With the increased attention to police brutality against people of color in recent years, the credibility of police departments is being called into question. Prior research suggests that a police force can improve their trustworthiness in the eyes of the public through prioritizing procedural and outcome justice. However, less is known about how to achieve these goals. Can education requirements play a role in increasing levels of procedural and outcome justice in police departments? By using rates of use of force rates as a measure for procedural justice and clearance rates as a measure for outcome justice, I investigate whether increasing the education requirements of police departments is associated with greater procedural and outcome justice. Data for this comparative quantitative analysis of police departments are drawn from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey (LEMAS), the Uniform Crime Reporting survey (UCR), and the US Census. Through multivariate analyses, I find that raising education requirements increases use of force and decreases clearance rates, and community policing training for police recruits increases clearance rates but also increases use of force. Community training was more likely to exist at departments with increased education requirements. These findings suggest that departments with evidence-based policing methods have higher clearance rates. Careerism from increased education requirements may cause use of force to increase, however, this situation may be improved by switching the department style from legalistic to service policing. I argue that police departments should implement higher education requirements while also altering the organizational goals of police departments to be service-oriented and requiring community policing training for all police recruits. / Master of Science / With the increased attention to police brutality against people of color in recent years, the credibility of police departments is being called into question. Prior research suggests that a police force can improve their trustworthiness in the eyes of the public through prioritizing respectful interactions with citizens and effectiveness in crime-solving. However, less is known about how to achieve these goals. Can education requirements play a role in increasing the fairness and effectiveness of a department? By using a department's amount of force used on citizens as a measure for fairness and the amount of crimes solved out of the number of crimes committed as a measure for effectiveness, I investigate whether increasing the education requirements of police departments is associated with greater police fairness and effectiveness. Data for this study are drawn from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey (LEMAS), the Uniform Crime Reporting survey (UCR), and the US Census. Through my analyses, I find that raising education requirements increases use of force and decreases the amount of crimes solved, and community policing training for police recruits increases crimes solved but also increases use of force. Community training was more likely to exist at departments with increased education requirements. These findings suggest that departments that use scientific approaches in their policing policies can typically solve more crimes. College-educated officers are more likely to try and advance their career no matter what, so increased education requirements may cause use of force to increase. However, this situation may be improved by making the priorities of a department geared towards helping the community rather than making arrests. I argue that police departments should implement higher education requirements while also altering the goals of police departments to be geared towards public service and requiring community policing training for all police recruits.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

No description available.

Organizations are increasingly utilizing knowledge-sharing technologies to increase the amount of knowledge within their organization. While in most organizations, knowledge sharing is seen as a benefit, for law enforcement agencies it is viewed as a necessity. In order to protect against future terrorist attacks like September 11th, law enforcement agencies are trying to increase knowledge sharing across their current organizational boundaries. Given this massive undertaking, we have to wonder what are the potential unintended effects of this increase in knowledge sharing. This dissertation seeks to address this issue by understanding the relationships between individual and organizational factors, the use of knowledge sharing technology, and organizational outcomes.After a general discussion on knowledge, knowledge management strategies and technologies, a two-part model of knowledge sharing is proposed that 1) predicts outcomes given the use of knowledge sharing technology and 2) investigates the individual and organizational factors that serve as antecedents to the use of the knowledge sharing technology.The findings of this research suggest that given the characteristics of a police organization, an increase in the use of the knowledge sharing technology to communicate with external groups results in decreased productivity and job perceptions. Furthermore, this relationship may be moderated by factors within the police organization. Previous research on knowledge sharing has found that as knowledge sharing increases between individuals in different groups, productivity also increases. The results of this dissertation indicate that this is not always the case. By pulling together different areas of research, such as knowledge management, information technology, communication, and organizational behavior, this dissertation addresses the gaps in the research and contributes to the existing understanding of knowledge sharing. This dissertation also provides an important notice to law enforcement and other organizations: although they may approach knowledge sharing with the best intentions, there can be unintentional effects to increasing the use of knowledge sharing technology.

No description available.

This study explores the underlying causes and deterrent control mechanisms of police misconduct in the United States. Outcomes of causes and control mechanisms constitute the basis for an applicable model for the Turkish National Police (TNP). Why is some police behavior deviate? What are the main determinants of police misconduct? Is police misconduct a result of sociological behavior and subcultural development within police organizations or a psychological behavior as an outcome of officers' personal traits? What are the control mechanisms for police misconduct? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Do they deter or not? Is there a control mechanism that deters better than others? What is the best deterrence model for the TNP?

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.