Search results

One of the main roadblocks to increasing uptake of national police accreditation (i.e. accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA)) is concern among some in law enforcement that promoting national standards for policing would undermine local control. The purpose of this study is to assess whether CALEA-accredited police departments are more (or less) likely than non-CALEA-accredited police departments to utilize information from resident surveys to inform agency operations.

This study utilizes data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey and cardinality matching, a quasi-experimental approach, to estimate the relationship between CALEA accreditation status and utilization of information from resident surveys among municipal police departments.

We find that agencies that subscribe to national police accreditation are more likely to use resident surveys to prioritize crime/disorder problems, evaluate officer or agency performance, guide training and development and inform agency policies and procedures compared to matched agencies that do not subscribe to national police accreditation.

While there is research on the effects of national police accreditation on traditional policing outcomes, there is a paucity of research on whether national police accreditation undermines the ability of local residents to affect policing standards. The findings from this study suggest that national police accreditation may enhance the power of local residents to affect policing.

This study aims to identify the predictors of public support for police accreditation under four different scenarios that vary based upon whether or not accreditation requires a property tax increase and whether or not local police support accreditation.

This study draws upon survey data from 998 US adults. Four binary logistic models are employed to assess support for accreditation under four different scenarios.

Individual-level factors, including age, education, race, region, generalized trust, political ideology, and volunteer experience, are important predictors of support for police accreditation depending on the scenario presented. Community-level factors including perceptions of police performance and perceptions of property taxes are also important predictors of support for police accreditation depending on the scenario presented. Support for police accreditation is highest when police accreditation does not require a property tax increase and when local police support accreditation. Sixty-six percent of respondents support police accreditation under this scenario.

This article represents the first published study on the predictors of support for police accreditation. The findings from this study have important implications for implementing police reform given recent calls by activists to both reform the police and to defund them.

This study explores the benefits of accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), according to those who are engaged in the practice.

The authors collected data through open-ended, semi-structured telephone interviews. The authors analyzed the data using an inductive methodology.

The authors found that CALEA police accreditation enhances organizational learning through the development of knowledge brokers, the creation of communities of practice, support for knowledge repositories, support for knowledge managers and greater levels of transparency.

This qualitative study, which focuses on the perceptions and experiences of those involved in the CALEA process, provides a valuable complement to the quantitative literature on accreditation by shedding light on the organizational learning resulting from accreditation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the adoption of state accreditation has diffused or spread among Florida municipal police law enforcement agencies.

The study group consists of all municipal police departments operating continuously in the State of Florida from 1997 through 2006. Independent variables are taken from an annual survey, sponsored by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, to compare agencies that became accredited (n=81) with agencies that did not gain state accreditation (n=189).

While accredited agencies differ from non‐accredited agencies on a host of indicators at the zero‐order, it does not appear that the state accreditation process itself is responsible for nurturing organizational change. Having received national accreditation is an important predictor of gaining state accreditation.

Instead of looking at organizational details, future researchers might wish to conceive of accreditation as a credentialing process and concentrate on characteristics of agency leaders, especially those who are seeking upward mobility in their professional careers.

State accreditation status has reached only a small portion of the intended audience and appears to have morphed into a credential rather than an actual tool for meaningful reform.

This paper informs accreditation oversight bodies as to who their self‐selected constituents tend to be and which members of the target audience are not being reached.

The purpose of this study is to synthesize empirical research on the correlates of Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) accreditation.

The authors performed keyword searches across 132 criminal justice, policing, and public administration journals to identify peer-reviewed articles that examine the relationship between CALEA accreditation and any output or outcome. Two keyword searches were utilized “commission on accreditation for law enforcement agencies” and “commission on accreditation of law enforcement agencies” in the event that authors misnamed the accrediting body. Only quantitative articles that utilized inferential statistics were included in the sample given that the authors aimed to assess the relationship between CALEA law enforcement accreditation and outputs and outcomes.

Overall, there is a paucity of research on the relationship between CALEA accreditation and outputs and outcomes. Only nineteen, peer-reviewed, studies that utilize inferential statistics have been published on the topic as of the end of 2021. The largest number of studies explore the relationship between CALEA accreditation and community-oriented policing and gender representation. Given the dearth of quantitative studies on CALEA accreditation, and the lack of studies using experimental or quasi-experimental designs, current findings on the topic should not be viewed as proof of cause and effect relationships but as correlations.

This article represents the first systematic review of the correlates of CALEA accreditation.

The aim of this paper is to examine whether accredited police agencies display higher clearance rates than their non‐accredited counterparts.

The study group consists of all municipal police departments operating continuously in the State of Florida from 1997 through 2006. Independent variables capture organizational characteristics for nearly 260 agencies to determine whether becoming accredited improves clearance rates.

Random‐effects Tobit analysis suggests that accreditation status does not affect violent and property crime clearance rates. Clearance rates are more influenced by the number of sworn personnel and law enforcement expenditures per capita.

Much of what is currently known about the impact of accreditation stems from anecdotal and testimonial evidence. Still, the industry manages to expand and flourish. A glaring need for sound empirical research is evident.

Instead of advancing the protection of local communities and bringing about meaningful organizational reform, accreditation appears to be a useful tool for bureaucrats who wish to further their own careers.

Advocates link accreditation status to a number of benefits, including better investigatory practices that culminate in more solved cases. Recent academic work suggests that accreditation has dubious benefits, despite claims to the contrary. This study adds to that literature by showing that accreditation also fails to elevate clearance rates.

This paper seeks to address a deficit in the criminal justice literature by examining patterns of electronic control device (ECD) use and effectiveness as reflected in 1,188 official police use‐of‐force report records collected over a three‐year period (2005‐2007) by the Washington State Patrol (WSP).

Chi‐square, t‐test, ANOVA and logistic regression analysis were employed to analyze the data with respect to patterns of use and outcomes for officers and arrestees.

The findings observed indicate that the ECD tended to replace several other types of force used to gain compliance, tended to resolve incidents involving the use of force with fewer forms of force being used, and decreased officer injury rates. The ECD was rated as generally effective by officers, but not as effective as other methods of gaining compliance in life‐threatening situations. Results concerning suspect injury rates were somewhat mixed.

Relying on the official self‐report from a single agency limits the ability to generalize to other law enforcement agencies.

The paper indicates the importance of providing for the systematic collection of data on police use of force involving the threat of use and deployment of the ECD.

A number of questions concerning ECD's appropriate use, effectiveness, and potential for harm have remained largely unanswered. The paper addresses this deficit in the criminal justice literature.

This article presents an overview and assessment of recent reforms that have contributed to a pluralisation and fragmentation of policing in England and Wales. It considers the emergence of new forms of visible policing both within and beyond the public police. These include the growth of private security guards and patrols, local auxiliaries such as neighbourhood wardens and the introduction of second tier police personnel in the shape of the new police community support officers. To varying degrees plural forms of policing seek to offer public reassurance through visible patrols. The article goes on to explore the complex nature of relations between the “extended police family” and the different modes of governance they suggest. It concludes with a consideration of the future shape of reassurance policing.

The article first examines whether police hiring decisions represent a zero-sum game where hires from one under-represented group (e.g. White women) reduce the number of hires made from other under-represented groups (non-White men and/or non-White women). Second, we explore whether agencies that hire more members of underrepresented groups achieve more diverse applicant pools in future hiring cycles. Negative binomial regression techniques are used in both analyses.

Data for this study come from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEAs) from 2011 to 2016. These data are divided into two periods: Period A (2011–2013) and Period B (2014–2016). The two periods are combined to assess a zero-sum effect. Then, Period A data on hiring decisions is used to estimate the diversity in applicant pools in Period B.

Results from this study provided little evidence of a zero-sum effect. It does not seem that agencies that hire from one under-represented group are less likely to hire from others. Instead, agencies that have shown a commitment to diversification are more likely to make additional hires from under-represented groups. We also found evidence of a relationship between Period A hires and Period B applicant pools for Hispanic women, but not for other groups. Broadly, we found that agencies where a larger share of officers are women were more likely to hire more women applicants.

Previous research examining zero-sum effects in hiring rely on officer rosters rather than specific applicant and hiring data. The data used in this study allows for a more precise examination of hiring decisions, and allows us to link hiring decisions to future applicant pool composition.

This paper aims to examine Florida law enforcement agency policies to determine whether they contain language from the International Associations of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Model Policy on use of force. Consistency of policy content is instructive.

Data for this study include written policies of Florida law enforcement agencies (n=160) which were collected through e‐mail requests to all agencies in the state (n=323). Content analysis was used to analyze the policies.

Findings suggest that 74 percent of all agencies include language that refers to a use of force continuum, including 90 percent of sheriffs' offices and 70 percent of police departments.

The research suggests that the majority of agencies continue to include a use of force continuum. Only Florida agencies were surveyed, and the response rate was 50 percent.

The research suggests that a majority of agencies adhere to the principle that clear use of force policies can reduce liability concerns, and shows that written policies can be effective training tools.

Use of force remains the chief public concern in law enforcement's discretionary actions. Therefore, agencies must address use of force issues comprehensively.

There is no research that examines the content of current use of force policies. This paper adds to the literature on force policy and examines such policies in the nation's fourth largest state. The paper suggests areas for future research and offers a normative model of a force policy.