Reforming 'pattern-or-practice' police reform: what works, what does not, and where we need to go (original) (raw)
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, and seminar participants at Chicago, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale for extremely helpful conversations and comments. Financial Support from the Smith Richardson Foundation and the Equality of Opportunity Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.
Affairs "They're riding us hard and putting us away wet," quipped a veteran Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) area captain, likening his job to the poor treatment some horses get after a hard race. By all accounts, William J. Bratton, who became chief in 2002, is riding the department hard. As soon as he landed in Los Angeles from New York, Bratton launched an allout effort to reduce crime using electronic data to map and analyze crime patterns, and deploying police to hot spots. By most measures he is succeeding as violent crime has dropped 40 percent between 2002 and 2006 while it has increased slightly nationally. But, are there costs to such a harddriving crime suppression strategy? What does it portend for developing bottomup leadership throughout a large police department and sustaining it? What can be learned from examining the management strategies of past chiefs of police? The Research Agenda Before answering the questions let me say a few words about my own research so the reader can understand my viewpoint. I have spent the last 20 years conducting action research modeled on the work of social psychologist Kurt Lewin. While working inside industrial organizations, labor unions, schools, colleges, and the Los Angeles Police Department, I learned what Lewin had discovered a halfcentury earlier: That the action an organization takes to solve a problem produces new understanding. Lewin once remarked, "If you want truly to understand something, try to change it." By working collaboratively with employees in these organizations, my research teams and I learned about problems in their context, gained deep access and insights into the organizations, and became participants in the solutions. We confirmed one of Lewin's key observations-that a community of individuals who collaborate in identifying problems and their solutions helps an organization develop a heightened consciousness. The knowledge that we produced was not only useful to the organizations, but from it we developed new conceptions of organizational change for the larger research community and for the public.
Police Reform by the Numbers: Will it Work?
Ucla School of Public Affairs, 2007
Affairs "They're riding us hard and putting us away wet," quipped a veteran Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) area captain, likening his job to the poor treatment some horses get after a hard race. By all accounts, William J. Bratton, who became chief in 2002, is riding the department hard. As soon as he landed in Los Angeles from New York, Bratton launched an allout effort to reduce crime using electronic data to map and analyze crime patterns, and deploying police to hot spots. By most measures he is succeeding as violent crime has dropped 40 percent between 2002 and 2006 while it has increased slightly nationally. But, are there costs to such a harddriving crime suppression strategy? What does it portend for developing bottomup leadership throughout a large police department and sustaining it? What can be learned from examining the management strategies of past chiefs of police? The Research Agenda Before answering the questions let me say a few words about my own research so the reader can understand my viewpoint. I have spent the last 20 years conducting action research modeled on the work of social psychologist Kurt Lewin. While working inside industrial organizations, labor unions, schools, colleges, and the Los Angeles Police Department, I learned what Lewin had discovered a halfcentury earlier: That the action an organization takes to solve a problem produces new understanding. Lewin once remarked, "If you want truly to understand something, try to change it." By working collaboratively with employees in these organizations, my research teams and I learned about problems in their context, gained deep access and insights into the organizations, and became participants in the solutions. We confirmed one of Lewin's key observations-that a community of individuals who collaborate in identifying problems and their solutions helps an organization develop a heightened consciousness. The knowledge that we produced was not only useful to the organizations, but from it we developed new conceptions of organizational change for the larger research community and for the public.
Changing the Game: A Sociological Perspective on Police Reform
Policing in an Age of Reform, 2021
This chapter examines the sociological roots of the current problems in contemporary policing. Employing Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus, capital, and doxa the chapter begins by highlighting the cultural mechanisms that maintain and reproduce ineffective policing practices. In an example from Wilmington, Delaware in the United States, the authors show how the 'game' on the field of policing focusses primarily on law enforcement outputs. This game shapes the worldview and dispositions of officers (habitus). Police officers are recognised and rewarded (capital) for acting in ways that align with the game's logic. This process creates the condition doxa, in which the socially constructed and changeable field of policing is mistaken for natural way it should be. This chapter also considers why perspectives on police reform diverge and what this means for the future of policing in an age of reform.
Calls for Defunding, Dismantling or Abolishing the Police Miss the Mark on Police Reform
Modern Diplomacy, 2020
After George Floyd was brutally killed by the police, several solutions were suggested as a response to the police excessive force. An accurate diagnosis of the problem is needed before an appropriate solution can be developed. To do otherwise could make a bad situation even worse. Rather than rushing to defund police departments, the root of the problem should be diagnosed first, followed by a discussion of alternative solutions that get to the heart of the problem. An important question to ask is: Where does the problem originate? Possible answers range from officer recruitment and training to police department organizational policies and police (sub) culture.