Term
| 5 underlying sources of police discretion: |
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Definition
The nature of criminal law,
conflicting public expectations,
social and media issues,
the work environment of policing (low visibility work),
limited police resources |
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Term
| What is discretion? Would you say that discretion is good or bad? |
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Definition
| Police officers have the freedom to act on their own judgment |
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Term
| What are reasons as to why policing is described as low-visibility work? |
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Definition
Working alone versus working in pairs,
lack of direct supervision,
police-citizen encounters in private places. |
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Term
| What are legal and extra-legal criterions police officers use to make decisions? |
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Definition
Legal:
seriousness of the offense, known prior offenses, evidence.
Extra-Legal:
socio-demographic factors (citizen and police officer: race, gender, class, age),
demeanor,
what the victim wants to happen (black victims are more likely to want the perpetrator arrested). |
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Term
| Potential ways in which discretion can be abused. |
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Definition
Under-enforcement:
.tolerating certain illegal activities in some
neighborhoods
Inconsistent policy:
.officers make decisions that are inconsistent to
department’s policy
Poor management:
.officers need guidelines to regulate discretion
Denial of due process:
.harassment rather than arrest |
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Term
| How can discretion be properly used by police officers? |
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Definition
The use of good judgment:
.using professional judgment to determine if a crime was committed
Efficient use of scarce police resources:
.cannot arrest everyone who violates the law, therefore, police officers should focus on serious crimes and not kids drinking in the park
Individualized justice:
.arrest for minor violations may not be the best
decision
Sound public policy:
.arrest may not be the best decision in tackling
homelessness |
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Term
| What are three reasons as to why the myth of full enforcement exists in law enforcement? |
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Definition
Maintains public image of authority:
.sometimes they do not enforce the law
Prevents questions being asked about equal protection of the law:
.police do not arrest everyone
.Allows supervisors to avoid closely reviewing officer behavior and developing performance expectations |
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Term
| What are ways in which discretion can be controlled? |
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Definition
Abolishing it:
Unwise and impossible, regulate and control through
written policies
Enhancing the judgment of police officers:
Education, training, socialization (effect on discretion is unknown).
Professional methods of controlling discretion is not applicable to policing:
Training is short.
Culture tolerates improper behavior.
Policing is a craft and not a profession.
Police officers are generalists, not specialists.
Informal bureaucratic controls:
An arrest increases the officer’s visibility – supervisors,
prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges view their decisions and behavior.
Use written policies to regulate discretion:
Administrative rulemaking (domestic violence, and high speed pursuit). |
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Term
What is discrimination and disparity?
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Definition
Discrimination:
differential treatment based on some extralegal category. (race, ethnicity, or gender).
Disparity:
different outcomes that are not necessarily caused by differential treatment. (more crime committed and/or more serious crime, increases the likelihood of getting arrested). |
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Term
What are some research findings on racial profiling in the United States – being “out of place”, traffic stops, demographics?
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Definition
Out of Place:
African Americans 23% more likely to be stopped than whites.
Most prominent in white neighborhoods
Pattern of disparity is not explained by neighborhood crime rate and likely explained by discrimination.
Traffic Stops:
Blacks & Whites violate traffic code at the same rate.
Blacks represent 17.5% of the population & 72% of stops and searches (disproportional).
Another study, found that a considerably higher percentage of African-Americans were stopped and detained than whites.
The researchers concluded police acted discriminatory. |
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Term
| systematic discrimination |
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Definition
| discrimination at all stages of the criminal justice system, at all times, and in all places. |
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Term
| contextual discrimination |
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Definition
discrimination found in particular contexts or circumstances.
ex - certain regions, particular crimes, special victim-offender relationships. |
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Term
| institutionalized discrimination |
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Definition
| racial and ethnic disparities in outcomes that are the result of the application of racially neutral factors such as prior criminal record, employment status, demeanor, etc. |
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Term
| police officers' perceptions of the public towards them |
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Definition
| many police officers believe they do not get adequate respect from the public, however the police compare very favorably with other occupations in terms of public attitudes |
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Term
| how would you describe the publics' views toward the police? |
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Definition
| the police get favorable ratings from the general population, they are rated much less favorably by certain segments of the population: racial and ethnic minorities, low-income minorities in particular, and poor young male minorities especially |
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Term
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Definition
tennessee v. garner
- declared unconstitutional by the supreme court in 1985.
allowed police the legal right to use deadly force in apprehending a felon attempting to escape. |
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Term
What are ways to improve police and community relations?
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Definition
Having a representative police force
Police review boards
External review boards
Community relation units
Training |
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Term
What is police brutality and corruption?
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Definition
Police brutality:
intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer
WICKHERSHAM COMMISSION:
the first report detailing the many instances of police brutality.
Police Corruption:
a type of misconduct or deviant behavior by police officers that involves the misuse of authority in a way to yield personal gain for themselves or for others. |
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Term
What are types of corruptions?
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Definition
Gratuities:
the most common form of police corruption
Discounts on purchases, free meals, dry cleaning.
Some departments have policies against these practices
Bribes:
a more serious form of corruption
For not enforcing the law (isolated acts), selling information (more systematic), protecting illegal activities (gambling, prostitution, narcotics)
Theft and burglary:
drunkenness arrest – taking money from people, narcotics arrests – stealing money, drugs, property, guns. |
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Term
Convergence of corruption and brutality:
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Definition
officers beat drug dealers, steal their drugs and money, and sold the drugs to other dealers or officers.
Brutality is a “rite of initiation” |
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Term
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Definition
| criminal and improper noncriminal behavior committed during the course of normal work activities or under the guise of a police officers authority |
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Term
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Definition
| actions by a police officer, under the guise of his or her authority, that tend to injure or insult a citizen, trespass on human dignity, and/or violate a citizen's inherent civil rights. |
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Term
What are the levels of corruption? Rotten apples? Rotten pockets?
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Definition
Type 1:
rotten apples and rotten pockets
Rotten apples: only a few corrupt officers on their own
Rotten pockets: several corrupt officers cooperating with one another.
Type 2:
pervasive unorganized corruption.
Majority of the personnel commit corrupt acts and they have little relationship with one another.
Type 3:
pervasive organized corruption exists at an organized level and penetrates higher levels. |
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Term
| What are some of the costs of corruption? |
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Definition
a corrupt act by a police officer is a criminal act.
corruption usually protects other criminal activity.
police corruption undermines the effectiveness of the criminal justice system.
corruption undermines the professionalism of a police department.
former NYT reporter argues "corruption is a secret tax totaling millions of dollars a year"
corruption undermines public confidence in the police. |
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Term
How would you describe the moral career of corrupted officers?
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Definition
Police officers are often all honest at the outset of their careers.
“Moral career” begins with minor gratuities (peer pressure involved, small bribes.) |
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Term
Describe the phases in which police officers become corrupted:
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Definition
First phase:
minor gratuities
Second and third phases:
involve regulatory offenses
Officer more likely to engage in these activities if other officers are doing similar acts.
Fourth, fifth, and sixth phases:
involve more serious offenses.
Accepting regular large amounts of money
Protect certain activities such as prostitution and drugs |
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Term
The stages of corruption organizations:
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Definition
Initial stage – individuals or isolated groups
Second and third stages – all officers becoming corrupt
Final stages – “pervasive organized corruption” |
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Term
What are grass eaters and meat eaters?
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Definition
Grass-Eaters:
accepts payoffs and freebies when their everyday duties place them in a position to be solicited by the public. (most corrupt police fall in the category of grass eaters)
Meat-Eaters:
aggressively misuse police power for personal gain by demanding bribes, threatening legal action or cooperating with criminals. |
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Term
What are ways used to control corruption?
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Definition
Attitude of chief of police
Rules and regulations
Internal affairs investigations
Effective supervision
Rewarding good officers
Personal recruitment
Special investigations
Criminal prosecution
Mobilizing public opinion
Altering the external environment |
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Term
How does accountability relate to police work
– what they do and how they do their job?
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Definition
Answering for ones conduct.
Police organizations and individual police officers are accountable to the public, to the elected officials, and to the courts for controlling crime, order maintenance, and other services.
Accountable for what they do:
survey of citizens and COMPSTAT
Accountability for how the police do their job:
reports, routine supervision, performance evaluations, internal affairs units. |
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Term
What are approaches in dealing with accountability? |
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Definition
Represents a blend of internal and external mechanisms.
No single method is the key to achieving accountability
System of checks and balances
-Elected officials
-Police administrators
-Courts
-Citizens |
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Term
| pros and cons for citizens oversight of the police |
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Definition
pro:
serves to open up police departments, ending the historic isolation from the public.
number of citizen complaints is higher in cities with external review, enhances public confidence in the complain process
con:
intrudes on the professional independence of the police
people who are not police officers are not qualified to review police operations
expensive and unnecessarily duplicates the work of internal affairs
internal affairs units sustain more complaints against police officers |
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Term
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Definition
| commissions serving as a form of external accountability for police conduct that address a full range of policy issues and bring together leading experts to help improve local departments. |
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Term
Describe the Computer Aided Dispatch:
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Definition
Reduces officer confusion, sends clear messages instantaneously to officers’ mobile computers, keeps officers safe, prioritizes calls for service.
Used to more effectively and efficiently manage calls for service from the public |
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Term
Describe the Early Intervention System
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Definition
Early Intervention systems (EI)
Computer database with personnel records for the purpose of management and increasing the accountability of police officers.
The criteria for identifying “problem” officers.
Uses multiple indicators (police use of force, citizen complaints, commendations, civil suits)
Intervention to correct the problematic behavior
A variety of different interventions for officers who have been selected by the system
Formal (goes through the chain of command) and informal session (stays at the supervisor level)
Follow-up for officers who were subjected to intervention monitoring at different degrees--supervision monitors, lengthy and formal monitoring, complete reports, performance evaluation |
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Term
What is database information technology?
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Definition
| Computerized systems that operate like a card-file index and allow the police to store large amounts of information from a variety of sources |
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Term
Is the early intervention system effective at achieving its goals?
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Definition
Successful in reducing use of force and citizen complaints
Successful in identifying performance problems and correcting their performance
Improvement in management and supervision |
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Term
Identify the benefits of crime mapping: |
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Definition
Allows for the identification of spatial patterns and hot spots for different types of crime.
13% of large police departments use crime mapping
only a half have proficient staff
Can be combined with other data sources (census, school boundary area) to assist police in determining the relationship between geographic areas, crime, and community. |
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Term
License plate readers are helpful to police officers and communities in what ways?
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Definition
They are installed on police vehicles and fixed sites.
5 potential uses:
Crime analysis
Alerts and hot lists
Tracking individuals
Identifying previously undetected crimes
Revenue generation |
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Term
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Definition
typically involves the identification of specific crime problems in a particular geographic areas.
goal is to provide officers with timely information that allows them to respond to crimes that are currently taking place. |
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Term
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Definition
focuses on long term crime trends.
used to develop strategic plans to address particular problems. |
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Term
| administrative crime analysis |
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Definition
focuses on providing summary statistics and data to police managers.
often used by managers to better understand crime and disorder problems. |
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Term
Is research beneficial to police work?
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Definition
Kansas city preventative patrol experiment found that increasing level of patrol did not deter crime more effectively than normal amount of police work.
Faster response time did not work.
Rand corporation study found that traditional detective work did not
increase number of crimes solved. – which led to a rethinking
of strategies.
Newark foot patrol study – increasing the number of foot patrol
officers reduced crime and created more positive feelings about
the police.
This information led to community policing – traditional methods are
not effective; police do not respond effectively to crime and
disorder; good relations and cooperation with citizens is
necessary. |
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