ABSTRACT Issues of force and excessive force remain prominent in policing in most jurisdictions. ... more ABSTRACT Issues of force and excessive force remain prominent in policing in most jurisdictions. This study addresses the relationship between officer gender and force-related allegations, and adds to the growing literature on women in policing and strategies to reduce police-citizen conflict. The study utilised six years of Queensland police data from 2007/2008 to 2012/2013 involving 4974 force-related complaint files and 11,493 allegations, to explore gender patterns while also considering rank, length of service, age, sub-type of allegation, and complaint outcomes. The main finding was that females made up 26% of employed officers, but only 16% of officers receiving complaints and 15% of officers subject to specific allegations. In addition, females had significantly fewer repeat complaints, fewer single subject officer complaints, and complaints against females reduced more quickly with length of service. The findings support the case for significant benefits from improved female representation in policing. At the same time, the paper includes a number of qualifiers regarding support for female officers and optimal management of use of force training and procedures.
This chapter explores ways of addressing police accountability issues through enhanced management... more This chapter explores ways of addressing police accountability issues through enhanced management of complaints systems. It also begins by analysing the nature of complaints against police, inadequacies in traditional legalistic responses, and innovations in responding to complaints including the creation of independent agencies to review or process complaints, informal resolution options and early intervention systems. The chapter shows that accountability can be improved through a greater role for independent investigations, and by supplementing investigative and disciplinary approaches with more restorative responses, including informal resolution and mediation. Complaints systems provide accountability for police actions by providing scrutiny of police action, a voice to those who experience police action and consequences for inappropriate police action and poor performance. Complaints can also be used as a key learning tool to inform improved policing practices by modifying training and procedures in response to patterns of allegations in the context of a problem-solving and complaints reduction programme.
Criminal defendants can face significant pressures to plead guilty, but wrongful conviction schol... more Criminal defendants can face significant pressures to plead guilty, but wrongful conviction scholarship has largely overlooked the study of guilty pleas. This study content analyzed 139 Australian appellate court judgments in which a guilty plea conviction was overturned, investigating the types of errors involved in these convictions, and the stage of the criminal justice process at which the errors occurred. The findings revealed that errors occurred during the police investigation, pretrial preparations, and formal court procedures, with the most frequent errors involving incorrect or inappropriate charges, inadequate legal representation, and the courts erroneously accepting a guilty plea. The findings raise important implications regarding the adequacy of safeguards to ensure guilty pleas are appropriate or factually and legally accurate.
The timing of an investigation after an officer-involved shooting (OIS) is influenced by conflict... more The timing of an investigation after an officer-involved shooting (OIS) is influenced by conflicting forces. The public demands expedited resolution, but police officers are provided several protections that can delay investigations of their actions. This study conducts a randomized experiment to determine the impact of question timing after an OIS on the accuracy of police officers’ memory recall. Officers were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The treatment group completed a questionnaire after participating in a live-action, active shooter training scenario and again 2 days later, whereas the control group only completed the questionnaire 2 days later. Our findings suggest the timing of interviews after training did not influence officers’ recall of the scenario. There is little empirical understanding of how police officers reconstruct OIS events; further interdisciplinary research can help clarify these cognitive processes. This research could strengthen a traditional pat...
PurposeThis paper explores the applicability of environmental theories to understanding patterns ... more PurposeThis paper explores the applicability of environmental theories to understanding patterns of police misconduct. In turn, it aims to offer a method for identifying prevention techniques that can be practically applied by policing agencies.Design/methodology/approachThe study empirically examined 84 substantiated matters of police misconduct in Queensland, Australia. The matters were content-analysed for elements of the first level of the crime triangle. These elements were then analysed to identify their relationships with the situational precipitators that initiated the misconduct; proactive misconduct and situational misconduct.FindingsThe two types of initiating misconduct had differing relationships with the crime triangle elements. Therefore, specific prevention techniques can be tailored by policing agencies to address and prevent each type of misconduct more successfully. The paper discusses these findings in terms of preventative measures according to the second preven...
As part of their duties, police regularly engage with citizens, which can result in the use of fo... more As part of their duties, police regularly engage with citizens, which can result in the use of force. While we know how often and under what circumstances officers use force, little is known about officers’ decision-making processes that lead to force. The study took a naturalistic decision-making approach to analyze debrief sessions between 91 recruits and their trainers after partaking in a use-of-force assessment scenario. Results show recruit’s decision making was more aligned with an intuitive style rather than an analytical style. Recruits reported experiencing perceptual, cognitive, and physiological impairments that influenced the way they assessed the situation and affected their ability to successfully execute force techniques. The findings provide valuable insights into the theoretical knowledge around police decision making and how officers are making use-of-force decisions in the field. This has real-world implications for training/education and could help reduce the ef...
Recent events, particularly in the United States, have highlighted strained police-citizen relati... more Recent events, particularly in the United States, have highlighted strained police-citizen relations and the importance of citizens viewing police as legitimate and trustworthy. Perceptions of unreasonable police officer conduct, particularly related to demeanor and physical force, are often at the center of public complaints. The present study used survey data to explore the attitudes of 577 Australian police recruits regarding behaving disrespectfully toward, and using force against, citizens. Over all, recruits’ attitudes were positive, likely reflecting present screening processes. However, some variation was evident and predicted by selected police culture dimensions, including cynicism and police authority, as well as officer characteristics and background factors. Further, attitudes more supportive of disrespect and force were, in turn, predictive of the code of silence for such behavior, measured through hypothetical unwillingness to report colleagues’ behavior. The implicat...
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 2016
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore Australian police officers’ perceptions of uneth... more Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore Australian police officers’ perceptions of unethical conduct scenarios with the aim of understanding unwillingness to report infractions.Design/methodology/approach– The responses of 845 officers were compared across 11 scenarios to explore variation in the extent to which they understood the behaviour to violate policy and their hypothetical willingness, or unwillingness, to report the behaviour. Particularly, it was hypothesised that non-reporters may justify their inaction based on the misperception that other officers hold even less ethical beliefs.Findings– Five scenarios emerged as least likely to be reported, with a substantial minority of officers stating their decision was despite their understanding that the behaviour constituted a policy violation. Contrary to predictions, these “non-reporters” were aware they were less likely to report than their colleagues, but believed they held the same views as their colleagues in term...
Over the last ten years there has been an increasing focus on procedural justice policing. Intere... more Over the last ten years there has been an increasing focus on procedural justice policing. Interest in this area has grown as studies have established that public perceptions of the police as procedurally just can improve public compliance, cooperation, and satisfaction with law enforcement. However, less is known about the factors that prevent or inhibit police officers from demonstrating procedural justice when dealing with the public. The literature that does exist on procedural justice barriers has proposed a range of issues – from time constraints limiting officers' ability to demonstrate procedural justice, to procedural justice not being a priority for officers. There is a research gap for a systematic identification of the barriers that may inhibit officers from using procedural justice. When examining police behaviour towards the public, a characteristic of the policing literature is the focus on the operational stage of officers' careers, to the exclusion of how re...
... There are no files associated with this record. Title, The paradox of intuitive analysis and ... more ... There are no files associated with this record. Title, The paradox of intuitive analysis and the implications for professionalism. Author, Martin, Kirsty Louise; Kebbell, Mark Rhys; Porter, Louise Elizabeth; Townsley, Michael Kenneth. Editor, Patrick Walsh. Year Published, 2011. ...
ABSTRACT While there is a considerable body of evidence on the influence of individual and situat... more ABSTRACT While there is a considerable body of evidence on the influence of individual and situational, and to a lesser extent community factors, on police use of force, little is known about the influence of police agency factors on use of force by police. Greater use of community policing approaches has recently been recommended for U.S. policing agencies, in the wake of a series of high-profile police-involved deaths of predominantly African American citizens. However, there is limited empirical evidence that community policing can influence or impact the use of force by police. The current study uses an online survey of Australian police officers to examine whether frequency of community engagement affects officers’ attitudes towards coercive and non-coercive policing responses to a vignette, and whether social distance might explain this relationship. Regression analyses demonstrated that community engagement was positively related to endorsement of non-coercive policing responses and negatively related to endorsement of coercive policing responses. Social distance mediated the former relationship, but not the latter. These results suggest that community policing approaches may increase the propensity for non-coercive policing responses, and that a reduction in social distance to the community is one pathway through which this occurs.
Beyond ‘oversight’: A problem-oriented approach to police reform This paper looks beyond the trad... more Beyond ‘oversight’: A problem-oriented approach to police reform This paper looks beyond the traditional compliance-based model of police oversight to discuss the emerging contributions of external oversight agencies to proactive police reform. Drawing on the approach of Problem Oriented Policing and the SARA problem solving model, the paper provides a framework to highlight a number of activities that identify and analyse problems in the police integrity domain, and design and implement solutions that impact positively on the police and communities. The paper provides examples of agency activity for each stage of the SARA model (Scan, Analyse, Respond, Assess) and case studies to illustrate the whole model in practice.
ABSTRACT Issues of force and excessive force remain prominent in policing in most jurisdictions. ... more ABSTRACT Issues of force and excessive force remain prominent in policing in most jurisdictions. This study addresses the relationship between officer gender and force-related allegations, and adds to the growing literature on women in policing and strategies to reduce police-citizen conflict. The study utilised six years of Queensland police data from 2007/2008 to 2012/2013 involving 4974 force-related complaint files and 11,493 allegations, to explore gender patterns while also considering rank, length of service, age, sub-type of allegation, and complaint outcomes. The main finding was that females made up 26% of employed officers, but only 16% of officers receiving complaints and 15% of officers subject to specific allegations. In addition, females had significantly fewer repeat complaints, fewer single subject officer complaints, and complaints against females reduced more quickly with length of service. The findings support the case for significant benefits from improved female representation in policing. At the same time, the paper includes a number of qualifiers regarding support for female officers and optimal management of use of force training and procedures.
This chapter explores ways of addressing police accountability issues through enhanced management... more This chapter explores ways of addressing police accountability issues through enhanced management of complaints systems. It also begins by analysing the nature of complaints against police, inadequacies in traditional legalistic responses, and innovations in responding to complaints including the creation of independent agencies to review or process complaints, informal resolution options and early intervention systems. The chapter shows that accountability can be improved through a greater role for independent investigations, and by supplementing investigative and disciplinary approaches with more restorative responses, including informal resolution and mediation. Complaints systems provide accountability for police actions by providing scrutiny of police action, a voice to those who experience police action and consequences for inappropriate police action and poor performance. Complaints can also be used as a key learning tool to inform improved policing practices by modifying training and procedures in response to patterns of allegations in the context of a problem-solving and complaints reduction programme.
Criminal defendants can face significant pressures to plead guilty, but wrongful conviction schol... more Criminal defendants can face significant pressures to plead guilty, but wrongful conviction scholarship has largely overlooked the study of guilty pleas. This study content analyzed 139 Australian appellate court judgments in which a guilty plea conviction was overturned, investigating the types of errors involved in these convictions, and the stage of the criminal justice process at which the errors occurred. The findings revealed that errors occurred during the police investigation, pretrial preparations, and formal court procedures, with the most frequent errors involving incorrect or inappropriate charges, inadequate legal representation, and the courts erroneously accepting a guilty plea. The findings raise important implications regarding the adequacy of safeguards to ensure guilty pleas are appropriate or factually and legally accurate.
The timing of an investigation after an officer-involved shooting (OIS) is influenced by conflict... more The timing of an investigation after an officer-involved shooting (OIS) is influenced by conflicting forces. The public demands expedited resolution, but police officers are provided several protections that can delay investigations of their actions. This study conducts a randomized experiment to determine the impact of question timing after an OIS on the accuracy of police officers’ memory recall. Officers were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The treatment group completed a questionnaire after participating in a live-action, active shooter training scenario and again 2 days later, whereas the control group only completed the questionnaire 2 days later. Our findings suggest the timing of interviews after training did not influence officers’ recall of the scenario. There is little empirical understanding of how police officers reconstruct OIS events; further interdisciplinary research can help clarify these cognitive processes. This research could strengthen a traditional pat...
PurposeThis paper explores the applicability of environmental theories to understanding patterns ... more PurposeThis paper explores the applicability of environmental theories to understanding patterns of police misconduct. In turn, it aims to offer a method for identifying prevention techniques that can be practically applied by policing agencies.Design/methodology/approachThe study empirically examined 84 substantiated matters of police misconduct in Queensland, Australia. The matters were content-analysed for elements of the first level of the crime triangle. These elements were then analysed to identify their relationships with the situational precipitators that initiated the misconduct; proactive misconduct and situational misconduct.FindingsThe two types of initiating misconduct had differing relationships with the crime triangle elements. Therefore, specific prevention techniques can be tailored by policing agencies to address and prevent each type of misconduct more successfully. The paper discusses these findings in terms of preventative measures according to the second preven...
As part of their duties, police regularly engage with citizens, which can result in the use of fo... more As part of their duties, police regularly engage with citizens, which can result in the use of force. While we know how often and under what circumstances officers use force, little is known about officers’ decision-making processes that lead to force. The study took a naturalistic decision-making approach to analyze debrief sessions between 91 recruits and their trainers after partaking in a use-of-force assessment scenario. Results show recruit’s decision making was more aligned with an intuitive style rather than an analytical style. Recruits reported experiencing perceptual, cognitive, and physiological impairments that influenced the way they assessed the situation and affected their ability to successfully execute force techniques. The findings provide valuable insights into the theoretical knowledge around police decision making and how officers are making use-of-force decisions in the field. This has real-world implications for training/education and could help reduce the ef...
Recent events, particularly in the United States, have highlighted strained police-citizen relati... more Recent events, particularly in the United States, have highlighted strained police-citizen relations and the importance of citizens viewing police as legitimate and trustworthy. Perceptions of unreasonable police officer conduct, particularly related to demeanor and physical force, are often at the center of public complaints. The present study used survey data to explore the attitudes of 577 Australian police recruits regarding behaving disrespectfully toward, and using force against, citizens. Over all, recruits’ attitudes were positive, likely reflecting present screening processes. However, some variation was evident and predicted by selected police culture dimensions, including cynicism and police authority, as well as officer characteristics and background factors. Further, attitudes more supportive of disrespect and force were, in turn, predictive of the code of silence for such behavior, measured through hypothetical unwillingness to report colleagues’ behavior. The implicat...
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 2016
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore Australian police officers’ perceptions of uneth... more Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore Australian police officers’ perceptions of unethical conduct scenarios with the aim of understanding unwillingness to report infractions.Design/methodology/approach– The responses of 845 officers were compared across 11 scenarios to explore variation in the extent to which they understood the behaviour to violate policy and their hypothetical willingness, or unwillingness, to report the behaviour. Particularly, it was hypothesised that non-reporters may justify their inaction based on the misperception that other officers hold even less ethical beliefs.Findings– Five scenarios emerged as least likely to be reported, with a substantial minority of officers stating their decision was despite their understanding that the behaviour constituted a policy violation. Contrary to predictions, these “non-reporters” were aware they were less likely to report than their colleagues, but believed they held the same views as their colleagues in term...
Over the last ten years there has been an increasing focus on procedural justice policing. Intere... more Over the last ten years there has been an increasing focus on procedural justice policing. Interest in this area has grown as studies have established that public perceptions of the police as procedurally just can improve public compliance, cooperation, and satisfaction with law enforcement. However, less is known about the factors that prevent or inhibit police officers from demonstrating procedural justice when dealing with the public. The literature that does exist on procedural justice barriers has proposed a range of issues – from time constraints limiting officers' ability to demonstrate procedural justice, to procedural justice not being a priority for officers. There is a research gap for a systematic identification of the barriers that may inhibit officers from using procedural justice. When examining police behaviour towards the public, a characteristic of the policing literature is the focus on the operational stage of officers' careers, to the exclusion of how re...
... There are no files associated with this record. Title, The paradox of intuitive analysis and ... more ... There are no files associated with this record. Title, The paradox of intuitive analysis and the implications for professionalism. Author, Martin, Kirsty Louise; Kebbell, Mark Rhys; Porter, Louise Elizabeth; Townsley, Michael Kenneth. Editor, Patrick Walsh. Year Published, 2011. ...
ABSTRACT While there is a considerable body of evidence on the influence of individual and situat... more ABSTRACT While there is a considerable body of evidence on the influence of individual and situational, and to a lesser extent community factors, on police use of force, little is known about the influence of police agency factors on use of force by police. Greater use of community policing approaches has recently been recommended for U.S. policing agencies, in the wake of a series of high-profile police-involved deaths of predominantly African American citizens. However, there is limited empirical evidence that community policing can influence or impact the use of force by police. The current study uses an online survey of Australian police officers to examine whether frequency of community engagement affects officers’ attitudes towards coercive and non-coercive policing responses to a vignette, and whether social distance might explain this relationship. Regression analyses demonstrated that community engagement was positively related to endorsement of non-coercive policing responses and negatively related to endorsement of coercive policing responses. Social distance mediated the former relationship, but not the latter. These results suggest that community policing approaches may increase the propensity for non-coercive policing responses, and that a reduction in social distance to the community is one pathway through which this occurs.
Beyond ‘oversight’: A problem-oriented approach to police reform This paper looks beyond the trad... more Beyond ‘oversight’: A problem-oriented approach to police reform This paper looks beyond the traditional compliance-based model of police oversight to discuss the emerging contributions of external oversight agencies to proactive police reform. Drawing on the approach of Problem Oriented Policing and the SARA problem solving model, the paper provides a framework to highlight a number of activities that identify and analyse problems in the police integrity domain, and design and implement solutions that impact positively on the police and communities. The paper provides examples of agency activity for each stage of the SARA model (Scan, Analyse, Respond, Assess) and case studies to illustrate the whole model in practice.
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