Are Citizen Complaints Just Another Measure of Officer Productivity? An Analysis of Citizen Complaints and Officer Activity Measures

Lersch, Kim Michelle

doi:10.1080/15614260290033639

Cited by 43 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Similarly, Lersch (2002) found that felony arrests were significant predictors of officers with two or more complaints in a one-year period.…”

Section: Complaints and Their Utility For Predicting Coercionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…The Christopher Commission's work indicated that a small number of officers were high complaint officers (Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991) and this evidence can be used to develop the hypothesis that complaints have a positive relationship to officer misbehavior (Toch, 1996). One may argue, alternatively, that complaints are associated with increased levels of interactions with citizens at the street-level and that such police officers are really "good apples" (Lersch and Mieczkowski, 1996;Lersch, 2002). The current literature on complaints offers only tentative research findings to fill this gap.…”

Section: Complaints and Their Utility For Predicting Coercionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Departmental and citizen complaints as predictors of police coercion

McCluskey

Terrill

2005

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies &Amp; Management

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Purpose -This paper seeks to examine a variety of measures of complaints and their relationship to police officers' use of coercion in encounters with suspects. Design/methodology/approach -Data from the Project on Policing Neighborhoods, involving the systematic social observation of police, were combined with complaint data from the St Petersburg Police Department to examine the influence of complaints on use of coercion in everyday encounters. Hierarchical models, which included theoretically relevant control variables, were used to test multiple measures of departmental and citizen complaints as predictors of officers' use of coercion. Findings -The analyses indicate that, net of other important predictors, officer complaint rate for force and verbal discourtesy is associated with higher levels of coercion in encounters with suspects. The analyses also indicate that officers' verbal discourtesy complaint rate is associated with higher levels of coercion, but complaint rates for physical force are not related to higher levels of coercion.Research limitations/implications -The current results do not necessarily generalize to all police departments, since the department, at that time, was a leader in community policing. Practical implications -The influence of complaints for force and discourtesy on coercion suggests that police departments could benefit from greater attention toward officers who generate complaints for discourtesy from the public. Originality/value -This paper examines the utility of official complaint data as a determinant of officers' coercive behavior in encounters with suspects. The research would be of interest to police executives concerned with creating "early warning systems" as well as police scholars concerned with the determinants of officer coercion.

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“…Similarly, Lersch (2002) found that felony arrests were significant predictors of officers with two or more complaints in a one-year period.…”

Section: Complaints and Their Utility For Predicting Coercionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Complaints and Their Utility For Predicting Coercionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Departmental and citizen complaints as predictors of police coercion

McCluskey

Terrill

2005

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies &Amp; Management

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“…Research has demonstrated that citizens tend to complain about police behaviors such as using unnecessary force, being rude or disrespectful, and dissatisfactory performance of duties (Lersch, 2002). Such acts, while certainly less serious than other forms of career-ending misconduct, are important in that they damage the perceived legitimacy of police as a public institution, and may, in fact, impair the ability of the police to accomplish their tasks effectively in the long run (Bayley, 2002).…”

Section: Background and Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two important factors that may account for these differences-productivity and officer assignment-must be mentioned and relate to difficulties in measuring problem behaviors with citizen complaints. Lersch (2002) cautioned that officers who received many citizen complaints might not be problem officers at all, but instead merely productive ones. In her one-year study of citizen complaints from a large police department in the Southeast, Lersch (2002) found that measures of productivity were weakly-to-moderately correlated with citizen complaints.…”

Section: Background and Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lersch (2002) cautioned that officers who received many citizen complaints might not be problem officers at all, but instead merely productive ones. In her one-year study of citizen complaints from a large police department in the Southeast, Lersch (2002) found that measures of productivity were weakly-to-moderately correlated with citizen complaints. Assignment may also play a role and is linked with productivity.…”

Section: Background and Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Problem officers? Analyzing problem behavior patterns from a large cohort

Harris

2010

Journal of Criminal Justice

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Reducing Violence and Aggression in Police Officers

Harris

2017

The Wiley Handbook of Violence and Aggression

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Police organizations employ a variety of means to minimize aggression and violence in their officers, from recruitment and selection processes to on‐the‐job training and monitoring as well as policy development. This chapter touches upon all of these means through a consideration of US police departments but particularly focuses on the ways in which police agencies attempt to locate and intervene with officers who exhibit performance problems, particularly with regard to aggressive and violent behavior. While there exists a body of work around police misconduct regarding aggression and violence on the part of officers, there is much less knowledge around whether or not current intervention efforts are sufficient, so the chapter concludes with a discussion of future research efforts to help illuminate this issue.

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Are Citizen Complaints Just Another Measure of Officer Productivity? An Analysis of Citizen Complaints and Officer Activity Measures

Cited by 43 publications

References 3 publications

Departmental and citizen complaints as predictors of police coercion

Departmental and citizen complaints as predictors of police coercion

Problem officers? Analyzing problem behavior patterns from a large cohort

Reducing Violence and Aggression in Police Officers

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