Recruitment, deployment, promotion, and attrition of female officers : the impact on staffing and perceptions of police practice

There is little research examining (collectively) recruitment, deployment, promotion, and attrition of female constables in policing, and how these issues affect organizational staffing, police practice. Presenting findings from semi-structured interviews with 46 male and female constables working in an Australian State and Territories police organization, this paper argues that exclusionary staffing practices start from the onset of recruitment because female applicants are singled-out by their sex. It argues that exclusionary staffing practices for female constables occur throughout initial recruit training, during placement within a police station or area of command, whilst being deployed or not deployed to police work, and during consideration or application of promotion related processes, which increases the probability that attrition rates of female constables will be high. Unless police organizations address these issues, it is likely that the number of female constables transitioning into senior roles will remain small; thereby reducing the likelihood that police organizations will implement or achieve equitable staffing principles. It will also diminish appropriate resources needed to run an organization and have a negative impact on staffing

"Being diverse and being included, don’t go together in policing" : diversity, inclusion, and Australian constables

Across the globe, there is little research that examines the impact of diversity on police practice, particularly whether it increases or decreases the competency of the police organization or whether police officers perceive diversity within the organization and the addition of diverse officers as positive or negative. Contributing new findings to the extant policing literature, this research analyzes data collected from interviews with forty‐six constables working in one of the largest Australian state police organizations. Contributing five key findings regarding diversity and inclusion in policing, this research suggests that lack of acceptance of diversity broadly, and bias towards diverse identified officers, results in the exclusion of officers, and a workforce that is fragmented. The lack of unification constables in this research have with diverse colleagues is concerning given that a cohesive police team increases the safety of all officers, improves the effectiveness of police response, strengthens the communication between police and citizens (as well as communication within the organization), increases the morale of officers, and will support the legitimacy of the organization. Whilst constables in this study were not asked questions about their own implicit or explicit levels of bias towards members of diverse groups, the unsolicited responses from many of the constables, as well as the recognition of Whiteness in terms of the racial identity of many officers within the organization, suggests that constables in this study are biased towards officers that are not part of the majority group

'Rorting the system' : police detectives, diversity, and workplace advantage

Internal workplace practices and policies in policing are based on a notion of fairness and equal opportunity. Yet police organizations are frequently criticized for discriminatory policing practices, unfair and biased workplace practices, and poor interpersonal treatment of officers. Whilst there is a wide body of research examining diversity in relation to external police practices, there is a lack of knowledge regarding diversity and internal workplace practices; particularly from the perspective of police detectives who often have more substantial policing experience and longer employment histories than other non-commissioned officers. Contributing new findings to the extant policing literature, this research analyzes data collected from interviews with twenty police detectives working in one of the largest Australian police organizations. It suggests that police detectives in this study have negative perceptions of diversity, and associate diversity with unfair advantages in the workplace. In Australian culture, the phrase ‘rorting the system’ is an informal expression used to describe individuals or groups of people who take unfair advantage of a public service or workplace policy to change their circumstances. The findings suggest that detectives in this study believe diversity enables some officers to take advantage of workplace policy and ‘rort’ the system

Responding to persons with mental illness (PWMI): Police recruit perceptions of mental health response training and engagement

Many Australian police organisations embed mental health response training (MHRT) into their recruit training packages. Yet critics argue police officers are under-trained and ill-equipped to engage with persons with mental illness (PWMI) in crisis, and officers frequently police PWMI using discretional techniques that are procedurally unfair and unjust. Applying a procedural justice lens, this research sought to better understand whether MHRT offered by one Australian state police organisation (de-identified as part of the ethics agreement) equips its recruits to engage appropriately with PWMI in future practice, and whether the MHRT effectively prepares recruits to use procedurally fair policing techniques when responding to PWMI in crisis. Conducting semi-structured interviews with recruits upon completion of the MHRT, this research determines that recruits are aware of their lack of knowledge regarding policing PWMI in crisis and are concerned that they may engage in differential policing because the MHRT has under-prepared them for future policing practice

Perceptions of police legitimacy and citizen decisions to report hate crime incidents in Australia

This article examines the importance of perceptions of police legitimacy in the decision to report hate crime incidents in Australia. It addresses an identified gap in the literature by analysing the 2011-2012 National Security and Preparedness Survey (NSPS) results to not only explore differences between hate crime and non-hate crime reporting but also how individual characteristics and perceptions of legitimacy influence decisions about reporting crime to police. Using the NSPS survey data, we created three Generalised Linear Latent and Mixed Models (Gllamm), which explore the influence of individual characteristics and potential barriers on the decision to report crime/hate crime incidents to police. Our results suggest that hate crimes are less likely to be reported to police in comparison to non-hate crime incidents, and that more positive perceptions of police legitimacy and police cooperation are associated with the victim’s decision to report hate crime victimisation

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Policing transgender people: discretionary police power and the ineffectual aspirations of one Australian police initiative

Police policy documents often articulate strategies and approaches that police organizations want to implement in their efforts to break down barriers with minority groups. However, most police policy documents are written for police audiences and not for members of the public. Police policy documents serve as a reflection of the aspirations of the agency and not necessarily the practice of the officers. Differential policing has been a salient experience for members of transgender communities because, as individuals who express gender in ways that deviate from the norm, they have experienced numerous documented cases of police mismanaged practice. In Australia, achieving police reform in the area of policing of diverse community groups has been difficult as new initiatives implemented to educate police officers about diverse groups such as transgender communities are scarce. My study sought to analyze a police policy document to assess how one police agency’s policy aspires to shape police contact/experiences with transgender people and how this document might shape intergroup identity differences between transgender people and the police. It is argued that the policy document will negatively affect police perceptions of transgender people and may enhance adverse perceptions of intergroup difference between police and transgender people. I also argue that using this document to achieve police reform in the area of policing of transgender people will be problematic as the policy document lacks substantial procedural guidelines regarding interaction with transgender people and may not favorably constrain discretionary police power

First year student resilience as a factor in retention and engagement

There is a limited literature related to the links between resilience and transition for first year students. In Criminology and Criminal Justice, students enter careers identified as high stress employment sectors, e.g. child safety, policing, and corrections and it is important to incorporate into our teaching, strategies that will build resilience for success in these challenging employment sectors. In order to do this we need to understand the resilience factors that our students bring or do not bring to the beginning of their studies. In semester one of 2010, the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice investigated the resilience attributes that first year students had brought to their studies. This project involved both pre- and post- surveys as well as focus groups and individual student interviews. The data presented here will provide a summary of our findings and highlight the strategies identified as being useful in resilience building