Police Process Outline for the lecture Dae-Hoon Kwak Michigan State University CJ 33 Summer 2006 Lecture 14 Police-Community Relations II Explain how police field practices affect PCR Identify the historical and current context of police employment practices Discuss possibilities to improve PCR 1 2 Use of Physical Force - Police brutality: the use of excessive physical force by the police (most common complaint by minorities) - E.g., Rodney King case, Philadelphia PD Case [Video Clip] - POs have authority to use force by law in certain situations a. To protect themselves b. To effect on arrest c. To overcome resistance d. To bring a dangerous situation under control - Use of Force Continuum (e.g., Chicago PD) Resistance Force options 1 Cooperative (w/o direction) 1 Presence 2 Cooperative (with direction) 2 Verbal direction 3 Passive 3 Simple physical restraint (hand cuffing, OC spray..) 4 Active 4 Counters moves (blocking, takedown,taser) Aggressively w/o weapon Mechanical force (striking, baton, K9..) 6 Physical injury 6 Impact weapon 7 Deadly 7 Firearm 3 4 - Excessive force: any level of force more than is necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose (i.e., level of resistance < level of force option) - Use of force statistically infrequent event (BJS, 1999): some kinds of force in less than 1% (.3%) of all encounters with citizens - Real incidence is much higher (cf., unfounding issue) - BJS, 421,000 force incidents per year, 1,100 per day (360 excessive force incidents), incidents occur in large cities, may accumulate over time - Situational factors: POs more likely to use force against: a. Criminal suspects (4-6% of all encounters) b. Male suspects c. A.A. males d. Drunk citizens e. Citizens antagonistic to the police f. Those who offer physical resistance g. Citizen resistance and discourtesy - Police Foundation Study (2000) a. 21.7% agree that officers in the dept.s sometimes, often or always use more force than is necessary to make an arrest 6 1
Arrests - Police Foundation Study (cont.) b. 7.1% black officers agree that officers are more likely to use physical force against blacks and other minorities (vs..1% for white officers) c. Black officers thought white officers are more likely to use force against poor people than middle income - Critics assume excessive force involves white officers against minority citizens, but Reiss found white and black officers equally likely to use force and officers were more likely to use force against their own race - A.As arrested (30%) more often than whites relative to their population (12%) - Arrest is a common experience for Y.B.Ms in the inner city - Donald Black s situational factors, Race is not a direct factor in arrest decisions (blacks were arrested due to disrespect of the police) - Characteristics of crime victims have some impact on racial pattern of arrest (A.As request arrest more often, police more likely to comply with wishes of whites (especially, A.A suspects in property crimes) 7 8 - Demeanor of suspects: complex - Drug offenses a. A.As (juveniles) were more likely to be arrested because of antagonism b. A consequence and not a cause of arrest (much of it occur after the arrest) c. No study have determined the extent to which the demeanor of suspects is provoked by POs a. The greatest racial disparities in arrest involving drug offenses (about 37% of all drug arrest for A.As) b. NHS of Drug Use: the rates of illegal drug use among different racial and ethnic groups are not different, A.As slightly more likely to use illegal drug than whites - A.As are arrested on the basis of less stringent legal criteria a. A.As arrested on weaker evidence (more arrest charges dropped by POs and prosecutors) c. Police target A.As for drug enforcement (i.e., contextual discrimination) 9 10 Field Interrogations - In sum, patterns of arrest by race are extremely complex. A.A.s are arrested far more often than whites. - Much of this disparity can be attributed to the greater involvement of minorities in serious crime. - Greater disrespect for the police also contributes to arrest disparity. - Even after all the relevant variables are controlled, some evidence of arrest discrimination against A.A.s persists - FIs (pedestrian stops) are a police crime control strategy designed to apprehend offenders, send a message of deterrence to people on the street - Young racial and ethnic minority males regard this practice as harassment (46.4% A.As vs. 9.6% Whites) -NY State Study a. A.As stopped at a higher rate than their presence in Pop. b. A.As stopped at a higher rate than the arrest data predict c. Police often lacked adequate cause for stop, few stops of A.As resulted in an arrest 11 12 2
Field Interrogations (cont.) Being Out of Place and Getting Stopped - San Diego Field Interrogation Study 0 4 40 3 30 2 20 1 10 0 17. Control 48.2 - All of the people stopped and questioned were male (about 60% for juveniles) 4.8 46.7 Special FI Pop Fis - Minorities and whites stopped if not in their own racial/ethnic neighborhood - The assumption is that they do not live there and must be there for some criminal purpose (especially, minorities in white neighborhood) Sex Discrimination: DWF - The full extent of DWF is unknown - Some male officers target young female drivers and stop them as a form of sexual harassment 13 14 Crime Fighting, Stereotyping, Race and Ethnicity Verbal Abuse and Racial and Ethnic Slurs - Skolnick, POs are trained to be suspicious and from experience develop a visual shorthand for suspects, based on visual cues - A source of tension for PCR (e.g., in 1997, 17% of the complaints received by the Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority involved offensive languages) - Police regard these practices as legitimate, effective crimefighting tactics, vs. encourage stereotyping of citizens - Can be reinforced by dept. policy (i.e., AR) - Racial and ethnic slurs represent a more serious form of verbal abuse. They demean citizen, deny them equal treatment on the basis of their race or ethnicity, and aggravate P-C tensions - It is clearly wrong if race is the only factor used to make a decision, race included in a list of factors that are used as a profile of criminal - Most depts. have official policies forbidding the use of offensive language toward citizens. But, it is hard to control (w/o witness, no physical evidence) 1 16 Language and Cultural Barriers K9 Units: A PCR problem in some cities - A lack of cultural competence (understanding languages, traditions,lifestyles ) is important aspect of conflict between the police and racial/ethnic minorities - Language and cultural barriers have some impact on CP - Minorities believe that police dogs are used more often against them, and that they are bitten far more often than whites (e.g., 81% of those bitten by P.dogs was A.As and Latinos) Delay in Responding to Calls - E.g., CAPS, Latinos who speak Spanish were less likely to be aware of CAPS, lower involvement on neighborhood meetings, English-speaking Latinos perceived the crime problem to be improving while Spanish-speaking Latinos saw crime getting worse - Patrol officers often intentionally delayed responding to CFS (especially, DD cases) - Baltimore, black citizens perceived greater delays than whites ( min.s vs. 1 min.s) - Most complaint about policing centered around poor res. 17 18 3
Summary - Considerable evidence that minority citizens are subject to differential treatment by the police, especially young, A.A males - These incidents accumulate and create the perception of systematic police harassment Administrative Practices Handling Citizen Complaints - Generate distrust among racial and ethnic minority citizens - The most serious problem is the belief the dept.s fail to investigate citizen complaints and to discipline officers who are guilty or misconduct - Internal police complaint procedures whitewash officer misconduct - Hispanic less likely to file complaints against the police - Because of this trust, civil rights leaders have demanded the creation of external or citizen oversight agencies to handle complaints 19 20 Police Employment Practices Employment Discriminations The Goals of Employing a Diverse Workforce - Another cause of PCR tension - Intended to end unlawful employment discrimination - Racial/ethnic minority officers are underrepresented: almost all national commissions on policing in last 30 yrs have recommended dept.s hire more minority officers - Most experts argue that police should represent the communities they serve - 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1972 EEOA, Executive Order #11246 - Unproven assertion that increased employment of minorities will improve the quality of police service (e.g., better response with minority, will not engage in discriminatory behavior) - Adding minority officers will alter the police subculture through peer pressure affective attitudes and behaviors of other officers (e.g., National Black POs Association, NBPOA) - The presence of minority officers may improve the perception of the dept. to the community 21 22 Signs of Progress Signs of Progress (cont.) - The employment of A.As and Hispanics in PDs has increased significantly since the early 1970s. - Discrimination by assignment a. In the past, incompetent officers assigned to minority neighborhoods, assigned as a form of punishment - Ethnic/racial minority officers are greatly underrepresented in supervisory positions b. No data to prove this exists today c. Union contracts, which limit opportunity for dept.s to engage in assignment discrimination 23 24 4
Employing Newly Arrived Ethnic Groups Does the Color of the Officer Make a Difference? - Officers of these ethnic posses the advantage of: a. Being able to communicate with others and reduce reluctance of crime victims to cooperate with police - Traditional assumption: assigning racial/ethnic officers to minority neighborhoods will improve PCR - Weitzer s study found no support for this assumption b. Communicate during situations that might be dangerous (i.e., increase public safety) c. Provides an intangible benefit of cultural understandings within the PDs (enhancing the professionalism of the dept. and improves public perception of it - Overwhelming number of residents expressed preference for racially mixed teams of officers or said that race of officers doesn t matter 2 26 Improving PCR Creating Special PCR Units [ELPD] Creating Special PCR Units (cont.) - Created in most big-city dept.s in response to urban riots of the 1960s; designed to improve PCR -Programs a. Speaking at schools and to community groups b. Ride-along programs, Citizen Police Academy c. Mini-stations (Neighborhood storefront office): CPO assigned to these offices are engaged in community activities -Critics a. RA programs: attract those who already have positive views of the police -Critics (cont.) b. PCR programs more successful with groups who already have positive attitudes toward the police (e.g., whites, homeowners, older people) c. Less successful with racial minorities Should Local Police Enforce Federal Immigrant Law? - Local LE officials do not want the extra responsibilities that might alienate them from communities they already serve - This will undermine trust building efforts of CP programs 27 28 Outreach to Immigrant Communities Best Practices in Policing - Dept.s continue to respond to the changing demographic changes by developing special outreach programs designed to establish closer relations and better understanding of the police (e.g., International Relations Unit, NC) Race Relations and Human Relations Training - Justice Dept. report (2001) a.comprehensive policy requiring officers to report all of use of force (control use of force) b. Open and accessible citizen complaint procedure c. Early warning system, improved training/recruitment d. Traffic stop data collection - The average length of pre-service training has greatly expanded in this area, but no evidence of the effectiveness - The real work appears to remain in the cultural influence in the patrol environment (not classroom training) CP and Improving PCR - Represents a comprehensive philosophy of policing - CP is directed toward the community as a whole, and not just at the minority communities 29 30