NCJ Number
184441
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Dated: July-August 2000 Pages: 313-324
Date Published
July 2000
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Interviews with 169 residents of 3 neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., gathered information about citizen assessments of black and white police officers and citizen preferences regarding the kind of officers they wanted assigned to their neighborhoods.
Abstract
The data came from a larger study of public attitudes toward the police. The interviews took place in 1996-97 in one neighborhood that was largely white and two neighborhoods that were largely African American in composition. The research selected households randomly from telephone directory lists of selected census tracts. The interviews used both closed-ended and open-ended questions. Most interviews lasted between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours. Results revealed little support for assigning mostly same-race officers to the neighborhoods. Findings suggested that the neighborhood context influences residents’ opinions about the behavior of white and black officers, that African Americans’ evaluations of white and black officers often challenge the conventional wisdom, and that considerable support exists for a policy of deploying racially integrated teams of officers in black neighborhoods. Tables, notes, and 42 references (Author abstract modified)