Robert J. Kane

Pathways to career-ending police misconduct: an examination of patterns, timing, and organizational responses to officer malfeasance in the NYPD

Prior research has not sufficiently explained the various pathways that lead to career-ending misconduct among police officers, most notably the timing of misconduct in officers’ careers, whether certain factors are related to that timing, and whether the types of misdeeds vary over time. The current study seeks to address these questions through an examination of all officers separated from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for career-ending misconduct (n = 1,542) from 1975 to 1996 as well as a comparison sample of officers who served honorably during that same time (n = 1,543). The authors adopt a survival perspective using both Cox regression survival analysis and multinomial logistic regression. Results indicate that time to termination is a complex, long-term process with distinct patterns that emerge over police officers’ careers. A number of variables were significantly associated with time to termination across officer careers, such as officer race and prior criminal history, while others were significant only at certain career stages. For example, promotion only protected against termination early in an officer’s career, while military service was a predictor of misconduct only after 10 years of service. The article highlights the importance of selection screening “out and in” processes, as officers with red flags early in their careers were at greatest risk for dismissal. The results also suggest that police departments themselves play an important role in shaping the patterns and timing of officer misconduct. Moreover, the survival framework provides a foundation for a long-overdue dialogue on good policing.

TASER® Exposure and Cognitive Impairment

Research Summary This study reports findings from a randomized controlled trial that examined the effects of the TASER® (a conducted energy weapon sold by TASER International, Scottsdale, Arizona) on several dimensions of cognitive functioning. The research demonstrated that in a sample of healthy human volunteer participants, TASER exposure led to significant and substantial reductions in (a) short-term auditory recall and (b) abilities to assimilate new information through auditory processes. The effects lasted up to 1 hour for most subjects, almost all of whom returned to baseline 60 minutes postexposure. Policy Implications The study applies the findings of reduced cognitive functioning among healthy participants in a laboratory setting to criminal suspects in field settings and questions the abilities of “average” suspects to waive their Miranda rights knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily within 60 minutes of a TASER exposure. The study poses the question: What would it cost police to wait 60 minutes after a TASER deployment before engaging suspects in custodial interrogations?

Doing Research in Public Housing: Implementation Issues from Philadelphia's 11th Street Corridor Community Policing Program:

This paper presents a review of a community policing/community problem-solving program that was initiated on the 11th Street Corridor in North Philadelphia in 1996 and 1997. Herein, we forego a detailed outcome evaluation. Instead, our purpose is much more modest in that we attempt to provide those involved in public housing research and policy with a discussion of our experience with the implementation of the 11th Street Program. Specifically, we identify issues encountered throughout program implementation, and then comment on methods that other researchers, practitioners, and policymakers can adopt to circumvent such problems.

Associations Between Order Maintenance Policing and Violent Crime Considering the Mediating Effects of Residential Context

The present study examined the relationships between order maintenance arrests and violent crime across and within communities in a major metropolitan setting. Integrating the macro-deterrence and systemic model perspectives, the research tested the direct effects of vigorous disorder arrests on robbery and assault with a deadly weapon (i.e., violent street crime), as well as the interactive effects of Disorder Arrests × Residential Integration (mobility and owner-occupied dwelling) on violent crime. The research found no direct relationship between disorder arrests and violent crime, but it found that disorder arrests in conjunction with decreased residential integration was associated with violent crime reductions. The results suggest that police disorder arrests may produce the strongest violence reduction results in areas of decreased residential attachment; however, as residential integration increases, the effects of order maintenance arrests on violent crime diminish. The study discusses the implications for shared social control agency in communities, as well as future research directions.

Maintaining order under the rule of law: occupational templates and the police use of force

The present study develops a theoretical argument that research on police use offorce should begin to examine the phenomenon in terms of police occupational templates above and beyond the traditional escalation of force paradigm. Investigating police use of force through the lenses of occupational templates (e.g., the symbolic assailant and the asshole) may provide insight into the goals of police officers when they applied the force – i.e., whether they primarily wished to control suspects from a distance, or retaliate for an affront to their authority. The study uses an analytical strategy designed to examine a categorical use of force dependent variable, which relaxes the assumptions of rank-order, in an effort to distinguish different applications of force based on a set of independent variables. Though the data are severely limited, the study finds evidence that supports the use of occupational templates in the examination of use of force.

Deserts of Disadvantage: The Diffuse Effects of Structural Disadvantage on Violence in Urban Communities

We advance discussion of structural inequality by operationalizing “concentrated” disadvantage in terms of highly disadvantaged communities located at the spatial core of contiguous areas of high disadvantage, and by testing the extent to which such location achieves an independent effect on violence. Using exploratory spatial data analysis and count modeling, we show that highly disadvantaged communities located at the center of a contiguous ghetto have significantly higher rates of violence than other highly disadvantaged communities, but that this relationship is moderated by structural disadvantage. In addition to finding a significant interaction between these “deserts” of disadvantage and structural disadvantage, as they relate to violent crime, we also observe that in desert communities, disadvantage has a diminishing effect on violence.

TASER®Exposure and Cognitive Impairment: Implications for ValidMirandaWaivers and the Timing of Police Custodial Interrogations

Research Summary This study reports findings from a randomized controlled trial that examined the effects of the TASER® (a conducted energy weapon sold by TASER International, Scottsdale, Arizona) on several dimensions of cognitive functioning. The research demonstrated that in a sample of healthy human volunteer participants, TASER exposure led to significant and substantial reductions in (a) short-term auditory recall and (b) abilities to assimilate new information through auditory processes. The effects lasted up to 1 hour for most subjects, almost all of whom returned to baseline 60 minutes postexposure. Policy Implications The study applies the findings of reduced cognitive functioning among healthy participants in a laboratory setting to criminal suspects in field settings and questions the abilities of “average” suspects to waive their Miranda rights knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily within 60 minutes of a TASER exposure. The study poses the question: What would it cost police to wait 60 minutes after a TASER deployment before engaging suspects in custodial interrogations?

TASER® Exposure and Cognitive Impairment: Implications for Valid Miranda Waivers and the Timing of Police Custodial Interrogations Kane and White Taser Exposure and Cognitive Impairment

Research Summary This study reports findings from a randomized controlled trial that examined the effects of the TASER® (a conducted energy weapon sold by TASER International, Scottsdale, Arizona) on several dimensions of cognitive functioning. The research demonstrated that in a sample of healthy human volunteer participants, TASER exposure led to significant and substantial reductions in (a) short-term auditory recall and (b) abilities to assimilate new information through auditory processes. The effects lasted up to 1 hour for most subjects, almost all of whom returned to baseline 60 minutes postexposure. Policy Implications The study applies the findings of reduced cognitive functioning among healthy participants in a laboratory setting to criminal suspects in field settings and questions the abilities of “average” suspects to waive their Miranda rights knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily within 60 minutes of a TASER exposure. The study poses the question: What would it cost police to wait 60 minutes after a TASER deployment before engaging suspects in custodial interrogations?