Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Saskatchewan, 1997. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: Scholars have extensively researched citizens’ preferences regarding the actions, language, and demeanors displayed by officers during citizen-police interactions. Specifically, there are a multitude of factors that can influence a citizens’ perception of such interactions as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. What appears to be missing from the literature, however, is police officers’ understanding of citizens’ preferences for regarding factors. In other words, it is unclear if and how officers are actively attempting to interact with victims and witnesses based on actual citizen preferences or if officers do not consider these preferences during citizen interactions. This gap has important implications for officer training on citizen’s preferences due to the influence such interactions can have on citizens, specifically citizens’ physical and psychological well-being, as well as citizens’ perceptions of - and reaction to - the criminal justice system. This project examines original data collection of citizen and officer surveys regarding officers’ actions, language, and demeanors. Additionally, observations during ride-alongs are presented to expand on the current literature regarding citizen preferences during interactions with the police and to assess officers’ understanding and application of this knowledge. Results indicate that, while officers seem to understand what actions, language, and demeanors will increase citizen satisfaction, officers may believe that there exist situational factors that are more important in affecting citizen satisfaction with officers. Observations revealed that the vast majority of citizen-police interactions were positive and productive. Even so, results from the surveys and observations point to several important policy implications for improvement between officers and citizens. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Criminology and Criminal Justice 2020

The purpose of this study was to analyze local law enforcement's counter-terrorism capabilities as it relates to the varying size of United States local law enforcement agencies. Data for the study came from a study entitled "Impact of Terrorism on State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies and Criminal Justice Systems in the United States, 2004". Statistical analysis revealed that there are large disparities in the allocation of resources to intelligence gathering, analyzing, and sharing between smaller local law enforcement agencies and their larger counterparts. Furthermore, smaller agencies are not interacting with federal agencies in a manner consistent with the interactions between larger agencies and federal authorities. However, the study did reveal officers in smaller local law enforcement agencies have undertaken the duties of homeland security on a level commensurate with those in larger local law enforcement agencies.

It is illegal to pass a stopped school bus when the vehicle's stop-arm is extended and the red lights are flashing. Public opinion on this issue is very clear. A random phone survey of the public conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that more than 90 percent of respondents rated "passing a school bus that has its red lights flashing and the stop arm in full view" as a somewhat or extremely dangerous driving behavior (Boyle, Dienstfrey, and Sothoron, 1998). Despite this public opinion, there is evidence that the number of vehicles that illegally pass school buses each day is substantial. Based on data collected throughout the state of Illinois, the Illinois Department of Transportation (1996) estimated that more than 10,000 vehicles illegally pass school buses every day. Similar findings were reported in Florida (Center for Urban Transportation Research, 1996). To address this problem, NHTSA sponsored a research effort aimed at developing an automated system for detecting and recording the license plates of vehicles as well as their drivers who illegally pass school buses. The overall objective of this research was to develop a prototype system that would automatically detect and record vehicles that illegally pass school buses (i.e., bus' stop-arm is extended and lights are flashing). Based on the results of technical, administrative, and legal feasibility analyses, system specifications were developed and a prototype unit was built. The prototype system was then field-tested in a variety of real-world conditions in both a controlled setting and on an actual school bus route. The results of the field test proved the prototype system to be comparable with other automated enforcement systems. Testing showed that recorded images were more identifiable when the violation occurred in the lane next to the school bus. In addition, frontal facial recordings were found to be 1.5 times more useful then profile recordings. It must be stressed that the purpose of the field test was to gather data that could be used in support of design recommendations and changes for the next generation of the system. / Master of Science

Mistrust in law enforcement is a current problem that America is facing. This study examined how officer gender and race influences perceptions of trust, “masculine” and “feminine” attributes, and level of guilt in a scenario depicting potential police brutality. A hundred American adult participants read one of four possible vignettes describing a shooting between a police officer and a n African American male victim. The conditions varied along the two key dimensions of police race and police gender. Thus the study consisted of a 2 (Police Race: Black or White) by 2 (Police Gender: Male or Female) between- participants factorial design. Participants were then asked to rate the degree of officer blame, officer “masculinity” and “femininity”, as well perceptions of trust in the officer. White, male officers are expected to be blamed significantly more than female and African American officers. Trust in female officers is also expected to be significantly higher than in male officers. Male officers are likely to be considered more “masculine” and less “feminine” than female officers.

CHDS State/Local / Local law enforcement agencies play a significant role in domestic counter-terrorism and homeland security. The intelligence function of law enforcement agencies enhances their ability to detect criminal activity related to terror groups, as well as the ability to prevent, or respond to a terrorist attack. This research project identifies policies and procedures that could be implemented by local law enforcement agencies to enhance cooperation and collaboration with other public sector agencies, private sector security providers, and the general public. The policies and procedures are based on intelligence-led policing and public-private partnerships, and will generate the ability to increase the flow of information disseminated from, and collected by, law enforcement intelligence entities. The resulting intelligence developed by law enforcement intelligence can be pushed up to the state and national level to improve the nation's ability to detect potential terrorist activity, protect citizens, and safeguard critical infrastructure. / Captain, Nassau County Police Department

<p> The impact of occupational stress on employees' health and work performance costs U.S. companies $300 billion annually; work-related stress is an issue for private security organizations all over the world. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies private security organizational leaders used to mitigate private security officers' occupational stress. The study participants were 4 leaders of a private security organization in Bahrain who had a minimum of 5 years of experience in the private security field and had addressed occupational stress successfully. The human capital theory was the conceptual framework used for this study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and review of archival documents. Yin's 5-step data analysis plan was applied to the data to generate 4 themes: private security occupational stressors, occupational stress reduction practices, leaders-officers open communication, and health protection policies. The identification and development of job stressor mitigation strategies has multiple implications for positive social change including protecting employees' well-being and increasing their working performance, productivity, and business success. Improving work performance and productivity produces opportunities for employment and supports economic growth and community goodwill. The practices of a successful organization positively influence the society by providing jobs and capital investments, which can improve the quality of life in the community.</p><p>

<p> Police officers decide to detain and search civilians under uncertainty and risk, and both false positive and false negative errors can be costly. The courts apply the <i>reasonable suspicion</i> standard of proof to evaluate the constitutionality of nonconsensual stops and searches, placing an ambiguous and subjective assessment of a poorly understood psychological state at the center of laws, policies, and trainings on police-civilian contact. The law and psychology of suspicion may have important effects on the frequency, accuracy, and reporting of policing decisions. Investigating those effects requires an understanding of the policy landscape of police decision-making and the basic psychology of suspicion. </p><p> In this dissertation, I explore suspicion as a legal concept and as a psychological experience. I describe the role of the reasonable suspicion standard in judicial evaluations of the constitutionality of police practices, and the implications for the guidelines and trainings that agencies provide to officers. I contend that legal and quantitative analyses of policing practices should incorporate an understanding of the psychology of individual decision-making and the incentives created by the regulatory environment. The constitutional analysis assumes that civilian behavior, situational circumstances, and prior knowledge all affect an officer&rsquo;s experience of suspicion and subsequent actions. Very little is known, however, about the basic psychology of suspicion and how it might affect judgment and decision-making. </p><p> I investigate the psychological properties and covariates of interpersonal suspicion as reported by lay participants in a series of studies, establishing a baseline to which I will compare the effects of training and professional experience in future research. Using latent variable models and automated text analyses, I find that during experiences of interpersonal suspicion of a stranger, people tend to question the stranger&rsquo;s intentions and experience intuition, attentiveness, and wariness. In these situations, distrust is more closely associated with emotional arousal than interpersonal suspicion. On average, female participants report slightly higher situational interpersonal suspicion relative to male participants, and participants who identify as Black or African American report lower suspicion relative to those who identify as White, Latino, or Hispanic. </p><p> Relative to participants, the people who are targets of situational suspicion are more often described as male, Black, and Latino. On average, participants report a similar degree of suspicion across perceived target gender and racial categories, but there are significant differences among the associated emotions, inferences, and behavioral responses. Participants describing male and Black targets report experiencing greater fear and believing that the target&rsquo;s behavior was dangerous. Participants describing male targets are more likely to report inferring that the target&rsquo;s behavior was criminal, relative to participants describing female targets. </p><p> The dispositional tendency toward interpersonal suspicion is associated with neuroticism and low agreeableness in two samples of university students, and these findings are insensitive to variations in measurement instruments. In a simulation where university students take on the role of a police officer and report their suspicion in response to either Black or White male targets, I find that aggregate measures of dispositional interpersonal suspicion are uncorrelated with ratings of situational suspicion in response to the stimuli, which do not differ significantly by race of the target. An exploratory analysis suggests that dispositional suspicion, as measured by a single item, is associated with higher ratings of situational suspicion in response to White targets only. </p><p> My findings suggest that during experiences of interpersonal suspicion of strangers, people tend to question the stranger&rsquo;s intentions and experience intuition, attentiveness, and wariness, and that the type of cognitive arousal associated with suspicion may be context-specific. In the concluding discussion, I also identify findings that could be particularly relevant in the legal context, including the salience of intuition in experiences of suspicion and the variation associated with target race in the correlates of suspicion. I aim to advance the current understanding of suspicion and establish a foundation for future research on its role in legal decision-making.</p><p>

<p> Encounters between civilian law enforcement (CLE) and combat veterans may end in incarceration. Police Chiefs should consider this when allocating resources. The Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) is a conceptual framework designed to provide a guide to Police Chiefs for decision-making particularly for the benefit of combat veteran encounters. The qualitative method with case study research design utilized for this study was intended to examine the decision-making processes of law enforcement leaders regarding resource allocation. The University of Phoenix Library was the primary source for research of scholarly work. The target audience for the research was 26% of the Police Chiefs in police agencies with 25 members or less in Beaver County, Western Pennsylvania. The perception of Police Chiefs was examined in individual telephone interviews. The data collected during interviews were analyzed for trends in perception and decision-making processes. Data included interviews, training records and budgetary documents. The results are intended as a resource for police leaders for decision-making processes and for the benefit of public safety, officer safety and the individual combat veterans. Field notes and transcribed interviews were downloaded into NVivo software for analysis and emerging themes. Four emerging themes were: Need for decision-making processes, more funding is needed for training, training for police related to combat veteran encounters may help with jail diversion for combat veterans, and organizational efficiency through maintaining training records of police officers is necessary. Without changes based on emerging themes, a reduction in the veteran incarceration rate may not occur.</p><p>

This thesis identifies the convergence between John Dewey's ideas regarding the public and the evolution of law enforcement practices. There are four areas covered, those being responses to major shifts in cultural activities and assumptions, learning as continuous, Dewey's ethics and the role of discretion in law enforcement, and community as participatory and inclusive. Dewey's ideas in these four areas are explained and examples are provided that demonstrate the convergence. Particular attention is given to the changes brought about by the migration from the professional model to the community policing model. The thesis also claims that both models are necessary for law enforcement to have a sufficient repertoire to provide their services and that deciding which model to use should be based on what the task is. It also states that law enforcement should be open to future developments that can improve how law enforcement services are provided.