Evidence suggests that US police understand citizens value procedural fairness, but may not recognize the long term benefits of its use.

The last year and a half has seen relations between police and citizens at an all-time low in some US communities, with the legitimacy of police forces increasingly in question by those they are tasked with protecting. In new research Justin Nix finds that while police are aware that citizens value procedural fairness – whether or not the police treat citizens with respect and are trustworthy – they are more likely to believe that they can achieve cooperation with citizens in high crime areas by being more effective at fighting crime

Do the Police Believe That Legitimacy Promotes Cooperation From the Public?

Tyler’s process-based model of regulation suggests that when citizens perceive the police as a legitimate authority, they are more likely to cooperate in the form of reporting crimes and providing information to the police. Yet most studies have considered citizens’ perceptions of police legitimacy—few studies have asked the police what they feel makes them legitimate in the eyes of the public. Likewise, no studies have considered whether the police believe legitimacy is associated with cooperation from the public. The present study addresses this gap using data from a stratified sample of U.S. police executives. Findings suggest police believe performance, rather than procedural justice, is the key to generating cooperation from the public

Share Making Sense of Unofficial Deadly Force Data

Ferguson. Baltimore. Louisville. Minneapolis. Deadly police-civilian encounters over the past decade in these and other U.S. cities have launched presidential task forces and sparked protests, riots, and in some cases, retaliatory violence against officers (e.g., Dallas). Yet shockingly, there still isn’t a comprehensive, official dataset that tracks the use of deadly force by police officers. The absence of such a dataset seems absurd, given the widespread ability to track other information like current employment statistics or when a package will arrive at the recipient’s doorstep. The absence of such a dataset makes it too easy for people with large platforms to spread misinformation about police use of deadly force. Finally, the absence of such a dataset diminishes trust in the police and hinders law enforcement’s ability to identify patterns and strive to make police-civilian encounters safer for both officers and civilians. However, while no official dataset exists, several unofficial databases have been created in the past decade by journalists, advocacy groups, and curious civilians. These datasets are routinely analyzed by academic researchers and cited (sometimes exploited) by journalists, activists, and politicians. While the existence of more comprehensive data is a refreshing change from what existed just 10 years ago, it has presented some new challenges

On the challenges associated with the study of police use of deadly force in the United States: A response to Schwartz & Jahn

In response to Gabriel Schwartz and Jaquelyn Jahn’s descriptive study, “Mapping fatal police violence across U.S. metropolitan areas: Overall rates and racial/ethnic inequalities, 2013–2017,” I provide three reflections. First, the framing of this issue is vitally important. Second, police-involved fatalities represent a nonrandom sample of all incidents involving police use of deadly force (i.e., physical force that causes or is likely to cause death), and unfortunately, we lack comprehensive data on use of deadly force that does not result in fatalities. Finally, to make sense of who is killed by the police, researchers must also identify who was exposed to the risk of being killed by the police

Police Perceptions of Their External Legitimacy in High and Low Crime Areas of the Community

Until recently, police legitimacy research has primarily focused on citizen perceptions of the police. However, it may be that the police believe citizens associate other factors, such as distributive justice or performance, with legitimacy. The present study adds to the literature by surveying a nationally representative sample of U.S. police officers about how they believe citizens residing in high and low crime areas of the community evaluate police in terms of legitimacy. Findings suggest that respondents believe procedural justice and distributive justice are important to citizens of both areas in terms of generating trust. At the same time, respondents believe that citizens of high and low crime areas feel obligated to obey the police for different reasons

More Guns, Pandemic Stress and a Police Legitimacy Crisis Created Perfect Conditions for Homicide Spike in 2020

What role did the pandemic play in the hike in murders in 202

Demeanor and Police Culture: Theorizing How Civilian Cooperation Influences Police Officers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to revisit classic theoretical arguments regarding the broad effects of civilian demeanor on policing and extend associated findings. Design/methodology/approach The theoretical framework draws on insights from the literatures on police culture, the group engagement model and fairness heuristic theory. The authors argue that demeanor is best conceptualized as the degree of procedural justice exhibited by civilians toward police. Theoretically, procedurally just cooperation should influence officers’ adherence to police culture by affecting their social identification and assessments of civilians’ motives and moral deservingness. To test the hypotheses, the authors surveyed sworn officers from a large metropolitan police department in the southeastern USA in the Fall of 2016. Findings Results reveal that officers use their procedural justice judgments as heuristics to assess civilians’ trustworthiness, dangerousness, and moral deservingness, and these judgments influence their policing style. Officers who perceive greater procedurally just cooperation by civilians feel less threatened by the public, are more willing to use procedural justice themselves, and are less supportive of a “tough cop” policing style. Originality/value The authors propose that: civilian demeanor is best conceptualized as the extent to which civilians exhibit procedural fairness toward the police; and in order for meaningful police reform to occur, it is important to acknowledge the role of civilian demeanor in shaping officers’ attitudes, beliefs and behaviors

Third-Person Perceptions, Hostile Media Effects, and Policing: Developing a Theoretical Framework for Assessing the Ferguson Effect

Objectives Policing in the United States has come under intense scrutiny following numerous deadly force incidents involving unarmed black citizens, which dominated the news media. Some have argued that consequently, a “chill wind” has blown through law enforcement, such that officers have become more distrustful of civilians, fearful of scandal, and are de-policing. To date, however, scholars have given insufficient theoretical and empirical attention to why and how media coverage of policing may lead to such outcomes. Methods We addressed this literature gap using data from a survey of officers in a metropolitan police department in the southeast. Results We found that officers perceive that media coverage of policing has a large effect on civilians, so much so as to impact crime rates. In turn, hostile media perceptions increase officers\u27 1) likelihood of believing that civilians\u27 attitudes and behaviors toward police have worsened in recent years—that is, that there is a legitimacy crisis—and 2) fear of having false allegations lodged against them. Additionally, hostile media perceptions indirectly increase officers\u27 likelihood of believing that crime is rising in their city, by increasing their perceptions of a police legitimacy crisis and fear of false allegations. Conclusions These findings have important implications for police-community relations moving forward

Testing a Social Schematic Model of Police Procedural Justice

Procedural justice theory increasingly guides policing reforms in the United States and abroad. Yet the primary sources of perceived police procedural justice are still unclear. Building on social schema research, we posit civilians’ perceptions of police procedural justice only partly reflect their personal and vicarious experiences with officers. We theorize perceptions of the police are anchored in a broader “relational justice schema,” composed of views about how respectful, fair, and unbiased most people are in their dealings with others. Individuals’ experiences with certain nonlegal actors and neighborhood environments should directly affect their relational justice schema and indirectly affect their evaluation of police. Nevertheless, experiences with police, especially mistreatment by officers, should also affect perceived police procedural justice and may moderate the effects of relational justice schema endorsement. We test our hypotheses in two studies with national samples. The findings strongly support a social schematic model of perceived police procedural justice

The Measurement of Organizational Justice Matters: A Research Note

Objectives: This experiment addressed whether, when administering a survey to police managers, it is best to measure organizational justice using attitudinal questions tapping into perceived importance or behavioral self-reports. Methods: We administered a survey to a national probability sample of police executives using a split-ballot experimental design, where respondents randomly received items measuring either (a) the perceived importance of organizational justice or (b) the self-reported usage of organizational justice. Results: Perceived importance of organizational justice was not significantly associated with the perceived quality of relationships with subordinates. However, actual usage of organizational justice was, increasing the perceived quality of relationships (b = .554, p \u3c .001). Conclusions: Our results suggest that: 1) the measurement of organizational justice matters, and 2) mangers who believe organizational justice is important still sometimes fail to use it. Future research should measure the concept using behavioral reports and should seek to explain this importance-usage gap