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- All Subjects: Law Enforcement
- Creators: Fox, Kate
Description
On-officer video camera (OVC) technology in the field of policing is developing at a rapid pace. Large agencies are beginning to adopt the technology on a limited basis, and a number of cities across the United States have required their police departments to adopt the technology for all first responders. Researchers have just begun to examine its effects on citizen complaints, officers' attitudes, and street-level behavior. To date, however, there is no research examining how departmental policy and assignment of officers to a camera program affect officer behavior and opinions of the cameras. Policy and assignment have the potential to impact how officers react to the technology and can affect their interactions with citizens on a daily basis. This study measures camera activations by line officers in the Mesa Police Department during police-citizen encounters over a ten-month period. Data from 1,675 police-citizen contacts involving camera officers were subject to analysis. Net of controls (i.e., the nature of the crime incident, how it was initiated, officer shift, assignment, presence of bystanders and backup, and other situational factors), the bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine how departmental policy (mandatory versus discretionary activation policy) and officer assignment (voluntary versus mandatory assignment) affected willingness to activate the cameras, as well as officer and citizen behavior during field contacts.
ContributorsRoy, Allyson (Author) / Ready, Justin (Thesis advisor) / Telep, Cody (Committee member) / Fox, Kate (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Scholars have extensively researched citizens’ preferences regarding the actions, language, and demeanors displayed by officers during citizen-police interactions. Specifically, there are a multitude of factors that can influence a citizens’ perception of such interactions as either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. What appears to be missing from the literature, however, is police officers’ understanding of citizens’ preferences for regarding factors. In other words, it is unclear if and how officers are actively attempting to interact with victims and witnesses based on actual citizen preferences or if officers do not consider these preferences during citizen interactions. This gap has important implications for officer training on citizen’s preferences due to the influence such interactions can have on citizens, specifically citizens’ physical and psychological well-being, as well as citizens’ perceptions of - and reaction to - the criminal justice system. This project examines original data collection of citizen and officer surveys regarding officers’ actions, language, and demeanors. Additionally, observations during ride-alongs are presented to expand on the current literature regarding citizen preferences during interactions with the police and to assess officers’ understanding and application of this knowledge. Results indicate that, while officers seem to understand what actions, language, and demeanors will increase citizen satisfaction, officers may believe that there exist situational factors that are more important in affecting citizen satisfaction with officers. Observations revealed that the vast majority of citizen-police interactions were positive and productive. Even so, results from the surveys and observations point to several important policy implications for improvement between officers and citizens.
ContributorsGagnon, Analisa (Author) / Fox, Kate (Thesis advisor) / Telep, Cody (Committee member) / Chamberlain, Alyssa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020