing, modelling, policy diffusion, policy transfer and convergence - have more recently been introduced into criminological enquiries regarding the convergence of criminal justice policies. This thesis applies the conceptual framework of policy transfer (referring to conscious efforts on the part of social agencies to export-import lessons from one locale to another) to the field of policing with a specific emphasis on South African police reform after 1990. The central focus of this enquiry is the interplay between novel, often externally derived , ideas and practices with a national police force at a time of immense political transition. Selective aspects of South African police reform are explored with specific emphasis on how, in what way, and to what extent, local reform efforts have been influenced by global notions and practices of good policing.Three institutional conduits for reformist policing ideas are considered. In the first instance, the contribution of policing scholars, a knowledge-based community of some importance, to debates on the pathways for police reform are discussed with an emphasis on the theoretical and normative assumptions that have guided their analyses of a policing ethos and system beyond Apartheid. Secondly, the role of an interim policy mechanism, the National Police Board (created in terms of a peace agreement signed in 1991) in setting an agenda for police reform is considered. Thirdly, the discussion profiles the international development community as a constituency of importance in recent police reform efforts. The latter exploration proceeds through a case study method. Three distinct examples of donor aid in support of institutional reform are described with particular reference to the paradigms invoked, the cultural entrepreneurs and policy networks involved, and the contextual factors that facilitated and/or constrained reformist efforts. A wide range of data collection methods were utilised during the course of the research. A literature review of contemporary debates on policy transfer, police and security sector reform in both mature and emerging democracies was undertaken. Furthermore, a wide range of primary documentary sources and various official policy documents were consulted. Face to face interviews with members of various policy constituencies also provided source material. Lastly, participant observation of policy structures and field notes compiled during evaluative research of a number of donor assisted projects provided contextual observations of importance to the analysis. This enquiry supports the conclusion that there is growing convergence in the language and practices associated with democratic police reform. Yet the dilemmas of policy transfer from North to South - particularly (although not exclusively) in the context of aid packages - are often underestimated. Local experiments suggest that whilst policy transfers can facilitate policy change, policies transferred all too easily become victims of domestic contingencies. Empirical enquiries into the context, processes and outcomes associated with reformist interventions are necessary to sharpen our understanding of how exactly policy travels and to what local effect. Recent reform activity aimed at the South African Police illustrates the extent to which policy communities situated at the local, national and transnational level do not exist in isolation but rather stand in a complex and interactive relationship to one another.

The ability to use force by police officers is one of their defining features. Police officers have a monopoly on the legitimate use of coercive force in the United States. A police officer’s decision to use force in an encounter depends on the behavior of both officer and citizen in an officer-citizen encounter. Each party interacts with, and responds to, the other over the course of the encounter, with each behavior and subsequent response drawing the encounter closer to its ultimate conclusion. As representatives of government, police officers have perhaps greater control in steering the interaction towards or away from a forceful conclusion. Using various techniques, police officers often can de-escalate an officer-citizen encounter before use of force is required. These techniques include things such as explaining the purpose of the interaction, keeping a respectful and safe distance from citizens, providing an introduction to citizens, exhibiting a calm and controlled demeanor, speaking directly and concisely, repeating important information, engaging in active listening, and clearly explaining the consequences of the offenders actions. The current study utilizes police officer body camera footage to examine if and how these eight officer de-escalation practices predict whether or not officers’ resort to using force in an officer-citizen encounter. Furthermore, the eight techniques are divided into proactive and reactive techniques in order to test whether a specific set of de-escalation techniques are more effective than another.

archives@tulane.edu / This dissertation explores the role of the Guatemalan National Police, from 1954 to 1985, as an institution that in the context of the country’s armed conflict and dirty war, became a key part of the machinery of brutality and violence of the Guatemalan State. The work approaches the police as an institution with its own internal logics, identity and counterinsurgency practices. The dissertation argues that the actions of the Guatemalan police need to be examined as part of a high policing model, where acts of police violence should not be assumed as actions that diverge from the norm, but instead as central to the police function. Especially given the entity’s role in the defense of the status quo and power. The work provides an overview of how the police was structured in a way that blurred lines between the units in charge of everyday policing and political policing. It then provides an ethnographic overview of how the social, economic and cultural condition of the country affected police ranks. The work also examines the relationship between the Guatemalan National Police and the citizens it was expected to serve and protect, to learn how that day-to-day element of community protection led the police to create its own criminal subject and its own notion of the internal enemy beyond the political subversive. The dissertation also sheds lights on the extent to which the police relied on intelligence networks and informants. Showing that citizen collaboration was fundamental to counterinsurgency project of the State. This project begins in 1954, after the U.S.-sponsored coup against democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán (1951-1954) and ends in 1985, at the beginning of the country’s democratic transition. It begins in 1954, because the coup marked the beginning of the counterrevolution, a period that set the basis for the political actions that defined the structures of Guatemala during the following three decades. For its part, 1985 was supposed to represent a change for the country, but as the work explores, it is still hard to determine whether democratic transitional periods, with the military still at the forefront, can build lasting democratic projects. / 1 / María Aguilar

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Mater of Arts in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1995. / The police role appears to be a controversial issue since the evolution of modem policing in Great Britain with the establishment of the Metropolitan Police under the leadership of Sir Robert Peel in 1829. The South African Police Service. and in particular the erstwhile Venda police. are no exceptions to the rule. The primary aim of this investigation revolves around the statistical measurement of the perceptions and attitudes of respondents pertaining to the role and functions of the Venda police. For this purpose. a sample group of 406 respondents. arbitrarily selected from four areas. namely : Thohoyandou, Makwarela, Sibasa and Shayandirna, were subjected to a closed. structured questionnaire regarding various aspects of the role and operational function of this independent police force. Statistical tests, such as the F-test, were implemented to test for significance and reliability of data obtained from questionnaires. The statistical results only represent the perceptions and attitudes of the research group towards the Venda police. The findings indicate: • that the majority of the respondents perceive the role and function of the Venda police as an important social service; • that both male and female respondents have significant different perceptions of the police role as it relates to the operational rendering of this social service function; •. insignificant differences between the various educational qualification groups pertaining to police partiality. abuse of power and authority, lack of knowledge and imperiousness on the part of the police are observed; • an unwillingness among the sample group to report crime to the police due to, inter alia. the inability of the police to effectively solve criminal cases, an arrogant attitude among police officials. etc.; and • that in general. the global image of the Venda police is somewhat negatively evaluated by the total research group. Recommendations are as follows: • the cultivation of a better understanding of the police role by means of facilitating closer contact and co-operation with the public; • to provide an improved social service to the public by means of rapid responses to calls for assistance and complaints; • establishing a police-citizen partnership in crime prevention by means of implementing a community style of policing; • improving the educational qualifications and training procedures of policemen.