NCJ Number
192383
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 29 Issue: 6 Dated: November-December 2001 Pages: 521-529
Date Published
November 2001
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article examined the characteristics of police officers who most often received complaints from citizens regarding the use of excessive force.
Abstract
Data came from a large Midwestern municipal police department. The participants included a random sample of 800 officers assigned to patrol and specialized units (gang crimes and narcotics), 600 randomly selected officers who received 2 or fewer citizen complaints alleging excessive force in 1993, and 200 officers who received 3 or more complaints of excessive use of force in 1993. These 200 officers amounted to less than 10 percent of all officers and received a total of 717 complaints, or 25 percent of the total number of complaints of excessive force during 1993. The analysis focused on officers' background characteristics, arrest activity, and assignment. Results revealed that high arrest activity, younger officer age, and male gender were most strongly related to the receipt of citizen complaints about excessive force. These were the factors that differentiated high-complaint officers from low-complaint officers. Job specialization and officers' race and educational level were not related to complaints of excessive use of force. The strongest evidence was that complaints were related to the numbers of arrests made. Findings suggested the need for future research on the causal relationship between arrest activity and complaints of excessive force, the variation in the frequency with which officers receive complaints, and the impact of the data source on findings regarding these complaints. Tables and 42 references (Author abstract modified)