Casey LaFrance | Western Illinois University (original) (raw)
Papers by Casey LaFrance
Law enforcement executive forum, 2011
Law Enforcement Executive Forum, 2011
Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice
Abstract For decades, scholars have called for and investigated the effects of representative bur... more Abstract For decades, scholars have called for and investigated the effects of representative bureaucracy, with some scholars explaining that common lived experiences, or “subject positions” between street-level bureaucrats and community members might facilitate better communication that in turn could lead to consensus or shared meaning in discourse and behavior between these two groups. Building upon the theoretical scaffolding of the Target Model of discretion, our study uses self-reported survey data from 190 sworn officers in a large majority minority city in the southern United States to investigate the relationship between officer race and the priority Black and non-Black officers ascribe to community norms and expectations as influences on their decision-making processes. Our findings indicate that Black police officers in this city are significantly more likely than their non-Black counterparts to recognize community norms as a factor that influences their decisions, in line with the research hypothesis.
Public Administration, 2021
Throughout their careers, public servants often find that their agency’s rules are not always com... more Throughout their careers, public servants often find that their agency’s rules are not always compatible with the urges they feel, as professionals, in seeking an optimal outcome with a given client (Maynard-Moody & Musheno, 2003). Expressed in terms of Romzek and Dubnick’s (1987) accountability typology, this conflict occurs when professional accountability streams meet bureaucratic accountability streams in a worker’s decisionmaking process. While ubiquitous in many public agencies, this conflict has received notable attention in studies of law enforcement officers’ decisionmaking behaviors (Lipsky, 1980; Mastrofski, 2004; Maynard-Moody & Musheno, 2003; Oberweis & Musheno, 1999).
Using qualitative and quantitative data obtained from 30 interviews with local law enforcement ma... more Using qualitative and quantitative data obtained from 30 interviews with local law enforcement managers (12 county sheriffs and 18 municipal police chiefs), this study explores the decision-making processes used by these managers in the context of a pursuitrelated accident involving an innocent third party. My findings suggest that: (1) managers most often conduct internal investigations to ensure that their officers' behavior demonstrated adherence to the agency's standard operating procedures; (2) managers use multiple mechanisms, including consultations with legal actors and professional peers, to keep their pursuit policies updated with regard to case law; (3) policy restrictiveness shares a positive, but marginal, relationship with a manager's education level; (4) policy restrictiveness shares a negative, but marginal, relationship with a manager's total number of professional association memberships; and (5) policy restrictiveness shares a significant negative relationship with a manager's total years of law enforcement experience. Pursuit driving is one of the most captivating law enforcement behaviors in American popular culture. It is also one of the most easily recognizable situations in which public sector accountability and the phenomenon of multi-jurisdictional governance can be found. Consider, for instance, the Fox network's perennial run of World's Wildest Police Videos. Now in syndication, this show was essentially a compilation of agency-submitted videos showcasing police officers engaged in pursuits and other dangerous situations. Pursuits have also been fodder for news media reports, such as the recent piece written by journalist Lara Moore detailing her experience when a simple "ride-along" with Sgt. Cullen LaFrance of the Cumming, Georgia, Police Department turned into a "harrowing" police chase (Moore 2008), or the televised coverage of the 1993 O. J. Simpson pursuit spectacle. This can easily be seen as an issue to which scholars of social justice might attend, especially if one remembers that the infamous Rodney King beating was preceded by a pursuit. Surprisingly, scholarly attention to police pursuits has only developed recently. It is within this realm that pursuits have been most thoroughly scrutinized, and sometimes completely demonized. One might begin to question why police pursuits are so intriguing. Perhaps the
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2016
Career stage theory suggested that workers progress through career stages, each marked by unique ... more Career stage theory suggested that workers progress through career stages, each marked by unique work attitudes. Little evidence exists, however, about the influence career stages have on the work activities of criminal justice agents. Using a sample of 401 police officers from 23 individual police departments, the present study examined the influence of employee career stage on three measures of work productivity, and the constructs of expectancy motivation theory. The results revealed curvilinear declines in productivity with progression through the career stages. The predictive values of opportunity, ability, and instrumentality on work activities varied with career stage and type of work output. Only performance-reward expectancy retained predictive value across all career stages and outputs. The findings emphasize the importance of intrinsic and informal extrinsic rewards for the management of experienced criminal justice agents.
Policing, 2012
Abstract This article argues that investigations of policing in the USA may provide insights into... more Abstract This article argues that investigations of policing in the USA may provide insights into modes of accountability for the newly created office of elected Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in England and Wales, the political and administrative strategies PCCs will pursue, and the potential changes they will have on the structure of British policing. The shared structural feature of electoral selection is likely to introduce common elements to these two very functionally different offices. In four specific aspects of law ...
International Journal of Police Science & Management, 2011
As part of an ongoing research agenda exploring police discretion and accountability, I devised a... more As part of an ongoing research agenda exploring police discretion and accountability, I devised a diagnostic tool, the target model of discretion, aimed at comparing the discretionary priorities of top managers with the priorities of frontline workers. To test the efficacy of the target model as an organisation development tool, I conducted an analysis of intraorganisational communication between frontline officers and command staff members in a medium-sized Southern municipal police organisation. Specifically, top managers and frontline officers were asked to rate the amount of influence each of eight variables had on their use of discretion. This study is premised on the notion that effective communication within an agency would lead to reasonable similarities between the responses of those at the top and bottom of the organisation's hierarchy. The opposite proposition is also assumed. That is, in organisations with poor communication between levels, one would expect to see st...
International Journal of Police Science & Management, 2012
LaFrance and Placide found that a substantial majority of county sheriffs (10/12, or 83 per cent)... more LaFrance and Placide found that a substantial majority of county sheriffs (10/12, or 83 per cent) are likely to cooperate with the county legislative body during a budget crisis (LaFrance, T. C., & Placide, M. (2010). Sheriffs' and police chiefs' leadership and management decisions in the local law enforcement budgetary process: an exploration. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 12(2), 238–255). However, their study is plagued by a small sample size that does not allow for generalisability of their findings. Describing these limitations, the researchers ask for subsequent research with a larger number of cases. In this paper, this call is answered by proposing an identical scenario to a sample of 107 sheriffs in three states.
Law Enforcement Executive Forum, 2016
International Journal of Police Science & Management, 2014
For years, there has existed a gap in academic research on county sheriffs in their role in rural... more For years, there has existed a gap in academic research on county sheriffs in their role in rural law enforcement. However, the image of the county sheriff has been caricatured perennially on the silver screen, ie, in films. This study, rooted in cultivation theory, uses qualitative film analysis in an attempt to identify common themes and heuristics in media portrayals of the sheriff. After identifying these themes, we explore the implications of these portrayals for public perceptions of the sheriff as a professional law enforcement officer and as an elected official. We argue that the sheriff serves as a symbol of rural America — and conclude by discussing the implications of this phenomenon and how it might be ameliorated by more intense research focused on the sheriff.
Human Trafficking, 2012
Organization theory is bulging with literature that examines motivation as the crucial variable t... more Organization theory is bulging with literature that examines motivation as the crucial variable that managers must manipulate in order to receive acceptable levels of productivity from subordinates (McKnight, Cummings, & Chervany, 1998; Organ, 1988; Veiga, 1988). Typically, management literature emphasizes the need for supervisors to communicate their priorities to their workers (Suchman, 1995, p. 586). An added complexity within this relationship is the fact that some managers have different expectations for themselves ...
Law enforcement executive forum, 2011
Law Enforcement Executive Forum, 2011
Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice
Abstract For decades, scholars have called for and investigated the effects of representative bur... more Abstract For decades, scholars have called for and investigated the effects of representative bureaucracy, with some scholars explaining that common lived experiences, or “subject positions” between street-level bureaucrats and community members might facilitate better communication that in turn could lead to consensus or shared meaning in discourse and behavior between these two groups. Building upon the theoretical scaffolding of the Target Model of discretion, our study uses self-reported survey data from 190 sworn officers in a large majority minority city in the southern United States to investigate the relationship between officer race and the priority Black and non-Black officers ascribe to community norms and expectations as influences on their decision-making processes. Our findings indicate that Black police officers in this city are significantly more likely than their non-Black counterparts to recognize community norms as a factor that influences their decisions, in line with the research hypothesis.
Public Administration, 2021
Throughout their careers, public servants often find that their agency’s rules are not always com... more Throughout their careers, public servants often find that their agency’s rules are not always compatible with the urges they feel, as professionals, in seeking an optimal outcome with a given client (Maynard-Moody & Musheno, 2003). Expressed in terms of Romzek and Dubnick’s (1987) accountability typology, this conflict occurs when professional accountability streams meet bureaucratic accountability streams in a worker’s decisionmaking process. While ubiquitous in many public agencies, this conflict has received notable attention in studies of law enforcement officers’ decisionmaking behaviors (Lipsky, 1980; Mastrofski, 2004; Maynard-Moody & Musheno, 2003; Oberweis & Musheno, 1999).
Using qualitative and quantitative data obtained from 30 interviews with local law enforcement ma... more Using qualitative and quantitative data obtained from 30 interviews with local law enforcement managers (12 county sheriffs and 18 municipal police chiefs), this study explores the decision-making processes used by these managers in the context of a pursuitrelated accident involving an innocent third party. My findings suggest that: (1) managers most often conduct internal investigations to ensure that their officers' behavior demonstrated adherence to the agency's standard operating procedures; (2) managers use multiple mechanisms, including consultations with legal actors and professional peers, to keep their pursuit policies updated with regard to case law; (3) policy restrictiveness shares a positive, but marginal, relationship with a manager's education level; (4) policy restrictiveness shares a negative, but marginal, relationship with a manager's total number of professional association memberships; and (5) policy restrictiveness shares a significant negative relationship with a manager's total years of law enforcement experience. Pursuit driving is one of the most captivating law enforcement behaviors in American popular culture. It is also one of the most easily recognizable situations in which public sector accountability and the phenomenon of multi-jurisdictional governance can be found. Consider, for instance, the Fox network's perennial run of World's Wildest Police Videos. Now in syndication, this show was essentially a compilation of agency-submitted videos showcasing police officers engaged in pursuits and other dangerous situations. Pursuits have also been fodder for news media reports, such as the recent piece written by journalist Lara Moore detailing her experience when a simple "ride-along" with Sgt. Cullen LaFrance of the Cumming, Georgia, Police Department turned into a "harrowing" police chase (Moore 2008), or the televised coverage of the 1993 O. J. Simpson pursuit spectacle. This can easily be seen as an issue to which scholars of social justice might attend, especially if one remembers that the infamous Rodney King beating was preceded by a pursuit. Surprisingly, scholarly attention to police pursuits has only developed recently. It is within this realm that pursuits have been most thoroughly scrutinized, and sometimes completely demonized. One might begin to question why police pursuits are so intriguing. Perhaps the
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2016
Career stage theory suggested that workers progress through career stages, each marked by unique ... more Career stage theory suggested that workers progress through career stages, each marked by unique work attitudes. Little evidence exists, however, about the influence career stages have on the work activities of criminal justice agents. Using a sample of 401 police officers from 23 individual police departments, the present study examined the influence of employee career stage on three measures of work productivity, and the constructs of expectancy motivation theory. The results revealed curvilinear declines in productivity with progression through the career stages. The predictive values of opportunity, ability, and instrumentality on work activities varied with career stage and type of work output. Only performance-reward expectancy retained predictive value across all career stages and outputs. The findings emphasize the importance of intrinsic and informal extrinsic rewards for the management of experienced criminal justice agents.
Policing, 2012
Abstract This article argues that investigations of policing in the USA may provide insights into... more Abstract This article argues that investigations of policing in the USA may provide insights into modes of accountability for the newly created office of elected Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in England and Wales, the political and administrative strategies PCCs will pursue, and the potential changes they will have on the structure of British policing. The shared structural feature of electoral selection is likely to introduce common elements to these two very functionally different offices. In four specific aspects of law ...
International Journal of Police Science & Management, 2011
As part of an ongoing research agenda exploring police discretion and accountability, I devised a... more As part of an ongoing research agenda exploring police discretion and accountability, I devised a diagnostic tool, the target model of discretion, aimed at comparing the discretionary priorities of top managers with the priorities of frontline workers. To test the efficacy of the target model as an organisation development tool, I conducted an analysis of intraorganisational communication between frontline officers and command staff members in a medium-sized Southern municipal police organisation. Specifically, top managers and frontline officers were asked to rate the amount of influence each of eight variables had on their use of discretion. This study is premised on the notion that effective communication within an agency would lead to reasonable similarities between the responses of those at the top and bottom of the organisation's hierarchy. The opposite proposition is also assumed. That is, in organisations with poor communication between levels, one would expect to see st...
International Journal of Police Science & Management, 2012
LaFrance and Placide found that a substantial majority of county sheriffs (10/12, or 83 per cent)... more LaFrance and Placide found that a substantial majority of county sheriffs (10/12, or 83 per cent) are likely to cooperate with the county legislative body during a budget crisis (LaFrance, T. C., & Placide, M. (2010). Sheriffs' and police chiefs' leadership and management decisions in the local law enforcement budgetary process: an exploration. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 12(2), 238–255). However, their study is plagued by a small sample size that does not allow for generalisability of their findings. Describing these limitations, the researchers ask for subsequent research with a larger number of cases. In this paper, this call is answered by proposing an identical scenario to a sample of 107 sheriffs in three states.
Law Enforcement Executive Forum, 2016
International Journal of Police Science & Management, 2014
For years, there has existed a gap in academic research on county sheriffs in their role in rural... more For years, there has existed a gap in academic research on county sheriffs in their role in rural law enforcement. However, the image of the county sheriff has been caricatured perennially on the silver screen, ie, in films. This study, rooted in cultivation theory, uses qualitative film analysis in an attempt to identify common themes and heuristics in media portrayals of the sheriff. After identifying these themes, we explore the implications of these portrayals for public perceptions of the sheriff as a professional law enforcement officer and as an elected official. We argue that the sheriff serves as a symbol of rural America — and conclude by discussing the implications of this phenomenon and how it might be ameliorated by more intense research focused on the sheriff.
Human Trafficking, 2012
Organization theory is bulging with literature that examines motivation as the crucial variable t... more Organization theory is bulging with literature that examines motivation as the crucial variable that managers must manipulate in order to receive acceptable levels of productivity from subordinates (McKnight, Cummings, & Chervany, 1998; Organ, 1988; Veiga, 1988). Typically, management literature emphasizes the need for supervisors to communicate their priorities to their workers (Suchman, 1995, p. 586). An added complexity within this relationship is the fact that some managers have different expectations for themselves ...
"Within the pages of Targeting Discretion: A Guide for Command Staff, Frontline Officers, and Stu... more "Within the pages of Targeting Discretion: A Guide for Command Staff, Frontline Officers, and Students, Dr. Casey LaFrance introduces his Target Model of Discretion, intended for utilization when addressing the multifaceted nature of discretion within the police force. The Target Model of Discretion is designed for use in practical, real-life situations that occur in law enforcement as well as by scholars who wish to analyze the factors which influence staff and officers when implementing discretion. Based on extensive consultations with individuals within various police agencies, LaFrance developed the Target Model of Discretion to help identify and improve communication issues between agency rank levels. Targeting Discretion goes beyond scholarly research and theory to offer step-by-step instructions and hypothetical scenarios for critical thinking exercises, opening a dialogue that can continue to develop beyond the text."