Research on public perceptions of the police has identified various individual characteristics that have been found to influence police legitimacy. These individual characteristics often reflect demographic factors such as race/ethnicity, age and socioeconomic status. In addition to demographic factors, process-based factors such as procedural justice and fairness have also been found to influence individual perceptions of legitimacy. What has not been fully established within the literature on public perceptions of police is the extent to which neighborhood characteristics and context shape neighborhood assessments of police legitimacy. This thesis seeks to fill in the gap on public perceptions of police by examining whether expressive concerns and accumulated experiences with police at the neighborhood-level influence legitimacy judgments across high-crime areas. Using baseline survey data collected for the St. Louis County Hot Spots in Residential Areas (SCHIRA) project between March and May of 2012, residents in St. Louis County, Missouri are aggregated to 71 crime hot spots. Findings suggest that neighborhood-level expressive concerns and accumulated experiences do not influence legitimacy judgments across the high-crime areas. However, low neighborhood cohesion predicts the percentage of residents in the area having a recent negative experience with police. Implications for future research and police practice are discussed.

This dissertation explores the presentational strategies the Toronto Police Service (TPS) used to respond to three controversies involving its relationship with marginalized and racialized communities - the removal of the TPS from the Toronto Pride parade; the investigation of the serial killer case involving Bruce McArthur; and the Black Lives Matter protests of the summer of 2020. Using an interpretive approach and a variety of conceptual frameworks derived from Goffman’s work on impression management and applying a grounded theory methodology combined with qualitative media analysis (QMA), the dissertation identifies the image management strategies the TPS adopted in each case. The findings show that the strategies were context specific in the sense that they were directed to the precise criticisms being leveled at the TPS in each case. However, there were common themes across the cases which involved acknowledging a problematic past and committing to corrective actions in the future. The main difference in strategies had to do with the degree to which the TPS was prepared to push back on the claims made against the organization and defend its actions. The dissertation speaks to the broader question of how police organizations are attempting to negotiate their legitimacy in a climate where social media has made police-citizen encounters more visible and where recent high profile incidents involving police violence and abuse of power have shaken public confidence and threatened police legitimacy. I argue that taken together, the TPS responses offer a glimpse into how one police organization is seeking to defend its legitimacy by projecting an image of the kind of police service it is aspiring to become, particularly in relation to the marginalized and racialized communities it serves. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation explores how the Toronto Police Service (TPS) responded to three controversies involving its relationship with marginalized and racialized communities - the removal of the TPS from the Toronto Pride parade; the investigation of the serial killer case involving Bruce McArthur; and the Black Lives Matter protests of the summer of 2020. Using an interpretivist approach and qualitative methods the dissertation identifies the image management strategies the TPS adopted in each case and discusses similarities and differences. The analysis contributes to a better understanding of how the police attempt to negotiate their legitimacy with communities with which they have traditionally had problematic relationships in a context where the increased visibility of police violence has created a legitimacy crisis.

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Considering police-public consultation forums as a device, or tactic, to ‘civilize’ policing, the possibilities and limitations of ‘civilizing policing’ using this method can be shown. Police-public consultation forums can ‘civilize’ policing – in the sense Loader and Walker (2007) use the term – by contributing to police reform, democratic policing, and police legitimacy. Using the case of Edinburgh, Scotland, the achievements of police-public consultation forums for reform, democratic policing, and legitimacy, are examined and an argument made that consultation forums can make positive contributions in each of these areas. However, the example of consultation forums also reveals significant conceptual and structural limitations to the ideas of reform, democracy, and legitimacy when applied to the police. These limitations are articulated using the social theory of Simmel, Weber, and Lukes: Simmel and Weber reveal the inflexibility and non-negotiable aspects of the police that defies reform and democratic ambitions; Lukes provides an important precautionary perspective on the ‘democraticness’ of democratic devices; and, comparing Lukes with the work of Weber provides a view on legitimacy that reveals advanced complexities to ‘police legitimacy’. In sum, police-public consultation forums contribute to ‘civilizing policing’, but it is also useful to reflect and consider the non-negotiable limits the ‘form’ of the police applies to possible positive change.

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Syftet med undersökningen var att få en bredare kunskap och förståelse för hur polisen uppfattar att de bemöter människor i sitt arbete, och hur detta bemötande kan stärka polisens legitimitet och vara en del av det brottsförebyggande arbetet, samt om poliserna upplever det möjligt att arbeta brottspreventivt genom bemötande i alla situationer. Vi utgick från teorin om procedurrättvisa och vi använde oss av en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Vårt urval bestod av poliser som arbetade eller har arbetat som områdespoliser eller i polisens ingripandeverksamhet. Det viktigaste resultatet i vår undersökning är att det finns en stor medvetenhet och förståelse hos alla poliser som deltagit i studien, för hur bemötande kan påverka det brottsförebyggande arbetet på ett positivt eller negativt sätt. Det andra viktiga resultatet visar att polisen upplever att det kan finnas situationer eller faktorer som gör att det är svårare eller inte alltid möjligt, att arbeta brottspreventivt genom sitt bemötande. / The purpose of our study was to gain a broader knowledge and understanding about how the police perceive their treatment when interacting with citizens in their work. How this treatment can strengthen the legitimacy of the police and be a part of the crime prevention work. If the police feel it is possible to work crime preventing through treatment in all situations. We started from the theory of procedural justice and we chose to use a qualitative survey method. Our selection consisted of police officers who worked or had worked as community police officers or with intervention. We collected empirical data through semi-structured interviews. The most important results in our study showed that there was a great awareness and understanding among the police who participated. Understanding and awareness about how treatment can affect crime prevention work in a positive or negative way. The other important result in the study showed that the police experience situations or factors that doesn’t make crime prevention possible through their treatment.

The increased number of video recordings circulating in the media that depict police officers exercising excessive use of force has led to recommendations to equip police officers with body worn cameras. Because a camera’s point of view may influence viewers’ perceptions and understanding of the recorded events, the angle at which a police use of force encounter is recorded may have important consequences. My program of research aimed to understand how various camera angles can impact interpretations of a police use of force scenario. A simulated police use of force incident was video recorded at three different camera angles (body worn camera, security camera, bystander camera). Study 1 (n = 330) examined factors that contribute to interpretations of the scenario such as camera angle, pre-existing attitudes about police, and information processing style. Results showed that camera angle did not have a general impact on viewer’s judgment of the scenario. However, pre-existing biases about the police and legal system guided interpretations of the scenario, and individuals who viewed the bystander video angle of the scenario rated the police officer more favourably when they endorsed positive attitudes about the police. In addition, a high need for cognition increased the likelihood of making judgments in line with participants’ attitudes about police. Study 2 (n = 576) examined the legal implications of video evidence in a depiction of a trial in which a police officer has been accused of assaulting and causing bodily harm to a complainant. Participants exposed to trial information without video evidence found the police officer less credible and more responsible for the complainant’s injury, and were more likely to recommend a guilty verdict and harsher punishment for the police officer. Individuals who were presented with trial information that included the body worn camera video evidence viewed the police officer as less credible. Attitudes and beliefs about the police and the legal system influenced decisions made regarding the police officer’s credibility, responsibility, and legal recommendations. Overall, camera perspective had an impact on interpretations of police use of force videos, but only when considering pre-existing attitudes about police, and video evidence in a criminal trial regarding police use of force impacted judgements. I discuss various practical implications of relying on police use of force videos, and present directions for future research.

American policing is shaped by an array of challenges. Police are expected to address crime and engage the community, yet police are held to higher expectations of accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency than ever before. Police legitimacy is the ability of the police to exercise their authority in the course of maintaining order, resolving conflicts, and solving problems (PERF, 2014). The procedural justice and police legitimacy literature suggest that by exhibiting procedurally just behaviors within police-citizen encounters, officers are considered legitimate by the public (PERF, 2014; Tyler, 2004, Tyler & Jackson, 2012). This study examines procedural justice through systematic observations of police-citizen encounters recorded by body worn cameras in one mid-Atlantic police agency. The four elements of procedural justice (participation, neutrality, dignity and respect, and trustworthiness) are assessed to examine police behavior and its outcomes. The research questions concern how police acting in procedurally just ways may influence citizen behaviors. Descriptive statistics indicate high levels of procedural justice. Regression analyses suggest that procedural justice may predict positive citizen behaviors within police-citizen encounters. This study highlights the significance of procedural justice as an antecedent to police legitimacy and offers a new mode of observation: body worn camera footage.

Police-community relations are a frequently discussed topic in both academe and the media. Many factors are believed to influence individuals’ perceptions and views of law enforcement, including demographic variables (race and socioeconomic status), experiences with law enforcement, and media consumption. With an emphasis in the news and on social media regarding police misconduct or police brutality, this research seeks to inquire about college students' perceptions of law enforcement and racial injustice within the criminal justice system. While controlling for key demographic variables, this project specifically examines how individuals’ personal experiences with law enforcement and their exposure to news media and social media impact their perceptions and attitudes of police or racial injustice in the criminal justice system. Other variables, such as ideological views, obligation to authority, and delinquent behaviors were also analyzed to provide more specific insight into what factors influence student perceptions. Using ordinal logistic regression, researchers analyzed student perceptions of racial injustice in the criminal justice system and police legitimacy. Findings for this study indicate that variables other than standard demographics, contact with law enforcement, and media consumption had a significant impact on student perceptions of police.

The aim of this paper was to explore associations between previous victimization, police legitimacy and feelings of safety, and to also explore how different patrolling strategies were perceived in terms of general feelings of safety and police legitimacy. A questionnaire was created to measure these variables. The tests used were correlations and independent samples t-tests. The participants were 175 individuals living in Sweden, 67 were men and 108 were women, and the average age was 28. The correlation analysis showed that there was no significant relation between police legitimacy and feelings of safety regardless of previous victimization or not. One t-test showed no significant difference in patrolling strategies in terms of feelings of safety. However, a second t-test showed a significant difference in patrolling strategies in the general perception of police legitimacy. Participants with greater confidence in the police, perceived foot patrolling as more vital for their feelings of safety. The theory, Community oriented policing (COP), was used to further analyze results obtained within this study. Through this study, it was concluded that foot patrolling could promote cooperation between the police and the public. This might improve citizens' understanding of police legitimacy, which in turn can increase the overall levels of feelings of safety among the public. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka samband mellan tidigare viktimisering, tilltro till polisen och upplevd trygghet, samt skillnader i vilken patrulleringsstrategi som uppfattades som mest trygg vad gäller den generella upplevda tryggheten respektive den generella tilltron till polisen. En webbenkät som mätte dessa variabler skapades och analyserades sedan med hjälp av korrelationsanalyser och oberoende t-test. Antalet deltagare var 175 personer bosatta i Sverige där 67 var män och 108 var kvinnor och deras medelålder var 28. Korrelationsanalyserna visade inget signifikant samband mellan tilltro till polisen och upplevd trygghet även när tidigare viktimisering användes som kontrollvariabel. Det oberoende t-testet visade ingen signifikant skillnad i vilken patrulleringstrategi som deltagarna uppfattade som mest trygg vad gäller den generella upplevda tryggheten. Däremot visade ytterligare ett oberoende t-test att det fanns en signifikant skillnad i vilken patrulleringsstrategi deltagarna uppfattade som mest trygg vad gäller den generella tilltron till polisen, där personer med högre tilltro till polisen uppfattade fotpatrullering som mest tryggt. Teorin om Community oriented policing (COP) användes för att analysera resultaten. Sammanfattningsvis stödjer denna studies resultat uppfattningen om att fotpatrullering kan främja samarbetet mellan invånare och polis. Ökat samarbete mellan parterna kan tänkas leda till ökad tilltro till polisen, som i sin tur kan resultera i ökad upplevd trygghet bland befolkningen.