Kenneth J. Novak

Exploring the Basis of Citizens’ Attitudes Toward the Police

During the past 20 years, there has been an expanding body of research examining citizens’ attitudes toward the police. Most of this research has been directed at assessing the determinants of these attitudes. In contrast, less attention has been focused on the reasons why citizens hold certain attitudes. The present study uses the survey responses of 613 residents of a midwestern city to examine the information accessed by citizens when responding to questions regarding their general and specific attitudes toward the police. The findings suggest that citizens focus on attributes of agencies and encounters, some focus on the behavior of officers during interactions, and others base their attitudes on general perceptions of the occupation of policing. Furthermore, the referent employed by citizens is not always consistent with the attitude object (i.e., general questions elicit specific responses). The likelihood that police agencies can influence citizens’ attitudes is also assessed.

Disparity and Racial Profiling in Traffic Enforcement

Although prior research on racial profiling has consistently reported that minorities are overrepresented among traffic stops compared with the population, published research has been exclusively conducted in either large police departments or state highway patrols. Using research from a suburban police department, this study finds that although the police stop a disproportionate number of minorities, the relationship between race and the decision to stop is very weak. Multivariate models indicate minorities stopped by the police are more likely to be stopped at night and to reside outside the city. Minorities are significantly less likely to receive formal sanction than majorities, suggesting officers are using traffic violations for pretextual stops.

The effects of aggressive policing of disorder on serious crime

This paper adds to a growing body of research which explores the relationship between aggressive police strategies and serious crime. For one month, police enforced disorder crime in a small section of one community. An interrupted time series analysis was utilized to evaluate the effects of this intervention on robbery and aggravated burglary in a target area and a control area. The strategy was found to be unrelated to levels of aggravated burglary and robbery in the target area. There was no spatial displacement of crime. Explanations for the findings are offered.

Disentangling the influence of suspects' demeanor and mental disorder on arrest

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors that influence officer behavior when encountering suspects of crime who are perceived to have a mental disorder.Design/methodology/approach – This paper utilizes data collected from systematic social observations of street officers during 617 encounters with suspects, including 49 that were perceived to have a mental disorder. Multivariate models are estimated to determine the relative influence mental disorder has on officer decision making.Findings – The paper finds mentally disordered suspects are more likely to demonstrate disrespectful or hostile behavior. The paper also finds that disrespect and hostility increases the likelihood of arrests. However, results also demonstrate that despite behavioral differences, persons with mental disorders are significantly less likely to be arrested by officers. Results support the contention that officers view mental status as a mitigating factor during encounters, and further calls in to question t...

Racial Threat, Suspicion, and Police Behavior The Impact of Race and Place in Traffic Enforcement

Racial bias in traffic enforcement has become a popular line of inquiry, but examinations into explanations for the disparity have been scant. The current research integrates theoretical insights from the racial threat hypothesis with inferences drawn from the empirical analyses of the factors that stimulate officer suspicion. The most intriguing finding from this beat-level examination of the structural predictors of several traffic stop outcome measures concerns the conditional effect of the racial composition of the beat on search rates. The analyses reveal that the search rate increases in areas where the proportion of Black residents is higher; however, this finding is observed only for White motorists. This finding is interpreted as indicating that structural characteristics of an area can provide cues to officers regarding who belongs in that environment. As a result, social control increases among groups whose racial characteristics are inconsistent with the neighborhood racial composition.

Community Policing and the Work Routines of Street-Level Officers

Most of the literature on community policing suggests, either implicitly or explicitly, that the daily activities of community police officers will differ from the activities traditionally engaged in by police officers. The majority of studies examining officer work routines were conducted prior to the rapid proliferation of community policing throughout police departments in the United States. Any attempt to determine the nature and extent of community policing needs to include an examination of the daily activities of line-level personnel charged with its implementation. The current study, using systematic social observation data, provides a description and comparison of the work routines of both community-oriented and traditional police officers in a city implementing community-oriented policing. Many of the findings are similar to those of previous workload studies. However, the findings also indicate that community officers devoted significantly more time to nontraditional policing activities than beat officers. Further, 911 beat officers spent significantly more time engaged in traditional policing activities than community officers.

Multijurisdictional drug task forces An analysis of impacts

Abstract In the past decade, municipal police organizations have devoted significant resources toward drug enforcement. One popular strategy in addressing the American drug problem is the formulation of multijurisdictional drug task forces. Despite their popularity, the impact of these cooperative ventures on law enforcement agencies has not been adequately evaluated. The research reported here examined the effect of membership in a drug enforcement task force on levels of drug enforcement outputs and perceptions of effectiveness by comparing law enforcement agencies participating in drug task forces to agencies which do not participate. Results suggest that task force membership impacts perceptions, but does not appear to influence objective measures of drug enforcement outputs.

The Decision to Search: Is Race or Ethnicity Important?

This manuscript examines police officer decision making during automobile stops to determine whether Black and Hispanic drivers are searched at parity with nonminorities, with particular focus on officers’ legal authority to search and controlling for other explanatory factors. Using data collected by a large Midwestern police department, we observe Blacks are overrepresented among searches overall and among searches involving greater officer discretion to search. However, neither race nor ethnic effects were observed after introducing other explanatory variables into multivariate models, suggesting factors other than minority status provide greater understanding of officers’ decision making. Results indicate minorities are differentially involved in searches because police engage minorities under characteristics consistent with searches. This suggests that it is the social context of the stop, rather than the race or ethnicity of the driver, that primarily influences searches.

Social Altruism, Tax Policy, and Crime: A Cautionary Tale

This present investigation, drawing on social altruism theory, considers the feasibility of manipulating the federal tax code to reduce the level of crime across macro-social units. The OLS regression analyses of state level data reveal that the ratio of tax deductible contributions to the total number of returns is positively related to violent, and to a lesser extent property, crime rates. The implications of these findings for social theory and social policy are discussed.

An Examination of the Productivity and Perceived Effectiveness of Drug Task Forces

Multijurisdictional drug task forces formalize cooperative ventures and dedi cate attention to drug crime with the assumption that such will lead to more effective drug law enforcement. This improvement in drug enforcement is hypothesized to benefit the task forces not only in the number of drug arrests achieved, but also in enhanced communication and cooperation among in dividual members. Using data collected from a survey of task force leaders, grant applications and quarterly arrest reports, this study compares effective ness across task forces and organizational contexts. Findings indicate that differences in task force organizational structure, context and managerial fac tors may not affect the number of drug-related arrests, though they may influence the level of perceived effectiveness.