What came first: the police or the incident? Bidirectional relationships between police actions and police incidents

The present research examines the long-term, bidirectional relationships between calls for service, crime, and two police patrol strategies in Santa Monica, California: foot patrol and police stops. Using nine years of monthly data (2006–2014), we estimate two sets of block-level, longitudinal models to tease apart these relationships. In our first set of models, we use police actions and calls for service in the preceding month(s) to predict crime in the subsequent month. In our second set of models, we use calls for service and crime in the preceding month(s) to predict police actions in the subsequent month. We find that while changes in calls for service and crime often precede changes in police action, changes in crime also tend to follow them. For example, police stops appear to be particularly receptive to burglary: blocks with more burglaries receive greater numbers of police stops, and blocks with more police stops have reduced odds of experiencing burglary. We also find that the length of effects of predictors varies as a function of predictor and outcome: whereas some predictors exhibit short temporal effects (e.g. one month), other predictors exhibit much longer temporal effects (e.g. twelve months). Our results thus provide important insight into the spatial and temporal relationships between police actions and police incidents. Police actions must be neatly tailored to police incidents at precise levels if long-term deterrent effects at these levels are to be achieved

Police Stops and Searches – primjer primjene u Bugarskoj

The article presents the results of a study on police stops and searches in the Republic of Bulgaria. Initially, the authors reflect on the relevance of the subject of police stops and searches. Despite the fact that this police practice attracts significant public interest both at the national and international levels, it has not been subject to constant research attention in Bulgaria. Existing studies are occasional and date back more than ten years ago. Further, the text takes a comprehensive snapshot of the phenomenon: it summarizes the historical context created by the development of the national police, traces the legal framework regulating police stops and searches in the country, and gives an analysis of the practical implications in the implementation of the formal rules. The application of gender and ethnic profiles by police officers when stopping and searching citizens is also discussed. In conclusion, some perspectives regarding the development of the stop and search practice in the authors\u27 country are also outlined. The research is based on in-depth interviews with experts on the subject and document analysis. In-depth interviews involved police officers (current and former), investigators, attorneys-at-law, and university lecturers. The analysis included public documents, among them relevant Bulgarian legislation, instructions and rules related to the work of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Bulgaria, NGOs and media publications. The research has practical value in terms of understanding police stops and searches, as well as in designing knowledge-based public policies. Its results are suitable for constructing a comparative perspective along with the research conducted in other countries. They also have the potential for further dissemination as a part of an academic curriculum.Police Stops and Searches – primjer primjene u Bugarskoj Članak predstavlja rezultate studije o primjeni policijske ovlasti za “police stops and searches” u Republici Bugarskoj. Autori započinju s promišljanjem relevantnosti teme “police stops and searches”. Unatoč činjenici da je ovo postupanje policije u samom središtu interesa javnosti i na nacionalnoj i međunarodnoj razini, u Bugarskoj nije bilo predmet stalnog istraživanja. Postojeće studije su rijetke i sežu više od desetljeća unatrag. Povrh toga, tekst na sveobuhvatan način daje snimku stanja ovog fenomena: sažima povijesni kontekst prateći razvoj nacionalne policije, istražuje pravni okvir koji regulira pitanje “police stops and searches” u zemlji, i analizira praktične implikacije u provedbi formalnih pravila. Također se razmatra profiliranje na osnovi spola i etničkog podrijetla koje policijski službenici provode prilikom primjene ovlasti “stop and search” nad građanima. Zaključno, ističu se naznake budućeg razvoja prakse primjene ovlasti “stop and search” u zemlji autora. Istraživanje se temelji na detaljnim intervjuima stručnjaka o toj temi i analizi dokumenata. U detaljnim su intervjuima sudjelovali policijski službenici (sadašnji i bivši), istražitelji, odvjetnici i sveučilišno nastavno osoblje. Analizirani su javno dostupni dokumenti, među njima relevantno bugarsko zakonodavstvo, upute i pravila vezani uz rad Ministarstva unutarnjih poslova Republike Bugarske, nevladinih organizacija i objava medija. . Praktičnu vrijednosti istraživanja nalazimo u boljem razumijevanju ovlasti “police stops and searches”, i kao pomoć u izradi javnih politika utemeljenih na znanju. Rezultati istraživanja prikladni su za stjecanje komparativnih uvida uzimajući u obzir rezultate istraživanja provedenih u drugim zemljama. Jednako tako, ti rezultati mogu doprinijeti struci širenjem spoznaja putem akademskih kurikuluma

Police stop and search in Spain: an overview of its use, impacts and challenges.

Política de acceso abierto tomada de: https://indret.com/criterios-de-publicacion/Even though in Spain there are no complete, public and updated national statistics on police stops with information on ethnicity, data provided by some local police forces and academic research prove that the police disproportionately stop and search minority groups. This practice affects the sense of belonging of individuals (who experience shame and humiliation), leads to institutional discrimination, and reduces the legitimacy and trust in law enforcement. This paper aims to analyze the Spanish empirical evidence about police stops practices and its effects on citizens conducting a systematic review on existing literature. The main results show that: police stops are carried out based on racial profiling; consequences of police discrimination had a more negative impact on individuals who had been or perceived to have been stopped due to racial reasons; it is necessary to develop more qualitative studies that complement the quantitative methodologies in order to gather richer information about experiences on police treatment, particularly at stops

Book Review

Reviewing Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship by Charles Epp, Steven Maynard-Moody, and Donald Haider (2014)

Driving While Black Redux: Illuminating New and Myriad Aspects of Auto(matic) Inequality

Reviewing Charles R. Epp, Steven Maynard-Moody, and Donald Haider-Markel, Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship (2014)

Improving Fairness and Addressing Racial Disparities in the Delaware Criminal Justice System

This memorandum summarizes existing scholarly research on police stops; pretrial detention; charging, plea bargaining, and sentencing; and alternatives to incarceration. For each topic, the memo surveys the extent to which each of these contributes to racial disparities as well as inaccuracies in criminal justice; identifies reforms that have worked elsewhere to ameliorate these problems; and considers the extent to which these reforms are compatible with preserving and improving public safety. The memorandum concludes with a brief discussion of recent scholarship that both highlights larger social factors that contribute to disparity and identifies programs and initiatives outside of the criminal justice system that might reduce racial disparities within the system

Do Cops Know Who to Stop? Assessing Optimizing Models of Police Behavior with a Natural Experiment

The standard economic model of police stops implies that the contraband hit rate should rise when the number of stops falls, ceteris paribus. We provide empirical corroboration of such optimizing models of police behavior by examining changes in stops and frisks around two extraordinary events of 2020 - the pandemic onset and the nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd. We find that hit rates from pedestrian and vehicle stops generally rose as stops and frisks fell dramatically. Using detailed data, we are able to rule out a number of alternative explanations, including changes in street population, crime, police allocation, and policing intensity. We find mixed evidence about the changes in racial disparities, and evidence that police stops do not decrease crime, at least in the short run. The results are robust to a number of different specifications. Our findings provide quantitative estimates that can contribute to the important goals of improving and reforming policing

The political economy of enforcer liability for wrongful police stops

This article questions whether excessive policing practices can persist in an environment where law enforcement policies are subject to political pressures. Specifically, it considers a setting where the police decide whether to conduct stops based on the suspiciousness of a person\u27s behavior and the potential liability for conducting a wrongful stop. We establish that the liability level that results in a voting equilibrium is smaller than optimal, and consequently, that excessive policing practices emerge in equilibrium