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Chanin, J. M. (2015). Examining the sustainability of pattern or practice police misconduct reform. Police Quarterly, 18(2), 163–192.

Section 14141 of the Violent Crime Act of 1994 fundamentally restructures the regulation of police behavior in the United States. Since the law’s passage, dozens of police departments have undergone lengthy and complex reforms designed to eliminate a pattern or practice of misconduct. Despite the program’s wide application, neither scholars nor practitioners know much about the efficacy or sustainability of these reforms. This article draws on longitudinal data across several outcome metrics, including citizen complaints, use of force incidence, and civil litigation, and a series of interviews with key stakeholders to examine pattern or practice initiatives in Pittsburgh, PA; Washington, DC; and Cincinnati, OH. Findings suggest that the reform process has the ability to minimize unwanted police misconduct and generate desirable policy outcomes, particularly during the period of Department of Justice oversight. Sustaining these reforms after the settlement agreement is dissolved, however, has proved a challenge.

Questions to Consider:

1. Given the resistance to externally imposed change by rank-and-file employees and the difficulties in sustaining reforms over time, how can officers (the operating core) be encouraged to see the need for change on their own without succumbing to fear, anxiety, custom, or other inhibitors?
    

Gau, J. M. (2013). Consent searches as a threat to procedural justice and police legitimacy: An analysis of consent requests during traffic stops. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 24(6), 759–777.

Abstract: Consent searches during traffic stops offer police a way to expediently check motorists’ vehicles for contraband. Asking drivers for consent to search their vehicles, however, may cause them to feel negatively about the encounter and, consequently, to question officers’ motives for pulling them over. The present study analyzes stopped motorists’ reactions to consent requests; specifically, consent requests are theorized to damage these individuals’ perceptions of procedural justice and, moreover, of the legitimacy of the stop itself. Logistic regression analyses of a nationally representative sample support these hypotheses. Policy implications include the need for judicious use of consent searches, as they appear to be a form of procedural injustice that erodes police legitimacy.

Questions to Consider:

1. Police officers sometimes stop drivers for traffic-related infractions even though their real interest is investigating some type of criminal conduct. In this case, the traffic stop serves as a pretext for the investigation. Asking for consent to search only furthers that investigatory goal. Should greater restrictions be placed on pretextual stops? Why, or why not?
    

Payne, B. K. (2006). Weapon bias: Split-second decisions and unintended stereotyping. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(6), 287–291.

Abstract: Race stereotypes can lead people to claim to see a weapon where there is none. Split-second decisions magnify the bias by limiting people’s ability to control responses. Such a bias could have important consequences for decision making by police officers and other authorities interacting with racial minorities. The bias requires no intentional racial animus, occurring even for those who are actively trying to avoid it. This research thus raises difficult questions about intent and responsibility for racially biased errors.

Questions to Consider:

1. Would it be reasonable to administer a test like the one addressed in the article (or the Implicit Association Test) to potential police recruits and eliminate applicants with documented implicit biases? Why, or why not? Would results suggesting the presence of bias automatically identify an individual as a bad police officer or, more generally, a bad person? Explain.