Digital Commons Network^™

Police Brutality & Unions: Collective Bargaining Is The Problem, Not Law Enforcement, Falco Anthony Muscante Ii

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

When Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, and when Jason Van Dyke fired sixteen rounds at Laquan McDonald who was walking away from the responding officers, were Chauvin and Van Dyke acting exclusively of their own volition, or were their actions indicative of a deeper, systemic issue? Nearly 60% of law enforcement officers enjoy collective bargaining protections from their police unions, but these protections create a lack of accountability.

Police unions can bargain collectively with police departments because of state legislation, which typically allow for negotiation over matters affecting wages, hours, and terms and …

Constitutional Law—Filling The Gap: The Need For Legislative Action To Protect The Right To Record Police In The Age Of Citizen Journalism, Madalyn J. Goolsby

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Exploring And Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Greeley’S Mental Health Co-Responder Program And “Squad 1”, Mikelle Angiuli

Master's Theses

Law enforcement officers are often the de facto emergency response for mental health crises despite having little to no mental health training. With nearly 20% of U.S. adults reporting experiencing a mental illness and recent police reform movements bringing attention to alternative policing practices and policies, there is arguably a need for comprehensive mental health treatment and emergency response in the U.S. (Mental Health America, n.d.). The cities of Greeley and Evans, Colorado have implemented a mental health co-responder program that involves individual mental health clinicians and a mental health ambulance, Squad 1, responding alongside police on mental health calls …

Segmenting The Thin Blue Line: An Ethnographic Content Analysis Of Myth And Ritual In Contemporary U.S. Police Film, Alexandra Szmutko

Doctoral Dissertations

The continued ills of mass incarceration, combined with the more recent rash of police-caused killings of people of color, make it clear that the U.S. criminal justice system is experiencing a period of profound crisis related to policing. This dissertation aims to interrogate the cultural ideologies supporting the existing policing enterprise in the U.S. To do this, the study first examines the foundational myths that shape prevailing cultural perceptions of the police and their social role. Ethnographic content analysis methodology is then utilized to identify both the presence and the subversion of these myths and their attendant rituals in a …

The Future Of Deep Fakes: Analyzing The Potential Future Consequences Of The Widespread Use Of Deepfakes On The Policing Sector, Maryam Salem Alshamsi

Theses

In today’s world there is a growing uncertainty in terms of the truthfulness of what we see and hear. People digest a great amount of information throughout the day using their devices, yet the quality and credibility of content is in question. People question if we are experiencing and perceiving the same reality at this point. This issue is not novel, however, it has progressed and developed to a level of realism that deceives people and affect their comprehension of information. Rapid technological advancement has raised the concern of what is referred to as “Deepfakes”, a machine learning technique that …

The Racialized History Of Vice Policing, India Thusi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Vice policing targets the consumption and commercialization of certain pleasures that have been criminalized in the United States—such as the purchase of narcotics and sexual services. One might assume that vice policing is concerned with eliminating these vices. However, in reality, this form of policing has not been centered on protecting and preserving the moral integrity of the policed communities by eradicating vice. Instead, the history of vice policing provides an example of the racialized nature of policing in the United States. Vice policing has been focused on (1) maintaining racial segregation, (2) containing vice in marginalized communities, and (3) …

Unf@Cking People’S Problems: A Theory Of Policing, Laura Huey, Stephen Johnston

Sociology Publications

One of the problems that has plagued policing researchers over the past few decades – ourselves included -- is the interminable question of ‘what do police do?’ Some ideas, tasks, roles, institutions and other social creations are easy to define. Policing has not been one of those. In part, it’s because it’s not only a descriptive problem, it’s also a normative one. Once you start to address the question of what do police do, then you also have to wrestle with the much meatier issue of ‘what do we want police to do’? In this paper, we exercise our theory …

Qualified Immunity And The Unintentional, Or Intentional, Chill On Free Speech, Madison Heiney

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Law Enforcement Recruitment, Why It Matters, And Key Management Decisions, Part Two, Patrick Oliver

History and Government Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

To The Court Of Last Resort: A Prosecutorial Roadmap In The Aftermath Of State Violence In Chile And Colombia, David F. Scollan

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

A great deal of academic research and writing has been done on the most glaring examples of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But, only a small cadre of authors have endeavored to identify the ‘lower limit’ of when state action qualifies as these heinous acts. This Note strives to add to that area of legal scholarship aimed at bringing instances of in-country state perpetrated violence out from the behind the veil of sovereign police action and into the spotlight to call them what they are: crimes worthy of international condemnation and punishment. Specifically, this Note unpacks two spasms of …

Toolkit: Healing Our Protectors: Building Resilience Among Tribal Law Enforcement Officers Through Cultural Interventions, Lavonne Fox, Leo Sr. Belgarde, Thomasine Heitkamp, Shawnda Schroeder

Indigenous Health Faculty Publications

Introduction: The U.S. and Native Americans have a government-to-government relationship. The result of 375 treaties, established laws and instituted policies promote Tribal sovereignty and are intended to support the general wellbeing Indigenous persons and protect their lands and resources. The Tribal sovereignty includes law enforcement. This resource is intended to provide a broad understanding of the challenges both Tribal and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) law enforcement officers face; many struggle dealing with the traumatic events they have experienced. We acknowledge that there is a scarcity of current information related to Tribal and BIA police officers’ mental health. This document …

Sex Trading, Exiting, And Interactions With Police: A Mixed Methods Study Of Women Engaged In Street Level Sex Trading, Daria J. Mueller

Theses and Dissertations

Street level sex trading is associated with multiple risks to health, safety, and well-being, thus many individuals who are currently engaged would like to exit and/or have attempted to do so. Multiple facilitators and barriers at all levels of a person’s ecology have been found to affect the exiting process, such as substance use, formal and informal social supports, and the collateral consequences of criminalization of sex trading. Yet, a more comprehensive examination of the complex interplay of these factors has been lacking. In addition, little attention has focused on women’s encounters with police and the ensuing effects on their …

Was Atwater V. Lago Vista Decided Correctly? The Fourth Amendment's Shadow And Simulacra Of Police Brutality And The American Dream, Charles Lincoln

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Police And Their Relationship With The Public, Kevin Hebri

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This research essay aims to understand some of the social themes relevant to issues present between the public and the police institutions of the United States. Existing literature about this topic has noted the decentralized nature of law enforcement in the United States and the differences in policies and procedures used by different police departments and agencies. The existing literature has also cited the importance of police officer discretion and the situational factors that contribute to their decision-making. Occupational stress, and characteristics of a civilian involved in a police interaction, influence the decision-making process for police officers. This research is …

Individual Differences In Police Officers’ Decision Styles In Order Maintenance Policing, Damarrah Elisheba Jameson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Day-to-day police work tends to be in order maintenance policing. These encounters necessitate officer discretion in decision responses to manage them. These decision responses reflect an officer’s decision style which precedes the encounter and drives subsequent decision making to manage them. However, little is known about officer-level decision style. For example, whether an officer has a rational, intuitive, dependent, avoidant, or spontaneous decision style (Scott& Bruce, 1995). Police training in any format often lacks attention to decision styles. As such, an officer’s decision style is most likely associated with demographics (e.g., age, gender) and occupational self-efficacy – a reflection of …

Alternative Approaches To Police Interventions When Responding To Mental Health Crises Incidents, Karen Rivera Apolinar

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Purpose: This study explored mental health workers perspectives on alternative approaches in responding to mental health crises.

The study was carried out in Southern California, in collaboration with mental health workers who currently work or previously have worked in mental health crisis. It adopted a post-positivists paradigm and data was gathered through individual interviews with mental health workers who have direct experience with mental health crisis response in the community and with the police. The twenty participants in the study were men and women working in the mental health field, and of various backgrounds, licensures, and ages.

The study found …

Law School News: Joyce And Bill Cummings Of Cummings Foundation To Deliver Keynote Address At Rwu Commencement 4-20-2023, Jill Rodrigues

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Police Officers' Perceptions Regarding Their Interactions With The Disabled In Kankakee County, Jilliann English

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Background

Previous research shows the rate of crime against people with disabilities is significantly higher than the general population (Child et al., 2011). Despite this, gaps in the training and resources for officers to assist those with disabilities may exist (Gardner, Campbell, and Westdal, 2019). Eadens et al. (2008) explored this issue by evaluating officer attitudes towards intellectual disabilities. Kankakee County has a significant disabled population (CHSA, 2019), and Illinois is ranked very low in the improvement of related policies (ANCOR, 2019), making this an area of interest.

Methods

This study utilized the modified version of the Social Distance Questionnaire …

Police Harassment And Latinx Mental Health: The Moderating Role Of Family Support And Nativity, Veronica Lauren Heredia

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Relative to their population size, communities of color experience disproportionate occurrences of harassment (Wilson et. al., 2020). Reports on police killings from 2013 to 2018 display that Black individuals constituted 27.5% of those killed, despite making up only 13% of the population (Siegel, 2020). The U.S. Latinx population is similarly impacted, given reports that they also experience police targeting (Edwards et. al., 2019; Gaston et. al., 2021; Harris et. al., 2020; Zimmerman et. al., 2021). Empirical evidence has shown a positive association between police harassment exposure and depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms in Latinx populations (Chin et. al., 2020; Del …

The Faces Of Crime: How Municipal Police Department Presence On Social Media Influences The Lives Of Incarcerated Americans, Carley Frost

Honors Theses

This photographic exposé and the complimentary research was designed to highlight the impact of municipal police department presence on social media and the consequences it has on those who are featured on the pages. As social media became a centerpoint of social life, police departments sought to utilize social media in a way that uplifted the department; however, in doing so, incarcerated members of the community were simultaneously being publicly humiliated. Their mugshots and alleged charges were published onto the department social media pages, allowing their family and peers to comment and share freely. These individuals report difficulty finding a …

Criminogenic Risks Of Interrogation, Margareth Etienne, Richard Mcadams

Indiana Law Journal

In the United States, moral minimization is a pervasive police interrogation tactic in which the detective minimizes the moral seriousness and harm of the offense, suggesting that anyone would have done the same thing under the circumstances, and casting blame away from the offender and onto the victim or society. The goal of these minimizations is to reinforce the guilty suspect’s own rationalizations or “neutralizations” of the crime. The official theory—posited in the police training manuals that recommend the tactic—is that minimizations encourage confessions by lowering the guilt or shame of associated with confessing to the crime. Yet the same …

The Impact Of Pre-Hire Fitness Scores On Resilience And Burnout Among New Castle County Patrol-Level Police Officers, Eugene Joseph Reid

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study seeks participation from patrol-level officers with at least two years’ experience in the New Castle County Police Department in Delaware (n=134) and requests that they respond to two questionnaires measuring resilience and job burnout: the 25-item Resilience Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Additionally, participants are asked to self-report their pre-hire fitness scores. Police officers are repeatedly exposed to trauma, which has negative mental and physical consequences, often leading to extreme stress, fatigue, and emotional imbalance. Repeated trauma also impacts physical fitness, which is critical for not only physical and mental health but also work performance, especially for …

An Evaluation Of Three Procedures To Achieve Robust Responding For Police Informed Curriculum For Care Providers Of Individuals Diagnosed With Asd, Lauren St. Vincent

Culminating Projects in Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy

Abstract

To address improving interactions between the ASD community and police, various assessment formats were analyzed to determine a tool that evokes robust responding (i.e. answers that are varied, informative, and in-depth) from police officers. Within participant analysis and across participant analysis were used to determine which procedure evokes the more robust response. Officer responses were more informative when provided assessments that used open-ended questions rather than close-ended questions. Results also suggest that using multiple question formats for the same information aid in obtaining response diversity.

Keywords: ASD, police, assessment, robust responding, within and across participant analysis

Law Enforcement's Assistance To The Mental Health Community, Megan Thompson

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

Mental health calls are an overwhelmingly consistent part of the law enforcement profession. With the lack of resources for the mental health community, law enforcement officers are becoming the contingency strategy. Relationships between the law enforcement and mental health communities are becoming imperative for every community. While developing these relationships, law enforcement officers can begin to develop response teams to handle mental health calls for service. Bringing on board clinical and non-clinical professionals from the mental health community can provide different intervention and therapy programs. Basic ethical principles, accepted in culture, include but are not limited to respect, honesty, and …

Formation Of A Mental Health Co-Responder Unit, Tom Smith

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The current models of treating mentally ill people with police contact are not working and have never worked. Mentally ill people, or those in crisis, often slip through gaps in the criminal justice and hospital systems. It is time for criminal justice and medical treatment systems to work together to help those with mental illnesses. Properly implemented programs and policies will allow officers to respond better to people experiencing a crisis. These programs, and ethically implemented policies, will enable officers to better serve people by getting them the necessary services while limiting the potential for using force, jail, and hospitalization. …

Shared Responsibility: Conceptualising How A Public Health Approach May Enhance Police Response To Missing Persons, Katie Gambier-Ross, Joe Apps Dr, Sarah Wayland Dr

International Journal of Missing Persons

When a person is reported missing there are substantial costs for the individual, their family and society. This paper conceptualises the experience of missing persons episodes, through a public health approach. This then allows police, stakeholders and the community to engage in discussions about who is vulnerable to going missing by intervening in a way that addresses risk. Historically, a missing persons episode involves an absence, typically followed by police involvement in consultation with next of kin with establishing the whereabouts of the missing person being the primary focus. Yet, the risk factors of going missing relate more to the …

Reducing Community Violence While Protecting Civil Rights, Kami Chavis

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Utilitarian Public Policies On Minority Communities: A Comparison Of New York City And New South Wales, Australia., Nicholas Reyes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this thesis is to highlight and critique the ways in which utilitarianism manifests itself in comparative public policy. While public policy studies tend to focus on national levels, cities, and states can also be major sites of theoretical and policy formulation that are adopted globally. The moral ethics that are involved in public policy are especially important because these policies have a direct impact on society. Utilitarianism encompasses the logic of utility maximization: the ends justify the means and the idea that the moral ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the …

Crimes Of Suspicion, Lauryn P. Gouldin

Emory Law Journal

Requiring that officers have suspicion of specific crimes before they seize people during stops or arrests is a fundamental rule-of-law limitation on government power. Until very recently, the Supreme Court studiously avoided saying whether reasonable suspicion for street and traffic stops must be crime specific, and lower courts are sharply divided as a result. Statements made in Kansas v. Glover that the Fourth Amendment requires reasonable suspicion of a “particular crime” or of “specific criminal activity” may reflect an effort to rehabilitate this foundational principle, but crime specificity was not the Court’s focus in Glover. Meanwhile, Fourth Amendment scholars, even …

Helping The Helpers: The Role Of Organizational Support And Peer Influence On Police Officer Receptivity To Employee Assistance Programs, Kenneth Quick

Publications and Research

Purpose – This study aims to investigate critical differences between police officer willingness to use and recommend an employee assistance program (EAP) to a peer, including the relationship between officer perceptions of macro-level organizational support and micro-level EAP support.

Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 213 police officers from a large, urban police department in the Northeast United States of America is used to evaluate the relationship between officer perceptions of the EAP and the officers’ willingness to use and recommend the EAP to peers. Generalized linear regression models are used to evaluate the moderating effect of perceived organizational support (POS) …