The current climate surrounding the police in the United States could be described as strenuous. This is large in part due to certain shifts in technology and news disbursement; citizens now have the ability to record and share police-citizen encounters. Certain controversial events have been captured and undoubtedly have contributed to a growing mistrust towards the police, evident by the development of movements for police reform. Within the field of criminology, perception of police legitimacy has been a long studied concept. Research has shown that when the police are viewed as legitimate, the public is more likely to cooperate and comply. Thus, the possible decrease in the public's legitimacy perceptions of the police is deeply concerning. In this study, a randomized experiment was employed to measure the influence of video footage of police-citizen interactions on individual's legitimacy perceptions. Participants were randomly selected to watch videos that showed the police acting in ways that were either positive, negative, or neutral. Legitimacy perceptions were measured before and after exposure to the videos. Analysis of the pre-test and post-test scores showed the videos did influence perceptions: negative videos had the largest influence and significantly decreased perceptions, whereas, positive and neutral videos both significantly increased legitimacy perceptions. The results of this study holds implications for both the police and the public.

Despite convincing evidence of the polygraph instrument's lack of scientific validity and reliability in assessing deceptiveness in individuals, public-sector organizations in the United States continue to use the polygraph examination as a pre-employment screening tool. In addition to its lack of acceptance in the scientific community, little is known about the effectiveness of polygraph examinations, given as part of pre-employment screening, in predicting future misconduct in law enforcement officers. Two theoretical frameworks, Baumgartner and Jones' punctuated equilibrium model of policy change and Alvesson and Spicer's theory of functional stupidity, provided the theoretical foundation for this study. The purpose of this correlational study was to investigate the relationship between use of the pre-employment polygraph and officers' perceptions of police misconduct, which is a suspected precursor to actual future misconduct. Survey data were acquired through a convenience sample of 190 Ohio police officers. Data were analyzed using logistic regression. Findings revealed no statistically significant relationship between the pre-employment polygraph examination and officers' perceptions of police misconduct. The findings of this study begin to erode conventional thought that there are only positive aspects of the pre-employment polygraph. Law enforcement leaders and public policy makers such as police chiefs, county sheriffs, and local government administrators may benefit from this study. As a potential for positive social change, this study provides public policy makers with empirical data, as opposed to reliance on conventional wisdom and anecdotal evidence, for informed decision making about use of the pre-employment polygraph in public-sector hiring.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’étude des fichiers de police et de gendarmerie pour, notamment, mettre en lumière l’idée-force selon laquelle une conception moderne de l’État de droit promeut non seulement leur encadrement mais plus encore leur nécessité. De fait, il existe en France de nombreux fichiers tenus par diverses administrations dont le but est par exemple de recenser des personnes en fonction de leur statut, de comptabiliser les propriétaires de véhicules ou les titulaires de permis de conduire, de dénombrer les personnes condamnées, et par ces biais de prévenir et si possible faciliter la répression des contraventions, délits et crimes. Le droit à la sûreté constitue une liberté fondamentale, et il convient de percevoir que par leur existence même les fichiers de police participent de cet objectif. En pratique, il s’agira de savoir si des abréviations comme FAED, FNAEG, FIJAIS, STIC, JUDEX, FPR, FRG, FVVS, FIT, FNFM, SDRF, SIS-Schengen, N-SIS,FAC, FCA, FPIS, SDRF, AGRIPPA, FDST, FOS, CIBLE, FIP, STUC, FTIVV, SCPPB, TREIMA, RAPACE, FAR, FNPE, FSCP, SALVAC, FNT, FBS, FTPJ, FSPORA ou FNPC désignent des outils véritables et efficients de rapprochements criminels, utilisés par les autorités afin d’élucider les crimes les plus graves. En substance, ces fichiers visent, grâce à une simple requête, à identifier voire à localiser les délinquants et les criminels dans toute la mémoire informatisée des services, qu’ils’agisse des fichiers d’antécédents criminels ou même des simples notes inscrites en procédure. Au demeurant, ces moteurs de recherche peuvent fonctionner pour tous les types de délits ou crimes. / This thesis is dedicated to the understanding of police files and to their compatibility with Human rights. Also, it questions both potential Human rights and individual freedom violations behind such acronyms: FAED, FNAEG, FIJAIS, STIC, JUDEX, FPR, FRG, FVVS, FIT, FNFM, SDRF, SIS-Schengen, N-SIS, FAC, FCA,FPIS, SDRF, AGRIPA FDST, FOS, CIBLE, FIP, STUC, FTIVV, SCPPB, TREIMA, RAPACE, FAR, FNPE, FSCP, SALVAC, FNT, FBS, FTPJ, FS-PORA or FNPC. While leading an investigation, the vigilance shall then be doubled: On one hand, investigators (police and customs) should be provided with relevant and sufficient information so as to lead their inquisition and to collect enough evidence (Loppsi 2). On the other hand, the Human rights of each citizen have to be insured against abuse and misuse of information. In 2009, The CNIL (National Commissionon Informatics and Liberty) revealed that 83 % of the data of the STIC was not accurate.Data related to victims and to their offender is then stored (identity, date and place of birth, nationalities addresses). Some crimes files even reveal information related to the ethnical or racial origins of the parties, information related to their political and religious opinions, and information related to their health or to their sexual life. In case of any information misuse, recourse to justice seems to be very limited. In France, no law supports the opposition of a party to access data related to his/her identity. This is an exception made to the Informatics and Liberty Law (according to the Law 78-17 dated January 6th 1978 modified).

Police culture often valorises 'hard' drinking, and in NSW police label their heavy drinkers 'heroes'. It is queried if there is some relationship between occupational culture and drinking style.It is found that much of the current theorising about the origins and nature of problem drinking, such as psychological theorising about stress, is inadequate to explain and address the extraordinary level of high-risk drinking among police.This thesis explores alternative views such as critical and feminist perspectives on police culture, constructions of masculinity, and mechanisms of 'enabling', to discover whether these might prove more applicable and more productive. The research also explores the matter of whether a case can be made for taking alternative ideas and theories into account in designing intervention programmes for specific occupation contexts, and whether they raise any policy and practical implications for addressing problem drinking within the NSW Police Service. / Master of Science (Hons)

We are currently at a point in time in Australia where questions concerning how to govern police have never been more pressing or more fluid. Systemic corruption has been identified in several states; a range of new accountability mechanisms have been established internal and external to police and in Victoria police corruption has been linked with a violent 'gangland war'. This thesis locates these contemporary developments within a broader analysis of the historical circumstances shaping the changing techniques for governing state police. More specifically, this thesis engages in a detailed comparative study of the changing techniques of governing police in Queensland and Victoria. The theoretical tools to conduct this analysis are drawn from 'governmentality studies'. This refers to a broad grouping of theoretical scholarship concerned with the changing ideas - or 'political rationalities' - on how to govern some thing or some activity, and the underlying reasoning, justifications and ambitions contained within the practical tools or 'techniques' used to govern. Central to the thesis is an argument that a new politics of policing has emerged recently, one that extends the dyad of the old accountability - 'police powers' and 'external accountability' - to a pluralisation of accountability processes and structures. The thesis argues that governmentality studies offer new insights into ways of analysing the techniques for governing state police, increasingly shaped by the managerialisation of governing and embodying efforts to make police innovative, risk-taking problems-solvers. This is what I refer to as an open-ended normative project for re-making the entrepreneurial officer. However, a detailed examination of the development of governmental techniques for 'making up' the entrepreneurial officer indicates that such a governmental project is not implemented unproblematically. Nonetheless, the thesis concludes that the attempts to remake the entrepreneurial officer through the managerialisation of governing presents distinct possibilities for a new 'politics of policing' that fosters deliberative, reflective police practice within a new framework of police accountabilities.

A STUDY OF PUBLIC IMAGERY OF POLICE WORK FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF GENDER: THE CASE OF ANKARA Demir, Murat Cem Ph.D., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Kayhan Mutlu February 2010, 245 pages Police &ndash / public relations and image of the police are fields of study that are dealt with more and more recently in the disciplines of criminology and sociology. These subjects are also partially the matter of this study. The purpose of our study is to find out how the image of the police is influenced by the gender / that is what kind of a role the gender plays in the police &ndash / society relations. In brief, this study seeks answers for the questions such as whether the level of relationship that the people establishes with the female police officers and male officers is the same / whether the perception of the public changes towards female and male police officers / and the role of the gender in the formation of such relation, in other words, whether men and women have a different perception of the police officers in general terms and whether they perceive the female and male police officers in different way in specific terms by means of surveys and questionnaires. When the data from the questionnaire conducted with 313 respondents in the sample of Ankara and the information obtained from the interview data carried out with 16 people in this study are interpreted, it has been found out that the police and public relationship is never static and routine and uniform / on the contrary this relationship is rather dynamic and heterogeneous. In short, the police &ndash / public relation is fit on a complex equation rather than a simple one. One of the most notable reasons of this complexity lies at the identities of the actors / that means the heterogeneity of the identities. Gender is a significant variable determining (elaborating) the relation of the police &ndash / public and constitutes an important part of the identity. In this study, the gender has the role and task of both independent variable, and dependent variable representing the perception of female and male police officer since when we have a look with the gender axis, we happen to see the cross equation in the police &ndash / public relation: male police officer &ndash / female police officer, male citizens &ndash / female citizens. A considerable contribution of this study is its investigation of the above mentioned cross relation along with the public dimension. Keywords: Gender, Police Image, Female Police Officer, Male Police Officer

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

No abstract available. / Thesis (MPA)-University of Durban-Westville, 2003.

No description available.

No description available.