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Law enforcement agencies across the United States are under pressure to renew their commitment to strengthening community relationships while continuing to promote public safety and reduce crime. This renewed commitment has been catapulted by a series of events that have served to tarnish the image and reputation of law enforcement. In response, there has been a reinvigorated national discussion of how to enhance the image of police as an organization that has positive community relationships. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (2015) and The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2015) focus on the importance of building police-community relationships in the “Post-Ferguson” era of policing. Toward this end, the Task Force sees enormous potential of social media to bolster the police’s image and reputation. Research on police uses of social media, however, is very limited. This dissertation therefore explores the image-making efforts of twelve police organizations across the United States. By integrating organizational image construction from communication theory with the study of policing, this research examines the organizational identities and intended images that agencies are trying to project based on perspectives from interviews with those responsible for agency communications. It then compares these identities and intended images to the content produced on Twitter and Facebook over a twelve-month period using content analysis. This research found that across the diverse agencies examined here, there is a clear and consistent commitment to enhancing the community-oriented image of police. Respondents emphasized the value of humanizing police work and lending transparency to their actions and decisions as organizations. Content on agency websites equally revealed this commitment to positive community relationships. However, the content analysis of media feeds told a more nuanced story. Although each of the agencies examined disseminate community-oriented messaging, the traditional police mission of investigating crimes and solving criminal cases remains strong. Overall, social media content reveals efforts by police to delicately balance their crime-fighting and community-oriented identities. This balance varies by agency size, jurisdiction, and platform suggesting that the pressures governing image-making activities must be further examined in local context. This research seeks to demonstrate the value of applying an organizational image construction approach to police-community relations in our age of social media. This cross-disciplinary approach provides a framework for policy-makers and practitioners to assess whether their social media content aligns with their intended organizational identities and maximizes the ability to maintain a positive reputation. / Criminal Justice

Police officer use of force in the United States is a growing concern to the American people. Although not based on solid empirical evidence, President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing proposed several policies that address violent policing and the use of excessive force. In this study, I examine the relationship between policy recommendations and variations across police departments in their reported use of force. This study draws on measures of use of force, community policing, education, and officer demographics from the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, combined with county-level demographic information from the American Community Survey, and information on local crime rates from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. Cross-sectional findings reveal that more college-educated officers are associated with lower counts of use of force, that officer diversity is not strongly related to use of force, and that most community policing indicators are associated with higher counts in use of force.

Public housing authorities (PHAs) have enforced banishment since the late 1980s by granting police the authority to ban non-residents from public housing neighborhoods and arresting them for trespassing upon violating the ban. PHAs justify banishment by stating that issuing bans and arrests for trespassing aid in crime prevention by removing non-residents who may commit criminal acts if left unguarded. Nonetheless, there has been no scientific evidence to suggest that banishment works to reduce crime. Similarly, the role community policing can play in enforcing banishment is unclear and scarce research has considered the effects of banishment on racial and ethnic minorities at neighborhood and individual levels. To address these issues this three-part study examined the enforcement of banishment on Kings Housing Authority (KHA; Southeast, US) public housing property from 2004-2012. Collectively these studies address the following overarching research questions: Does banishment reduce crime in public housing neighborhoods? Does banishment disproportionately target racial and ethnic public housing neighborhoods? Does banishment prevent banned individuals from re-offending in public housing? Does banishment disproportionately ban racial and ethnic individuals? What are the residential perceptions of banishment and its effectiveness? How does race and ethnicity affect perceptions of banishment and its effectiveness? Results suggest that banishment is better at reducing property crime than violent crime, though the reductions are modest at best. Increases in bans predicted decreases in drug arrests the following year and predicted that drug offenders can be deterred. Despite these crime control benefits results also suggested that the enforcement of banishment comes at a cost. First, a significant amount of banned individuals are not deterred. Second, while trespass enforcement is used in communities other than public housing, the issuing of bans is concentrated only within public housing communities and bans are predominantly issued to African-American males. Finally, results found that residents are not likely to find them effective if they think they are policing too much or policing too little. Future directions and implications are discussed given the dynamic between the crime control benefits of banishment and its social consequences. / Ph. D.

Policing in America has lost more officers to suicides than line of duty deaths over the past four years. As the gatekeepers to the criminal justice system, the well-being of officers is critical as unhealthy police using poor coping strategies to handle their stress can lead to a multitude of negative consequences for the communities they serve, their departments, their fellow officers, and themselves. While the technology of policing is quickly advancing, the routine duties of officers remain stressful. This stress requires officers to use effective coping strategies to deal with it, but the traditional subculture of policing promotes maladaptive, rather than adaptive, coping strategies. To understand how the subculture influences police and the coping strategies they use, research must understand the socialization process of recruits entering the job. The current research seeks to understand how police recruits are socialized into the police subculture and how this affects the coping strategies they use to deal with the stressors they will confront on the job. The research analyzes how the network position of recruits influences their adoption of the police subculture and how this, in turn, affects their development of coping strategies. Recruits were surveyed three times during their academy training to examine the transitioning and socialization that occurs throughout the police academy. Results reveal that networks affect the adoption of the police subculture by recruits and this socialization process impacts the development of coping strategies by recruits. Findings highlight the need for future work to continue the longitudinal research approach to examine how the networks change once recruits complete their field training and probationary period. / Doctor of Philosophy / Police officers are engaged in an occupation that induces a vast amount of stress, leading to burnout and poor coping strategies. Blue H.E.L.P. began tracking the suicide rates of law enforcement and found that officers are dying more often by their own hands than in line of duty deaths. We have also seen growing tensions between police and communities, further leading to lower retention rates of current officers. The current study seeks to understand how police recruits are trained to endure the stress of their occupation. Policing is comprised of a unique occupational culture that creates solidarity among its members, which can influence how officers learn to utilize coping mechanisms. The current research examines how new police recruits fit into this occupational culture and how this affects their coping strategies over time. Results show that how new recruits are socialized into the occupational culture matter in terms of how they learn to cope with their job. Understanding how new recruits are taught to cope is imperative to destigmatize the notion of well-being to train healthier officers and to potentially lower suicide rates among our nation's law enforcement.

Yes / This training manual on gender-based violence is intended for use by all those who train the police and other actors in the local protection networks. It outlines the principles of effective training based on the integrated competencies of knowledge, attitudes and skills, and emphasises the use of appreciative inquiry, group learning and dynamic techniques such as dramatisation and case-based learning

Abstract Title: Building Trust: The contradiction between security and democracy in post apartheid South Africa Author: Magnus Persson Supervisor: Svante Lundberg This paper aims to investigate the contradiction between security and democracy in post-apartheid South African policing, and was executed on the field together with the South African Police Service (SAPS). The theoretical point of departure is that trust between people, in relation to the institutions of society, is fundamental to democratic development. This in combination with previous research on police reform, police academy socialization, community policing and militarization has lead to the conclusion that a remilitarization process is under way and that a militaristic approach to policing is likely to be counterproductive in terms of achieving democratic development. The study has been executed on a South African police academy as well as at two different police stations with the combined methods of participatory observation and interviews.

As a proactive, information-based policing approach, problem-oriented policing emphasizes the use of crime analysis techniques in the analysis of the underlying causes of the problems that police deal with. In particular, analysis applications can be powerful tools for criminal investigation, such as crime reconstruction, profiling, IAFIS, VICAP, and CODIS. The SARA Model represents a problem-solving strategy of problemoriented policing. It aims to address the underlying causes of the problems and create substantial solutions. However, implementing problem-oriented policing requires a significant change in both the philosophy and structure of police agencies. Not only American policing but also the Turkish National Police should consider problem-oriented policing as an alternative approach for solving criminal activities.

CHDS State/Local / Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / In the wake of September 11, 2001, local law enforcement agencies throughout the country find themselves struggling to identify their responsibilities and define their future role in the effort against terrorism in our homeland. At a time when law enforcement organizations are competing for limited funds and resources, agencies will have to look at how to adapt existing policing philosophies and strategies, such as community-oriented policing, to address the issue of homeland security. The goal of terrorism is centered in creating an atmosphere of fear in society to achieve a philosophical goal. Terrorism is about the impact of its violence on society. This requires the application of the basic concepts of law enforcement: protection and prevention to terrorism. As a result of the events of September 11, 2001, law enforcement agencies have had to assimilate homeland security strategies into their existing responsibilities for combating crime and maintaining social order. This thesis will identify how homeland security prevention and deterrence responsibilities efforts can be effectively integrated into local law enforcement's existing community policing framework. This thesis will also study attempt to identify the extent to which local law enforcement agencies in the state of Florida have adopted community-policing efforts into their homeland security strategy. / Chief Deputy, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Tampa, FL

abstract: The repression of reproductive competition and the enforcement of altruism are key components to the success of animal societies. Eusocial insects are defined by having a reproductive division of labor, in which reproduction is relegated to one or few individuals while the rest of the group members maintain the colony and help raise offspring. However, workers have retained the ability to reproduce in most insect societies. In the social Hymenoptera, due to haplodiploidy, workers can lay unfertilized male destined eggs without mating. Potential conflict between workers and queens can arise over male production, and policing behaviors performed by nestmate workers and queens are a means of repressing worker reproduction. This work describes the means and results of the regulation of worker reproduction in the ant species Aphaenogaster cockerelli. Through manipulative laboratory studies on mature colonies, the lack of egg policing and the presence of physical policing by both workers and queens of this species are described. Through chemical analysis and artificial chemical treatments, the role of cuticular hydrocarbons as indicators of fertility status and the informational basis of policing in this species is demonstrated. An additional queen-specific chemical signal in the Dufour's gland is discovered to be used to direct nestmate aggression towards reproductive competitors. Finally, the level of actual worker-derived males in field colonies is measured. Together, these studies demonstrate the effectiveness of policing behaviors on the suppression of worker reproduction in a social insect species, and provide an example of how punishment and the threat of punishment is a powerful force in maintaining cooperative societies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Biology 2011