Research Summary:This paper provides the first national description of Compstat programs, considered in the framework of strategic problem solving. Relying on a survey of American police departments conducted by the Police Foundation, we examine the diffusion of Compstat programs and the nature of Compstat models throughout the United States. We also assess the penetration of models of strategic problem solving more generally into American policing. Our findings document a process of "diffusion of innovation" of Compstat-like programs in larger police agencies that follows a rapid pace. A t the same time, our data suggest that many elements of strategic problem solving had begun to be implemented more widely across American police agencies before the emergence of Compstat as a programmatic entity, and that such elements Policy Implications: Compstat holds out the promise of allowing police agencies to adopt innovative technologies and problem-solving techniques while empowering traditional police organizational structures. However, our analysis suggests that at this stage, what most characterizes Compstat departments and distinguishes them f r o m others is the development of the control element of this reform. This leads us to question whether the rapid rise of Compstat in American police agencies can be interpreted more as an effort to maintain and reinforce the "bureaucratic"or 'paramilitary" model of police organization (that has been under attack by scholars for most of the last two decades) than as an attempt to truly reform models of American policing.
COMPSTAT, the latest innovation in American policing, has been widely heralded as a management and technological system whose elements work together to transform police organizations radically. Skeptical observers suggest that COMPSTAT merely reinforces existing structures and practices. However, in trying to assess how much COMPSTAT has altered police organizations, research has failed to provide a broader theoretical basis for explaining how COMPSTAT operates and for understanding the implications of this reform. This article compares two different perspectives on organizationsF technical/rational and institutionalFto COMPSTAT's adoption and operation in three municipal police departments. Based on fieldwork, our analysis suggests that relative to technical considerations for changing each organization to improve its effectiveness, all three sites adopted COMPSTAT in response to strong institutional pressures to appear progressive and successful. Furthermore, institutional theory better explained the nature of the changes we observed under COMPSTAT than the technical/rational model. The greatest collective emphasis was on those COMPSTAT elements that were most likely to confer legitimacy, and on implementing them in ways that would minimize disruption to existing organizational routines. COMPSTAT was less successful when trying to provide a basis for rigorously assessing organizational performance, and when trying to change those structures and routines widely accepted as being ''appropriate.'' We posit that it will take profound changes in the technical and institutional environments of American police agencies for police departments to restructure in the ways anticipated by a technically efficient COMPSTAT.
Police exercise great discretion in their dealings with the public, but most research on police discretion focuses on coercive decisions. Despite the demonstrated importance of procedural justice (PJ) for police legitimacy and overall satisfaction, the predictors of police-provided PJ in police–citizen encounters have rarely been examined. We propose a framework for assessing the choice of police officers to engage in PJ and test it using data collected in direct observations of police interactions with the public. We find significant effects for the moral “worthiness” of the citizen as reflected in his or her role in the situation; for situational challenges of engaging in PJ, including large audience and officer mental/emotional fatigue; and for popular scripts for handling traffic-related encounters and serving in a backup role. We interpret and discuss the implications of our findings and suggest avenues for advancing understanding of the factors underlying procedurally just police treatment.
Abstract. Many workers assume that tessera terrain, marked by multiple tectonic lineaments and exposed in crustal plateaus, comprises a global onionskin on Venus. Because tesserae are exposed mostly within crustal plateaus, which exhibit thickened crust, issues of tessera distribution and the mechanism of crustal plateau formation (e.g., mantle downwelling or upwelling) are intimately related. A review of Magellan data indicates that tessera terrain does not form a global onionskin on Venus, although ribbon-bearing tesserae reflect an ancient time of a globally thin lithosphere. Individual tracts of ribbon-bearing tessera terrain formed diachronously, punctuating time and space as individual deep mantle plumes imparted a distinctive rheological and structural signature on ancient thin crust across spatially discrete 1600-2500 km diameter regions above hot mantle plumes. Plume-related magmatic accretion led to crustal thickening at these locations, resulting in crustal plateaus. Crustal plateau surfaces record widespread early extension (ribbon structures) and local, minor perpendicular contraction of a thin, competent layer above a ductile substrate. Within individual evolving crustal plateaus the thickness of the competent layer increased with time, and broad, gentle folds formed along plateau margins and short, variably oriented folds formed in the interior; late complex graben cut folds. Local lava flows accompanied all stages of surface deformation. In contrast to these conclusions, Gilmore et al. [ 1998] summarized post-Magellan arguments in favor of downwelling models for crustal plateau formation. In light of this discrepancy, we reexamine the regions investigated by these workers and evaluate their arguments against upwelling models. We show that Gilmore et al. [ 1998] did not differentiate ribbons from graben and therefore their proposed temporal relations are invalid; they disregarded shear fracture ribbons, thus invalidating their criticism of ribbon models; they misunderstood previous radargrammetric work that constrains ribbon geometry; and they relied solely on geometrical relations to constrain timing, violating kinematic analysis methodology. Their stratigraphic constraints on ribbon-fold temporal relations are invalid because they (1) misinterpreted implications of map relations; (2) did not isolate radar artifacts due to local radar slope effects from proposed material units; (3) chose a region for analysis that clearly shows the effects of younger tectonism and volcanism; and (4) presented map relations that cannot be reproduced. Their attempts to discount upwelling models of crustal plateau formation fail because they combine fundamentally different pre-Magellan and post-Magellan upwelling models. These misconceptions about the upwelling model and processes responsible for global warming [Phillips and Hansen, 1998], lead to serious errors in Gilmore et al. 's [1998] criticism. Furthermore, we show that the data of Gilmore et al. [ 1998] are actually more consistent with upwelling than do...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.