POLICE-CITIZEN HOSTILITY: AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF FORCE BY PATROLMEN IN ONE URBAN POLICE AGENCY Thesis for the Degree of M48: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY LAWRENCE L. MILLER 1969 .-. -o 1.0,! '9',..!’!.‘_.‘fll ‘.~_' IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 0390 2411 ABSTRACT POLICE-CITIZEN HOSTILITY: AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF FORCE BY PATROLMEN IN ONE URBAN POLICE AGENCY By Lawrence L. Miller One of the most serious problems facing law enforcement agencies today is public disenchantment with the police as responsive agents of government. Although much of the antag— onism between the police and the public stems from conditions not subject to direct influence by police organizations, there are areas of police activity which offer much hOpe for improvement. One of these concerns the behavior of indivi- dual police officers in contact with citizens. A review of the literature dealing with police—citizen interaction shows that most of the research has focused on the police as an occupational group. Little attention has been directed towards differences in the way individual offi- cers manage their relationships with the public. This paper is addressed to the problem of police-citizen hostility arising from the behavior of individual officers. The research took the form of an exploratory study and was guided by four questions: (1) How do individual officars differ in the frequency and amount of citizen hostility which they generate? (2) What characteristics differentiate Lawrence L. Miller between officers high or low in hostility generation poten- tial? (3) What are the sources of these individual differ- ences? (A) What measures are available for identifying and controlling officers high in hostility generation potential? The frequency with which an officer was a party to for- cible arrests and citizen complaints was selected as an indi- cator of hostility generation. Reports of forcible arrests and citizen complaints collected in one medium size municipal police department over a two and a half year period were analyzed to (1) determine factors associated with the use of force and to (2) rank all patrolmen in the department accord- ing to these criteria. Two groups of ten officers rated high or low in hostility generation potential were selected for further study. Data concerning the characteristics of these officers were collected from department personnel records, a focused interview, and an opinion questionnaire. Analysis of forcible arrest records showed that in more than one-half of all forcible arrests patrolmen used more force than was necessary to subdue or restrain a subject. There were indications that the use of force occurred more frequently than was reflected by department records. Indi- vidual officers differed greatly in the frequency with which they were involved in forcible arrests. Seven per cent of the patrol force accounted for 30% of the departments for- cible arrests. Lawrence L. Miller Differences between Highs and Lows were not completely uniform nor large. The most significant difference between the two groups was in their general orientation towards police work. Highs possessed a strong crime-fighting per- spective and a strong desire for increased status and occu- pational success. They were more alienated from other units of society and were less well integrated into the police organization. These characteristics were manifested in atti- tudes which reflected resentment of changes in policy, bit- terness towards prosecutors and Judges who failed to "punish" offenders, abnegation of the policeman's order maintenance and service functions, increased reliance on an image of forcefulness, and willingness to use force. The moralistic outlook of the Highs was contrasted by the easygoing dispo- sition of the Lows. Examination of pre-appointment characteristics of the two groups showed several differences. Highs tended to be younger at appointment, to have had more education and less military training, and to be slightly shorter and to weigh less than Lows. Highs came from slightly higher socioeconomic backgrounds than Lows. During their first year with the department, Highs had more often worked either alone or with another inexperienced officer. Subsequent police experience was approximately the same for both groups; that is, both groups had spent most of Lawrence L. Miller their careers assigned to lower-class Negro neighborhoods. Proposals for reducing police-citizen hostility inclu- ded the implementation of a coordinated program to: l. 2. Identify prdblem officers and problem areas through systematic analysis of reports. Increase proficiency in the use of force and interpersonal skills through formal and on— the-Job training. Provide more effective matching of officers with Job requirements through improved per- sonnel selection, evaluation, and assignment. Reduce incidence of violence by enforcing uniform and effective procedures for handling arrestees. Reduce alienation and isolation of officers by widening channels of communication within the department and between the police and the courts. Increase emphasis on important non-crime aspects of police work through incentives such as promotion. POLICE-CITIZEN HOSTILITY: AN ANALYSIS OF FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF FORCE BY PATROLMEN IN ONE URBAN POLICE AGENCY By Lawrence L. Miller A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the begree of MASTER OF SCIENCE School of Police Administration and Public Safety 1969 Approved: AflO’ZW A/ MC/l/W“ (Um) (me be I ' (Member) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge my debt to those who have helped to make this study possible. To my employer, the United States Air Force, I extend my appreciation for supporting me throughout this year. I should like to acknowledge my special debt to Doctors John McNamara and Victor Strecher for their encouragement, advice, and special assistance during the course of this research. I want to express my sincere thanks to the patrol- men, staff, and eSpecially the chief of the police department studied for their cooperation, without which this research would not have been possible. Finally, to my wife, Ann, I extend special thanks for untold hours of typing, criticism, correction, and sustained devotion to duty. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTTRODUCTIONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO The Problem....................... ..... Definition of Terms...................... Organization of Remainder of Thesis..... II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE.................. Police Personnel Selection...... .... Recruit Training................ . . ... The Operational Environment....... ...... The Patrolman's Outlook.... ..... .. ...... III. METHOD OF DATA GATHERING..... ..... .. .. The Department Studied.... ..... ... ...... Forcible Arrest Reports.... ...... ..... Selection of the Sample........... . ... The Interview................. .. ...... IV. REPORT OFTHE STUDY......... .. Forcible Arrests............... . ..... Forcible Arrests Involving the Use of Excessive Force.............. . .. . Pro-Appointment Characteristics of Patrolmen..................... ........ Role—Model................ . ..... . .. Integration of Officer Within The Department............ How The Patrolman Views His Role... 98 102 103 112 CHAPTER PACE V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS................... 127 Variability Between Highs and Lows...... 128 Characteristics of Patrolmen High in Hostility Generation Potential........ 129 Sources of Individual Differences....... 132 Reducing Police-Citizen Hostility....... 138 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................... 1A7 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW TOPICS...................... 153 APPENDIX B: QUESTIONNAIRE......................... 154 TABLE 1. D) II. U7 LIST OF TABLES PAGE Racial Differences in Forcible Arrest Incidents......................... 86 Factors Associated With the Use of Exces- sive Force in Forcible Arrest Incidents.. 9; Age, Height, and Weight Differences Between Patrolmen Rated High or Low in Hostility Generation Potential........... 99 Evaluation of Job Supervision, Job Guid- ance, and Loyalty of Fellow Officers By Patrolmen Rated High or Low in Hos- tility Generation Potential... ....... .... 109 Isolation From the General Public of Patrolmen Rated High or Low in Hostility Generation Potential...... ...... ......... 114 Isolation From Minority Groups of Patrol- men Rated High or Low in Hostility Gen- eration Potential.. ....... . ........... ... llC Isolation From the Courts of Patrolmen Rated High or Low in Hostility Gener- ation Potential ..... ..................... 119 Differences in Attitudes Towards Force and Forceful Presentation of Self Among Pa- trolmen High or Low in Hostility Gener- ationPotential...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.123 TABLE 9. Effectiveness Ascribed to Interpersonal Skills By Patrolmen High or Low in Hostility Generation Potential...... vi PAGE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Following the Los Angeles riot of 1965 an inter- viewer was given the following statement by a resident of Watts: Two white policemen was beating a preg- nant lady like a damn dog. They need their heads knocked off. I agree 100% for those Negroes going crazy--they should have killed those freaks. Yes, treating niggers like dirty dogs.l Many of the residents of Watts believed that this was the cause of the riot. However, the incident never 2 occurred. What was real, was the credibility which minority group members were disposed to attach to a story of police misconduct. Also quite real was the death, in- Jury, and property destruction left in the wake of vio— lence: 3A persons killed, 1,032 injured, some 600 build— ings destroyed and an estimated $AO million dollars l I . The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Task Force Report: The Police (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1967), p. 1&6, citing John F. Kraft, Inc., "Attitudes of Negroes in Various Cities,” Report prepared for the Senate Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization (New York: John F. Kraft, Inc., 1966), p. 2. 2Ibid. p. u8. property damage.3 The experience of Los Angeles is not unique. The patterns of violence made explicit in Watts have been expressed in many other cities. Between 1965 and 1967 racial disturbances in 76 U.S. cities resulted in over $200 million dollars property loss, 12 police officers killed, and 1199 wounded.LI The main objects of attack were most often those people or institutions regarded by the rioters as their principal oppressors. High on the list were the police.5 The bitterness with which certain minority groups regard the police is not new. It arises partly from the inherent nature of the police function. As the "visible symbol of the disciplinary capacity of government,"6 the police officer is perceived differently by members of different social and ethnic groups. The problems and perspectives of one group may be little understood or appreciated by members outside the group. 3The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Societ (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing UTTIce, 1967). p. 37. “Marshall B. Clinard, Sociology_9£ Deviant Behavior (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1968), p. 669. 5The Challenge of Crime in a_Free Society, loc. cit. 6Ruth J. Levy, "Predicting Police Failures," The Jour- nal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 58:2tg- 276,-June, 1967, p. 273. To the large majority of citizens living in harmony with, and reaping the benefits of the established social order, the policeman is most often looked upon as a re- mote functionary whose most important tasks are the enforcement of traffic laws and the protection of the lives and property of people like themselves. As children they are imbued with the image of the kindly police officer ready to rescue them when lost, and to help them cross the street safely. With maturity comes the realization that the law places restraints upon the activities of all citizens. But for most citizens, encounters with the law are infrequent and normally of little consequence. In short, the average citizen feels neither harassed nor threatened by the police. Consequently, he is little motivated to criticize the police so long as they per- form a supportive and unobtrusive role, a role in harmony with his expectations and his experience. Members of minority groups often cast the policeman in quite a different role. To the ghetto resident the policeman all too often becomes the most visible repre- sentative of a society which systematically denies him equal opportunity, fair treatment under the law, and even human dignity. In times of crises the police assume the role of an occupation force empowered by society to contain the "dangerous classes,"7 lest they threaten the status quo. Partly because of abnormally high crime rates and the increased visibility of illegal behavior common to slum neighborhoods, the policeman is ever present and intimately involved in the lives of its residents. In 8 such situations normal and "completely fair" police work resulting in a large number of interrogations and arrests is interpreted by the ghetto resident as confirmation of discriminatory treatment. Until a decade ago minority group hostility presented no visible threat to the larger society. Police activities, which reflected to a cartain degree the feelings and atti- tudes of that society, were carried out with at least the tacit approval of the larger community. Minority group resentment had not yet evolved into the sustained mass resentment which could pose a real threat to the safety of the established social order. Following the urban upheavals of the mid 1960's the image of the police as an agency capable of dealing with all forms of internal dis- order began to be questioned. Indeed the propriety of 7Allan Silver, "The Demand for Order in Civil Society: A Review of Some Themes in the History of Urban Crime, Police, and Riot," The Police, David J. Bordua, editor (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967), p. 22. 8 Task Force Report: The Police, 92- cit., p. 183. expecting the police to cope with all the consequences of fundamental social inequities came under review. Extensive and comprehensive coverage of events by the mass media served both to heighten public awareness and increase public criticism of police handling of hostility. Frequently those who took the side of the disorderly and the criminal seemed to blame the police for the "incidents" which occurred.9 While the most visible and dramatic result of police- citizen hostility is the riot, other important conse- quences are less apparent. Day to day police operations are crippled by a lack of citizen cooperation which is absolutely essential to effective law enforcement. Often, crimes which can be solved only with the cooperation of the victim are not reported to the police.10 At the same time, those crimes for which there are no victims per se--that is, violations of certain laws regulating morality and public order-~continue to receive a signi- ficant amount of police attention. As a result of these conditions, the ghetto resident is likely to feel that he is receiving inadequate protection against important 9James Q. Wilson, Varieties of Police Behavior: The Management of Law and Order in_ETght Communities (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), p. 299. loTask Force Report: The Police, 39. cit. p. 144. crimes on the one hand, and that he is being harassed by police attention to his private conduct on the other. Another consequence of police-citizen hostility is its adverse effect on the ability of the police to attract and retain qualified personnel. Able young men are dis- suaded from pursuing a career which they believe will expose them to constant animosity and inordinate danger. For those men who continue in police work, the conse- quences of citizen hostility are often a general lower- ing of morale, intensification of police isolation from the community at large, and an increase in the likeli- hood of citizen assaults on police officers.11 Although many of the sources of police-citizen hos- tility spring from conditions not directly amenable to police control, certain policies and practices of great importance are controllable. Mindful of this fact, many police administrators have attempted to reduce intra- community tensions by conducting police-community relations programs, providing human relations training for police officers, altering patrol tactics, and by establishing elaborate procedures for handling citizen complaints. Some critics See these innovations as less-than-sincere attempts to remedy fundamental problems by improving the llIbid. p. 145. police "image.” They feel that deficiencies are most pronounced in the area of control which the police depart— ment exerts over the conduct of the individual officer. Many researchers have advanced our understanding of the problems which confront the police in the routine per- formance of their duties. The fiction that the policeman's proper role was simply to apply the rule of law fairly and conscientiously has generally been dispelled. It is now apparent that the policeman's role constitutes a complex 0/, blending of conflicting and often ambiguous expectancies. On the one hand, he is expected to enforce the law impartially. But often the law itself is quite ambiguous, requiring the policeman to exercise considerable discretion. On the other hand, the policeman is increasingly expected to perform a wide variety of service functions. In short, he is expected to be "rule enforcer, father, friend, social servant, moralist, street—fighter, marksman, and enforcer n12 fl Oi the law. One would be justified in concluding that the Juxtaposition of inherently conflicting role expect- ancies places inordinate strains on all but the most adept patrolman. The police, as a group, are seen as overly suspicious of citizens in general, and especially D 01 minority groups. They feel that the expectations of l2Jerome H. Skolnick, Justice Without Trial: Law Enforcement 13.3 Democratic Society (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1966), p. 17. both the courts and the public are unreasonable and that public support for their actions is lacking. Their exper- iences give rise to a collective emphasis on secrecy and attempts to coerce respect from the public.13 Given the occupational pressures common to the police role and the large amount of discretion exercised by the patrolman in his contacts with citizens, a fruitful area of investigation becomes the way in which individual offi- cers adjust to their roles. This is so because, as others have observed, individual officers vary considerably in the way they interact with the public. Some are able to perform their duties while generating a minimum amount of friction; others seem inclined towards evoking hostility from citizens. knowledge of the factors responsible for these individual differences would assist the police admin- istrator in making rational decisions concerning personnel selection and training, job supervision, and the assign— ment, deployment, and promotion of officers. I . THE PROBLEM Many of the tensions existing between the police and the public can be traced to conflict arising from situa- tions involving the competing behavior of an individual 13William A. Westley, "Violence and the Police," The American Journal of Sociology, LIX, 1953—1954, p. 35. officer and a citizen. Behind each "incident" of police- citizen hostility are two unique individuals, each pro- pelled by a unique combination cf physical, social, and psychological needs, desires, and expectancies. Often the atmosphere surrounding the confrontation is one of tension and uncertainty. The officer brings to the encounter an attitude or outlook conditioned by exper- iences in similar situations. He seeks out and inter- prets certain behavioral clues which might signal a threat to his physical and psychological safety and the resolution of his immediate mission. The outcome of the confrontation depends, to a great extent, on the officer's ability to infuse structure into disorder and confusion. Statement of the Problem. The purpose of this study is to formulate hypotheses about the origin, operation, and control of hostility arising from police-citizen inter- action. The main focus of the research is on the role of the police officer as a source of conflict. The research problem encompasses four questions: 1. To what degree do individual officers differ in the frequency and amount of citizen—hostility which they generate? 2. What common characteristics, if any, are readily discerbible which permit differentiation of those officers with a high hostility generation potential from those with a low hostility potential? lO 3. What are the sources of the individual differ— ences which differentiate officers having a high hostility generation potential? 4. What measures are available for identifying and controlling officers who exhibit hostility provoking behavior? Importance 9£_the Study. As Herman Goldstein noted, "The nature of the police function is such that primary dependence for the control of police conduct must continue to be placed on internal systems of control...upon the traditional system of organization by which an adminis- trator and his superior are held strictly and continually accountable for the performance of their subordinates."14 Answers to the questions posed in this study would go a long way towards providing the police administrator with information about how most effectively to decrease ten~ sions between the police and the public. For example, it often assumed that relations between the police and the public will be improved by providing all officers with training in such subjects as police- A l“Herman Goldstein, "Administrative Problems in Con— trolling the Exercise of Police Authority,” Journal of Crim- inal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 58:160-172, June, 1967, p. 171. 11 community relations, human relations, etc. The under- lying assumption would seem to be that (1) all officers need the training and that (2) the training will pro— duce a desired change in the behavior. If either assumption were incorrect, the department would not receive the expected return on its investment of man hours and money spent in such training. If, however, the administrator were able to ascertain that ninety per cent of his community relations problem was caused by a handful of officers, and if the officers could be identified, other measures would clearly provide a better solution. Action could be taken to provide closer super- vision of the identified officers, or the officers' assign- ments might be changed to remove them from sensitive con- tacts with citizens. Knowledge about characteristics common among these officers who interact poorly with the public would also aid the administrator in personnel selection, and would stimulate interest concerning the importance of police training and Job experience as modifiers of these character— istiCS. Methodology. Considerations of time available for data gathering and the overriding need for flexibility of design dictated that the research be conducted as an exploratory study. 12 The research was conducted with the complete coop- eration of a municipal police department serving a med- ium size northern industrial city. The first phase of the study involved an intensive analysis of all the department's forcible arrest records and citizen com- plaints generated over a period of two and a half years. While most incidents of police-citizen hostility go unre- corded, it was assumed that forcible arrests and citizen complaints would constitute a somewhat representative but unknown proportion of all hostility incidents. The analysis of reports enabled the researcher to rank all patrolmen in the department according to the frequency with which they had been a party to the selected inci- dents. After the patrolmen had been ranked, two samples were chosen for study; those officers who were ranked highest according to the criteria, and those who were ranked lowest. Eliminated from the study were those officers whose Job assignment or working conditions had rendered their exposure to the public dissimilar from other officers in the group. Following the analysis of hostility incidents and selection of officers for study, several kinds of data were examined in an attempt to discover factors which would differentiate the two groups. Historical data were gleAned from department personnel records. A focused interview was used to gather information about the officers' Job l3 satisfaction and expectancies, attitude towards the gen- eral public, attutude towards specific offenses and offend— ers, technique employed in dealing with citizens, and development of personal interaction techniques. The last part of the interview was devoted to a self-administered opinion survey covering some of the interview topics and some additional items of interest. Limitations 9£_the Study. The major emphasis of an exploratory study is the discovery of ideas and insights.15 As such, the exploratory study is not designed to test causal.hypotheses. Rather, the purpose is to develop hypotheses and formulate a problem for more precise invest- igation. This study was undertaken with one initial assumption and no specific initial hypotheses. The one assumption upon which the study is based is that involvement in forc- ible arrests and citizen complaints is a valid indicator of the unknown quantity of hostility which an officer is prone to generate during his routine contacts with citizens. The subjective nature of the material examined during the research--both written reports and interviews-- combined with the fact that the researcher was working alone, with~ 15Claire Selltiz, et 81., Research Methods in_Social Relations (revised edition; New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1965), p. 50. 14 out the benefits of standardization afforded by vali- dation checks by other data interpreters, may Justi- fiably raise questions as to the accuracy and inter- pretation of the data. While a study of those who deviate from the norm "may serve to highlight the social norms and practices from which they are deviating,"16 it also places limi~ tations on the extent to which findings may be general— ized to the group. Because the sample of officers cho- sen for this study represented, to some extent, depar- tures from the norm of the department, it would be inap— propriate to generalize the results to the department as a whole. Other limitations derive from the nature of the individuals and the department studied. All police officers are not cast from the same mold. Recruitment and personnel practices vary from department to depart- ment. While each department may have some similar re— cruitment standards, the kind of officer hired by the department will vary depending on the current local con- ditions of supply and demand. Since the organization is comprised of individuals whose selection has been deter- mined not only by current standards, but also by standards l6lbid., p. 52. 15 of the past several decades, there may be much varia- bility in the officers' backgrounds. For instance, in the department studied, current educational require- ments were high and the department had a waiting list for potential employees. However, many officers Joined the force during a period when educational requirements were much lower. Each department possesses a unique style, deter— mined in part by its relationship to the political structure, its sensitivity to the desire of power groups, its basic organizational structure, and degree of profes- sionalism, to mention but a few. Considerations of these factors makes apparent the many limitations of the pre- sent study. II. DEFINITION OF TERMS USEDl7 As employed in this study, a number of terms carry meanings which are either more restrictive or broader than those conveyed by conventional usage. In some cases the researcher has made arbitrary distinctions in order to simplify the categorization of data involved in the study. l7All definitions are based on usage found in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionagy (Cambridge: G. and C. Mirriam Company, The Riverside Press, 1953.) l6 Hostility: Either a state of having or showing ill will or unfriendliness, or an act of open enmity. As employed herein, hostility ranges from unfriendliness and verbal antagonism to violent physical attack. Hostiligngeneration: The act or process of pro- ducing hostility. The term is used to denote an unfav- orable response by a citizen to interaction with a police officer. It implies neither willfulness nor involuntar- iness on the part of the officer, but merely the occur- rence of the event. Hostili§y_generation potential: The tendency of an officer to generate citizen hostility. Officers with a high hostility generation potential are those who fre- quently induce citizen hostility. Forcible arrest: Any arrest in which the officer employs physical force to subdue a subject or to gain compliance from a subject. A forcible arrest may or may not involve the use of excessive or unnecessary force by an officer. Excessive force: In this study "excessive force" is used interchangeably with "unnecessary force", ”force in excess of restraint", and "improper force". As will be pointed out in Chapter II, legal definitions of ”exces- sive force" are generally ambiguous and broad. As such, these definitions are subject to quite different interpre- tations by the police and the public. Often, the amount 17 of force deemed appropriate by the police exceeds by far that amount regarded as prOper by the citizen. This is especially true in situations where an unarmed sub- ject involved in an order maintenance confrontation resists the orders of a police officer. For purposes of this research, force which involved striking and unarmed sub- ject repeatedly about the head or face was generally considered as excessive. However, one or two blows to the body or limbs to initially subdue a violent subject was generally considered as not being improper. The essential criterion used was whether the amount of force employed by the officer exceeded that which would have been necessary to control the subject and preserve the officer's own safety had the officer been skilled in the use of restraining force. Verbal abuse: Insulting language directed at either an officer or citizen. The term includes but is not re stricted to the use of profanity. Mingg; Any person under the age of 21 years. Subject: A citizen interacting with a police officer or a person who is the object cd‘pdflee attention. A sub- ject may or may not be a suspect or arrestee. A citizen who is present at the scene of an incident as a passerby would be classified as a bystander. However, if the passer- by involved himself in an incident and became the object of police attention he would be reclassified as a subject in the incident. 18 III. ORGANIZATION OF THE REMAINDER OF THE THESIS. A review of the literature bearing on the factors influencing police-citizen hostility will be presented in Chapter II. Chapter III will describe the methods used in gathering the data. Chapter IV will present the results of the study, and Chapter V will contain the summary and conclusions of the study. 19 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The purpose of this chapter is to provide a back- drop against which the data from the research may be viewed. In order to relate the findings of this research of one particular police department to police organ- izations in general, it is necessary to identify char- acteristics common to both. At the same time such an examination may serve to illuminate limitations of the study. Relatively little research has been conducted on the origin of differences in the behavior of individual policemen, whereas numerous studies are available which deal with the characteristics and behavior of the police as an occupational group. Examination of the character- istics of individuals will be facilitated by an under- standing of the organizational environment in which the behavior of individuals takes place. The organization of this chapter is chronological in that it begins with some observations about police person- nel selection, and is followed by training, the operational entironment, and develOpment of the patrolman's outlook. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the way in which the police justify the use of force. 20 I. POLICE PERSONNEL SELECTION Personnel qualifications generally accepted by police agencies as desirable and necessary are usually expressed in a way which provides little indication of the unique requirements of the policeman's occupation. Most would agree that it is desirable that policemen possess a "high degree of intelligence, education, tact, sound judgement, physical courage, emotional stability, 1 These same characteristics impartiality, and honesty." would apply to other occupations which place mental, physical and leadership demands on the individual. If the mere inclusion of a particular characteristic tells little about the unique requirements of the work, then perhaps knowledge of the relative importance attributed to different characteristics will indicate the hiring philosophy of police agencies. ‘ Since the founding of the Metropolitan Police of London in 1829, police recruit selection procedures have remained relatively unchanged. The basic techniques employed then, as today, included a character check, 1The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Task Force Report: The Police (Washington, D.C.: UnitedIStates Government Print— ing Office, 1967), p. 125. 21 medical examination, an estimate of the candidates intel- ligence, and an oral interview.2 The results of the first first application of these selection procedures to police candidates were not notably successful, for 80% of the first 2800 men recruited for the London Police were later dismissed from the force.3 Refine- ments of these basic selection techniques, including the addition by some agencies of formal psychological test- ing, have failed to yield a fool—proof selection pro— cedure. The main weakness still remains an inability to economically and reliably identify those persons emotionally unfit for police work.“ Physical Requirements. Physical requirements for police work have been, and are likely to remain, fairly rigid. This is so because, as the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice5 noted: "Any police officer working in the field must possess physical courage, stamina, and agility. These qualities help to save his own life and the lives of others."6 2James H. Chenoweth, ”Situational Tests: A New Attempt At Assessing Police Candidates,” The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police SciEHEe, 52:232:238, JuIy, August, 1961, p. 232. 31bid. ”Task Force Repgrt: The Police, op, cit., pp. 128-129. 5Hereafter referred to as "The President's Commission.” 6Task Force Report: The Police, op, cit., p. 130. 22 The most common physical requirement is a minimum height requirement. A survey of police departments con- ducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in 1956 revealed that nearly 85% of the depart— ments surveyed had a minimum height requirement of 5'8". The President's Commission regarded this requirement as "unduly restrictive," pointing out that physical stature, though important, is but one factor determining a man's ability to defend himself.7 Moreover, minimum height restrictions "may have the unintended effect of barring large numbers of minority group applicants who could ade- quately perform police work."8 Recognizing theenmdtrar- i;;;; of such restrictions and the need to recruit minor- ity group members, some departments have recently revised their standards. For instance, in Chicago the minimum height requirement was reduced from 5'8" to 5'7", partly in recognition of the need to recruit more Puerto Ricans.9 Vision requirements have been nearly as rigid as height requirements. Often the standard is set at 20/20 uncor- rected for both eyes, or slightly less for one eye, cor- rectable to 20/20.10 This policy has come under criticism 7Ibid. 8Ibid., p. 171. 91bid. lOIbid., p. 130. 23 by The President's Commission because of its discrimin- atory effect on Oriental-Americans.ll Age requirements for police recruits generally are set between 21 and 35. The minimum age is usually set at 21, although some departments maintain a higher mini- mum age. Maximum age limits for recruitment are most often set at 35 years, with some departments barring men over 30 years.12 The minimum age limit of 21 set by most departments tends to limit somewhat the popu— lation of young men who are attracted to police work. Most police departments require no more than a high school education. Because most of the young men who choose police work are not in the group of high school graduates who continue their education in college, re- stricting police recruitment to those who have attained the age of 21 eliminates many of the capable high school graduates who become settled in non-police careers dur- ing the three year period between high school graduation and age 21. The President's Commission noted that the result of this restriction was that "police departments often attract applicants who have already experienced one or more job failures."l3 While there are, undoubtedly, 111bid., p. 171. 12Ibid., p. 131. A 1961 survey by the IACP showed that 80% of the agencies surveyed barred persons over 35 and 30% barred persons over 30 years. 13Ibid. 24 advantages to expanding the population of men eligible for police work, one researcher found a significant positive relationship between age at recruitment and job success. Ruth J. Levy studied the personnel files of 4500 law enforcement officers in 14 police juris- dictions in search of pre—employment factors which would discriminate between three criterion groups: (1) those officers who were presumed successful by virtue of the fact that they were currently employed (currents); (2) those officers who had been dismissed by their department (failures); and (3) those who left the department voluntarily (non-failures). She found that currents tended to be older at appointment than either failures or non-failures, and that non-failures were youngest at appointment. Approximately 25% of the non-failures were under 24 years at age of appointment, compared with 19% for failures and 17% for currents.14 The implication of these findings is that lower age minimums for police candidates may result in higher rates of personnel turnover, due to the greater mobility of and occupational instability of young men recently 14Ruth J. Levy, "Predicting Police Failures," Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 25 out of school.15 Educational Prerequisites. Perhaps no police recruit- ment standard has received more attention in recent years than education. Although educational requirements have remained modest for most departments, the clear and unmis- takable trend is towards requiring more education as a prerequisite for police work. Here, also, is found the greatest variation in requirements from one department to another. As late as 1961 a survey of over 300 police departments showed that 24% of the departments had no minimum educational prerequisite, and that less than one per cent required any college education.16 Figures re- leased by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1966 showed that median educational level of policemen to be 12.4 years--slightly higher than the 12.2 years figure reported by the Bureau of the Census in 1960.17 More than 70% of the nation's police departments have set the high school diploma as an educational requirement for 15For the relationships between time since completion of schooling and employee job stability among college gradu- ates see Anthony G. Athos, "From Campus...to Company...to Company," The Journal of College Placement, 24:22-23,112- 116, December, 1963. THE author analyzes some of the pro- blems encountered by persons transitioning from school to occupational environment. 16 Task Force Report: The Police, pp, cit., p. 126. 17Ibid., p. 10. 26 employment.18 A recent national survey of 6300 officers showed that approximately 24% of patrolmen and 31% of top-level department administrators had attended college.19 Minimum college requirements have been established by a number of departments, although the percentage of departments requiring any college is still low. Most of the departments having a college requirement are located in California and the requirement seldom exceeds 2 years.20 The position taken by The President's Commission is that increased education would enhance the effectiveness of police officers. The Commission recommended that as a minimum, no person be employed who has not received a high school diploma and has demonstrated by appropriate tests the ability to perform college level studies.21 Ultimately, the goal of all departments should be that personnel with general enforcement powers possess a bacca- laureate degree.22 The Commission's recommendation was based largely on the assumption that better educated offi- cers would be more likely to understand and deal adequately 18Ibid. 1912£QO 2°;9;g,, p. 126. 2122;9’ 22ygig. 27 with the problems of minority groups. "Police personnel with two or four years of college education should have a better appreciation of people with different racial, economic and cultural backgrounds, or at the least, should hate the innate ability to acquire such under- standing."23 Increased educational prerequisites are likely to mean that the qualifying candidates will have had less personal experience in poorer neighborhoods, less contact with minority groups, and consequently less of an understanding of the problems of these groups than would officers with less education.2” Therefore, to gain the advantages which may accrue from hiring officers with more years of education it will be necessary for the department to compensate for these shortcomings in the recruits' background. A second and unintended effect of raising educational requirements is that these stand- ards may interfere with efforts to recruit officers with minority group backgrounds.25 Levy noted an inverse relationship between level of education and job stability. Those persons who leave law enforcement agencies either voluntarily of involun- tarily tend to have more formal education at appointment 231bid., p. 163. 24Ibid. 25Ibid., p. 163-16u. 28 than those currently employed. The differences were greatest between current employees (65% of whom had 12 years or less education) and non-failures (39% of whom had 12 years or less education). Fifty-six per cent of those classified as failures had 12 years or less formal education. Mean years of education for Levy's three groups were: currents, 12% years; failures, 123- years; and non-failures, 13é- years.26 These findings should not be interpreted to mean that poor education ensures retention. Rather, the findings indicate that depart- ments employing men with higher levels of education need to take positive measures to ensure that the need of the better educated officer for challenging work are met.27 Otherwise, these men can be expected to succumb to bore- dom and frustration. Although some departments have managed through edu- cational requirements, to alter substantially the class background of their personnel, James Q. Wilson questions the wisdom of this approach. He feels that it would be a mistake for police administrators to rely very heavily on such methods because ”it is not yet clear exactly in what ways, if at all, middle-class, college educated men make better officers."28 He finds it unlikely that many 26Levy, loc. cit. 271bid., p. 274-275. 28James Q. Wilson, Varieties of Police Behavior: The Management g£_Law and Order in Eight—Communities (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), pp. 280-28I. 29 of these men would find big city police work attractive. And even if such men did perform well in police work, the number of men available could fill only a fraction of the positions available.29 If Wilson's assumptions are correct the class and educational background of the majority of police is likely to remain relatively un- changed in the foreseeable future. Character Evaluation and Emotional Stability. As noted earlier, perhaps the moat difficult task from the standpoint of selection is to identify those persons emotionally unfit for police work. The President's Commission stated flatly that "Existing selection require- ments and procedures in the majority of departments, aside from physical requirements, do not screen out the unfit."3O Part of the difficulty lies in the failure of departments to make full use of existing selection techniques; part lies in a dearth of knowledge as to what factors contri- bute to emotional suitability for police work. Each selection technique carries with it certain financial costs. A thorough background check represents a large investment in manhours and money, a cost which some departments are less able to afford than others. 291bid., p. 281. 30Task Force Report: The Police, op. cit., p. 125. 30 Conducted thoroughly, 3 background investigation can be one of the most valuable tools for probing and pre- dieting the applicant's behavior. Records at state, local, and federal level can provide information about an appli- cant's past contact with the law. Checking character references and previous employers can provide a wealth of information about a candidate's behavioral charac- teristics. In addition to the background check, a maj- ority of departments conduct an oral interview. This technique is frequently used to determine the ability of the candidate to handle stress situations.31 Psychological and psychiatric testing of police applicants has been used for some years by a relatively small number of agencies.for the purpose of eliminating the obviously unfit.32 Testing techniques vary widely from one agency to another. Some departments employ either a psychiatrist or psychologist, administer stan- dard psychological tests such as the MMPI, and conduct personal interviews.33 The President's Commission recom- mended that all departments conduct standard psychological tests and interviews, but cautioned that even with the use 3lIbid., p. 130. 32Ibid., p. 129. A survey of police agencies by the IACP in 1961 showed that 50 of 300 agencies polled used some sort of psychological examination. 331bid. 31 of psychological testing and other screening methods it is unlikely that all candidates with personality dis- orders can be identified. Several researchers noted fundamental weaknesses in psychological testing programs for police candidates. Underlying these weaknesses is a lack of reliable infor- mation as to what personality characteristics are assets and which are liabilities to a police career. After sur- veying a number of police department psychological test- ing programs in 1957, Oglesby concluded that there was no scientific proof of the success of psychological test- ing reported by many agencies.34 Psychological testing had been conducted with a negative point of view; the aim was to eliminate the unfit, without proper attention to the development of criteria which would identify the potentially successful.35 Levy sees the selection problem not so much that of identifying the emotionally unstable as eliminating the emotionally unsuitable. The assumption is often made that psycho- logical problems lower the tolerance to stress. This is based on the concept that 3“Thomas W. Oglesby, ”Use of Emotional Screening in the Selection of Police Applicants,” Public Personnel Review, 18:228-235, January, 1957, p. 231. 35Ibid., pp. 230-231. 32 a human being can be likened to a machine capable of handling a speci- fic load. Unfortunately, this con— cept has only a very limited useful- ness. Moreover, there are situations in which emotional pggblems are assets and not liabilities. Because of our lack of knowledge as what constitutes emo- tional suitability, police applicants are subjected to a number of biases.37 If there are certain characteristics which lead to job failure in any department--factors such as anxiety, sadistic tendencies, dishonesty, homosexuality, low intel- ligence-—it is not clear that characteristics leading to success remain constant from one department to another. What constitutes success may vary by geographic location, size of community, ethnic composition, type of agency, etc.38 Problems encountered by a patrolman assigned to an urban ghetto are quite removed from tnose dealt with by a member of a state highway patrol or rural sheriff's deputy. Cumming has described the conflicting demands placed upon the urban policeman. Formally the police- man's role is one of control; in reality he provides many supportive functions. His success depends to a great extent upon the way in which he balances these 36Levy, 92, 313., p. 27A. 37Ibid. 38Ibid. 33 functions, and his ability to provide a flexible response to the particular needs of those he serves.39 Other Criteria. Several other restrictions are fre- quently employed in selection of police recruits. Most departments, as of 1961, had preservice residency require- ments ranging from six months to five years.40 These restrictions can be traced back to the depression era when local municipalities attempted to provide jobs for 41 Although many departments see this their own residents. restriction as a bar to recruitment of many qualified individuals, data is lacking concerning the advantages, if any, of recruiting personnel indigenous to the agency's locale. Effectiveness of Traditional Selection Techniques. From the foregoing it is apparent that some similarities and many differences are common to the selection processes employed by different police agencies. Most agencies place a strong emphasis on selecting only those candidates who are physically able to meet the requirements of the job. Almost all make use of one or several techniques to 39Elaine Cumming, Ian Cumming, and Laura Edell, "Policeman As Philosopher, Guide and Friend," Social Problems, 12:276-286, Summer, 196A, uoTask Force Report: The Police, op, cit., p. 130. 75% of respondents of IACP Survey, 1961. “lipid. 34 appraise the candidate's intelligence and character. Educational requirements vary from one department to another, but generally Speaking, 8 high school edu— cation is the standard. One might wonder just how successful those departments are which make use of psychological testing as a selection tool. While it is hazardous to generalize the results of a study of one municipal police department to others, the find- ings of Matarazzo, et al. seem to indicate the vali- dity of carefully applied conventional selection tech- niques.42 Their study involved intensive psychological testing of some 243 successful police and fire appli- cants to the city of Portland, Oregon during 1961- 1962. The sample selected for study had already passed civil service and medical examinations, and a depart- mental or Civil Service oral interview. Successful police applicants represented 6% of the original number of police applicants. Of the original 1928 police appli- cants 1338 of 1822 taking the civil service exam failed to pass, 368 were later eliminated by the physical agility test, department interview, or medical exam. Matarazzo found that successful police applicants 42Joseph D. Matarazzo, Bernadene V. Allen, George Saslow, and Arthur N. Wiens, "Characteristics of Successful Policemen and Firemen Applicants," The Journal gf_Applied Psycholggy, 48:123-132, 1964. 35 possessed intelligence (112 IQ measured by the WAIS Full Scale) equal to that of the average college gradu- ate in the United States. All but four of the 243 successful police and firemen applicants had an IQ of 100 or above.43 Emotional adjustment as measured by 44 was found to be three paper and pencil inventories very healthy for the 243 applicants. Measured by what the individual reports about himself, the average success- ful applicant described himself as better adjusted than the average person his age. Matarazzo compared the personality needs of his sample with those of a sample of 4030 men from the general population and found that police and firemen applicants were above average in needs for achievement, exhibition, intraception, dominance, endurance, and heterosexuality. They were lower than average in need to work independently, need for kindness, encouragement and help from others. The sample was also lower in both nurturance (need to forgive, sympathize with, or to help friends and strangers in trouble) and aggression (need to criticize others or to tell them off, or to get revenge). Both groups of appli- cants were found to possess a personality profile similar to that of the military enlisted man, that is "blustery, “31hid., p. 131. 414Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, Laslow Psychosomatic Screening Inventory, and the Cornell Medical Index. sociable, active, mamipulating others to gain their own ends, opportunistic, unable to delay gratification, impulsive, and showing some tendencies towards overin- dulgence in sex and drinking. In general, the candi- dates fitted the lower socioeconomic group's sterotype of the "man's man."u5 Comparing the firemen candidates with the police candidates, it was found that policeman candidates were oriented more towards jobs involving working with people, whereas fireman candidates tended to fit the image of the "rugged, outdoor, family handy- man type of person.“46 Comparing his sample with a 36 group of officers appointed to the force 15 years earlier, Matarazzo found remarkable similarities on such variables as intelligence, personality needs, and personality pro- file. The implication of these findings is that in one city, and perhaps in others as well, the careful appli- cation of traditional selection techniques for police candidates enables the department to recruit men with rather high qualifications of intelligence and emotional suitabil— ity. quatarazzo, loc. cit. “51bid., p. 129. 37 II. RECRUIT TRAINING The President's Commission noted that not with- standing the fact that no person is prepared_to per- form police work on native ability alone,47 classroom training for recruits is a relatively new concept in American Policing.48 As late as 1931 only 20% of 383 cities surveyed by the Wickersham Commission conducted recruit training.49 The prevailing method of teaching recruits police skills was, and still is to a great extent, through experience on the job. Although many agencies today conduct some type of formal training,50 "The total training effort in this country, when related to the complexity of the law enforcement task, is grossly "51 inadequate. Deficiencies exist in the content, length, and methods of instruction. Content 2£_Instruction. In the majority of police training programs, primary consideration is given to 47Task Force Report: The Police, 92, cit., p. 137. “81bid., p. 10. 491bid., p. 137. 50Ibid., p. 138. A survey of 1352 cities in 1965 showed 1135 conducted some type of recruit training, and a survey of 269 agencies in 1966 showed 97% had formal training. 511bid., p. 36. 38 acquainting the recruit with the technical aspects of police work. Where time allocated for training is severely limited, instruction may be limited to such topics as laws and ordinances, rules and regulations of the department, rudiments of first aid, care and use of firearms, self-defense, directing traffic, etc. Large metropolitan departments, especially those serving cities of over 500,000 population, may include instruc- tion in such subjects as investigation, field prece- dures, crowd control, sociology and race relations, administration of justice, criminal evidence, and juve— nile procedures.52 The President's Commission reviewed many of these programs and concluded that while some are commendable, "it is doubtful whether even a majority of them provide recruits with an ample understanding of the police task."53 A major shortcoming of most recruit training is that it trains the officer to perform police work mechanically, but does not prepare him to understand his community, the police role, or the imperfections of the criminal justice system.54 Although much of the activity of the police involves the exercise of considerable discretion on the part of the 52Ibid., p. 138. 53Ibid. 54Ibid. 39 patrolman, inadequate policy guidelines leaves the instruc- tor with only formal definitions to teach. As a result, the recruit's instruction often bears little resemblance to what is expected of him when he goes into the field.55 Students are usually taught that all laws are to be fully enforced. The exercise of police authority is taught in a doctrinaire fashion.56 The major difficulty in any attempt to transmit knowledge concerning interper- sonal skills or in any attempt to im- prove these skills is that little exists in the way of such knowledge. John McNamara found that in the New York City Police Academy instructors tended to treat the matter as one of "having common sense or not having it."58 More often than not, any principles regarding interpersonal skills were passed on to the recruit in the form of general prescrip— tions or rules of thumb based on the instructor's own police experience. 55Herman Goldstein, ”Police Policy Formulation: A Proposal For Improvin Police Performance," Michigan Law Review, 65:1123-114 , April, 1967, p. 1134. 56Ibid. 57John H. McNamara, "Uncertainties in Police Work: The Relevance of Police Recruits' Background and Training," The Police, David J. Brodua, editor (New York: John Wiley and sens, Inc., 1967),p . 219. 58Ibid., p. 220. 40 Length 9£ Instruction. Recruit training programs vary greatly from one department to another. Length of training varies from less than one week in many of the smaller departments to as many as 20 weeks in some of the larger ones. A majority of the departments in cities above 250,000 population provide eight weeks or more of training; departments in smaller cities provide, on the average, not more than three weeks of training. Smaller departments sometimes send their recruits to training academies of larger departments, but in many cases a small department cannot Spare an officer for any pro- longed period of time.59 The President's Commission noted that the total training effort in this country was "grossly inadequate."6O A serious deficiency was the insufficient time and effort devoted to training the officer how to improve relations between the police and the community. Although most police-community relations units participate to some extent in recruit training, their degree of participation is not sufficient to overcome any biases which a recruit 61 may bring to the job. Similar inadequacies were found in inservice training devoted to police-community relations. 59Task Force Report: The Police, 92. cit., p. 139. 601bid., p. 36. 61Ibid., pp. 154, 175. 41 The Commission noted that in one of the nation's out- standing inservice training programs only 2 of 36 class hours in 1963 were devoted specifically to police-com- munity relations.62 Efforts to improve such training is often hampered by the fact that many officers are completely indifferent or even hostile because they do not regard it as "real police work."63 Methods 92 Instruction. Michael Banton observed that "often, both in the police and in the universities, particular topics are taught because they are suited to systematic instruction or because they are easy to set examination questions upon."64 Systematic instruction via the lecture technique seems to be the customary mode of instruction in police training programs, although the limitations of such instruction have long been recognized by professional educators.65 Supervised field training is provided by relatively few departments, although the complexity of the policeman's task would seem to indicate the need for a mixture of classroom instruction and field 62Ibid., p. 177. 63Ibid., p. 178. 6”Michael Banton, The Policeman i9_the Community (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1964), p. 267. 65Task Force Report: The Police, op. cit., p. 139. 42 application of learning. In recent years a few depart- ments have adopted advanced instructional techniques such as role-playing exercises.66 Although some police depart- ments obtain the services of specialists to conduct some training classes, most of the instruction is provided either on a full time or part time basis by department officers. The President's Commission felt that the kind of training needed by a new officer is beyond the capa~ city of the police officer who is drawn from a force and temporarily assigned to the training function.67 III. THE OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT The police, by virtue of their role in society, develop a unique set of values which influences both the way they interpret their mission and the manner in which they perform it. Although individual policemen vary in the extent to which they assimilate certain occupational values, each performs his role within an organizational environment. As such, his behavior is guided, directed, and delimited by the organization. 66Raymond J. Parnas, "The Police Response to the Domestic Disturbance," Wisconsin Law Review, 1967:914- 960, p. 916. 67Task Force Report: The Police, 92, cit., p. 37. 43 Occupational values. Sixteen years ago William Westley described the police as an occupational group which accepts and justifies its illegal use of violence. He proposed that such acceptance arises through their occu— pational experience and that the use of violence is func- tionally related to the collective occupational as well as legal ends of the police. Reasoning that a man's occu- pation is a major determining factor of his conduct and social identity, Westley sought to discover the "occupation- ally derived definitions of self and conduct which arise in the involvement of technical demands, social relation- ships between colleagues and with the public, status, and self-conception."68 Central to an understanding of the policeman's conduct are a cluster of occupational values, arising from experience which tend to bind the policeman to the occupational group while at the same time isolating him from the rest of society. His is a service occupation but of an incongruous kind since he must disci- pline those whom he serves. He is regarded as corrupt and inefficient by, and meets with hostility and criticism from, the public. He regards the public as his enemy, feels his occupation to be in con- flict with the community and regards him- self as a pariah. The experience and the feeling give rise to a collective emphasis 68William A Westley, "Violence and the Police,‘l The American Journal 92 Sociology, 59:34-41, 1953-1954, p.39. 44 on secrecy, an attempt to coerce respect from the public, and a belief that almost any means are legitimate in completing an important arrest. These are for he policeman basic occupational values. According to Westley the illegal use of violence by the police constitutes the perversion of a legally dele- gated resource to the furthering of personal and group ends. Because the use of violence is, for the police, an occupational necessity, through their experiences they come to regard it as useful, good, and their own. Famil- iarity with its employment establishes violence as a ready response in the face of counterviolence. Once the legal use of violence becomes established as an habitual response to certain difficult situations, the legal restric- tions limiting its use become blurred in the press of more immediate demands, such as the imperative to maintain respect for oneself and one's group, or the need to accom- plish highly valued objectives. Westley believed his most significant finding was that at least 37% of the officers in his sample believed that it was legitimate to use violence to coerce respect from the public.70 Many shared the common belief that any individual who acts or talks in a disrespectful way deserves brutality. A major 69Ibid., p. 36. 7OIbid., p. 39. 45 source of occupational prestige for the patrolmen, and a group means by which the police justify themselves to the public, is the apprehension and conviction of the felon. "Patrolmen feel that little credit is forthcoming from a clean beat (a crimeless beat), while a number of good arrests really stand out on the’record."71 The crude acts of clearly illegal violence and the "third degree" described by Westley, while perhaps not en- tirely a thing of the past, are certainly less in evidence today. However, the major impetus for reform of police acti- vities with respect to the use of illegal violence has come not from within police organizations, but from the judiciary. Numerous court decisions have rendered ineffective at least some Of the police techniques which, formerly, would have fac- ilitated the achievement of important convictions. It is important to note that the major Supreme Court decisions rede- fining police practices have carried with them the presump- tion of wrongdoing on the part of the police, even though many of these practices were clearly within the bounds of legality at the time they were condemned and overruled. Without del- ving into the merits of such landmark decisions as MAPP V. OHIO (1961), ESCOBEDO v. ILLINOIS (1964), MALLORY v. UNITED STATES (1957), and MIRANDA v. ARIZONA (1966), it is sufficient to point out that all have brought adverse publicity to police practices in general. 711bid., p. 36. 46 Because the major incentive for reform of police practices has come about from pressures exerted by the judiciary, and not from within police organizations, there is little reason to believe that the basic sources of frustration which give rise to abuse of police auth- ority have diminished. Police sense of isolation from the public, feelings of lack of respect and low status, and discontent with the judiciary have, if anything, become more intense in the years since Westley first explained them. Restrictions imposed by the judiciary have made it more difficult for individual officers and police organizations to realize their "crime-fighting" objectives. Countless highly publicized clashes between police and the public in the context of student protest, racial violence, and political protest have served only to exacerbate relations between the police and the public. Although the existence of certain occupational val- ues in conflict with society may partly explain the incentive for police misconduct, it necessary to examine how such values are able to result in police behavior inimical to legality and propriety. Matters dealt with by the police are of increasing importance to society, yet, attempts by enlightened administrators and others within the police profession to raise standards of police conduct and reduce tensions between the police and the public have been less than successful. Moreover, control over the behavior of 47 individual officers remains largely an unfulfilled Objec— tive. 72 Police Discretion. According to Herman Goldstein, the most acute problems confronting the police receive inadequate attention because of a common lack of under- standing of the true nature of the police task. Those outside of police agencies generally hold several miscon- ceptions. One is the assumption that the police are primarily engaged in activities relating to the preven- tion of crime and the apprehension of criminals. A second misconception is that the police are a ministerial agency having no discretion in the exercise of their authority. Although this notion is occasionally rein- forced by a court decision, both the profusion and ambi- guity of statutes and the limited resources available to the police make the exercise of discretion inevitable. A third misconception is that "the primary authority available to and used by the police is that of invoking the criminal process——that is, arresting a person for the purpose of prosecuting him for having committed a crime.”73 In reality, only a small percentage of a policeman's time is spent handling serious offenses. Even in high-crime 72Goldstein, 92, cit., pp. 1123-1146. 73Ibid., pp. 1125—1126. 48 areas most of the policeman's work involves activities which can be classified as "rendering service" or "main- taining order." Included in these categories are the routine tasks which comprise the bulk of police work: ...assisting the aged and mentally ill; locating missing perso 8; providing ener- gency medical services; mediating dis- putes between husbands and wives, land- lords and tenants, or merchats and their customers; caring for neglected children; providing information about various gov- ernment services and processis; regulating traffic; investigating accidents; and pro- tecting the rights of individuals to live wher they want and say what they want to say.$u Although any intervention by the police in the lives of citizens is apt to be interpreted as occurring ”under ' in many instances formal enforcement action color of law,' is neither practical nor desirable. This is so because laws regulating disorderly conduct, breach of peace, loiter- ing and the like are necessarily ambiguous. Moreover, in many jurisdictions, laws regulating "disorder" frequently require the cooperation of complainants, many of whom refuse to cooperate with the police. In those rare instances where police agencies have adopted a policy of strict enforce— ment towards a minor offense traditionally handled informal— ly, the policy has usually proven unworkable. Wayne is Fave cites the experience of a community where the police chief, 7Allbidn p. 112". 49 disturbed by the large number of domestic disturbance calls, issued a directive that in the future an arrest was to be made in all such cases. The policy had been effect only a week when it was reversed due to pressure from the city attorney.75 Raymond Parnas pointed out that even if a policy of full enforcement had produced the desired effect of reducing the number of domestic disputes reported to the police, such a practice "fails to recognize the domestic causes of these disputes and completely ignores the value in supporting family rela- tionships without disruption."76 Furthermore, policies of full enforcement have a way of directing themselves towards certain segments of the population, thus alien- ating entire sectors of a community. If full enforcement does not provide a workable solution for dealing with certain non-crime matters, neither does a policy of no response offer a satisfactory solution. In the case of domestic disturbances the seri- ousness of such calls is uncertain until an officer is on the scene. In many instances there is a legitimate need for immediate assistance, assistance which only the police 75Wayne R. LaFave, Arrest: The Decision To Take a Suspect Into Custody (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 9 ’ p0 liS. 76Parnas, op. cit., p. 948. 50 have the resources to provide on an around-the-clock basis.77 The practical necessity for the exercise of sub— stantial discretionary power would seem to dictate that police policies, procedures, training and selection would be directed towards maintaining careful control over the manner in which individual officers exercise police discretionary power. For several reasons this is not the case; any uniformity in the exercise of discretion is likely to arise chiefly through informal means. With few exceptions, police administrators are generally reluc- tant to formulate and enforce policy regulating strictly the exercise of discretion by individual officers. Efforts to provide more detailed guidance for individual officers have related primarily to the enforcement of traffic laws and the handling of Juvenile offenders. Although the police have a tradition of promulgating a variety of stan- dard Operating procedures to govern the internal manage- ment of the police force, they are reluctant to assume a policy-making role that might appear to parallel the legis- lative function.78 While it might be contended that the police practice of devoting increased attention to the 77Ib1d. 78601dstein, 92, cit., p. 1127 51 enforcement of certain laws--such as those regulating vice and morals--constitutes the making of policy, this is not quite the same as acknowledging the exercise of discre— tion with respect to nonenforcement, underenforcement, or selective enforcement of certain laws. Policy Vaccuum. Unregulated exercise of police dis- cretion results from what Goldstein refers to as a "policy vaccuum".79 Implicit in any attempt by the police to form- ulate and make public such policies as would be necessary to control the exercise of discretion is the acknowledge— ment that discretion does, in fact, exist. But, the police policy administrator who admits that discretion is practiced by his agency exposes himself to public criticism. One of the many little fictions which our society nurtures is that all men are treated equally under the law, and that the police impartially administer clearly worded statutes. The prevailing but unsatisfactory solution to this dilemma is for the administrator to deny that the police exercise dis- cretion. However, this position places many administrators in a conflict "between their desire for effective, aggressive police action and the requirements of law and prepriety.”80 79Ibid. 80Task Force Report: The Police, 9p, cit., p. 17. 52 Direct confrontation of policy issues would inevitably require the police administra- tor to face the fact that some practices, although considered effective, do not con- form to constitutional, legislative, or judicial standards. By adopting a 'let sleeping dogs lie' approach, the adminis- trator avoids a direct confrontation and thus is able to support 'effective' prac- tices without having to decide whgiher they meet the requirements of the law. The reluctance of police organizations to exert a greater measure of control over the behavior of individual officers compounds many of the problems inherent in the nature of police work. Patrolmen, working alone or in pairs, perform a highly complex task in situations which do not lend themselves to supervision. In all but a handful of departments, training which would help prepare the patrolman for the diverse functions which he must perform is either grossly inadequate or totally lacking. Without training or formal policy to guide him, the individual officer either develops his own criteria for handling matters or employs informal criteria which have developed within the agency. Although such criteria may take on the appearance of offi- cial policy, usually they are neither articulated nor formal- 82 ly recognized. Officers are routinely required to make rapid decisions about the probable past and future behavior of citizens. These decisions will determine whether action 811b1d. 82Goldstein, 92, cit., p. 1133. 53 should be taken and in what form it will be applied. When the officer's Judgement is based on appearances such as class, race, or status, the implication--at least to the citizen involved--is that the decision results from prejudice. J.Q. Wilson points out that the line between judgements based on police experience and those based on personal prejudice is often very thin.83 The potential for arbitrariness in police—citizen encounters also means that the police as a group present a somewhat unpredictable and inconsistent image to the public. Unlike his British counterpart, the American policeman cannot rely upon the authority of his uniform, because his actions do not con- 1: form to a stable pattern.8r Controlling the Use pf Force. Rules governing the use of force in completing an arrest are typically vague and subject to different interpretations by individual officers and citizens. Usually prohibitions are expressed in such general wording as "use only necessary and proper force in effecting an arrest.85 The very different situ— ations requiring an officer to use force makes it extremely difficult for police administrators to narrowly define what 83Wilson, gp_.c1t., p. 38. 8 “Banton, gp,cit., p. 167. 85w11son, pp.cit., p. 71. 54 is appropriate. Because rules prescribing the use of force are broadly worded, their enforcement is nearly impossible in all but the most flagrant violations. Because the patrol- man works alone, or with another patrolman, it is difficult for the administrator to know exactly what happened in-most incidents where police brutality is alleged. Often, his decision as to what disciplinary action, if any, is appro- priate will be based on the relative credibility of the words of an officer and a citizen. If, as in most cases, the citizen is a "nobody" the officer will be given the benefit of the doubt.86 In those instances where a citizen complaint is taken seriously, either because the citizen is able to bring pressure to bear or because the officer's behavior has discredited the department, disciplinary action is likely to be viewed by the patrolman as arbitrary or the result of "political influence,"87 Westley believed that it was nearly impossible for policemen to employ sanctions against their colleagues for using violence. Even men who personally condemn its use and avoid it whenever possible refuse openly to condemn acts of violence by other men on the force. They realize that it is often easy to cover up for acts of brutality by 86Banton, 93. cit., p. 172. 87McNamara, pp, cit., p. 177. 55 accusing a subject of "resisting arrest."88 A fundamental consideration in the administration of complaints involving police behavior is the different inter- pretations which the police and the public give to "brutal- ity" and "excessive force." The President's Commission found that many persons and particularly those from minority groups, believe that the police frequently engage in exces- sive force.89 Statistics, on the other hand, suggest that only a small number of complaints alleging abuse of police authority actually involve legally impermissible behavior. Many actions which appear on the surface to be improper often violate neither the law nor any existing departmental policy. Within this sizeable area of ambiguity constraints on the behavior of individual officers are minimal. The department administrator faced with a citizen complaint of brutality finds himself forced to defend behavior which he considers improper but for which there is no clear cut prohibition.90 IV. THE PATROLMAN'S OUTLOOK A policeman's background, training, and his relation— ships with the police organization are all important deter- minants of the kind of outlook which he brings to the street. 88Wilson, 0p. cit., p. 21. 89Task Force Report: The Police, pp, cit., p. 181. goGoldstein, loc. cit. 56 But perhaps the most potent force in shaping and reforming his outlook is the aggregate of his experiences with the public he deals with in his daily work. Isolation. Isolation is a rather general but useful concept often employed by observers of the police, both here and abroad, in describing the variable relationships between the police and other groups in society..More precise terms might be "alienation"-—because it implies a relation- ship characterized by antagonism or indifference-~or "estrangement"-—because it implies a sense of separation with attendant feelings of indifference of hostility. Iso- lation, as it has been applied to the police, seems to imply both of these other meanings. Taken in this sense, isolation is descriptive of a number of forces influencing relations between the police and the community. By virtue of his role in society, the policeman tends to be set apart from the community. Among the factors con- tributing to the isolation of the police are the hostility and resentment of those who are touched most by the law. When the number of these individuals is relatively few, and when their power is dispersed, they will present no serious threat to public order. When they constitute a significant portion of the community, and especially when their influence is concentrated-~as in the case of minority groups and organ— ized or semi-organized "movements"--the police will be faced 57 with a lack of consensus concerning the proper performance of their role. A second factor contributing to isolation of the police is that in this country, the history of police forces is liberally endowed with imcompetence, brutality and corrup- tion. Aware of their past, police organizations themselves often foster isolation by advising officers, in the interest of "good police work", to detach themselves from close rela- tionships with the public in order to avoid entangling or contaminating relationships.91 Banton observed that communities with the highest level of social control are small, homogeneous, and stable.92 Social order is maintained through a system of informal con— trols dictated by public opinion; there may be no require— ment for a police organization. As communities become large, more heterogeneous, and more unstable, imcreasing reliance for social control is placed on the powers of the police. Policing, in turn, becomes more difficult as informal social controls weaken. Many of the problems of the policeman, including forces which tend to isolate him from the community, are magnified 91John P. Clark, "Isolation of the Police: A Compar- ison of the British and American Situations," The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminolo , and Police Science,—§63307-3l§,-— september, 1965, pp. 3 -308} 92Banton, pp, cit., p. 2. 58 in the large, heterogeneous, urban-industrial cities. Within such cities, the patrolman assigned to a Negro slum district will meet with countless pressures which will tend to frustrate, alienate, and perhaps enrage him. His capacity to act in a restrained manner is constantly being tested. Danger. An important element of the policeman's working personality is his preoccupation with danger.93 Although most policemen in this country may face the possi- bility of being wounded or killed in the line of duty, the patrolman working in a slum neighborhood lives with the ever present threat of attack without warning.94 J.Q. Wilson suggests that although the risk of danger in order main- tenence patrol work may be statistically less than the danger involved in enforcing traffic laws and apprehending felons, it has a disproportionate effect on the officer partly because of its unexpected nature.95 The officer chasing a fleeing robber or pursuing a speeding car is well aware of the risks he is taking, but when an officer is attacked from an unexpected source, it tends to make him apprehensive and suspicious. Statistics compiled by the 93Jerome H. Skolnick, Justice Without Trial (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1966), pp. 42-h8. 94Task Force Rpport: The Police, pp, cit., p. 179. 95Wilson, pp, cit., p. 20 59 FBI show that 26,755 officers were assaulted and 10,770 injured in 1967.96 Many of the minor assaults and some of the serious ones can be attributed to general hosti- lity towards the police.97 Lower class Negro neighborhoods are often character- ized by a climate of fear-and—force, a "tough" culture, or what Marvin Wolfgang describes as a "subculture of vio- lence.”98 In such neighborhoods, the child is taught to strike out with fist or weapon, to be the first to do so, and that physical aggression and violence are socially approved and an expected response to certain stimuli.99 The general atmosphere is on of mistrust and suspicion. Leroy Schultz, in describing the reasons why Negroes carry weapons, noted that often the lower class Negro's personality is "sensitive and touchy, with a marked ten- dency to avoid being taken advantage of, and with death 96Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1967;, p. 158. 97Task Force Rpport: The Police, pp, cit., p.1fl5. 98Marvin Wolfgang et‘pl., Studies Ithomicide (New York: Harper and Row, 19677, pp. 3-1B. 99Leroy.G. Schultz, "Why the Negro Carries Weapons,” The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 53:h76-383, December, 1962, p.fiu80. 60 "100 In such a culture one wishes frankly verbalized. learns that to mistrust others has survival value, and that one is justified in anticipating attack from others. Schultz found that of 50 convicted weapons carriers, 35 gave "anticipating attack" as their reason for carrying a weapon. This group expressed a chronic fear for their own safety and assumed that others in their environment were also carrying weapons.lOl Harassment. Although the slum dweller believes the police provide inadequate protection against serious crimes such as robbery and burglary, he is also likely to resent police intrusion into minor crimes such as vagrancy, use of obscene language, loitering, drunkenness, drinking in public, and curfew violations. Arrests for minor crimes such as these, which constitute almost one half of all arrests annually, frequently involve issues which are unclear to the offender. He may believe that his actions do not justify arrest, and that the officer is acting arbi- trarily.102 Feelings of harassment among minority groups will be intensified in those cities where the police adopt what J.Q. Wilson refers to as a legalistic style, for here 1001h1d., pp. 479-u81. lOlIbid. 88 102Task Force Report: The Police, pp, cit., pp. 187- l . 61 the patrolman will be encouraged to take a law enforce— ment View of his role whenever possible. This will re- sult in large numbers of misdemeanor arrests, especially for those offenses in which the police and not the citi- zen invoke the law.103 Disputes. A task which many officers find distaste- ful, but which occurs with regularity for the patrolman in lower-class neighborhoods, involves the handling of interpersonal disputes. The "poor, uneducated people appear to use the police in the way that middle-class people use family doctors and clergymen—-that is, as the first port of call in time of trouble."lol1L Although patrol- men are frequently called upon to act in a capacity some— what like that of social workers, they are often quick to point out that they are not social workers, marriage coun- selors, psychologists, or clergyman.105 Support for this outlook-~that patrolmen are not prepared to handle many incidents normally requiring adjustment without arrest-— can be found in the large number of relatively minor inci- dents where intervention by the police seems "to create a more serious situation than existed prior to the police lo3Wilson, pp. cit., pp. 172-173. 102+Cumming, pp, cit., pp. 276, 280. 105Parnas, pp, cit., p. 956. 62 attempt to control the situation.”105 The manner in which each patrolman handles a situ- ation will be determined by his individual background, experience, and personality. Although a combination of experiences with other officers may lead to some consist- ency in the way the police respOnd to disputes, an indi— vidual officer may never use more than two or three of the many adjustment practices employed by the police.107 Differences in social class background and race create several problems in the handling of disputes. A police officer whose background is like- ly to be middle or lower-class in nature cannot rely on his common sense or his past experiences within the middle—class segments of the community when he attempts to gain voluntary compliance from those whose common sense is predicated on val ues and norms at variance with his own. 108 In addition to problems in communication arising from social class background, white officers generally do not feel the same involvement in the lives of the Negro commu- nity as do Negro officers. Banton observed that white officers saw beatings and stabbings as customs of Negro neighborhoods, like shooting craps.109 106McNamara, pp, cit., Po 168- 107Parnas, pp, cit., p. 916. 108 109 McNamara, loc. cit. Banton, _p, cit., p. 172. 63 From his experience in handling family disputes, the officer is likely to have developed an attitude of appre- hension. He knows that if he attempts to arrest one party, the other may attack him. If a third party had initiated the call, he may find both disputants resent his intrusion. Unaware of the "nonverbal communication"110 occurring be- tween himself and the citizen, the officer may seem hostile or edgy to the citizen. If the citizen shows resentment towards what he considers unjustifiable suspiciousness on the part of the officer, the officer is likely to become more apprehensive. Both sides may be caught in what J.Q. nlll Wilson describes as "ascending spiral of antagonism. pr.g p pfi_§p§pp, A major difficulty in discussions about the use of force by the police arises from the seman~ tics involved. Close inspection of the problem shows that there are at least three perSpectives to be considered: legal definitions of police authority to use force; general and Specific police interpretations; and public definitions of what constitutes proper and necessary force. Legal defin- itions of police authority with respect to the use of force are typically vague and subject to different interpretations 112 by the police and the public. Policemen are empowered llOMcNamara, pp, Cito: Po 177- lllWilson, pp, cit., p. 21. llerid., p. 21. 6A to use "necessary and proper" force in performing their duties—~such as in completing a lawful arrest or subduing an unruly person-~and in defending themselves from attack. But "what degree of force is 'necessary and proper' will be a matter of diSpute even when the purpose for which that force is applied...is not questioned."1l3 Attempts by police administrators to mollify those segments of the public most critical of police use of force have been hampered both by organizational exigencies—~such as the need to maintain police morale, and reluctance to acknow- ledge the exercise of discretion--and by the lack of a common understanding about what constitutes the legal use of force. These problems have been discussed previously. Comparison of different interpretations of police authority with respect to the use of force indicates that the police interpretation is most liberal, sometimes exceeding even the broad legal limits, whereas the interpretation of the public is perhaps most restrictive. For the policeman the use of force is both an occupa- tional prerogative and a necessity. Often it is "the only measure adequate to control and apprehension in the presence H.114 of counterviolence. Regardless of an officer's pre- police experiences, from his experiences in performing his 1131b1d., p. 44. 114Westley, 22, cit., p. 35, duties the policeman will be provided with a common sense and legal justification for the use of force. Force is a tool to be used by the policeman in overcoming resistance to his legal authority. The extent to which the use of force becomes integrated into the behavior pattern of the policeman will depend upon a number of attributes of the officer and his work envir— onment. Werthman and Piliavin believe that the patrolman's ability to gain reSpect is his "greatest source of pride as well as his area of greatest vulnerability."115 Westley found in the policeman's desire for respect a need to defend and improve his social status.116 As applied to the police, "respect" connotes more than the desire for esteem. For the patrolman "respect" means the ability to perform one's duties with economy of effort. Without the ability to elicit vol- untary compliance from citizens, the officer finds himself compelled to resort to violence. Justified by necessity, ingrained through experience, and ineffectively restricted by legal sanction, the use of force by the police becomes, according to Westley, a personal resource available for misuse by those officers inclined to rely on it.117 According to this view, the police most often ll5Carl Werthman and Irving Piliavin, "Gang Members and the Police," The Police, David J. Bordua, editor (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967), p. 92. 116Westley, pp, cit., p. 39. 1171b1d., pp. 35-38. 66 justify the illegal use of force in terms of maintaining respect for the police or in completing important arrests.118 The police see these private or group ends as constituting a moral legitimation for violence "which is equal or superior to the legitimation derived from the law."119 McNamara's research with the New York City Police Department lends support to the theory that the work experiences of police— men tend to provide a justification for the misappropriation of force.120 Although patrolmen did not strongly concur that disrespect was a sufficient condition for the use of force, with field experience more officers felt that the group of fellow officers supported the use of force in the case of disrespect shown to officers. J.Q. Wilson suggests that enlargement upon the area of legal use of force is a rather predictable outcome in departments that recruit men from a working class background. To these men force is likely to be viewed as "one legitimate means among many to achieve certain ends."121 Development of a moralistic outlook among policemen has werious implications for the misuse of force. Werthman O U. 118Ibid., p. LU 119Ibid., p. 120 9. LU McNamara, op. cit., p. 213. 121 1 Wilson, pp, cit., p. A7. 67 and Piliavin point out that policemen assigned to slum neighborhoods are most susceptible to the formation of attitudes highly critical of citizens. When suspect after suspect becomes hostile and surly, the police begin to see themselves as representing the law among a people that lack proper respect for it. They too begin to feel maligned, and they seem to become defensigply cynical and aggressively moral- istic. Reiss and Bordua believe that an important source of frustration for the policeman derives from the separation of enforcement from outcome}:33 Regardless of the formal definition of his role, the policeman is involved in enact— ing justice. His decisions as to what action to take or whether he will intervene involve him in diSpensing equity. ”Many police see two broad classes of violators—~those who deserve to be punished and those who do not."128 When a policeman elects not to arrest a violator it is because the violator does not deserve to be punished. Conversely, when an arrest is made it is because the policeman feels that the violator deserves to be punished. To the police, refusal of the courts to convict or of prosecutors to 1223 r: *' Jerthman and Piliavin, pp, cit., p. d . 123Albert J. Reiss, Jr., and David J. Bordua, "Envi— ronment and Organization: A Perspective on the Police," The Police, David J. Bordua, editor (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967), p. 33. 121ilbidu pp. 38-39. 68 prosecute may rest on the most artificial of formalities. Such decisions may be particularly galling to the officer who "regards his own rules of knowing as more valid than the courts rules of evidence in making a decision."125 Repeated failure of the courts to fulfill their moral obligation by "punishing” offenders is likely to lead officers with this outlook to seek informal methods of see- ing that justice is done. This method of adjustment is most apparent where the police are expected to continue enforce- ment involving violators whom the courts have sent back to the community.190 l251b1d. p. 33. l261bid. 69 CHAPTER III METHOD OF DATA GATHERING Several considerations dictated that the form of the research be an exploratory study. First of all, a research design was needed which would be flexible enough to consi- der different aspects of the problem. Secondly, limited time and resources were available for the study of a large number of variables. Selltiz described a research design as "the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research hypoth- "1 Systematic observation esis with economy of procedure. of any phenomenon requires decisions as to the availibility and necessity of data. Ideally, the researcher investi- gating police-citizen hostility would be able to observe a large number of police-citizen contacts, gather infor- mation about the backgrounds of the participants and the events preceding and following the confrontations. Practi- cal considerations placed limitations on the type of data that could be gathered, especially with respect to information about citizen participants in the confrontations. lClaire Selltiz, et al., Research Methods in Social Relations (revised edition; New Yorkz’Holt,‘Rineh§Ft and Winston, 1965), p. 50. 70 While many police-citizen contacts of a hostile nature never become officially documented as such, it seemed reasonable to assume that these officers who are prone to generate hostility would also be more frequently associated with resisting arrest charges, assaulting an officer charges, and citizen complaints. By analyzing department records of these events one could select two samples of officers; those who scored high on these criter- ia, and those who scored low. Furthermore, analysis of these records would provide insight as to the location and conditions surrounding these events. Several tentative hypothesis guided the selection of data. One possibility was that the main differences between officers with a high hostility generation poten- tial and those with a low hostility potential would be found in characteristics of the officer existing prior to his employment with the department. Important variables might be an officer's socioeconomic class background, level of education, race, ethnic group, physical stature, pre- employment history, or personality characteristics. Another source of differences might be found in the officer's police training and experiences on the Job, length of ser- vice, etc., or factors not present at time of recruitment. Broadly speaking, the required data could be placed into two categories; information about police-citizen inci— dents reflecting the presence of hostility and information about individual officers. 71 I. THE DEPARTMENT STUDIED In the spring of 1969 the researcher presented to the chief of the police department of a northern indus- trial city a proposal for the study outlined above. The chief agreed to grant the researcher access to the depart- ment's forcible arrest files and personnel records, and agreed to allow the researcher to conduct interviews with a number of patrolmen to be selected by the interviewer. In return for the c00peration of the department in granting access to records and interviews the researcher agreed to maintain the anonymity of the department in the report of the research. This was essential due to the confidential nature of the records to which the researcher was granted access, and to the potential for criticism of the department which could result from making public infor- mation intended to remain confidential. Prior to, during, and after the research the department was engaged in a running battle with minority group leaders in the community who were very critical of the department's relations with the large Negro population in the city. Charges of "police brutality” were common. Demands for more Negro police officers (the department employed only a handful) were met with the reply that qualified Negroes would be hired-~if they applied—-but that few applied for the Jobs available. The city had experienced serious racial 72 disturbances in past years and the prOSpects for the future were not particularly encouraging. Perhaps the most common allegation was that the police harassed the Negro community and that their patrol tactics provoked many minor and some serious disturbances. The department was organized along conventional lines. The number of men assigned to the patrol bureau was approx- imately equal to the total number of men assigned to the detective, Juvenile, traffic, and identification bureaus. For several years the department had had an active police- community relations program and engaged in a number of innovative activities in an effort to expand and improve its services to the community. Public information programs, child safety education programs, a Community Service Officer Program, a police reserve program, a police cadet program, and a police intern program all marked the department as one I" 01 the most progressive in the region. An aggressive recruit- ment program was begun some years back, and at present the department maintained exceptionally high recruitment standards with a surplus of qualified applicants. The city was located in a northern industrial area. Most of its inhabitants were employed by large corporations engaged in mass production. The city had grown rapidly with the end of World war II and many residents were Negroes and whites who had migrated North in search of better paying semi-skilled and unskilled jobs in big industry. As a result there were sections of the city identified to the researcher by local inhabitants as poor Negro, middle—class Negro, upper-class Negro, poor white, "hillbilly" white, lower-middle class white, middle-class white, and upper- class white-—in short, a wide variety of social classes. II. FORCIBLE ARREST REPORTS For several years the department had required that whenever an officer used physical force in completing an arrest, he was to fill out a narrative account of the arrest and immediately notify his supervisor. The super- visor, almost always a patrol shift sergeant, would then interview the arrestee and any witnesses to the incident and make a report of his findings. Together with the patrol- man's account, the supervisor's report was forwarded to the inspector of patrol who would review all accounts of the incident and take action as required. The acknowledged purpose of the forcible arrest report was to protect the officer and the department from false allegations of police misconduct. The reports were regarded as confidential, not subject to public disclosure, not available to the citizen complainant except by subpoena, and were to be used by the department as a basis for responding to complaints by indi- vidual citizens or organizations. Although a forcible ar est report could be used to initiate administrative action against an officer, this outcome was exceptionally rare. 74 Most officers trusted the procedure and regarded it as protective of their own interests. As a result of this, the officers account of the arrest was likely to be more frank and accurate than would have been the case had the reports been subject to public scrutiny. Indicators of Hostility. Police reports do not pur- posely convey the detailed quality of interpersonal rela- tionships which accompany each official confrontation. It was,therefore, necessary to select from available records those bits of information to serve as indicators of the concept under study. There are, undoubtedly, a large num- ber of incidents where conflict between officer and citi- zen results in no more than an angry exchange of words with no formal police action. In other instances antag- onism between officer and citizen will influence the officer to take enforcement action where, absent the generation of hostility, the officer's discretionary power would be exer- cised in a different manner. This is especially relevant to police encounters with youths. Here the outcome is often thought to be affected by the youth's appearance, past re— cord, and the amount of respect shown to an officer.4 2Irving Piliavin and S. Brian, ”Police Encounter With Juveniles," The American Journal 9: Sociology, 70:206—214, September, 196M. 75 In selecting forcible arrests and citizen complaints as a measure of the amount of hostility which an officer generates, the researcher reasoned that while the use of force may be absolutely essential to the completion of certain arrests, those officers who employ force most fre- quently are less able or less willing to use other methods of persuasion in dealing with the public. A preliminary survey of the frequency with which for- cible arrests and citizen complaints occurred within the department showed that, on the average, twelve incidents were reported each month. Almost all of the incidents involved forcible arrest reports initiated by the arrest- ing officer. A few citizen complaints were scattered throughout, and were investigated by the department in the same manner as the forcible arrests. In order to collect enough incidents to rank all officers, it was decided that the analysis of incidents would encompass the period from January, 1967 through May, 1969, or approximately two and a half years. After determining that the vast majority of hostility incidents involved officers assigned to the patrol bureau, and that very few incidents involved officers assigned to the detective bureau, juvenile bureau, or traffic bureau, the researcher decided to limit the study to members of the patrol bureau. By restricting the research to members of the patrol bureau, the researcher was able to eliminate unwanted variation stemming from the inherent differences 76 between patrol work and other police assignments. Werth- man and Piliavin believe that there is a strong incentive for the patrolman to attempt to settle challenges to author- ity on the spot, ...an alternative that necessarily poses . , ’3 the threat of Violence."J Data Extracted. For each incident report a separate card was made containing eighteen kinds of information and space for a short narrative of the incident. The kinds of information recorded were: Patrolman or patrolmen involved. Reason for police—citizen encounter. Charges filed against the citizen. The person initiating the encounter. Date, day, and time of encounter. The setting of the initial encounter. The setting(s) in which violence occurred. Number of citizens involved. Presence or absence of bystanders. Subject's sex, age, race, address. 11. Subject's record of prior arrests. 12. Whether subject had been drinking. How much. 3. Whether subject was armed. Kind of weapon. lh. Presence of verbal antagonism. To whom directed. l“. Kind of resistance offered by subject. 16. Whether officer was hyperactive prior to encounter. 17. Amount and kind of force employed by officer and citizen. 18. Whether violence followed from failure of the officer to fulfill a citizen's request. 19. Narrative of events. \OCD~JO\fiJ:U)m+4 i—J 0 3Carl Werthman, and Irving Piliavin, "Gang Members and the Police," The Police, David J. Bordua, editor (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967), p. 92. 77 Often, in their reports, patrolmen frankly admitted striking back at, and sometimes injuring subjects who provoked or threatened them. For most incidents the re— ports contained the accounts of several officers and citi- zens. Where there was substantial agreement among these accounts--this was usually the case-~it was possible to determine the extent to which the use of force exceeded that necessary to subdue or restrain the subject. III. SELECTION OF SAMPLE After the data was recorded on cards, the incidents were used to rank all patrolmen assigned to the department. This task was complicated somewhat by the fact that almost all officers worked in two man teams. In many forcible arrests more than one car was involved, with the result that as many as six or seven officers might be involved in one incident. Where narrative reports were clear and consistent with each other there were few problems in deci— phering the actions of individual office‘s, but where the reports were not in agreement there was room for considerable doubt as to the accuracy of any of them. because of this, two scores were computed for each officer. One was a raw score based on the total number of incidents in which the officer was a primary participant. This score included incidents about which there was disagreement as to the actions of the participants. A second score was based only 78 upon those incidents about which there was substantial agreement. Both scoring methods resulted in selection of the same officers as the leaders in hostility inci- dents for the department. An experienced police administrator pointed out to the researcher that the reported number of forcible arrests accrued by an officer might merely reflect the officer's level of activity, his initiative, or the type of district to which he was assigned. The analysis of the locations in which forcible arrests occurred did, in fact, show that most forcible arrests originated in predominately lower— class districts, both Negro and white, and that the officers experiencing most forcible arrests had been assigned to these districts. This factor was taken into consideration when selecting officers rated low in hostility potential. Several considerations governed the selection of indi- vidual officers for study. After the incidents were tallied, it was found that most officers had accrued very few forcible arrests or complaints during the period studied. Thus, while one could identify perhaps twenty officers at the high end of the hostility scale, most of the remaining officers scored very low. The original research design called for comparison of interviews with a group of ten officers classified as having a high hostility gereration potential with a group of ten officers with a low hostility potential. To select ten ”Lows” at random would have introduced the possibility of differences accounted for by assignment to relatively quiet districts. 79 To eliminate this error, the incidents were again analyzed to identify "Low" hostility officers who had been assigned to the same area of the city as the "Highs." Eliminated from both samples were officers who had not been assigned to the patrol bureau during the period covered by the research. This requirement caused the researcher to elim- inate several ”Lows” who were appointed to the force after January, 1967. Further information concerning date of appointment, previous employment, level of education, age, height, weight, prior military service, disciplinary sus— pensions, and marital status was gathered from department personnel records. IV. THE INTERVIEW As noted in Chapter II, the policeman's occupation juxtaposes a number of conflicting roles. Many writers have emphasized the disjunctive effect on the policeman's personality of the mandate to simultaneously serve and discipline the public. Because service and enforcement functions are often maximized in lower income areas, many of the policeman's most serious problems are encountered during interaction with minority group members. This is especially true where white policemen are assigned to low~ er-class Negro areas. Considerations such as these sug- gested the topics to be investigated during the interview situation. Of Special interest was the way the officer 80 viewed his role, how he adjusted to the many demands placed on him early in his police career, and how his out- look differed from those of his fellow officers. Because of the sensitive and personal nature of the topics to be investigated, and because the researcher felt it would be helpful to observe the officer in interaction with various citizens, the researcher planned to conduct the interviews while riding patrol with each officer for one eight hour shift. This plan was abandoned when it was learned that the department could not make an exception to the requirement that two officers man each patrol car. The alternate interview arrangement finally agreed upon was for each officer in the sample to be pulled from his district assignment for a one hour private interview at headquarters. At the beginning of each interview the researcher iden— tified himself as a member of the U.S. military who was studying police administration at Michigan State University. The interviewee was told that the purpose of the interview was to help the researcher gather information about some practical problems of police work in difficult neighborhoods. It was explained to each interviewee that the content of the interview would remain anonymous with regard to both the indi— vidual officer and the department, and that the department chief had authorized the interviews. Each officer was told that he had been selected randomly from the group of officers assigned to rough districts for the past several years. 81 Most officers accepted this explanation of the selection process without question, and it is felt that few if any of them realized that they had been selected on the basis of th ir forcible arrest experience. Two techniques were used to gather data during the one hour sessions. The first forty minutes were devoted to a focused interview. With this method the researcher knows in advance what topics or aspects of a question he wishes to cover. From a preliminary analysis of the research problem a list of topics is derived. ”This list consti- f tutes a framework of topics to be covered, but the manner 0 ‘| in which questions are asked anr their timing are left 1 n4 largely to the interviewer's hiSCPGLiOD. An advantage of this method is that although it allows the respondent to express completely hir 11““ of thought, the direction ~f the interview remains within the hands of the interviewer. so enhance the likelihoed of frank expression and to mini— mize the suspiciousness ef the officer during the interview, answers and notes were recorded after the interview had been completed. Interview topics were selectee with the inten- tion of discovering attitudes related to frustration which might be manifested during contacts between officers and citizens. (See Appendix A, interview Format.) These tepics I! , .. . [2 ’Ibid. r. _J 82 included: attitudes towards the department as an employer; attitudes relating to police work in general; the officer's desires and expectancies with respect to occupational suc— cess; attitudes towards the courts, the public, minority groups, specific offenses and offenders; and the officer's early police experience. The last twenty minutes of the interview were used to administer a forty-one question opinion survey. (See Appendix B, Questionnaire.) Much of the information in the opinion survey paralleled that in the interview and provided a check on opinions expressed during the interview. Part of the content of the opinion survey consisted of information which could not have been explored during the one hour period using the slower focused inter- view procedure. 83 CHAPTER IV RESULTS OF THE STUDY Uniformed patrolmen were ranked ”High" or ”Low" in hostility generation potential on the basis of 235 forci- ble arrest and citizen complaint reports covering a two year period. Of these 235 reports 175 were analyzed to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident: the reason for the police-citizen encounter; the setting or settings in which violence-~either on the part of the officer or the citizen--occurred; such characteristics of the citizen as were available; the type of action taken by the citizen and the officer; degree of force used; the location and time of the encounter. Omitted from this analysis were incidents involving officers assigned to traffic or detective bureaus, those working in the Jail, policewomen and youth bureau officers. Section 1 contains the analysis of 175 incidents. Comparisons are made for white and Negro subjects. Section II shows some differences between forcible arrests not involving the use of excessive force and those in which officers used excess ve force. Section III through VI contain an analysis of differ- ences between patrolmen rated high or low in hostility gen- eration potential. Section III gives pre—employment char- acteristics such as physical traits, level of education, 8h social class background, and military service. Section IV deals with the patrolman's early Job experiences. In Sec- tion V an attempt is made to discover differences in the way patrolmem relate to the department. Section VI investi— gates differences in the way Highs and Lows view their role, their relationships with the general public, minority groups, and the courts, and their attitudes towards the use of force. I. FORCIBLE ARRESTS Table 1 shows factors associated with forcible arrests and gives a breakdown for Negro and white subjects. Reason For Encounter. Analysis of the circumstances surrounding 175 forcible arrests by patrolmen over a one and a half year period, showed that in 83% of the incidents the reason for the police—citizen encounter was related either to a traffic violation or an order maintenance pro— blem. Traffic stops, usually initiated when a patrolman observed a hazardous moving violation, accounted for 28% of the incidents. Arrest for drunkenness, initiated either by a patrolman's observation or by a complainant's call, was the reason in 27% of the incidents. Family fights and dis- putes among acquaintances accounted for 28% of the forcible arrests. The remaining 13% listed as "other reasons" in Table I, included arrests for Juvenile offenses, larceny, burglary, breach of peace not involving one of the previously 85 listed categories, and violation of liquor laws. Comparison of the reasons for police—citizen encounters in forcible arrests of Negro subjects with the reasons in forcible arrests of whites showed several differences. Traf- fic stops accounted for 33% of forcible arrests of whites, 21% of forcible arrests of Negroes; drunkenness accounted for 32% of the forcible arrests of whites but for only 19% of Negroes. While there was only a small difference between the percentage of forcible arrests growing out of family fights for the two races, disputes among acquantances accounted for 18% of Negro forcible arrests but only 9% of white forcible arrests. The largest difference in reason for encounter between Negro and white forcible arrests was in the category "other." Twenty nine per cent of forcible arrests of Negroes were in this category which included mostly minor crimes and a few serious crimes. Nine per cent of forcible arrests of whites was attributable to these "other" reasons. These findings are consistent with the observation of the President's Commission that the enforcement of minor crime laws often arouses resentment and hostility because the sub— 1 Ject feels that his actions do not justify arrest. Differ- ences in the reason for encounter by race reflects, perhaps, lThe Presifent's Comm ssion on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Task Force Report: The Police (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1967), pp. 187-188. TABLE I RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN FORCIBLE ARREST INCIDENTS Total Incidents N-175 % Reason for encounter Traffic stop 49 2M A7 27% Family fight 27 15% Acquaintance dispute 22 13% Other reason* 30 17% Setting of Violence Street 68 39% Headquarters 51 30% Residence 35 20% Patrol car 26 15% Public building 16 9% Bystanders present at initial encounter 87 50% was female 21 12% was minor H8 28% had been drinking 127 73% cursed officer 98 56% attacked officer 93 53% was armed 19 11% Officer was hyperactive 31 18% Violence followed unfulfilled request 10 % ficer used excessive 93 53% felonies, *Other reasons included minor crimes liquor law violat101s, and breach of peace. 86 Forcible Forcible arrests of arrests of Negroes whites N-7 % N- 103 % 15 21% 3“' 33% 14 19% 33 32% 9 13% 18 17% 3 18% 9 9% 21 29% 9 9% 27 37% 41 40% 16 22% 35 34% 14 19% 21 20% 8 11% 18 17% 8 11% 8 8% 44 61% 47 46” 1!: 19% 7 7% 25 35% 23 22% 42 58% 85 83% H3 60% 55 53% 3 53% 55 59 3% 12 170/ 7 37/15 11 15% 20 19% 5 7% 5 at 32 ,t% 60 58% such as larceny, juvenile offenses, 87 a tendency for Negroes to be involved in arrests for crime and 7iolence more often than whites. Whites, on the other hand, are more likely to attract a policeman's attention and resist his intervention when involved in hazardous driving or drunkenness. Setting 9: Violence. Table I shows the frequency of violence in each of five settings during the completion of forcible arrests. The numbers and percentages total more than 100% of the incidents because, often, violence occurred in more than one setting during a single arrest. Violence, as used here, implies the use of physical force in a con- flict situation between an officer and a subject. There was little difference between the setting of violence during the initial phase of forcible arrests for Negroes and for whites; in 37% of the incidents involving Negroes and &0% of incidents involving whites, violence occurred on the street. Violence in a residential setting occurred in 19% of the incidents involving Negroes and 20% of those invol- ving whites. The figures were also similar for violence occurring in a public building. There appeared to be a significant difference by race for violence which occurred after a subject had been placed under arrest. Violence occurred more frequently for whites than for Negroes in a patrol car (17% of incidents involving whites, but 11% of those involving Negroes) and at police headquarters (3H% for 88 whites, 22% for Negroes.) Two reasons might account for this difference. Forcible arrests of whites involve drunkenness and drinking more often than those of Negroes. It is likely that when force is necessary to arrest a person who has been drinking, there will be a greater tendency for his behavior to remain antagonistic through- out the entire arrest procedure. A second reason for the difference might be that patrolmen are sensitive to Negro complaints of "police brutality" and take greater care not to antagonize Negro arrestees. During the initial encounter between officer and citizen, bystanders were present in 50% of the total forci— ble arrest incidents. In those incidents involving Negroes, bystanders were present 61% of the time; for whites the figure was 46%. This difference may be accounted for by the fact that traffic stops were the reason for more encoun- ters involving whites whereas disputes among acquaintances often occurring in crowded neighborhoods accounted for more incidents involving Negroe“. Other Factors. Forcible arrests of females accounted for 12% of the total incidents. or those incidents invol— ving Negroes, females were the subjects in 19% of the inci- dents, contrasted with 7% for females in those incidents involving whites. Minors accounted for 28% of total forcible 89 arrests. Thirty—five per cent of the Negro forcible arrests and 22% of the white forcible arrests involved persons under twenty—one years of age. According to the officers' forcible arrest reports, 3% of white arrestees and 58% of the Negro arrestees had been drinking prior to the encounter. This estimate seems consistent with the figures given for reasons for the encoun— ters. Verbal abuse directed at an officer was ssociated with more incidents involving Negroes (60%) than whites (53%). 4 ) In 53; of the forcible arrest incidents the officer claimed he was physically attacked by the subject. The rate was the same for Negro subjects as for white subjects. in only a small percentage (11%) of the inciients was the subject armed with either a knife, gun, or other implement. The percentage of weapons among Negro subjects was 17%; for whites it was llfi. Hyperactivity on the part of the officer at the outset of an encounter was more common in forcible arrests involving whites (19%) than Negroes (15%). As used here, hyperactivity implies a heightened state of physical and psychological tension in an officer resulting from participation in such activities as a high speed automobile chase, a traffic acci- dent, a foot chase, or from being threatened with a ceadly weapon. Hyperactivity was inferred from the officer's narra— tive, and since a large number of arrests involving whites 90 also involved traffic stops, the difference in the rate for the two races is probably due to the number of high speed automobile pursuits preceeding the forcible arrests of whites. The number of incidents where violence followed refu- sal of an officer to fulfill a subject's request is probably greatly underestimated in the data. This results because the officer's reports were often more complete and detailed than the account received from the subject. It is possible that many of the seemingly minor events leading up to vio— lence are lost or dwarfed in comparison with the more drama- tic aspects of the event. Failure to fulfill a subject's request, as a precipitant of violence, was identified in 6% of the incidents. For incidents involving Negroes the rate was 7%; for whites, 5%. Summary. Traffic stops, drunkenness arrests, and interpersonal disputes between either family members or acquaintances accounted for approximately equal proportions of 83% of all forcible arrests, with the remaining 17% attri— butable to other offenses. When the reasons for police—cit- izen encounters leading to forcible arrests were analyzed by race, more forcible arrests of whites were attributable to traffic stops and drunkenness, and more forcible arrests of Negroes were attributable to disputes among acquaintances and miscellaneous crimes. 91 Analysis of the locations where violence occurred in forcible arrests showed that violence took place on the street in 39% of the incidents, at a residence in 20% of the incidents. Although rates were similar for Negroes and whites, differences were noted in the frequency of violence which took place after initial apprehension of the subject. White subjects more frequently engaged in violence in a patrol car and at police headquarters than Negro subjects. Bystanders were present more often in encounters between Negroes and police. Females were the subjects in a small number of forci- ble arrests, but the rate was almost three times as high for Negroes (19%) as for whites (7%). The subjects were minors in 28% of all forcible arrests, with the rate being higher for Negroes (35%) than for whites (22%). The subject had been drinking in 83% of arrests involving whites and in 58% involving Negroes. verbal abuse of the officer was present in 56% of all arrests, with the rate slightly higher for Negroes than whites. The officer claimed to have been attacked by the subject in 53% of the incidents, but the subject was armed in only 11% of the incidents. Hyperacti— vity on the part of the officer was present in 18% of the incidents. Violence followed an officer's failure to ful- fill a subject's request in 6% of the incidents. II. FORCIBLE ARRESTS INVOLVING THE USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE Forcible arrests were analyzed to determine factors associated with the use of excessive force on the part of patrolmen. Force in excess of that required to disarm or restrain the subject was present in 53% of the 175 incidents examined. "Excessive force" as used here, does not imply that the officer acted in violation of department rules or ststutes, although such behavior is included within the meaning of the term. The classification of an incident as one involving the use of excessive force,as defined in this study, was determined by analyzing all available accounts of the incidents. Where a citizen's claim of abuse by an officer was not corroborated by the statements of at least one officer involved in the incident or in the investigation thereof, the incident was not classified as involving exces— sive force. Table II shows factors associated with excessive force and compares forcible arrests involving excessive force with those forcible arrests not involving excessive force. Reason for Encounter in Forcible Arrests. Whereas 39% of the non-excessive force incidents derived from traffic stops, only 18% of the excessive force incidents resulted from this type of encounter. Drunkenness, on the other hand, was the reason for encounter in 17% of the non-excessive TABLE II 93 FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE IN FORCIBLE ARREST INCIDENTS Reason for encounter Traffic stop Drunk Family fight Acquaintance diapute Other reasons* Setting of Violence Street Headquarters Residence Patrol car Public building Bystanders present at initial encounter Subject was female Subject was minor Subject had been drinking Subject cursed officer Subject attacked officer Subject was armed Officer was hyperactive Violence followed unfulfilled request Subject was Negro Subject was white Profanity and/or alcohol present Profanity and/or subject attacked officer *Other reasons included liquor law violations, and breach of peace. Forcible arrests not involving exe cessive force N-83 % N-92 32 39% 17 14 17% 33 10 12% 17 9 11% 13 17 21% 13 33 40% 35 17 21% 3M 19 23% 16 11 13% 15 8 10% 8 A3 52% an 15 18% 6 26 31% 22 56 68% 71 43 52% 55 36 43% 57 14 17% 5 16 19% 15 u 5% 6 no 48% 32 43 52% 6o 67 81% 8M 52 63% 80 minor crimes such as larceny, felonies, juvenile offenses, Forcible arrests involving exces— sive force 0/ /d 18% 35% 18% 14% 14% 91+ force incidents but in 35% of the excessive force incidents. Where a family fight was the reason for the encounter, force was more likely to be excessive. Family fights accounted for 18% of the non-excessive force incidents and for 18% of the excessive force incidents. Diaputes among acquaintances as a reason for the encounter, did not seem to be related to the use of excessive force. In the category "other reasons," which included miscellaneous crimes, it was found that force was less likely to be excessive. That is, "other reasons" accounted for more non-excessive force incidents (21%) than excessive force incidents (14%). Setting of Violence. For several settings there was little difference between the occurences of excessive and non-excessive force. Jhere the setting of violence was the street, a patrol car, or a public building, force was as likely as not to be excessive. Where violence occurred at police headquarters it was more likely to be excessive. Whereas 21% of the non-excessive force incidents occurred at headquarters, this was the setting in 37% of the exces- sive force incidents. Conversely, where the setting of violence was a residence, force was more often non—exces- sive. Twenty-three per cent of the non-excessive force inci- dents and 17% of the excessive force incidents involved vio— lence in a residential setting. Other Factors. The presence or absence of bystanders was not strongly related to the frequency of excessive force. Bystanders were present in 52% of the non-excessive force incidents and in 47% of the excessive force incidents. As might be expected, sex and age of subject showed some relation to the frequency of use of exc ssive force. Females were the subjects in 18% of the non-excessive force incidents, but were the subjects in only 7% of the excessive force incidents. Minors were the subjects in 31% of the non- exc cessive force incidents and in 24% of those incidents involving excessive force. "S ubject had been drinking," as estimated by the reporting officer, increased the likelihood that excessive force would be present during a forcible arrest. Drinking was reported in 68% of non—excessive- force incitents and in 77% of tile excessivr force incidents. jhere the subject abused the officer, either verbally or physically, this behavior increased the chances that 11 an officer used force, force would be excessive. Verbal abuse was pr;sent in 52% of the non- cxces sive force incidents and in 60% of the excessive force incidents. In 62% of the excessive force incidents and in 43% oi the non-excess’ve force inciuents, the oil ieer reported that the subject had physically attacked him. Where the subject was armed with a weapon, the frequency of use of 96 excessive force decreased. Whereas 17% of the subjects in non-excessive force incidents were armed, only 5% of the subjects involved in excessive force incidents were armed. There are two explanations for these findings. One is that the criteria used in determining whether excessive force was present were less rigid for arrests of armed subjects. That is, the researcher reasoned that, generally, a greater amount of force was justified in safely subduing an armed subject. Second, several patrolmen reported that armed subjects arrested in connection with unambiguous crimes such as shootings, burglaries, or rob— beries rarely offered violent resistance to an officer's authority. Whether or not the officer was hyperactive prior to the encounter did not seem related to his use of excessive force. The same relationship held for violence which followed failure by the officer to fulfill a citizen's request. Differences were found between the frequency with which excessive force occurred among Negro and white forci- 7! On/ ble arrests. Negroes were subjects in wUp of the non-exces- sive force incidents and in 35% of the incidents where a patrolman used excessive force. Whites, on the other hand, were involved in 52% of the non—excessive force incidents but in 65% of the excessive force incidents. 97 Combining the factors of verbal abuse and presence of drinking, it was found that either or both of these factors were present in 81% of the non-excessive force incidents and 91% of the excessive force incidents. Combining verbal abuse and offensive (attacking) behavior by the subject it was found that whereas either or both of these factors were pre- sent in ;3% of the non-excessive force incidents, they were present in 87% of the incidents involving the use of exces- sive force. Summary. Comparisons of factors associated with forci- ble arrests not involving the use of excessive force with those forcible arrests involving the use of excessive force (53% of all forcible arrests) showed several differences. Excessive force was less likely to be present in forcible arrests arising from traffic stops, and was more often asso- ciated with arrests where drunkenness was the reason for the encounter. Excessive force occurred more often at police headquarters. it was less likely to occur where the setting of violence was a residence. Violence occurred at head- quarters in 21% of the non-excessive force incidents and in 37% of all excessive force incidents. Forcible arrests of females, minors, or subjects who were armed accounted for proportionately fewer excessive force incidents. Exces- ‘sive force was present more often in forcible arrests of subjects who had been drinking, those who had verbally abused 98 an officer, and those who had attacked an officer. Hyper- activity of the officer at the time of encounter did not show a significant relationship to the use of excessive force. The same was true for violence which followed an unfulfilled request. Proportionately fewer forcible arrests of Negroes involved excessive force. The reverse was true for white arrestees. Verbal abuse and/or drinking was present in 91% of the excessive force incidents. Verbal abuse and/or offensive (attacking) behavior by the subject was present in 87% of all excessive force incidents. III. PRE—APPOINTMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF PATROLMEN Physical Characteristics. Although the differences were small, the general tendency was for those high in hostility generation potential (Highs) to be shorter, younger, and to weigh less than those low in hostility generation potential (Lows). These differences are shown in Table III. Highs were, on the average, one year younger at age of appointment to the police force and one and a half years younger in absolute age than the Lows. A comparison of mean height for the two groups showed only three tenths of an inch difference; however, five of the Highs were under six feet, whereas only three of the Lows were less than six feet. A more significant difference was 99 found in the mean weights of the two groups. Mean weight of the Highs was fourteen pounds less than that of the Lows. TABLE III AGE, HEIGHT, AND WEIGHT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PATROLMEN RATED HIGH OR LOW ON HOSTILITY GENERATION POTENTIAL. High Potential Low Potential Mean Range Mean Range Age at appointment to force 24.2 21-31 25.1 21-32 Age at beginning 'of study 25.9 22-23 27.? 21—34 Height of officer 5'11.g" 5'9"-6'2" 5'11.6" 5'9"-6'2" Height of officer 5 155-208 199 180—230 Education. Examination of differences between the Highs and the Lows showed that the Highs had more years of educa— tion and had attended college more often. The mean years of formal education was 13.1 for the Highs and 12.0 for the Lows. One officer in each group had not finished high school, and only one officer (a High) had completed four or more years of college. Seven of the ten Highs had attended college; but only three of the Lows had attended college. Social Class Background. Father's occupation, as a measure of socio-economic background showed little differ— ence between the Highs and the Lows. In each group there 100 was one officer whose father had been in police work, one whose father had been a salesman, and one a farmer. The fathers of two of the Highs had been self-employed in small business, and three of the Lows had fathers engaged in ser- vice type business occupations. The father of one of the Highs was employed in clerical work, and the remainder in both groups were employed by large manufacturers as skilled and semi—skilled workers. With the possible exception of tie two Highs whose fathers were self—employed in business, most of the men in both groups could be classified as com— ing from a lower—middle class background. .2 00 Military Service. The two groups showed some diiierences ) in military ser ice. Seven of the Lows and four of the Highs had served in tue military prior to entering police work. Four out of sc/en Lows with military service had attained the rank of E-j or above; one of the four Highs reached the rank of E-3, the remaining three Lows held ranks below that of E-3. Lows were more likely to have served in the military than Highs, and Lows attained a hi Other Characteristic . Marital status did not differ- entiate between Highs and Lows; eight of ten Highs were married and nine of ten Lows were married. There were no divorces among either of the groups. Number of employers during the five years preceding lOl appointment to the force ranged from one to five for Lows and zero to five for the Highs, with 1.9 the mean number of employers for the Highs and 2.3 for the Lows. Two of the Highs listed no previous employer. This was due to the fact that both attended school until Joining the force. Disciplinary suspensions from police duty, ranging from one to five days, were recorded for three of the Highs. There were no suspensions listed for those in the Low group. Summary. Several differences in factors present at time of appointment to the force were found for two extreme groups of officers; those patrolmen high in hostility gener- ation potential (Highs) and these low in hostility generation potential (Lows). Highs tended to be younger at age of ap- pointment to the force and younger in absolute age than Lows. Lows tended to be slightly taller, to be heavier, and to have less formal education than the Highs. Officers in both roups came from predominately lower—middle class and work- ing class backgrounds, as roughly measured by father's occu— pation. Six of the Highs and nine of the Lows came from families where the father's occupation involved working pri- marily with one's hands. Lows were more likely than Highs to have served in the military, and Lows generally reached higher military ranks than Highs. Neither marital status nor number of employers during the five years preceeding appoint- ment to the force showed much difference for the two groups. 102 IV. ROLE—MODEL Officers were questioned about their experiences dur— ing their first year with the department, especially with regard to other officers with whom they may have worked. It is generally recognized that formal training and previous experience often have little relevance to many of the common problems encountered by the police recruit. Much of the knowledge required to perform his work is learned by the patrolman through experience on the Job, presumably from other officers. The researcher encountered several problems in attempt- ing to ascertain the significance of work experience with other officers as a determinant of an officer's "style." Some of the officers reported that all or most of their first year was spent working alone, either on foot patrol with the department or in the employ of other departments. Even these officers who began their careers with the depart- ment under study varied considerably in first year experi— ence. Most had spent from one to six months working ”re— lief,” filling in for other officers on a daily basis, before being assigned to a steady "partner." While it was not possible to make inferences as to how much of his "style” officer A may have learned through asso— ciation with officer B, Highs and Lows differed in some respects on type of first year experience. Highs, more often 103 than Lows, had spent most or all of their first year work- ing alone or with another inexperienced officer. Those Highs who had worked with one or two partners during a sig- nificant portion of their first year with the department were often more critical of their partner's style than were Lows. Several Highs expressed the Opinion that their early partners had spent too much time dealing with family fights, another felt that his partner had paid too much attention to violations of drunkenness laws. In other words, among the Lows more so than among the Highs, there appears to have been both the presence and the acceptance of a fairly well defined role—model during the officer's first year with the department. V. INTEGRATION OF OFFICER WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT Many factors contribute to a person's state of satis- faction with his employment. In police work, as elsewhere, some individuals will be completely satisfied with both the organization and the nature of the work itself. Others may be satisfied with the organization as an employer but find little reward in the work, or the reverse. There may be those who are dissatisfied with both the organization and the work but remain with the organization for other reasons. Several factors relating to the patrolman's acceptance of his work situation were explored: career intentions, approval 104 of work assignment procedures, perceived quality of job supervision and guidance, loyalty of fellow officers, and acceptance of the work itself. Some of these factors dis- tinguished between officers rated High and Low in hostility generation potential. Career Intentions. With the exception of one officer in the High group, all officers in the sample indicated that they planned to remain with the department until retirement. The one officer who did not plan to stay, expressed a strong dislike for urban police work and was dissatisfied with his employer. He planned to quit the department shortly and con- tinue in law enforcement work in some rural area. Fairness of Assignment Procedures. When questions about the fairness of the department in assigning men to certain shifts, most men in both High and Low groups expressed complete approval. Although shift rotation occurred several times a year, rotation, for all but the newest men, was Option~ al because shifts were assigned on the basis of seniority. Once assigned to a particular shift, a man could remain there almost indefinitely if he so desired. Most of the men inter— viewed preferred to remain on the same shift, and had been able to do Just that. When questioned as to why a man would want to work a night shift continuously, most men indicated either that they preferred the type of work (”No dog bite 105 complaints,‘ "More burglaries and holdups”) or that it fitted in better with their private lives (Able to work part time"). Others indicated that older officers with children in school preferred to work the day shift because it allowed them to spend more time with their families. An additional incentive for working a night shift was a pay bonus which amounted to several hundred dollars per year. Of the four shifts, only those working the day shift did not receive the bonus. Early during the course of interviews with patrolmen the researcher became aware of a series of recent events which had altered greatly the outlook of some of the men. The first event occurred some five weeks prior to the first interview. Several patrol cars responded to a "fight in progress" call at a dance hall in one of the lower-class Negro districts. When the officers arrived the fight had apparently ended, but a crowd of several hundred had gathered at the scene. As the officers began to leave the scene they were showered with bricks and bottles, and gunfire was heard to come from the crowd. By this time more patrol cars had arrived and the officers attempted to arrest one of their assailants, a large Negro male. One officer who witnessed the ensuing scuffle reported to the researcher that, in an attempt to subdue the subject, nine or so officers struck the subject about the head with nightsticks until he was so 106 bloodied that "he looked like he was wearing a red hood." In this condition the subject, who had been brought to his knees, dragged himself up and began strangling one of the officers. Other officers came to the rescue and completed the arrest. The "ballroom” incident rekindled long stand- ing demands by Negro leaders in the community for relief from what they considered to be harassment and police bru- tality. In response to these demands, white leaders in the city government prevailed upon the police department to test a policy of minimum patrol in the "ballroom" area on the nights when dances were scheduled, to see if this would reduce racial tensions. The policy was put into effect, but many of the patrolmen interpreted it as an order to over— look infractions of the law by Negroes. Not long after these events, several officers who had been assigned to high crime Negro districts were suddenly, and without explanation, reas- signed to "qui ter" districts. These transfers coincided closely in time with accusations by Negro leaders that most of the racial tensions in Negro districts were caused by the actions of a half a dozen white officers (unnamed by the Ne- gro leaders). Some patrolmen assumed that the transfers were related to Negro demands and interpreted them as proof that the department was yielding to political pressure from Negro leaders, and that support for patrolmen was diminishing. It was this series of events, and the interpretation given 107 them by the men, which emerged when the patrolman inter- views touched on the topic of district assignment or supervision. Because the researcher was interested pri— marily in learning about the interviewee's attitudes dur- ing the two and a half year period covered by the analysis of forcible arrest records, and not only in current and possibly transient attitudes, it was felt necessary for the researcher to raise the issue of the"ballroom‘incident and subsequent events early in each interview in order to establish a basis for discussion of more enduring attitudes. Whereas shift assignments were left largely to the pre— ferences of individual officers, district assignments were controlled by supervisors. The researcher was unable to ascertain the specific criteria used in assigning men to particular districts, but there was almost unanimous agree- ment among all personnel interviewed that certain men "worked out well" and "got the job done" in certain hlStPiCtS. Officers in the High hostility potential group were unani- mous in their disapproval of the department's handling of events following the "ballroom” incident. Only three of the Lows expressed disapproval. When the men were questioned about district assignment procedures prior to these recent events, eight of ten Highs and nine of ten Lows expressed satisfaction. Of the two Highs who generally disapproved of the way men were assigned, one felt that some men were 108 "picked on" by supervisors, the other cited the use of "punishment beats." He claimed that an officer who talked back to his sergeant had been assigned to a walking beat around city hall in the wintertime. He reported that the walking beat was not regularly manned; it had been reacti- vated for this special occasion. The one Low who disap- proved of district assignment procedures felt that they had been unfair for the past six months. Supervision, Guidance and Loyalty. Attitudes corcerning quality of Job supervision were more favorable among the Lows than among the Highs, although there were variations within both groups. Table IV shows that two Lows but none of the Highs rated supervision "excellent." At the other extreme ' and one Low rated it two Highs rated supervision ”poor,' "poor." The rest of the men in both groups felt that super— vision was either "good" (ll men) or "fair" (# men). Reasons gilen by Highs for poor supervision included intolerance of supervisors towards criticism ("We've always done it this way.") and the awarding of patrolman performance ratings without adequate Job observation by supervisors. The one Low who rated supervision "poor" cited the rigid enforcement of "nit picking" regulations such as the requirement for patrol- men to wear helmets while on duty, He felt that exceptions to this rule should be allowed, especially when dealing with children to whom an officer in a helmet might appear "too offi~ cial." 109 TABLE IV EVALUATION OF JOB SUPERVISION, JOB GUIDANCE, AND LOYALTY OF FELLOW OFFICERS BY PATROLMEN RATED "HIGH" OR ”Low" IN HOSTILITY GENERATION POTENTIAL Excellent Good Fair Poor Job Supervision Highs 'O 6 2 2 Lows 2 5 2 1 Job Guidance Highs l 3 5 l Lows 3 5 2 O Loyalty of Fel- Highs 2 8 O 0 low officers Lows 3 8 O O A comparison of officer's rating of job supervision with prior military training showed that those who rated supervision "poor" had no prior military experience, while those rating supervision " xcellent" had attained the highest enlisted grades of all officers in the sample. Attitudes of officers towards the quality of guidance received on the Job were similar to those towards supervi— sion. Three Lows and one High felt that guidance was "excvl~ lent," five Highs fslt it was "fair," and one High rated guidance "poor.” The one officer who rated guidance as "poor" stated that the department policy was not clear on the appropriate use of force; "What do you do when someone spits on you? Do you hit him or wipe it off?" Although there was some criticism and lack of agreement by both Highs and Lows concerning the quality of Job super— llO vision and guidance, attitudes reflecting perceived loyalty of fellow patrolmen were uniformly favorable for both groups. Highs and Lows rated loyalty as either "good" or "excellent." Job Satisfaction. Highs differed from Lows in those aspects of police work which they found most satisfying and least satisfying. Seven of the Highs and five of the Lows derived most satisfaction from making felony arrests. Two of the Lows and none of the Highs found most satisfaction in helping others. One of the Highs could s-e nothing at all satisfying about police work. Another High could not distin- guish between the degree of satisfaction involved in differ- ent aspects of his work; he found everything satisfying. sour es of dissatisfaction among Lows were restricted to such activities as directing traffic or filling out paper- work, with one officer expressing a dislike for having to arrest drunks. Highs gave more sources of dissatisfaction than Lows. One found nothing displeasing, two disliked 1' traffic work, three most disliked arresting drunks an Cl addicts, and two found least satisfaction in handling interpersonal With the single exception of the one High who was plan- ning to quit the department, officers in both groups felt that their department was superior to other police depart— ments in the region; half of each group stated that it was the bes . lll Achievement Motivation. During the past five years the department had raised its recruit-standards with respect to educational background. A number of patrolmen felt that in the future promotions would become more dependent upon a man's educational achievement, and that college experience would help prepare an officer for the highly competitive promotion exams. To the extent that this View was shared by other patrolmen, educational intentions, along with rank and assignment expectations, might serve as indicators of a patrolman's achievement aspirations. Accordingly, offi- cers were questioned on these variables. Officers high in hostility generation potential generally intended to in— {I crease their level 01 education, aspired to higher ranks, and expected to work their way up from the patrol to the detective bureau. Six Highs and two Lows stated that they planned to begin or continue college work. Six Lows and only three Highs had no intention of furthering their educa- tion. Whereas seven Highs expected to retire at the rank of lieutenant and three at the rank of sergeant, only three I, Lows expected to reach lieutenant BDU seven hoped to make sergeant. Most officers (7) in the group of Highs prected to remain in the patrol bureau, with three expecting MCtCC- tive assignments. Attitudes of patrolmen which reflected achievement motivation-~as measured by educational plans, rank expectations, and assignment intentions-—constituted, perhaps, the clearest and most consistent difference in outlook between Highs and Lows. 112 Summary. With the exception of one High, all officers planned to remain with the department until retirement. Both Highs and Lows felt that shift assignment procedures were fair to the officer. District assignment procedures, on the other hand, were viewed more favorably by Lows than by Highs. Department handling of.district assignments in the wake of recent racial incidents was a source of anxiety for most of the Highs, but for only a few of the Lows. Iows were generally less critical of department supervision and Job guidance, with the most favorable attitudes held by men who had a background of successful military service. Perceived loyalty among fellow officers was either good or excellent for all officers. Highs gave ”felony arrests” as their most satisfying activity and ”handling disputes" as their least satisfying activity more often than Lows. Several Lows derived the mosi satisfaction from helping others. Highs showed higher achievement motivation-~83 measured by educational intentions, rank expectations, and assignment expectations——than Lows. VI. HOH THE PATROLMAN VIEWS HIS HOLE Isolation From the Public. A number of interview topics and questionnaire items designed to probe the patrolman's sense of isolation from the general public failed to differ- entiate significantly between officers high anfl low in 113 hostility generation potential. Other items showed Highs felt a stronger sense of isolation than Lows. There was general disagreement or uncertainty with the statement ”The public's respect for the police has been increasing steadily over the years." (Questionnaire item #2.) Simi- larly, three—fourths of the officers agreed that "The major- ity of the people in this city do not understand the problems of the police.” (Questionnaire item #17.) Although 18 of the 20 officers agreed that some criticism of the department might be Justified, (Questionnaire item #24), officers in the High group expressed stronger agreement with the state- ment "Most criticism of the police in this city is unjusti- fied." (Item A, Table VJ Four Highs and two Lows strongly agreed; one Low disagreed. There was also a slight disa- greement among Highs and Lows as to the frequency with which a policeman's friends attempt to use his friendship. (Item B, Table V.) Highs and Lows differed in the extent to which they believed the public was concerned with the problems of the police. Seven Highs but only three Lows agreed that "The majority of the people in this city do not care about the problems of the police.” (Item C, Table V.) Officers were asked about the fairness with which the department handled citizen complaints against patrolmen. Approximately half the officers in each group believed that the department was completely fair to the officer involved. Those Highs who felt that the officer received unfair treatment llfl TABLE V ISOLATION FROM THE GENERAL PUBLIC OF PATROLMEN RATED "HIGH" OR "LOW" IN HOSTILITY GENERATION POTENTIAL Item Hostility Strongly Agree uncertain Disagree Strongly group agree disagree A High 4 5 l O O A Low 2 5 2 l O B High 1 2 o 6 1 B Low 0 2 l 5 2 C High 1 6 l l l C Low 0 3 2 3 2 Item A: "Most criticism of the police in this city is unjus- tified." Item B: "A policeman‘s civilian friends frequently attempt to 'use' his friendship." Item C: "The majority of the peeple in this city do not care about the problems of the police." expressed the opinion that citizens who make complaints ”usually have it coming to them" and that ”the only people who complain are the criminals." Those Lows who felt the officer received unfair treatment in citizen complaint mat- ters felt that a citizen was able to make an anonymous com— plaint and the officer would be presumed to be at fault by the department. When questioned about the fairness to the citizen of complaint procedures, all of the Highs and half of the Lows felt the citizen received fair treatment. One Low expressed the Opinion that the department was "overly fair" to the officer at the expense of fairness to the complainant. Isolation From Minority Groups, Attitudes towards minority groups were similar for Highs and Lows. During the interviews most officers pointed out the importance of remembering that most of an officer's contacts are not with the general public, and that even in the worst neighbor- hoods most of the residents are law abiding citizens. This was confirmed by almost unanimous agreement with Questionnaire Item #31: "Most residents of lower class neighborhoods are law abiding citizens." Item A, Table VI shows that most officers in the sample disagreed with the statement: "In a slum neighborhood every resident should be regarded as a potential source of violence." Both groups generally agreed that there would probably always be more crime among Negroes than whites (Item C, Table VI), and only one officer, a Low, felt that police performance would improve if Negro officers were assigned tc Negro neighborhoods. (Item D, Table VI.) Most officers expressed little sympathy with the activities of student groups, peace movements, or other groups who would be likely to interact with the police in crowd control situations. Most officers expressed complete sympathy with police'organizations accused of impropriety during riots or demonstrations. Their reasoning seemed to be that any citi- zen who participated in such activity deserved rough treat— 116 TABLE VI ISOLATION FROM MINORITY GROUPS OF PATROLMEN RATED "HIGH" OR "LOW" ON HOSTILITY GENERATION POTENTIAL Item Hostility Strongly Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly group agree disagree A High 0 1 1 6 2 A Low 1 O O 6 3 B High 2 6 l 1 o B LOW 2 6 l l O C High 3 4 2 l O C Low 1 A 3 2 O D High 0 o l 8 D Low O l l A A Item A: "In a slum neighborhood every resident should be re- garded as a potential source of violence." Item B: "Student demonstrators should be dealt with more sev— erely by the police and the courts.'' Item C: "There will probably always be more crime among Negroes than whites." Item D: "The public would have fewer problems and provide better law enforcement if Negro neighborhoods were policed by Negro officers." ment by the police. The patrolmen generally agreed that "Stu- dent demonstrators should be dealt with more severely by the police and the courts." (Item B, Table VI.) Isolation From The Courts. Almost all patrolmen in both High and Low groups expressed dissatisfaction with the admin— istration of Justice by the courts. Lows showed even stronger agreement than Highs with the statement "Frequently the work of the police is undone by the courts.” (Item A, Table VII.) 117 Highs, on the other hand, showed more agreement with the proposition that recent court decisions have afforded greater protection to suspects than to victims. (Item B, Table VII.) While these questionnaire items did not dif- ferentiate much between Highs and Lows, the interview uncov- ered several distinct differences in outlook. Almost all officers initiated discussion about several potentially demor- alizing practices in the local Judiciary. The patrolmen said that the prosecutor almost invariably reduced "carry- ing concealed weapon" (CCW) charges to "possession of an unregistered firearm,‘ and that the Judges rarely ever pun— ished persons charged with "assaulting an officer” of "resis- ting arrest." These offenses are of special concern to a patrolman because they constitute a direct threat to his own safety. In a sense, the officer here becomes a victim. As such, he may look with disfavor on decisions which deny him psychological restitution or the satisfaction of seeing "the law" vindicated. Both Highs and Lows shared the belief that over 90% of all CCW charges were reduced and that the offenders went unpunished. Highs showed much more resentment of this state of affairs than did Lows, although several Lows recounted incidents where they had narrowly missed being shot while making misdemeanor arrests. Most Lows appeared stoical in their resignation to circumstances over which they exerted little control. Some claimed they had "little feeling one 118 way or the other" about the matter, and that a policeman should expect to encounter hazards such as these. Highs were, for the most part, vehement in their crit— icism of the prosecutors practice of reducing CCW charges. Among them, they claimed to have made hundreds of arrests where CCW charges against Negroes had been reduced. One officer was convinced that leniency with these offenders was the main incentive for many Negroes to carry guns. Another High explained that the prosecutor was motivated by political ambitions, and that full enforcement of the CCW law would make him a target of resentment in the Negro community. Sev- eral Highs who disclaimed antagonism towards non-conviction of CCW offenders indicated that they did not, as a rule, bother filing charges against offenders. One officer described an informal practice whereby some officers simply confi— scated illicit weapons. He indicated that some officers had enriched their private gun collections while at the same time disarming potential criminals. Highs differed from Lows in their reaction to the court's perceived leniency towards persons charged with "assaulting an officer" or "resisting arrest” in the same way that they differed with respect to COM charges. That is, while both groups agreed that the courts were invariably too lenient, stronger resentment and more reliance on informal methods of achieving Justice were found among Highs. Lows seemed resigned to the fact that Judges did not punish offenders. Frequently, 119 Highs claimed they only used these charges when they felt it necessary to "cover" themselves. Several Highs said the courts were directly responsible for attacks on officers, and that "anyone who wants to can take a free swing at an officer and get away with it." One officer summed up the feelings of many Highs when he speculated that "the only way to stop complaints of police brutality is for the courts to start punishing people who resist arrest." TABLE VII ISOLATION FROM THE COURTS OF PATROLMEN RATED "HIGH" OR "LOW" ON HOSTILITY GENERATION POTENTIAL Item Hostility Strongly Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly group agree disagree A High 1 7 2 O O A Low 1! 6 O O O B High 3 7 O O O B Low 3 5 O 2 O Item A: "Frequently the work of the police is undermined by the courts." Item B: "Under recent court decisions a swepect has more rights than a victim." Attitudes Towards the Use of Force. Department rules defining the circumstances in which an officer would be Justi- fied in using force and the amount of force appropriate were broad enough to leave considerable room for individual inter— pretation. The officer was enjoined to be as "gentle and considerate" as possible in making an arrest, and to exercise his discretion in a "wise and careful" manner. If, however, 120 he encountered an "obstinate and dangerous resistance," no amount of force was too great to overcome it. For, as an officer of the law, he was "charged With the duty and armed with the power to compel subnission." Several similarities and some differences were found among Highs and Lows with respect to the use of force. Nearly all patrolmen in both groups stated that disrespect in the form of verbal abuse was, in itself, insufficient provocation for taking punitive action—~arrest or otherwise. These patrolmen had all been assigned to lower-class Negro neighborhoods for several years, and from their accounts it would appear that they were regularly the target of verbal harangues and muttered curses containing the most insulting Obscenities. To react to each provocation would have been an impossible task. All patrolmen but one claimed they had grown immune to this form of abuse, or at least that they were able to ignore its presence. Arrests for loud cursing were possible under a "breach of peace" statute, vhen pe'sons other than the police were within earshot. The decision to arresu for breach of peace was governed also by other exigencies such as the officer's estimate of the need to take action, whether such an arrest was feasible without additional assistanCe, etc. Many arrests for breach of peace were made, but the researcher's impres- sion was that most officers would tolerate a considerable amount of verbal abuse before resorting to arrest. What 121 effect a subject's prearrest behavior had on the treatment accorded him by an officer after he was in custody was not explored in the interview. But the analysis of incidents indicated that profanity was present in 69% of the excessive force incidents as opposed to 52% of the non-excessive force incidents. A common attitude among Highs and Lows was that an officer would be justified in striking back (retaliating) at a subject who physically attacked him. Lows, even more than Highs, adhered to the view that an officer is only human; that he should not be expected to exercise "super- human self-control." This finding lends support to J.Q. Wilson's observation that officers from lower-class back- grounds are likely to be puzzled by the assumption among upper—middle class observers that "violence is never appro- priate except as a last resort and in self-defense."1 That Lows were more open in their advocation of retalia~ tory force than Highs does not square with the research anal— ysis of incidents. That is, Lows were less likely to have been involved in the use of force, excessive or otherwise. The implication here is that a patrolman can hold an opinion which justifies the use of retaliatory force and still not find the need to put it into practice himself. It is also lJames Q. Wilson, Varieties 9£_Police Behavior: The Management of Law and Order in_Ei ht Communities (Cam— bridge: Harvard University Press, 1 , p. A7. 122 possible that Lows were exhibiting a matter-of-factness with reSpect to the use of force which is a reflection of their slightly lower social class background. Moderate but consistent differences between Highs and Lows were found in the value which they placed on being forceful viv-a~vis relying on interpersonal skills in deal- ing with citizens. No doubt all patrolmen use both of these approaches simultaneously in almost all police-citizen con- tacts; that is, they project a certain amount of implied forcefulness merely because they represent the enforcement arm of the law, and in nearly every police-citizen con— tacts, a patrolman may rely to a greater or lesser extent on his ability to gain compliance through being forceful than on his ability to guide the course of events to an acceptable solution without resorting to violence. One measure of this difference is the patrolman's readiness to bring force to bear in situations where his authority is challenged. Table VIII indicates that Highs more often believed that the successful outcome of police-citizen encounters was dependent upon the forcefulness with which the officer presented himself to the citizen at the outset (Item B), and his willingness to use force if it was neces- sary. (Item A.) Similarly, Highs more often advocated the swift use of force in those situations where it appeared that ”force may be necessary.” (Item C.) Increased reliance on the projection of self as willing 123 TABLE VIII DIFFERENCES IN ATTITUDES TOWARDS FORCE AND FORCEFUL PRESENTATION OF SELF AMONG PATROLMEN "HIGH" AND "LOW" IN HOSTILITY GENERATION POTENTIAL Item Hostility Strongly Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly group agree disagree A High 1 6 O *3 O' A Low 2 3 O 5 O B High 1 l 6 2 O B Low 0 3 l 6 O C High 3 3 3 l O C Low 1 3 2 A O Item A: "In most situations requiring police attention it is wise for a patrolman to let it clearly be known at the outset to citizens that he will use force if it is necessary." Item B: "The successful outcome of a police encounter with a citizen is largely determined by how forcefully the officer presents himself initially." Item C: "If it appears that force may be necessary it should be employed right after entrance into an encounter to gain the advantage of surprise." to use force swiftly was accompanied by decreased reliance on interpersonal skills among Highs. They showed stronger agreement with statements which suggested that it was unwise for a patrolman to attempt to settle disputes by reasoning with the participants, and that to do so was to increase the likelihood that the patrolman would be attacked by one of the participants. (Table IX, Items A and a.) 124 TABLE IX EFFECTIVENESS ASCRIBED TO INTERPERSONAL SKILLS BY PATROLMEN "HIGH" AND "LOW" IN HOSTILITY GENERATION POTENTIAL Item Hostility Strongly Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly group agree disagree A High 1 A A l ‘75 A Low 1 2. l 6 O B High 0 l 2 6 l B Low 0 O O 7 3 Item A: "The patrolman who tries to reason with a hostile citizen is more likely to be attacked than the patrolman who makes it clear that he will use force if necessary to gain the citizen's cooperation." Item B: ”An officer who tries to settle an argument by rea- soning with the participants often makes the situ— ation worse." Summary. In their attitudes towards the general public both groups displayed a certain level of isolation, but Highs were more isolated than Lows. Most officers felt that the public's rCSpect for the police was lacking. Highs felt more strongly that the public did not care about the problems of the police and that public criticism of the police was unjus— tified. Highs regarded the department's handling of the citizen complaints as biased in favor of the citizen. Patrolmen in both groups expressed similar attitudes towards members of minority groups. Officers acknowledged that most residents of Negro neighborhoods were law abiding, but pointed out that a policeman's contacts are usually with the worst elements of society. They felt that there would 125 probably always be more crime among Negroes than whites, and virtually all patrolmen interviewed believed that Negro patrolmen would not perform as well in Negro neighborhoods as white officers. Most officers felt little or no sym- pathy for demonstrators or protesters, and believed they deserved harsh treatment from the police and the courts. None of the officers were enthusiastic about the per- formance of the courts. A11 believed that Judges and prose- cutors were extremely lax in enforcing laws against carry- ing concealed weapons, resisting arrest, and assaulting an officer. But, whereas Lows did not seem greatly disturbed by this state of affairs, Highs were frequently resentful and antagonistic towards the courts. There were indica- tions that this resentment encouraged Highs to resort to informal methods of obtaining justice. Broadly worded department rules governing the use of force left much to the interpretation of individual officers. Long experience in working Negro neighborhoods had, accord— ing to most officers, made them relatively immune to disre- spect and verbal abuse. Consequently, this kind of provo- cation was not regarded as sufficient Justification for the use of force. Lows, more than Highs, condoned the use of retaliatory force in situations where a subject physically attacked an officer, but Lows were less likely to actually resort to the use of force. Highs, on the other hand, placed a greater value on a forceful presentation of self and less on the use of interpersonal skills in contacts with 126 citizens. Highs generally felt that it was advisable to use force swiftly if it appeared that it would be neces— sary, and that reasoning with a citizen increased the chances that an officer would be attacked. 127 CHAPTER V SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS This study has sought to illuminate some of the sources of hostility between the police and the public which arise from the behavior of individual patrolmen. At the beginning of this undertaking four questions were posed: 1. To what extent do individual officers differ in the frequency and amount of citizen hostility which they generate? 2. What common characteristics, if any, are readily discernible which permit differentiation of those officers with a high hostility generation potential? 3. What are the sources of the individual differences which differentiate officers having a high hostility generation potential? 4. What measures are available for identifying and con- trolling officers who exhibit hostility provoking behavior? The findings relating to each of these questions will be discussed separately. It must be remembered that the study is based on a small sample of those patrolmen from one municipal police department who differ markedly from their fellow officers on the criteria chosen as indicators of hostile behavior. Where more general recommendations are proposed, they are grounded on an analysis of department forcible arrest records involving the entire patrol force. I28 I. VARIABILITY BETWEEN HIGHS AND LOWS Hostility generation potential, measured by the fre- quency with which an officer was involved in forcible ar- rests, differed markedly from one officer to another. Approx- imately 7% of the patrol force accounted for 30% of all the department's forcible arrests.‘ A number of factors frequent— ly associated with the use of force indicated that the like- lihood of being involved in forcible arrests was to a great extent dependent on an officer's shift and district assign— ment. Many forcible arrests occurred in lower-class or slum neighborhoods and many involved Negroes. Forcible arrests of whites were frequently associated with drunkenness or hazardous moving traffic violations. In over half of all forcible arrests patrolmen used force which exceeded that required to restrain the subject. The research indicated that notwithstanding department requirements for written reports of any arrest or incident where an officer uses force, many such incidents go unre- ported. This may result partly from an officer's aversion to report writing, his reluctance to submit his actions to investigation, or his confidence in a subject's desire to avoid further involvement with the police. The factthat many officers stated they used the forcible arrest report only where they felt it necessary to "cover" themselves, coupled with the widespread presence of attitudes which I29 sanctioned the use of retaliatory force suggests that the problem may be more common than the records indicate. II. CHARACTERISTICS OF PATROLMEN HIGH IN HOSTILITY GENERATION POTENTIAL Observed differences between patrolmen who scored ”High" or "Low" on hostility generation potential were not invari- ably uniform or large. The following description represents a composite picture of trends observed in individual officers within the extreme groups. As such, it tells little about the middle group of officers who were not studied. The officer high in hostility generation potential tends to be oriented strongly towards the crime-fighting aspects of police work. For this patrolman the greatest satisfaction is found in apprehending felons. Frequently, the High expres- ses annoyance with the service and order maintenance aspects of police work. He prefers to work an evening shift because it enables him to avoid dealing with petty complaints and it increases his chances of participation in ”real police work." The typical High dislikes dealing with drunks. Occasionally he displays his resentment by over-reacting to provocation from a subject who is intoxicated. When called upon to inter- vene in family disputes, the High often attempts to withdraw from the scene as soon as possible. For any action taken by him is likely to have little bearing on the future relation— ship of the participants. Consequently, in his view time he 130 spends on family fights is, for the most part, time wasted. Increased valuation of the "crime-fighting" role of the police seems to be related to a strong desire for occupational success. That is, the officer high in hostility generation potential aSpires to higher status within the police organi- zation. He expects to attain higher rank than his "Low” counterpart; he believes he will attain assignment to the detective bureau, and he plans to increase his level of edu- cation as an adjunct to successfully passing promotion exam- inations. On the whole, the High appears to be more alienated from others within his environment that the Low. He is more crit- ical of his supervisors and of department rules and procedures which regulate his minor affairs. He is prone to interpret changes in department policy as encroachments upon his own authority and personal safety. Members of the general public not only fail to understand the problems of the police, they do not care about the police. Those who criticize and com- plain about the police are seen as enemies who deserve what— ever treatment their behavior provoked; more respectable critics are regarded as "politically motivated." Prosecutors and Judges are not only lax in the performance of their duties, theyzne seen as being directly responsible for assaults on officers by failing to punish offenders who violate the law. Failure of the courts to sanction persons charged with carry- ing concealed weapons is regarded as direct encouragement for Negroes to carry weapons. 131 Among officers high in hostility generation potential increased sense of isolation is frequently accompanied by greater reliance on the use of force and decreased confi- dence in the efficacy of interpersonal skills. The High is more likely to begin encounters with citizens with an attitude of pessimism, increased sense of danger, and uncer- tainty in his ability to gain compliance through nonviolent persuasion. One method of compensating for this decreased self confidence is to attempt to project an image of force- fulness. But, in so doing, he commits himself to the use of force in response to less provocation than would, perhaps, another officer. If the subject interprets the patrolman's behavior as unreasonably antagonistic, he, in turn, may become hostile. And so, the officer's expectations fulfill themselves, and he finds himself having to resort to force-- either in self-defense or to gain compliance from the citi- zen whose hostility he has provoked. If the officer's train- ing in the use of force is minimal--as it appears to be in most instances-~his application of force is most likely to be crude and relatively undisciplined. To an observer or a participant often it will appear that the officer has over- reacted to the situation; which he well may have. For, often it seems that when force is used, it exceeds the limits of restraint and borders upon vengeance. III. SOURCES OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES The identification of certain trends in outlook and behavior among patrolmen who differ in hostility generation potential raises questions concerning the source orvsources of these differences. To what extent is an officer's behav- ior predetermined by characteristics present at the time of his appointment to the force? How do recruit training and early field experience modify his behavior? What effect does subsequent job experience have on the way the officer manages his relationships with citizens? Indications are that there is an interplay between these factors such that any one of them assumes significance primarily in relation to the others. Pre-appointment Characteristics. Characteristics of an officer present at time of appointment--such as physical appearance, cultural background, education, military training, etc.—-largely determine how much difficulty the officer will experience in adjusting to the demands of police work. Successful military service, as measured by rank attainefi, appeared to be related both to an officer's degree of inte— gration within the police organization and to low hostility. Whether a causal relationship exists between these factors is unknown. Military service may help prepare an individual to accept the routine of police work. On the other hand, it is equally possible that the same characteristics which help 133 a man succeed in the military will also facilitate adjust- ment to the police organization. The research suggests that there may be a significant relationship between an officer's physical appearance and his ability to gain compliance from citizens without resort- ing to violence. Patrolmen in both the high and low hosti- lity groups were comparable in height, but those in the low hostility group weighed on the average fourteen pounds more than those in the high hostility group. Physical size may not be an important determinant of an officer's persuasive— ness in all settings, but it may be a significant factor in the pe-ception of the lower-class citizen with whom these officers most often interact. It is also possible that the larger, heavier patrolman possesses a greater measure of self-confidence and assurance in the face of potential vio- lence, and that his self-confidence obviates the assumption of an approach characterized by contrived forcefulness. Attained level of education and positive intentions with respect to a strong desire among Highs for occupational success and status. This finding corroborates Westley's conclusion that the police are motivated to enlarge upon the area in which violence may be legally used by ‘esires for increased occupational status.1 1William A. Westley, ”Violence and the Police,” The American Journal of Sociology, 59134-41, 1953-54, p. 35. A higher level of education and stronger needs for achievement among Highs corresponded to slightly higher socioeconomic background. Although most patrolmen in both gr ups came from predominately working class backgrounds, as indicated by father's occupation, this difference in background taken together with higher level of education and higher achievement aspiration suggests that Highs dif- fered significantly from Lows in their value orientation at time of appointment. This difference in value orientation may signify greater dissimilarity in backgrounC between patrol— men high in hostility generation potential and the lower—class citizens. If this is the case, it might be expected that Highs would encounter greater difficulty than lows in under- standing and exploiting the values of lower—class citizens. McNamara pointed out two considerations with respect to an officer's socioeconomic class background.2 Although an officer's experience within a lower-class culture may prepare him to better understand and deal with the residents of a lower-class neighborhooo, an officer from such a back— ground is also more likely to have learned that acting out one's aggressions is an appropriate mode of behavior. Accord— ingly, it might be expected that experience within a lower- class culture would decrease the likelihood that an officer 2John H. McNamara, "Uncertainties in Police Work: The Relevance of Police Recruits' Backgrounds and Training," The Police, David J. Bordua, editor (New York: John Wiley and—UEns, Inc., 1967), p. 203. 135 would find it necessary to use force in dealing with citizens, but that when force was deemed necessary it would be used with- out hesitation. The findings of the present study indicate that a critical determinant of an officer's behavior is his aggressiveness, and that similarity of background between officer and citizen will decrease the likelihood of violence in police encounters with citizens provided that officer does not have strong aggressions which he is compelled to act out. Training_and Early Police Experience. The significance of formal recruit training for the concept of police-citizen hostility lies more in the realization of what recruit train— ing does not equip the patrolman to do, rather than in what it prepares him to do. The President's Commission report on the police pointed out that recruit training simply does not prepare an officer to exercise his discretion.3 At best, such training presents the officer with a basic knowledge of the law he is to enforce and the rules by which he is to abide. A more important source of learning with respect to police-citizen interaction would seem to be the experiences of an officer during his first year in the field. The finding that officers differed in their early police 3The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Task Force Repprt: The Police (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1967): p. 138. 136 field experiences suggests that initial on-the-Job training may be an important determinant of a patrolman's behavior. It is during this period that a recruit patrolman encounters a wide range of problems for which his past experience and training provide little guidance. Through his experiences with other officers the new patrolman acquires a set of occu- pational values and perhaps a unique way of looking at his role. This experience may be of great value to the recruit to the extent that his experience with other officers en- ables him to respond to the problems of citizens in a manner consistent with their expectancies.” On-the-job training of this sort would be of greatest value to the patrolman whose past experiences had least equipped him to understand those citizens with whom he must work. That such is the case is indicated by the finding that officers high in hostility generation potential often spent their initial year of police work in assignments where they worked alone-—on foot—-or with another inexperienced officer. It was hypothesized that under these circumstances the recruit was not provided with an effective role-model, and that one consequence of this would be that the recruit would integrate behavior patterns inconsistent with those of his more experienced fellow officers. Another consequence of this experience might be that the 4Raymond J. Parnas, "The Police Response to the Demog- tic Disturbance,” Wisconsin Law Review, 1967:91%—960, p. 9lo. 137 recruit working a difficult beat without benefits afforded by an experienced partner would be more likely to develop unfavorable attitudes towards citizens due to increased isolation and sense of danger. Subsequent Police Experience. Because officers in both groups had worked approximately the same neighborhoods and shifts, and the two groups were approximately equal in length of police experience, it is not possible to differentiate among Highs or Lows on the basis of subsequent police exper- ience. However, it is important to note that patrolmen in the high hostility group were found only in lower-class Negro districts. Because the researcher was unable to determine the specific criteria used by the department in assigning patrolmen to particular districts, it remains unknown whether the department intentionally assigned Highs to 'rough" dis- 1 @firflcts on the basis of their ”crime-fighting" X1 attitudes (gen— eral urgressiVuness) or whether thes men levelop their anta— ICJ fTCYT33{ILC Std/It: Di; 0 ‘rc:n111, of’ ttu3ir° ccndtijwirwl e;q)e1'ieru3u ' Lilli; all. a hostile environment. One determinant of an of.icer's Fissirjm-~ ment—-at least insofar as his shift is concernee-—is his owr preference for certain working hours. As mentioned previously, the department usually allowed patrolmen to continue working he same shift indefinitely if they desired. At any rate, the that the researcher was able to identify patrolmen low in hostility who had Shared essentially the some working experi— 138 ences as Highs indicates that this work environment is not a sufficient condition for the development of high hostility generation potential among all patrolmen. IV. REDUCING POLICE-CITIZEN HOSTILITY Identifying_Problem Areas. Traditionally, police reports of forcible arrests and citizen complaints have been used to (1) protect the police officer and the department from claims of abuse of authority and (2) to determine whether discipli- nary action should be taken against the officer. Department investigation of such reports and complaints, and review by police supervisory personnel, is nearly always followed by a decision in favor of the police officer involved. Once the proceedings have been completed, the report is filed away and, in the absence of further action by the citizen involved, no further use is made of the report. Within these reports, however, there is a wealth of information which, if properly evaluated, would be of great use to the police administrator. Cumulative analysis of incident reports can provide the basis for identifying and taking action on several problem areas. Analysis of a department's forcible arrest reports and citizen complaints over a long period of time will enable identification of the kinds of police activity in which vio- lence most often occurs, districts where police-citizen hos- tility is most prevalent, and police procedures which contri— butenmfit to hostility. An analysis of reports filed by indi— 139 vidual officers would identify these officers who most often generate hostility and would help to illuminate their individual problem areas. As an example, the re— searcher's analysis of incidents showed that Highs differed among themselves with respect to the kinds of situations in which they resorted to the use of force. Several officers encountered most of their problems during the booking phase; others provoked hostility usually while transporting a sub- ject to headquarters; another officer encountered most of his problems while handling family fights. In order to identify these trends it was necessary to examine reports covering a considerable period of time. In addition to enabling identi- fication of officers with particular problems, a cumulative analysis of forcible arrest reports would facilitate evalu- ation of the effectiveness of recruit training programs, on— the-job training, and assignment practices. Modifying Behavior. A number of interrelated measures would need to be undertaken in order to bring about a general reduction in the level of physical violence arising from police-citizen interaction. Modification of department influ- ences over the patrolman's behavior—-such as training, assign- ment, promotion, supervision, policy and procedure--must be synthesized into a realistic program for change. On the Sur— face, an expedient solution to the problem of reducing hosti- lity might seem to be (1) identification of these officers having a high hostility potential and (2) removal of those 140 officers from contact with citizens. For several reasons, such an approach would probably create additional problems. Much of the behavior defined in this study as "improper" or "excessive" either did not violate existing department regu- lations or was not amenable to effective control by the department or the courts under current operational conditions. Although patrolmen low in hostility rarely were involved in excessive force incidents, officers in both High and Low groups showed strong acceptance of attitudes which Justified a patrolman's right to use retaliatory force. During the study, the reassignment of a group of patrolmen from lower— class Negro neighborhoods was interpreted by most officers as a threat to their position resulting from political influ- ences. Reassignment of patrolmen high in hostility, by it- self, would probably have an adverse influence on the morale of the entire patrol force. Such a solution would undoubt- edly lead to greater frustration among Highs because they would be denied the opportunity of working in those high— crime neighborhoods in which they find the Opportunity for attaining their highly valued crime-fighting objectives. In addition, reassignment of Highs might increase the level of violence in the districts to which they were reassigned and would not eliminate the possibility that their replacements might also become high in hostility generation. Similar limitations would restrict the effectiveness of I! isolated changes in police policy. For instance, if a police 141 chief prescribed a policy which further limited an officer's authority to employ the use of force, some officers would be unable to comply simply because they lack the skills re— quired to physically subdue a subject without risking injury to themselves or the subject. They would regard as unreason- able any policy which unnecessarily threatened their personal safety. Changes in policy must be predicated upon an officer's ability to comply. In cases where officers lack the skills required to implement policy, provision must be made for training which will establish and maintain proficiency in these required skills. A department having limited resources available for such training would need to allocate its re— sources in such a way that these officers most in need of training would receive priority. Need, in turn, would be determined by evaluation of the officer's performance and characteristics and the requirements of his assignment. Con- siderations such as these should be kept in mind when planning a coordinated program to reduce police-citizen hostility. The research suggests that police training may be able to contribute greatly to reducing the frequency of violence and the use of unnecessary force. In the department studied, many of the incidents involving excessive force could be attributed partly to lack of skill on the part of patrolmen in subduing violent subjects. More than half of all forcible arrests involved the use of excessive force. While some of these incidents reflect a tendency on the part of some officers to diSpense Justice informally, other incidents resulted, no 142 doubt, from lack of skill in the application of force. Training patrolmen how to subdue a subject with less resort to club or blackjack, and the maintenance of a high level of proficiency in this skill would serve two purposes. First, it would increase the self-confidence of those officers who presently lack this skill. Secondly, it would enable the patrolman to employ force, where necessary, without project~ ing the appearance of brutality. Another aSpect of training which merits increased atten- tion is the assignment of recruits to experienced partners for initial field training. Highs often had spent their first year working alone or with another inexperienced offi— cer. Consequently, they may have developed a way of handling situations which differed from that of their fellow officers. Careful attention should be directed towards assigning new recruits to those experienced officers who perform in a man- ner consistent with the policies of the administrator. spec— ial attention should be given to on-the-Job training for thos. recruits whose background, education, and experiences indi— cate that they may lack an understanding of the problems and culture of those citizens with whom they will be int raetirg. Measures to reduce poli'e-citizen hostility must account for the different talents and capabilities of individual of?i- cers. To assume that because an officer is an experienced patrolman he will be able to perform well in any patrol assign— ment is to ignore the obvious-—that human Factors in police 1M3 work perhaps far outweigh the strictly legal factors. With adequate training, guidance, and apprOpriate incentives most officers probably would be able to adapt to changes in depart- ment policy. But it is also important to recognize that some officers, because of their basic outlook and personality, will be unsuitable for certain sensitive assignments. Where this is the case, the only recourse left to the administrator may be to transfer the officer to another assignment in order to remove him from situations where he performs in an unaccept- able manner. In this connection, there seems to be a real problem in balancing the need for effective law enforcement and the need to minimize police—citizen hostility. The re— search indicates that many of those officers who generate the most hostility are also the most aggressive and crime-oriented officers. Whether the contributions these officers make to crime reduction efforts outweigh the damage they do to police- community relations is a question deserving more attention. One long range solution to the problem of providing aggressive law enforcement for lower-class Negro neighbor— hoods while minimizing police—citizen hostility may be the careful selection, training and promotion of Negro police officers. In the city studied, there were only a handful of Negro officers, none of whom were assigned to rough Negro districts. The department's explanation was that these men "hadn't worked out well" in assignments to Negro neighbor— hoods. Regardless of the reasons why there is a scarcity 1H4 of qualified Negro officers-—and there are many,such as the reluctance of qualified Negroes to expose themselves to the intense hatred and hazards inherent in such assignments, reluctance to be seen as an "Uncle Tom", etc.--an all—white police force in a Negro neighborhood is seen by many resi- dents as an occupation force. The ultimate solution to the problem of apparent discrimination in police organizations will depend upon the implementation of aggressive recruitment programs. Without such programs, it appears unlikely that Negro representation among the police will increase. An important aspect of a program to reduce violence between officers and citizens would be the enforcement of effective uniform practices for the handling of subjects between arrest and booking. A significant number of incidents resulted from the following occurrences: the failure of an officer to handcuff a prisoner where circumstances warranted handcuffing; improperly handcuffing prisoners, tlmt is, handcuffing prisoners with their hands in front; failure of an officer to offer an adequate explanation of the depart- ment's rule prohibiting prisoners from smoking in a patrol car; and discourtesy towards, or abuse of, a prisoner during the booking procedure. Several attacks on patrolmen while transporting prisoners stemmed from an officer's arbitrary refusal to allow a prisoner to smoke in the patrol car. Some officers qualified their refusal by explaining that this rule was a necessary safety precaution because oxygen 145 bottles were stored in the car trunk. This explanation, while not entirely truthful, was nevertheless an effective technique for preventing unnecessary hostility. Problems encountered by some officers during booking would seem to be particularly amenable to analysis and remedial action. Often the process of relieving a prisoner of his valuables degen- erated into a free-for—all which might have been prevented by an effective explanation of the rules prescribing police custody of prisoners' property. Much of the isolation, alienation and frustration com- mon among officers high in hostility generation is aggravated by a lack of understanding of department objectives and the functioning of the courts. Channels of communication were such that line officers frequently misinterpreted decisions made at a higher level, and those making decisions failed to understand the impact which their decisions had on per— sonnel lower in the police organization. Under these conci— tions there was little effort to dispel rumors and ration— alizations which fostered discontent and abuse of authority. when an attempt was made to reduce what some Negroes consid- ered as police harassment, by limiting preventive patrol in a particular slum neighborhood, many officers saw this as a concession to "criminal elements” brought about by subversive political pressure. The same interpretation was given to the reassignment of certain officers out of Negro districts. Most officers held unfavorable attitudes towards the courts, and 146 felt their actions to be in conflict with those of the police. This facilitated a moralistic outlook and Justified, for some officers, the diSpensing of street corner Justice. The re- searcher believes that positive efforts by police admini— strators to widen the channels of communication are an impor— tant aspect of implementing policies aimed at reducing police— citizen hostility. While there are no simple solutions to the problems of communication, especially those that char— acterize relations between the police and the courts, any improvement along these lines would be beneficial if it resu ted in reduced sense of alienation among patrolmen. Department attempts to improve relations between police and public through sincere attempts to discover and modify the behavior of officers, and not merely by selling the commu- nity a public relations package, must also be reflected in the department's promotion practices. Measures suggested herein would place increased emphasis on the important service aspects of routine police work. These have usually taken ! - _ van in e 1.; . second place to the traditional ”crime-fighting' By modifying criteria which lead to occupational success, the administration would be conveying in a realistic fashion the importance of increased harmony between the police and the public, and especially with potentially hostile or dangerous minority groups. . BIBLIOGRAPHY 148 BIBLIOGRAPHY A. BOOKS Adorno, T. W., et al. The Authoritarian‘Personality. New York: John—WiIEy and Sons, Inc., l96fl. Banton, Michael. The Policeman in the Community. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1964. Chambliss, William J. Crime and the Legal Process. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, I969. Clinard, Marshall B. Sociolo of Deviant Behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart and ainston, Inc., 1968: Graham, Hugh Davis, and Ted Robert Gurr (comps.). Violence In America: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. new York: Bantam Books, 1969. LaFave, Wayne R. Arrest: The Decision §2_Take §_SuSpect Into Custody. BostonzIIittle,IBrown and Company, 1965. Selltiz, Claire, 32 al. Research Methods in Social Relations. Revised edition. New YorkffiHolt, RinEHart and Winston, Inc., 1965. Skolnick, Jerome H. Justice without Trial: Law Enforcement in a_Democratic Society, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1966. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. Cambridge.Massachusetts: G. and C.*Mirriam Company, The Riverside Press, 1953. Wilson, James O. Varieties of Police Behavior: The Management g£_Law and Order in Eight'Communities. Cambridge, Mass- achusetts: Harvard-University Press, 1968. Wolfgang, Marvin, et al. Studies In Homicide. New York: Har- per and Row, I967:- B. PUBLICATIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT, LEARNED SOCIETIES, AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administra— tion of Justice. The Challenge of Crime in a Free Soci- et . Washington D.C.: UnitedIStates Government Printing 0 ice, 1967. 149 Report of the National Adviser Commission‘gg Civil Dis- orders. WasfiIngton, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, March 1, 1968. The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Admin- istration of Justice. Task Force Report: The Police. Washington, 0.0.: United States Government Printing Office, 1967. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Reports for the United States. Washington, D.C.: UhitediStates Government PrIntIng Office, 1967. C. PERIODICALS Athos, Anthony. "From Campus...to Company...to Company," The Journal of Collegg Placement, 24:22-23,ll2-ll6, December, i953. Beral, Harold and Marcus Sisk. "The Administration of Com— plaints By Civilians Against the Police," Harvard Law Review, 77xfl99-519, January, 1964. Chenoweth, James H. "Situational Tests-~A New Attempt At Assessing Police Candidates," Thg_Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology_and Police Science, 5?:2323538, July, August, 1961. Clark, John P. "Isolation of the Police: A Comparison of the British and American Situations," The Jouggal of Criminal Law Criminolo and Police Science :307:' 319, SEptemEer, I965. ’ Cumming, Elaine, Ian Cumming, and Laura Edell. "Policeman As Philosopher, Guide and Friend," Social Problems, 12:276-286, Summer, 1964. Goldstein, Herman. "Administrative Problems in Controlling the Exercise of Police Authority," The Journal of Crim- inal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 58:160tl72, June, 1967. . "Police Policy Formulation: A Proposal For Improv- Ing Police Performance," Michigan Law Review, 65:1123- 1146, April, 1967. ”_— Goode, William J. "A.Theory of Role Strain," The American Sociology Review, 25:483-#96, August, 1960. 160 Levy, Ruth J. "Predicting Police Failures," The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, 95: .- 265—276, June, 1967. Matarazzo, Joseph D., et gl, "Characteristics of Success- ful Policemen and—Firemen Applicants," The Journal _3 Applied Psychology, 48:123-132, 1964. Oglesby, Thomas W. "Use of Emotional Screening in the Sel— ection of Police Applicants," Public Personnel Review, 18:228-235, January, 1957. Parnas, Raymond J. "The Police Response to the Domestic Disturbance," Wisconsin Law Review, 1967:914-960. Piliavin, Irvin and S. Briar. "Police Encounters With Juveniles,l The American Journal 95 Sociology, 70:206- 214, September, 1964. Remington, Frank J. "Police Science: The Mole of Police in a Democratic Society," The Journal of Criminal Law, Créminology and Police Science, 56:36I496 , September, 19 5. Schultz, Leroy G. ”Why the Negro Carries Weapons,” The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, §§TE76:A8§,IDecember, 1962. Stinchcombe, Arthur L. ”Institutions of Privacy in the Deter— mination of Police Administrative Practice," The Amer- ican Journal 2: Sociology, 64:150-160, September, 1963. Nestley, William A. "Violence and the Police,” The Ameri- can Journal 9£_Sociology, 59:34-41, 1953-1953. dilson, James C. "Generational and Ethnic Differences Among Career Police Officers," The American Journal 3: Soci- ology, 69:522-528, March, 1964. D. ESSAYS AND ARTICLES IN COLLECTIONS McNamara, John H. "Uncertainties in Police Work: The Rele— vance of Police Recruits' Backgrounds and Training," The Police, David J. Bordua, editor. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967. Reiss, Albert J., Jr., and David J. Bordua. "Environment and Organization: A Perspective on the Police," The Police, David J. Bordua, editor. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967. Silver, Allan. "The Demand For Order in Civil Society: A Review of Some Themes in the History of Urban Crime, Police, and Riot," The Police, David J. Bordua, edi- tor. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967. Werthman, Carl and Irving Piliavin. "Gang Members and the Police," The Police, David J. Bordua, editor. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967. APPENDICES L 0 Fl C) APPENDIX A INTERVIEW TOPICS Career intentions a. length 0“ service intended t. rank and assignment expectations c. retirement plans Educam CH] 1. college completed b. future plans Occupational preferences a. reason For selecting this department b. occupational second choice ‘4 (ob °i»Ln[action a. .airnoan cfl‘;nflJW3 n1 (w:i‘trict aaeignmcni t. rating 0” thi3 crp 1* tment with others c. Quality of job 3rp6ivi3ion and guidance C. loyalty OJ fellow of ieers e. fairne33 of citizen complaint procedure: A3pects of police work me3t pleasing and diapleasing a. laws officer leaet li kes to enforce T; e of per on/eituation most problem Attitude toward3 Negroe3 Attitud (U 3 towards lane regulating morals Early job evperierce a. activity during ?i;3i year of police work b. on—the—an tiaining c. evaluation 0? ?i_r3t par;ner(3 ) style To Hchnilue3 for dealing with apecific effen3e3 and offender; a. drunkenne33 b. family fights, diaputrx c ““ d . juvenile oiienders . traffic offenders 154 APPENDIX B QUESTIONNAIRE Strongly agree A ree Uncertain Disagree Strongly disagree SA A II D SD O‘\ It is usually necessary for an officer to explain the law to the citizens he deals with because most of them do not understand the policeman's authority. SA A U D SD High 2 6 O 2 0 Low 3 5 '0 2 O The public's respect for the police has been increasing steadily over the years. SA A U D SD High 0 2 3 2 3 Low 0 3 l 2 4 If it appears that force may be necessary it should be employed right after entrance into an encounter to gain the advantage of surprise. SA A U D SD High 3 3 3 l 0 Low 1 3 2 1+ 0 Police Community Relations programs have proven effective in improving relations between the police and minority groups. SA A U D SD High 0 3 I: 3 0 LOT? 0 3 '3 4 0 If an alcoholic really wants to straighten out he can solve most of his personal problems himself. SA A U D SD High 0 3 l 6 0 Low 0 -l 2 5 2 In a slum neighborhood every resident should be regarded as a potential source of violence. SA A U D SD Hi gh O l l 6 2 Low 1 O O 6 3 Frequently the work of the police is undone by the courts. SA A U D SD High 1 7 2 O 0 Low 4 6 O O O 10. 11. 13. 14. 15. 16. 155 Compromising with militant minority groups will only lead to further problems for law enforcement officers. SA A U D SD High 3 7 o o 0 Low 4 5 l o 0 Most citizens who profess ignorance of the law are trying to put something over on the officer. SA A U D SD High 0 l l 8 0 Low 0 O l 8 1 Most criticism of the police in this city is unjustified. SA A U D SD High A 5 l O 0 Low 2 5 2 l O The best assurance against civil disorder is a stron police farce with enough authority to get the Job done. SA A U D SD High 3 5 2 O 0 Low 3 A 1 2 O The successful outcome of a police encounter with a citizen is largely determined by how forcefully the officer presents himself initially. SA A U' D SD High 1 l 6 2 0 Low 0 3 l 6 O A policeman's civilian friends frequently attempt to "use” his friendship. SA A U D SD High 1 2 O 6 1 Low 0 2 l 5 2 More often than not punishment would be more effective than "treatment" in dealing_with habitual delinquents. SA A U D SD High 0 A 2 A 0 LOW O 3 2 5 O The patrolman who tries to reason with a hostile citizen is more likely to be attacked than the patrolman who makes it clear they will use force if necessary to gain the citizen's cooperation. SA A U D SD High 1 u a 1 0 Low 1 2 l 6 0 It is not possible for an officer to deal adequately with Juvenile3 and still follow all the rules. SA A U D SD High 0 6 1 3 o Lows l 3 . O 6 O 17. 18. 19. 20. f0 ' - '1- O I‘\) 01 156- The majority of the people in this city do not understand the problems of the police. SA A U D SD High 2 6 l 1 0 Low 2 6 c 2 o If the police were given more authority they could be more effective without sacrificing the rights of the individual. SA ' A U D SD High 0 8 2 O 0 Low 2 W O A O In a rough neighborhood an officer who ignores insults and dis— respect makes it more difficult for his fellow officers to do their Job. SA A U D SD High 0 7 2 l 0 Low 2 5 3 O 0 There will probably always be more crime among Negroes than among whites. SA A U D SD High 3 A 2 1 O Lows l A 3 2 0 An officer who tries to settle an argument by reasoning with the participants often makes the situation worse. A U D SD High 0 l 2 6 l Lows O O O 7 3 Under recent court decisions a suspect has more rights than a victim. SA A U D SD High 3 7 O O 0 Low 3 5 O 2 O The police spend too much time dealing with drunks and disturbers of the peace and not enough time preventing crime and apprehend- ing criminals. SA A U D SD High 0 j 0 7 0 low 0 2 l 6 i In any police department this size, there is bound to be some basis for public criticism. SA A U D SD Hi gh O 9 l O 0 Low 1 ' 8 O l 0 Generally, the information given to a patrolman by a person who is a little bit frightened of police will turn out to be more reliable than that from other people. SA A U A D SD H1 8h 0 3 1;. 3 0 I30“, ‘0 3 3 2.1.. O 26. 27. 28. 29. U) U0 Respect for the police in a rough neighborhood depends on the willingness of patrolmen to use force frequently and effectively. SA A U D SD High 0 o 1 9 0 Low 0 O O 8 2 The main cause of Juvenile delinquency is a lack of obedience and respect for authority taught in the home. SA A U D SD Hi gh ‘ 6 9+ O O 0 Low 5 5 O O O Patrolmen generally should not think of dealing with offenders as in any way a "give and take” sort of situation. SA A U D SD High 0 6 2 2 o t is generally a waste of time for a police officer to try to be polite and to attempt to reason with a person who has been drinking. SA A U D SD High 0 2 O 7 1 Low 0 l O 8 l Patrolmen have enough legal authority to get their Job done efficiently. SA A U D 3D Hi gh O 1L O 6 0 Low 0 2 l 5 2 Host residents of lower class neighborhoods are law-abiding citizens. High 0 3 2 o 0 Low 0 lO 0 0 O The police would have fewer problems and provide better law enforcement if Negro neighborhoods were policed by Negro officers. SA A U D 3D High 0 o l 8 1 Low 0 l l 4 8 Parents today don't teach their children enough obedience and respect for authority. SA A U D SD High 3 7 c o 0 Low o lO 0 w o o sually people who look nervous when addressing a police officer have something to hide. 3A A U D SD High 0 l l 8 O L OW O O h 7 O 36. 39. so. 158 Money spent on Police Community Relations could be better spent on providing additional patrolmen and equipment. SA A U D SD High 0 7 0 3 0 Low 0 3 2 A 1 Student demonstrators should be dealt with more severely by the police and the courts. SA A U D SD High 2 6 1 1 0 Low 2 6 1 l O In most Situations requiring police attention it is wise for a patrolman to let it clearly be known at the outset to citizens that he will use force if it is necessary. SA A U D SD High 1 6 O 3 0 Low 2 3 O 5 0 An officer who is polite to disrespectful citizens frequently loses reSpect for the police. SA A U D SD {igh O l 2 7 0 Low 0 O O 7‘ 3 The majority of the peeple in this city do not care about the problems of the police. SA _ A U D SD Iigh 1 6 1 1 1 Low 0 3 2 3 2 The police will never be effective so long as the courts and the public are breathing down their necks. SA A U D SD High 1 3 3 3 0 Low 1 3 2 M O NOV 21’ 1989 HICHIGQN STQTE UNIV. LIBRQRIES 129310390241 1