Translating police research into policy: some implications of the National Academies report on proactive policing for policymakers and researchers

Willis, James J.; Toronjo, Heather

doi:10.1080/15614263.2019.1657631

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…These organizational processes also potentially have implications for how deputies treat the community. Although value conflicts are common challenges for law enforcement organizations to balance (Willis and Toronjo, 2019), our community findings provide some insights into values (e.g., empathy, vested interest) that LASD might consider embedding in organizational processes. For instance, compassion is identified as a core value of LASD, but compassion was not mentioned in our interviews.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Understanding Subgroups Within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department: Community and Department Perceptions with Recommendations for Change

Peterson¹,

Barnes-Proby²,

Bouskill³

et al. 2021

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For decades, groups of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) deputies have organized themselves into secret subgroups, some of which have allegedly committed illegal acts or violated departmental policy. Although LASD has acknowledged that these groups exist, their purpose and actions within the department have remained unclear. To better understand this issue, Los Angeles County Counsel commissioned the RAND Corporation to conduct an independent research study on deputy subgroups within LASD. The study was commissioned to help the county and LASD learn more about how subgroups have affected community perceptions and trust in LASD, how these subgroups are formed, why they exist, and what actions might be taken if it is determined that these subgroups have a significant impact on LASD's mission. With cooperation from various county stakeholders, including community representatives across the county, the Office of the Los Angeles County Counsel, LASD, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, the authors of this report sought to understand the community perspective, the perceptions and experiences of deputies, and the organizational perspective of LASD to provide a comprehensive picture. The authors also aim to assist county decisionmakers and LASD in their efforts to address problems created by the subgroups going forward. This report should be of interest to Los Angeles County officials and residents. Justice Policy ProgramRAND Social and Economic Well-Being is a division of the RAND Corporation that seeks to actively improve the health and social and economic well-being of populations and communities throughout the world. This research was conducted in the Justice Policy Program within RAND Social and Economic Well-Being. The program focuses on such topics as access to justice, policing, corrections, drug policy, and court system reform, as well as other policy concerns pertaining to public safety and criminal and civil justice. For more information, email

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Understanding Subgroups Within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department: Community and Department Perceptions with Recommendations for Change

Peterson¹,

Barnes-Proby²,

Bouskill³

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Given how people's judgments of police behaviour are influenced by their general impressions of the police, specific past experiences, and a broader set of psychological and cultural dispositions (Kahan et al, 2009;Willis & Toronjo, 2019), it is unlikely that a clear consensus will emerge on the appropriateness of an officer's actions. Civilians tend to judge police performance differently from police practitioners (Carlson & Sutton, 1988;Worden & McLean, 2017), and they often disagree in their assessments of police behaviour (Waddington et al, 2015).…”

Section: Lack Of Community Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing Police Discretion Through a Craft Learning Model

Willis¹,

Koen²,

Toronjo³

2023

European Journal of Policing Studies

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In this article, we build on some of our previous empirical research to develop the value, logic and nature of the craft learning model, as an alternative to the dominant, administrative rulemaking paradigm for governing patrol officer discretion. We do this by conceptualizing the craft model in relation to Egon Bittner's observations on two distinct mechanisms of police organization and control: legality and workmanship. Second, we illustrate the largely overlooked potential of body-worn cameras for learning about and advancing craft knowledge and skills. And third, we address three challenges to what we propose and consider how these might be mitigated or overcome: (1) resistance from the police culture; (2) the limited role of first-line supervisors; and (3) the current lack of community participation in guiding street-level decision-making. Our overarching purpose is to encourage advocates of police reform to explore new models that account for the complex technical and normative dimensions of everyday policing and facilitate more reasoned, transparent and principled decision-making on the front lines.

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“…Digital forensics combined with biometric data will probably change CI as we know it (see Ross et al , 2020). All of these technologies, among many others, can be expected to have positive effects on the productivity of the police (see Thanassoulis, 1995; Carrington et al , 1997; Drake and Simper, 2000, 2005; Agrawall et al , 2003; Gorman and Ruggiero, 2008; Elvik et al , 2009; Asmild et al , 2012; Custers, 2012; Stewart and Mueller, 2014; Lum et al , 2017; Willis and Toronjo, 2019; Ross et al , 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The cost disease blues–do the police suffer from Baumol's cost disease?

Vuorensyrjä

2021

PIJPSM

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze the growth of unit costs per output in the Finnish police force (2002–2015). Is it higher than the growth of prices in the Finnish economy in general; i.e. higher than the inflation rate? Cost disease theory suggests this to be the case. It says that all labor-intensive, slow-progressive industries suffer from relatively rapidly growing real unit costs and that policing is one among these industries.Design/methodology/approachThe rates of growth of the division-specific unit costs of the police are compared to the inflation rate. Costs and prices are treated as indexed schedules, comparable to each other. The functional divisions under scrutiny are surveillance and emergency operations, criminal investigation, and permits and licenses. The period under analysis is 2002–2015.FindingsThe surveillance and emergency operations and criminal investigation divisions, but not the permits and licenses division, suffer from cost disease. Owing to the persistent digitalization efforts in permits and licenses, the physical productivity of the division has been growing at a rapid rate, and both the nominal and the real unit costs per output of the division have been decreasing over time.Research limitations/implicationsOwing to data limitations, use of a proxy was needed to estimate one of the key variables of the study.Originality/valueThe policy significance of the research question is potentially very high. Prior to this study, there was a near total lack of empirical evidence in this area.

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Translating police research into policy: some implications of the National Academies report on proactive policing for policymakers and researchers

Cited by 10 publications

References 43 publications

Understanding Subgroups Within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department: Community and Department Perceptions with Recommendations for Change

Understanding Subgroups Within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department: Community and Department Perceptions with Recommendations for Change

Governing Police Discretion Through a Craft Learning Model

The cost disease blues–do the police suffer from Baumol's cost disease?

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