This research explored the process by which several experienced and successful law enforcement officials arrive at the most effective method of decision-making. It draws from traditional decision theory models, but uses the naturalistic decision-making (NDM) paradigm as its guide. Studies framed by the NDM model have included fighter and commercial pilots, health care professionals, battle commanders, and others. Missing, however, are studies of law-enforcement officers making judgments and decisions under operational conditions. This examination utilized qualitative case study methods of participant observation and focused interviews to collect data and followed Lincoln and Guba's case study structure by identifying the problem, the context, the issues, and the lessons learned. Coding and analysis of the data conformed to the model initially outlined by Strauss (1987) and later redefined by Corbin and Strauss (1990), including open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The findings on the decision-making/judgments processes of three experienced law enforcement officials revealed that each officer strived to control the impending event utilizing a number of rational and intuitive processes. One practice was scanning for detail embedded in the situation and utilizing this information for subsequent development of a cognitive map. Additionally, all the officers pursued a comprehensive preparation phase that consisted of the creation of worst-case scenarios and planning tactics to effectively respond to these cases. When decision-making was required, the information available through the scanning process and the preparation phases acted as the foundation for the development of the cognitive map that led each officer to successful resolution of their respective cases. This study concluded with areas requiring further research and made recommendation that seek to improve police training practices. / Ph. D.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Criminology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The research examined the work of the Fontana Police Department in light of a theoretical framework of managing for results. This study consists of a review of the literature, which provides background and basic knowledge on managing for results, high performing public agencies, strategic planning, outcome measurement, and results-based budgeting along with a policy analysis and an examination of the operations of the Fontana Police Department.

Paris, capitale de la monarchie absolutiste, posa, dans sa matérialité même, des problèmes d’ordre public aux pouvoirs politiques. Ces problèmes, démographiques, hygiéniques, de circulation et d’organisation sociale (une mobilité accrue), entraînèrent la création d’une institution spécialisée dans la « police » de la ville : la Lieutenance de police. Cette institution, de 1666 à 1789, s’attacha à résoudre les désordres urbains matériels et sociaux, et pour cela déploya des dispositifs policiers nouveaux, pour lesquels elle mobilisa les savoirs du temps tout en en produisant elle-même (plus empiriques). C’est également dans les pratiques des agents sur le terrain que l’on trouve la réalité de ce qu’était la police d’Ancien Régime, qui consista avant tout à occuper l’espace urbain, à le marquer et à l’aménager à la marge afin de produire la sûreté et la propreté des rues. En ce sens, la prise en compte de la réalité urbaine invite à croiser histoire urbaine et histoire de la police. / Paris, capital of the French absolutist monarchy, was, by its materiality, a problem for public order. This problem was demographic, hygienic, and also created by bad circulation and social organization (a growing mobility). It was the reason of the creation of the Lieutenance de police, a specialised institution into the police of the town. This institution, from 1666 to 1789, aimed to reduce urban material and social problems. In order to reduce these disturbances, the Lieutenance created new police systems to control urban space, and gained scientific knowledge. It also created empiric knowledge. Police reality is truely a practice in urban spaces. This reality is found in the agents’ archives. They show the occupation of urban space, its arrangements, the inscription of police signs in the streets and, exceptionally, localised urbanism operations. The main objectives were the security and property of the town. This is why urban history and history of the police are joined within this study.

This study seeks to identify a relationship between Rational Choice/Classical thought and resisting arrest among criminal offenders. It seeks also to fill the gap that currently exists with regard to the effects of situational dynamics and police-citizen violence.

Submitted in fulfilment for the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Technology: Public Management, Durban University of Technology, 2014. / World over, police officers are tasked with the responsibility of maintaining peace and order in the society. The Swaziland Government has given the Royal Swaziland Police Service (RSPS) performance targets of reducing crime in the country by twelve percent. Over the years, the RSPS has been struggling to meet its performance targets. The research aimed to investigate job satisfaction in the RSPS. The objectives of the study included to examine the factors that influence job satisfaction within the RSPS, to explore the perceived impact of job satisfaction on performance and to make recommendations to the police management on how job satisfaction in the RSPS can be enhanced. A case study involving two administrative regions (Manzini and Hhohho) using a quantitative and qualitative research was adopted. Questionnaires were handed to 345 police officers (respondents) using a personal approach as part of the quantitative research. This showed a 100 percent response rate. The qualitative research involved conducting recorded semi-structured interviews with 10 senior police officers, which included serving and retired officers. A focus group discussion was conducted with 9 junior police officers as a form of control in the qualitative research. Data was scientifically analyzed using the Scientific Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 12. It enabled the researcher to describe and compare variable numerically. The findings of the study showed that the respondents perform effectively when given necessary resources. Respondents are willing to put a great deal of effort beyond of what is normally expected of them in order to make the RSPS successful. On another note, most of the respondents are generally not satisfied with the salary increases and allowances as they are not adequate to meet the increasing cost of living. The respondents expressed that not everyone is treated fairly and that promotions are not based on ability. An improvement in police officers accommodation is needed. Recommendations to improving job satisfaction in the RSPS are presented in the study. Finally, the literature reviewed and findings show that there is a significant relationship between job satisfaction and performance.

There is an inherent and inevitable tension between police powers and human rights. Adequate police powers are necessary to allow the police to fulfil their tasks; but exercise of such powers will necessarily interfere with the right of respect for private life and must therefore be proportionate to the aim to be achieved. The fundamental argument underlying this thesis is that privacy is valuable, either in its own right, or as a necessary prerequisite for sustaining more fundamental rights. Yet privacy also has costs: the greater the individual 'sphere of privacy', the narrower the scope for obta ining and utilising personal data for societal ends e.g. in this context the suppression or punishment of criminality. It is necessary, therefore, at an early stage in the thesis to undertake a contextual overview of expressions of the concept and value of privacy in Western liberal democracies. Establishing why privacy and privacy rights may be worthy of defence, both for individuals as well as for society as a whole, provides a framework for determining what must necessarily fall within the scope of privacy for that value to be realised . This thesis advocates an approach based on the identification and application of a general underlying principle of privacy and the shaping of the future evolution of the law in line with such a principle. New police information systems or new forms of personal data processing for police purposes do not emerge into an informational vacuum; on the contrary, they merge with and draw upon existing systems of data collection and processing, which are themselves evolving, e.g. computer records of people's bank transactions, their telephone calls, their activity on the Internet, their medical conditions, their education and employment histories etc. The thesis thus provides an overview of the pan-European police information systems already deployed, or planned to be deployed, with the aim of creating for the reader a cognitive map of a complex interaction of systems within which personal data is already collected, stored, shared and/or exchanged on a daily basis, exploring along the way the data protection regimes within those structures. The central themes of the thesis rest upon analysis of the influence of the CoE Recommendation R(87)15 on Regulating the Use of Personal Data in the Police Sector which provides a sector-specific application of the data protection principles established in the CoE Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data. To provide the reader with context for interpreting the empirical research findings, the thesis traces the history of the drafting of Recommendation R(87}15, based on research amongst materials drawn from the CoE's archives in Strasbourg. The findings of the empirical research - resulting from analysis of responses to a questionnaire deployed to Data Protection Authorities or Ministries of Justice in all member States of the CoE, exploring the implementation or otherwise of R(87}15 in each State - provide, for the first time, in a snap-shot, a census of where European legislation stands as regards processing of personal data for police purposes, as the European Union progresses beyond the first pillar/third pillar dichotomy in the post-Lisbon Treaty era. To further inform this analysis, the questionnaire findings were supplemented by in-depth semistructured interviews with domain experts from national data protection authorities, or law enforcement authorities, in select States. ii Based on the forgoing analysis, the thesis outlines aspects of the current legal regime that should be updated or improved, primarily in the context of the reform of the EU data protection framework, with a special focus on data processing in the police and criminal justice sector. This analysis identifies the extent to which the principles of Recommendation R(87)15 have been adopted, adapted, strengthened, weakened or abandoned in the current EU reform proposals. The provisions of Recommendation R(87)15, especially those which reinforce the principles of necessity, proportionality and purpose-specification/limitation are "an inalterable necessary minimum," 1 even for police and security forces. Yet it is argued that this "necessary minimum" is too minimal, and that changed circumstances make it advisable to further strengthen and expand the provisions of Recommendation R(87)15. The thesis concludes that the central question to be asked when restrictions on a fundamental right are concerned is: "How much limitation of a fundamental right is permissible in a democratic constitutional state in which fundamental rights are a constitutive element?" As such it is a modest contribution to the big questions facing our societies regarding the kind of society we want to build, and the kind of policies we need to put in place to reach our goals.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a direct test of higher-order and lower-order writing abilities needed for police report writing. This test was specifically designed to address report writing deficiencies experienced by police in the training academy. Descriptive statistics were examined, and relationships between this test and writing ability dimensions included on a separate, indirect, multiple choice test were investigated. Direct and indirect scores were correlated with training academy performance. Because both tests assessed higher-order and lower-order writing abilities, comparisons were made to determine which type of test was most appropriate for assessing the different types of writing skills. Results indicated that the direct test was a valid predictor of academy performance. Direct methods of measurement were found to be better than indirect methods for assessing higher-order writing skills. For lower-order writing skills, the indirect method appeared to be a better measure than the direct method.