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The present study examines a range of police force on the continuum (firearms, TASER/chemical spray and physical force) to see whether they are associated with individual (subject and officer), situational and/or neighborhood factors.

A partial proportional odds model is used to analyze police use of force data from 2003 to 2016 in Dallas. Independent variables are allowed for varying effects across the different cumulative dichotomizations of the dependent variable (firearms vs TASER/chemical spray and physical force and firearms and TASER/chemical spray vs physical force).

Most officer demographic and situational factors are consistently significant across the cumulative dichotomizations of police force. In addition, suspect race/ethnicity (Hispanic) and violent crime rates play significant roles when officers make decisions to use firearms, as opposed to TASER/chemical spray and physical force. Overall, situational variables (subject gun possession and contact types) play greater roles than other variables in affecting police use of force.

Despite the large body of police use of force research, little to no research has used the partial proportional odds model to examine the ordinal nature of police force from physical to intermediate to deadly force. The current findings can provide important implications for policy and research.

The past five years have seen a growth in studies of police body-worn cameras (BWCs). A large share of the research focused on individual officer attitudes toward these new law enforcement tools. The scholarship, however, focused almost exclusively on their positive and negative perceptions of body cameras or correlations between those attitudes and general officer characteristics. This study examined whether the influence of negative or “concerning” policing attitudes toward body cameras is mediated by other variables, such as officer outlooks toward law enforcement, officers' perceptions of citizen cooperation or their opinions of the public.

An online survey was distributed to a convenience sample of police offices from two Northeastern police agencies.

Findings indicate that the relationship between experience and concerning perceptions of body cameras is mediated by distrust in citizens and perceived civilian cooperation. Further, an office's outlooks regarding aggressive law enforcement tactics do not have a direct effect on concerning perceptions of body cameras, nor do they serve as a mediator between years of experience and concerning perceptions of body cameras.

Findings uncover the nuance and complexity of studying and understanding police officer outlooks and perceptions of BWCs. Future experimental designs should include general outlook measures.

The present study examines the risk of citizens encountering police use of intermediate and deadly force, as opposed to using physical force, given a set of individual, situational and neighborhood variables.

The study uses data from 2003 to 2016 in the Dallas Open Data Portal. Two-level multinomial logistic regression is used to analyze the data.

The effects of citizen race differ across the types of police force. Overall, citizen race plays no significant role in the officer's decision to shoot firearms at citizens. However, there is evidence of intra-racial disparity in officer-involved shootings (OISs) between Hispanic citizens and officers. African American citizens are disproportionately exposed to display-but-don't shoot incidents, while Hispanic citizens have a lower risk of encountering police use of intermediate weapons.

The study helps to understand how citizen and officer race influence and interact across various types of police force. Implications of the results are offered in relation to relevant literature.

Active shooter incidents have risen considerably in recent years, elevating public and law enforcement focus on improving response to these incidents. The contemporary policy for reacting to an active shooter event is for the officers who first arrive on the scene to move quickly to engage and neutralize a shooter, prioritizing victim safety and minimizing loss of life. This study provides a preliminary understanding of the police view regarding their role in active shooter events and their experiences with active shooter training.

We conducted a survey of 413 sworn personnel across three US cities. Analyses examine differences in officers’ training experiences across the agencies and predictors of a sense of duty to prioritize victims’ lives over that of officers.

Officers’ training experiences differed by agency, yet most officers supported a duty to sacrifice their lives to prioritize victims’ safety during active shooter incidents. Officers with more years of experience have lower odds of supporting a duty to sacrifice their lives to save victims during an active shooter situation relative to less experienced officers. Respondents who recall officer safety among the top three most memorable topics from their recent active shooter training also have lower odds of supporting a duty to sacrifice.

The authors add knowledge about police officers’ experiences with active shooter training and officers’ opinions about their role in responding to active shooter incidents. We discuss implications of the findings relative to police culture and training and suggest directions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to compare two conflicting theoretical frameworks that predict or explain police decision making. Klinger's ecological theory proposes that an increased level of serious crimes in an area decreases the likelihood an officer will deal with order‐maintenance issues, while Fagan and Davies suggest an increase in low‐level disorder will increase order maintenance behavior of police officers.

Using a vignette research design, the authors examines factors that may contribute to police officers’ decision to make a traffic stop in four jurisdictions with varying levels of serious crime. Ordered logistic regression with robust standard errors was used in the analysis.

Analysis of the findings demonstrates that officers who work in higher crime areas are less likely to stop a vehicle, as described in the vignettes. Additional predictors of police decision to stop include vehicles driven by teenaged drivers and drivers who were speeding in a vehicle.

The current research is limited to an adequate but fairly small sample size (n=204), and research design that examines hypothetical scenarios of police decision making. Further data collection across different agencies with more officers and more variation in crime levels is necessary to extend the current findings.

This paper adds to the literature in two primary ways. First, it compares two competing theoretical claims to examine a highly discretionary form of police behavior and second, it uniquely uses a vignette research design to tap into an area of police behavior that is difficult to study (e.g. the decision not to stop).

Early research assumed there was a ubiquitous police culture that resisted change and outsiders. Recent scholarship questions this assumption, but most of the studies focussed on the attitudes of street-level police officers. This study examined the attitudes of police supervisors toward the use of volunteers in policing. The purpose of this paper is to examine general police attitudes held by police supervisors within the context of the use of volunteers in policing.

Surveys were distributed to over 400 police supervisors attending the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Academy (NA) program. Items used to measure general police attitudes were borrowed from the Project on Policing Neighborhood study. These items were submitted to a factor analysis and three general police attitudes were identified (expectations for citizen involvement, expectations for order maintenance, and expectations for aggressive law enforcement). Other items were constructed to measures several aspects of using volunteers in policing. While the respondents are a convenience sample of police supervisors, they represent police agencies of various size, location, and type.

Expectations for citizen involvement and order maintenance were significantly related to each of the volunteerism variables in ways that suggest openness if not acceptance to the use of volunteers in policing. These results were seen in the bivariate correlations and were sustained in the regression analysis. Police supervisors with an expectation of aggressive law enforcement, however, were not related to any volunteer measures.

The sample of police supervisors is a convenience sample of supervisors attending the FBI's NA, and it is likely that the results are not what would be expected from a random sample of police supervisors. Also, the survey instrument offered limited space for items, thus restricting the attitude questions that could be included. Still, these data from a nationwide sample of police supervisors lends support to the body of scholarship questioning the existence of a universal police culture where all police officers see the world the same way.

There is a distinct lack of empirical research focussing on police supervisors, and what is available is limited in sample size and generalizability. This study can shed additional light on the salience of a pervasive and singular police culture. Further, an understanding of the attitudes of the police supervisors toward the use of volunteers in policing can be applied to other agencies that want to improve or implement a volunteer program.

The purpose of this research is to examine ritualistic humor or joking that exists in a small, rural police department in Western New York.

Data were collected through participatory observations and interviews during the summer of 2014. Both authors worked in tandem to capitalize on individual expertise to maximize data collection and analyses.

Results suggest that humor is leveraged by officers to socialize, cope and demarcate authority. Depending on the circumstance, humor can be orchestrated or spontaneous, given the intentions of the officer.

Humor is an important lens through which to view police behavior. The current research underscores the importance of levity as a gauge of organizational and individual health.

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.