This is a case study of suburban community police officers and their perception of benefits of higher education as it relates to outcomes of procedural justice and legitimacy. Acknowledging controversial, high-profile incidents which have caused the police profession to be generalized in a negative manner, this study sought to examine community-policing initiatives as an effective strategy for promoting positive community-police relationships. Community police officers were queried about academic and professional preparation they perceived as necessary for the demands of the 21st century community police officer. Previous literature on community policing and procedurally just policing has primarily focused on the perceptions of the public. This study hoped to contribute to the literature as the authentic police officer voice. Analysis of the data revealed several themes and found that a redefined model of community policing is a promising answer to restoring trust between the community and the police. This new model shall be referred to as the Procedurally Just Community-Policing Model and concludes that when intentional community-policing efforts are intertwined with procedurally just policing practice, trust is maximized, therefore resulting in legitimacy.

This brief focuses on the “doing” of procedural justice: what the police can do to implement the principles of procedural justice, and how their actions can improve citizen perceptions of police legitimacy. Drawing on research from Australia (Mazerolle et al), the UK (Stanko, Bradford, Jackson etc al), the US (Tyler, Reisig, Weisburd), Israel (Jonathon-Zamir et al), Trinidad & Tobago (Kochel et al) and Ghana (Tankebe), the authors examine the practical ways that the police can approach engagement with citizens across a range of different types of interventions to embrace the principles of procedural justice, including: · problem-oriented policing · patrol · restorative justice · reassurance policing · and community policing. Through these examples, the authors also examine some of the barriers for implementing procedurally just ways of interacting with citizens, and offer practical suggestions for reform. This work will be of interest for researchers in criminology and criminal justice focused on policing as well as policymakers.

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In the United States, the exercise of police authority—and the public’s trust that police authority is used properly—is a recurring concern. Contemporary prescriptions for police reform hold that the public would better trust the police and feel a greater obligation to comply and cooperate if police-citizen interactions were marked by higher levels of procedural justice by police. In this book, Robert E. Worden and Sarah J. McLean argue that the procedural justice model of reform is a mirage. From a distance, procedural justice seemingly offers a relief from strained police-community relations. But a closer look at police organizations and police-citizen interactions shows that the relief offered by such reform is, in fact, illusory.

The police are perhaps the most visible representation of government. They are charged with what has been characterized as an "impossible" mandate -- control and prevent crime, keep the peace, provide public services -- and do so within the constraints of democratic principles. The police are trusted to use deadly force when it is called for and are allowed access to our homes in cases of emergency. In fact, police departments are one of the few government agencies that can be mobilized by a simple phone call, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are ubiquitous within our society, but their actions are often not well understood. The Oxford Handbook of Police and Policing brings together research on the development and operation of policing in the United States and elsewhere. Accomplished policing researchers Michael D. Reisig and Robert J. Kane have assembled a cast of renowned scholars to provide an authoritative and comprehensive overview of the institution of policing. The different sections of the Handbook explore policing contexts, strategies, authority, and issues relating to race and ethnicity. The Handbook also includes reviews of the research methodologies used by policing scholars and considerations of the factors that will ultimately shape the future of policing, thus providing persuasive insights into why and how policing has developed, what it is today, and what to expect in the future. Aimed at a wide audience of scholars and students in criminology and criminal justice, as well as police professionals, the Handbook serves as the definitive resource for information on this important institution.

Abstract: Over the years, police departments have incorporated various techniques to secure citizen compliance with the law and local authorities. Despite the advancement of policing, support for police has reached a historic low. Research consistently demonstrates that styles of policing are linked to overall perceptions of police legitimacy. Specifically, procedurally just policing or process-based policing generates voluntary compliance with the law and secures trust from citizens. Departments that incorporate the components of procedural justice receive fewer complaints and show reductions in use of force incidents. This study adds to the existing literature regarding citizen perceptions of police through procedurally just policing. It also adds data on modern policing tactics utilized by law enforcement to increase perceptions of legitimacy: body worn cameras. Utilizing data collected from mail-out surveys, the results demonstrate that confidence in police is elevated when officers are trustworthy, open, and perceived as operating in a fair and neutral manner.

In the 21st century, law enforcement agencies have increasingly realized the importance of police-civilian contacts in shaping public evaluations of legal authorities. Empirical evidence has shown a strong linkage between procedural justice embedded in police-civilian contacts and public views of the police as legitimate institutions. Although racial disparities have been found in public perception of the police with African Americans being the most critical group of the police, studies have rarely investigated the possible influences of race/ethnicity-based situations, defined mainly by the nexus of civilian and officer race and ethnicity, on police legitimacy. Besides, prior studies have seldom taken police organizational variations, such as internal procedural justice and policing strategies, into consideration when assessing public views of police legitimacy. This dissertation attempts to address these voids in the existing literature. ☐ Using the Police-Community Interaction Survey (PCI) and the Law Enforcement Organizations Survey (LEO) of the National Police Research Platform Phase II, 2013-2015, the current study assesses the effects of the nexus of officer race and civilian race/ethnicity, as well as police internal procedural justice and policing strategies, on public perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy. More than 5,000 traffic stops from forty-eight police agency are included in the analysis. A large sample size and the merging of two datasets allowed the construction of a comprehensive combination of officer and civilian race and ethnicity and the test of multilevel impacts on public evaluations of the police. The primary statistical approaches include factor analysis, multivariate regression analyses, and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). ☐ The major findings of this study are: Black civilians were less likely to perceive the police procedurally just and legitimate than White civilians; this Black-White divide in perceptions widens in encounters involving Black civilians and White officers and the negative effect of this racial combination on perception of police legitimacy is partially mediated by procedural justice; Hispanic civilians perceived White officers to be more legitimate compared to their White counterparts, and procedural justice enhances such relatively positive effect. These findings highlight the importance of procedural justice in developing a health police-public relation, advance our knowledge of the complexities of race/ethnicity in shaping civilians’ perceptions of police, and inform police administrators of potential organizational reforms to enhance police legitimacy.

Developments and problems associated with police power are at the very front of current public debate. This volume addresses contemporary issues of policing with a focus on the characteristics of police power as a coercive force in society and its continued need for legitimacy in a democratic social order.