NCJ Number
86875
Editor(s)
J J Fyfe
Date Published
1981
Length
167 pages
Annotation
Seven essays address two aspects of law enforcement in the 1980's: public dissatisfaction with police crime control effectiveness and ways to counter accusations of police brutality and insensitiveness. Topics considered include burglary prevention, proactive policing, reform within the FBI, and police use of deadly force.
Abstract
An analysis of burglary incidents in California concludes that police investigations and deployment may influence clearance rates far less significantly than crime prevention programs involving citizen participation. Discussions of proactive policing evaluate directed patrol programs in Pontiac, Mich. and the costs of arrests resulting from an officer's observations compared to those from calls. A review of accidents and scandals affecting the FBI between 1950 and 1979 suggests that the resulting reforms ultimately benefited the agency but ignored the fundamental issue of controlling its executive administration. Concerning police decisionmaking, one article surveys the literature on the symbolic assailant in the police work context and the psychology of forming judgments, questioning the ability of police to detect suspicious events accurately. The final two papers argue that statistics showing geographic variations in police shooting and minority disproportion among victims fail to explain why more blacks than whites are shot by police. Tables and references accompany the essays.