Police executives have increasingly assumed-or they have been compelled to accept-responsibility for managing the risk of misconduct by their officers through the implementation of early intervention (EI) systems, even though social science has provided very little evidence on their effectiveness, or on their unintended effects. We examine the effects of one police agency's EI system intervention, the Officer-Civilian Interaction (OCI) School, on indicators of risk-related outcomespersonnel complaints, citizen complaints, use of force, and secondary arrests-and on productivity-arrests, and proactive arrests-for 118 graduates and 118 matched controls. We found that the changes in risk-related outcomes were very similar for both treatment and control groups, and that OCI trainees made fewer proactive arrests and fewer arrests overall than the controls after the training. The implications for managing the risk of misconduct are discussed.
Missing person searches can entail much time, effort, and resources. With scientific data and techniques increasingly available to law enforcement and investigations units, can these tools be used to predict likely areas where persons or remains may be discovered, especially in cases where little to no information about the disappearance is available? A retrospective study of seventy-three (73) cases was conducted in Onondaga County, New York, U.S.A., in order to explore this question. Quantitative (geospatial) and qualitative (investigator notes) data were utilized to determine whether patterns exist that may assist in investigations of recent and "cold" missing person cases. Results showed a majority of cases with relative proximity (<5 miles) between victim last seen (VLS) and body recovered (BR) locations. Furthermore, investigators' notes demonstrated repeated descriptors reflecting natural or cultural features associated with hidden, clandestine provenance (e.g., near bodies of water, wooded areas). With future external validation of this study, consistent priority areas may be identified as foci of searches; these priority areas ideally should be thoroughly checked/cleared before the search zone is expanded.
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