A fascinating and well-written book by an established researcher in the field. Alpert treats problems faced by police in rapidly changing multiethnic communities such as Miami-Dade County, the locus of the study. The focus on the relationship of informal and formal social control systems provides more insight into the vicissitudes of ethnic neighborhoods and their support of the police than might ever be gained from hours of Miami Vice. The book offers sociohistorical background material, conceptual and analytical frameworks, methods, data, analysis, and data interpretation. Alpert finds that neither police nor members of black communities perceived the degree of congruence in these areas with policing reported for Cuban and Anglo communities. Residence in specific neighborhoods was more significant than ethnicity or gender in perceptions of policing. . . . Excellent bibliography. Upper-division undergraduates and above. Choice In the past twenty-five years, the Miami metropolitan area has undergone a dramatic ethnic transformation that has brought with it complex challenges to the existing social order. The study grew out of an attempt to find workable and effective solutions to the problems faced by the area's police force in the wake of serious rioting and conflict between the populace and police. Alpert and Dunham argue that only by understanding the various ethnic groups' attitudes toward police and policing can beneficial means of maintaining order and controlling crime be planned and implemented. In developing their argument, the authors introduce the concepts of neighborhood as a conceptual and analytical unit, and they construct an interaction model that focuses on the interplay between the informal system of social control within the neighborhoods and the formal system of social control of the police.

Police strategies often develop from custom and practice without guidance from empirical research. Police officers often make their decisions based upon information and tactics with which they are the most familiar and comfortable. Choosing between available strategies and other alternatives can be improved through research and evaluation. One area of policing in which this is especially true is pursuit driving, which may be the deadliest weapon in a police officer's arsenal. Using the analogy between improper use of firearms and improper pursuit driving, Alpert and Dunham analyze the police car as a potentially dangerous weapon. The book is based upon information gathered over several years in Dade County (Miami), Florida. Included are the details of deaths, injuries, and property damage. Also reported are the arrests and apprehensions of felony suspects. The data are presented not to scare citizens, but to assist them, members of the law enforcement community, and politicians to understand more clearly the role of pursuit in policing and crime control. Pursuit needs to be discussed as a deterrent and crime-fighting strategy, and felony arrests resulting from successful pursuit must be included to compute a cost-benefit analysis. By offering a view of police pursuit that has been heretofore unavailable, the authors hope their empirical data will replace unsupported opinion and media sensationalism as information on which to create or modify pursuit policies and legal standards.

Whenever police officers come into contact with citizens there is a chance that the encounter will digress to one in which force is used on a suspect. Fortunately, most police activities do not involve the use of force. But those that do reflect important patterns of interaction between the officer and the citizen. This book examines those patterns. It begins with a brief survey of prior research, and then goes on to present data and findings. Among the data are the force factor applied - that is, the level of force used relative to suspect resistance - and data on the sequential order of incidents of force. The authors also examine police use of force from the suspect's perspective. In analyzing this data they put forward a conceptual framework, the Authority Maintenance Theory, for examining and assessing police use of force.

Provides a critical understanding and evaluation of police tactics and the use of force Police violence has historically played an important role in shaping public attitudes toward the government. Community trust and confidence in policing have been undermined by the perception that officers are using force unnecessarily, too frequently, or in problematic ways. The use of force, or harm suffered by a community as a result of such force, can also serve as a flashpoint, a spark that ignites long-simmering community hostility. In Evaluating Police Uses of Force, legal scholar Seth W. Stoughton, former deputy chief of police Jeffrey J. Noble, and distinguished criminologist Geoffrey P. Alpert explore a critical but largely overlooked facet of the difficult and controversial issues of police violence and accountability: how does society evaluate use-of-force incidents? By leading readers through answers to this question from four different perspectives-constitutional law, state law, administrative regulation, and community expectations-and by providing critical information about police tactics and force options that are implicated within those frameworks, Evaluating Police Uses of Force helps situate readers within broader conversations about governmental accountability, the role that police play in modern society, and how officers should go about fulfilling their duties.

This Brief discusses methods to develop and maintain police - researcher partnerships. First, the authors provide information that will be useful to police managers and researchers who are interested in creating and maintaining partnerships to conduct research, work together to improve policing and help others understand the linkages between the two groups. Then, more specifically, they describe how police managers consider and utilize research in policing and criminal justice and its findings from a management perspective in both the United States and Australia. While both countries experience similar issues of trust, acceptance, utility, and accountability between researchers and practitioners, the experiences in the countries differ. In the United States with 17,000 agencies, the use of research findings by police agencies requires understanding, diffusion and acceptance. In Australia with a small number of larger agencies, the problems of research-practitioner partnerships have different translational issues, including acceptance and application. As long as police practitioners and academic researchers hold distinct and different impressions of each other, the likelihood of positive, cooperative, and sustainable agreements between them will suffer.

Police pursuits, often receiving a lot of media attention, have become a topic of concern and priority for both law enforcement and the communities they serve. They often come with high risks for the well-being of community members and for both the police officers involved in the chase as well as for the fleeing suspects. In this brief, we summarize what is known about police pursuits, from both legal decisions and criminological research. We then discuss the impact of this research on police pursuit policy, court decisions, and media reports. We offer suggestions about the need for more development and use of research, and the challenges for research to be integrated into police policies, training, supervision and accountability systems.

Provides a critical understanding and evaluation of police tactics and the use of force Police violence has historically played an important role in shaping public attitudes toward the government. Community trust and confidence in policing have been undermined by the perception that officers are using force unnecessarily, too frequently, or in problematic ways. The use of force, or harm suffered by a community as a result of such force, can also serve as a flashpoint, a spark that ignites long-simmering community hostility. In Evaluating Police Uses of Force, legal scholar Seth W. Stoughton, former deputy chief of police Jeffrey J. Noble, and distinguished criminologist Geoffrey P. Alpert explore a critical but largely overlooked facet of the difficult and controversial issues of police violence and accountability: how does society evaluate use-of-force incidents? By leading readers through answers to this question from four different perspectives-constitutional law, state law, administrative regulation, and community expectations-and by providing critical information about police tactics and force options that are implicated within those frameworks, Evaluating Police Uses of Force helps situate readers within broader conversations about governmental accountability, the role that police play in modern society, and how officers should go about fulfilling their duties.

Whenever police officers come into contact with citizens there is a chance that the encounter will digress to one in which force is used on a suspect. Fortunately, most police activities do not involve the use of force. But those that do reflect important patterns of interaction between the officer and the citizen. This book examines those patterns. It begins with a brief survey of prior research, and then goes on to present data and findings. Among the data are the force factor applied - that is, the level of force used relative to suspect resistance - and data on the sequential order of incidents of force. The authors also examine police use of force from the suspect's perspective. In analyzing this data they put forward a conceptual framework, the Authority Maintenance Theory, for examining and assessing police use of force.