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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled
THE RELATIONSHIP OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND EDUCATION FACTORS ON

RATE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE COMPLAINTS

presented by

Bhamornwal Janlekha

has been accepted towards fulﬁllment
of the requirements for

M.S. Criminal Justice

 

 

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ma chIRC/DamepGﬁ-ou

THE RELATIONSHIP OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND EDUCATION FACTORS ON
RATE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE COMPLAINTS

By

Bhamornwal Janlekha

A THESIS
Submitted to
Michigan State University

in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE
School of Criminal Justice

1 999

ABSTRACT

THE RELATIONSHIP OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND EDUCATION FACTORS ON
RATE OF SUSTAINED EXCESSIVE FORCE COMPLAINTS

By

Bhamomwal Janlekha

The single incident of police use of force has the potential to create turmoil and
social disturbance in the society. There is a need to understand the relationship of
demographic characteristics and the rate of excessive force complaints in the department.
The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between character of the ofﬁcer in
the department and the rate of excessive force the department received.

The data for this thesis were drawn from 528 agencies. In order to determine the
relationship of each independent variable, cross-tabulation and multivariate analyses were
applied. The ﬁndings indicated that although demographic characteristics are related to
some variation in the rate of excessive force, they explained only small number. These
ﬁnding will be useful for those who are interested in understanding of the causes of

police behavior.

To my beloved parents

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The completion of this thesis was made possible only with the help and support of
so many great people. I wish to express appreciation to people whom I will always be
indebted. Without their support, this thesis could not have been completed.

First and foremost, I have to thank my parents for their love and understanding.
Thanks for letting me pursue my dream to become someone I wanted to be. Your
wisdom, your strength, and your love always stay with me.

I must also thank the Thai Government and Police Cadet Academy of Thailand
for granting me a scholarship that allows me to fulﬁll my dream in the United States.
Upon my graduation, I shall serve my country as best as I possibly can.

A special expression of gratitude is offered to Dr Christina DeJong, for your
inspiration, patience, advice and guidance. Thank you for having a teacher’s heart and
making everything seem possible to understand. Your help has meant to me more than
you know.

I must also recognized and express my appreciation to Dr. David L. Carter and
Dr. Vincent J. Hoffman for your support, encouragement and guidance. Thank your for
your suggestions and advice. I owe a special debt to two persons, Dr Merry Morash and
Dr.David Novicki, who help me through a tough time in my life and helped regain me
conﬁdence to believe in myself again.

Finally, I have to thank my friend John Kennedy, who got me started on my
thesis, and, Amber Mushinske, Yingpratana Keoplung, Poowanart Tianniam, for

constantly reminding me to ﬁnish my thesis and supporting me. Thank you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLE ................................................................................ vii
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 1
Legal liability .............................................................................. 3
Demographic characteristic and police use of excessive force. . . . . . . . . . . .6
Problem to be studied .................................................................... 7
The purpose of the study ................................................................ 8
Hypotheses .............................................................................. 10
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................... 12
Complaints: measurement of police performance .................................. 12
Demographic characteristics of police ofﬁcers ..................................... 14
Ofﬁcers’ gender ................................................................ 14
Race and ethnicity .............................................................. 15
Average age ..................................................................... 16
Average length of service .................................................... 17
Ofﬁcers’ education ............................................................. 18
Higher education requirement for employment ..................................... 20
Early effort to improve police performance ................................ 21
Aﬁer the 19603 and the Civil Rights Movement ........................... 22
National study in 1989 ........................................................ 26
Summary ................................................................................. 28
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 29
Source of data ........................................................................... 29
Description of variables ............................................................... 33
Dependent variables ........................................................... 35
Independent variables ......................................................... 36
Methodology ............................................................................ 37
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULT .......................................................................................... 40
Average rate of excessive force by type of agency ................................ 4O
Correlation of demographic and rate of excessive force complaints ............ 42
Regression analysis .................................................................... 44
Summary ................................................................................ 48

CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION ................................................................................. 49
Limitation of the study .............................................................. 49
Conclusion drawn from hypotheses ............................................... 51
Summary .............................................................................. 55
APPENDICES ................................................................................ 57
BIBLOGRAPHY ............................................................................. 61

vi

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Responding agencies by agency type and number of sworn personnel. . . . . ....31

Table 2 Descriptive statistics characteristics of the demographic composition
variables from the original sample ........................................... 32

Table 3 Distribution of responding agencies by agency type and number of
sworn personnel form the sample size of 528 agencies .................... 34

Table 4 Descriptive statistics characteristic of the demographic composition
variables (528 agencies) ........................................................ 35

Table 5 Average rate of excessive force complaints per 1,000 ofﬁcers
by type of agency ................................................................. 40

Table 6 Correlations of demographic characteristics and excessive force complaints. . ..42

Table 7 Regression analysis of demographic characteristics and the rates of
Excessive force complaints per 1,000 ofﬁcers ................................ 44

vii

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

“Every public ofﬁcer who under color of authority, without necessity, assaults or

beats any person is guilty of a violation of [law].”

--Judge Stanley Weisberg’s instructions to the jury in the state trial of the four

ofﬁcers accused of using excessive force against Rodney G. King

Police ofﬁcers have been given the right to use force to control violent behavior
and maintain public order (Anderson, 1995; Dunham & Alpert, 1995; Kappeler & Kaune,
1993). Unfortunately, when police ofﬁcers employ more force than necessary and go
beyond reasonable force to excessive force, citizens then become victims of police
brutality.

After the infamous and highly publicized case of Rodney King in 1991, a review
of use of excessive force in Los Angeles Police Department was published. The project,
known as the Christopher Commission, found that a group of problem ofﬁcers was
responsible for a disproportionate number of excessive force complaints. For example,
among 1,800 ofﬁcers against whom allegations of excessive force or improper tactics
were made, one officer had as many as 16 allegations and 183 ofﬁcers had received four
or more such allegations (Christopher et al., 1994).

Civil claims against police of use of excessive force become the burden not only
of the individual police ofﬁcer but also of the entire police department. Since the ruling

in Monell v. Department of Social Services, in 1978, that deﬁned “persons” to include a

local unit of government, plaintiffs now have a deeper pocket into which they can reach

(Barrineau, 1994). The Monell decision encourages plaintiffs to ﬁle civil liability cases
under an assumption that if the police ofﬁcer is unable to pay the damage to the plaintiff,
the agency could be held liable for the act of its ofﬁcer who acts under the color of law
(Kappeler, Kappeler, & del Carmen, 1993). The following cases, cited in Barrineau
(1994), illustrate the excessive use of force litigation brought against the police and the
damages that have been awarded:

*A section 1983 action was ﬁled by a 35-year-old black plaintiff who,

after being subjected by police to racial slurs and epithets, was beaten

and chained to a bed for twelve hours without criminal charges being

ﬁled. The plaintiff suffered a fractured jaw and psychiatric illness

(traumatic neurosis). Haygood v. City of Detroit, Wayne County

Circuit Court, Michigan, No. 77-728013 NO, December 29, 1980.

JURY AWARD: $2,500,000 punitive and $500,000 compensatory damages.

*ln Herbert v. City of Texas City, US. District Court, S.D. Texas, 1981,

a police ofﬁcer broke the arm of the man he was arresting. Suit was ﬁled,

alleging brutality on the part of the arresting ofﬁcer. JURY AWARD:

$150,000.

According to Pate and F ridell (1993), the average amount paid by state agencies
per case in civil litigation cases ﬁnding excessive use of force was $102,364. City police
departments paid an average of $565,453 per case, county police departments paid an
average of $7,500 per case, and sheriffs’ departments paid an average of $107,749 per
case. In the same year, Kappeler, Kappeler, and del Carmen (1993) found that the
average award of liability claims of use of excessive force was as high as $187,503. The
same study also stated that the number of excessive force cases was increased by 300
percent from 18 published federal court cases in 1978 to 56 cases in 1990.

The average award might not reﬂect the real cost of excessive force litigation,

because the federal court report does not include another portion of cases settled outside

the court (Schafer, 1997). Nevertheless, agencies have to spend time and money dealing

with this excessive force litigation even if the case might not go on trial and end up in
settlement outside the courtroom. It is, therefore, important for law enforcement agencies
to recognize the legal liabilities of their employees’ behavior for which they might be

held accountable.

ngal liabilities

Litigation concerning police use of excessive force may involve in criminal
charges or civil claims and can take place either in state or in federal court. However, the
criminal charges for police ofﬁcers’ use of excessive force are extremely rare (Klockars,
1995)---only one out of every 500 cases of shooting by police was initiated by criminal
prosecution during the 1970’s (Blumberg, 1993; Hubler 1991; Kobler, 1975; Levitt,
1991; Waegel 1984). In a criminal case, the victim must provide evidence beyond a
reasonable doubt and demonstrate that the ofﬁcer’s behavior cannot be justiﬁed as a
legitimate performance of the ofﬁcer’s duty (Adams, 1995; Klockars, 1995). The federal
law (Title 18 of US. Code, Section 242; “Criminal Liability for Deprivation of Civil
Rights”) provides an imprisonment penalty up to life if victim is killed, or ﬁne up to
$1,000 and one year imprisonment.

Another legal remedy for police use of excessive force complaint is civil liability.
Three federal statues are available for plaintiffs to use as a remedy—Title 42 of the US.
Code, section 1983, 1985, 1981 create police liability in a different manner. Section 1983
is a Civil Action for the Deprivation of Civil Rights while Section 1985 provides liability
for conspiracy to deprive a person of civil rights. Moreover, Section 1981 limits the

liability of a person acting under the color of law, in the other words, Section 1981

provides equal rights under the law. In addition to the federal law, ofﬁcers can also be
held liable under either state tort law or state civil rights law. The distinctive difference
between federal action and state action is the element of constitutional deprivation
(Kaune & Tischler, 1989). In order to ﬁle lawsuits alleging use of excessive force in
federal court, the plaintiff must have a proof of a deprivation of constitutional guarantee,
which is not required in the state court.

Despite the fact that federal civil suits use more restrictive standards than state
courts, many plaintiffs continue ﬁling federal lawsuits for a number of reasons. First, and
possibly the major reason, attorney’s fees are included in the judgement and are not
deducted from the settlement as in state actions (Kaune & Tischler, 1989; Klockars,
1995). Some attorneys even encourage citizens to bring lawsuits against the police for
this particular reason (Sweeney, 1982). Second, the initiation of lawsuits in federal court
does not have to pass prior review by state judicial system; therefore, do not have to
delay the trial as if in state court (Del Carmen, 1994; Klockars, 1995). Third, almost all
cases ﬁled in federal courts seek monetary relief instead of declaratory or injunctive relief
(Del Carmen, 1994). Finally, rights to discovery (to obtain evidence document and
culpable testimony) are more generous in federal court than state courts (Del Carmen,
1994; Klockars, 1995;). The most widely-used avenue, which is used in about 80% of
cases ﬁled against public ofﬁcers, uses Title 42 US. Code Section 1983 (Del Carmen,
1994)

Section 1983 was broadened after the case of Monroe v. Pape in 1961, where
court ruled that concept of acting under the color of law also include the acts by police

ofﬁcers that were authorized by state law. Monroe alleged Chicago police ofﬁcers and

the City of Chicago for a deprivation of his constitution rights after polices broke into his
house without a warrant and detained him at the police station without ﬁling any charges.
Although the Supreme Court granted a cause of action against the individual ofﬁcers, the
Court ruled that municipalities were not held liable as a “person” under section 1983

_ (Lewis, 1991).

While Monroe v. Pape (1961) set the standard that police ofﬁcers can be sued
(Section 1983 mentioned “persons” who “under color of law” deprived someone of a
constitutional rights) the agency, which was not considered as a person, could not be
sued. That decision was overturned in Monell v. Department of Social Services of the
City of New York (1978) which declared that if the policy of the agency is
unconstitutional, then the city or the county may be sued as a “person”. Since the
decision in Monell, plaintiffs now have a deeper pocket (i.e., the treasury of the local
government unit) into which they can reach (Barrineau, 1994; Del Carmen, 1989
Kappeler, Kappeler, & Del Carmen, 1993;).

Finally, the case that set the standard for liability in cases of police use of
excessive force is Graham v. Conner (1989). The Supreme Court set the standard for
determining whether law enforcement ofﬁcer has used excessive force during seizure is a
Fourth Amendment “objective reasonableness” standard (Thomas & Means, 1990).
Moreover, in Graham v. Conner, the Court said that the “reasonableness” use of force
“must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable ofﬁcer on the scene, rather than
with the 20/20 vision of hindsight” (pp.1872) (Graham v. Conner, 1989). The question
that will be used to determine the ofﬁcer’s reasonableness is “whether the ofﬁcers’

actions are “objective reasonable” in light of the facts and circumstances confronting

them without regard to their underlying intent or motivation” (pp. 1 872) (Graham v.
Conner, 1989). In other words, an ofﬁcer’s actions may be judged from 1) perspective of
a reasonable ofﬁcer on the scene, and 2) the circumstance confronting them however,
officer’s motivation became irrelevant. Some research indicated that the behavior of
police ofﬁcers also depend on the characteristics. The following section will be address

the issue of demographic characteristic and police use of force.

Demographic characteristic and police u_se of excessive force

Some demographic characteristics of police ofﬁcers appear to be related to police
use of force. This approach attempts to explain police behavior by using characteristic of
the ofﬁcers themselves. This perspective assumes that ofﬁcers behave differently related
to their background, i.e., race, gender, and education (Worden, 1995).

The relationship between demographic characteristics (i.e., age, length in service,
gender, and level of education) and use of excessive force remains unclear. One archival
study found that ofﬁcers who were oldest in a single cohort were less likely to have
citizen complaints against them (Cohen & Chaiken, 1972). On the other hand, Alpert
(1989) found that age had no inﬂuence on the decision of ofﬁcers to use either deadly or
non-deadly force in the arrest of citizen. The study about length of time in the service
and use of force also shows mix results. It had been reported that more experienced
ofﬁcers were calmer (Forst, Lucianovic, & Cox, 1977) and friendlier (Friedrich, 1977)
when reacting to citizens. Nevertheless, one study showed that length in service had no

effect on police’s decision to use either force or deadly force (Friedrich, 1980). In

general, research from the 1980’s indicated that individual characteristics were not
signiﬁcant predictors of police force behavior (Riksheim & Chermak, 1993).

Whereas other demographic characteristics did not signiﬁcantly predict police use
of force, there is a signiﬁcant relationship between higher education and fewer citizen
complaints (Carter, Sapp, & Stephens, 1989; Cascio, 1977; Cohen & Chaiken, 1972;
Sanderson, 1977). The study of relationship between education and police performance
was raised again in 1967, the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and
Administration, and in 1973, the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice

Standards and Goals (NAC) (Carter, Sapp, & Stephens, 1989).

Problem to be studied

Although several researchers suggest that use of excessive force is infrequent
(Alpert & Smith, 1994; Friedrich 1980; Reiss, 1968; Worden, 1995), one third of
Americans still believe that police brutality exists in their area (Gallup, 1991; Gillespie,
1999). As long as police brutality still exists in the eye of the public, the need to
understand and reduce the use of excessive force remains.

This study will examine the relationship between demographic characteristic
composition in the department and the rates of total and sustained excessive force
complaints per 1,000 ofﬁcers. In other words, this study will examine the effect of the
percentage of ofﬁcers’ gender, race/ethnicity, level of education, average age and average
time in service on the rate of sustained excessive force per 1,000 sworn ofﬁcers. Since

the department is a unit of analysis, the impact of demographic characteristic composition

of the department on rate of use of excessive force will be studied, not the characteristic
of individual ofﬁcers.

The main focus in this thesis is to determine whether any demographic
characteristics in the department contribute to the amount of sustained excessive force
complaints the department received. Three major interests in this research are:

1. Whether there are signiﬁcant differences in the rate of sustained excessive
force complaints based on several demographic variables of the department (i.e., rate of
ofﬁcers’ gender, race/ethnicity, level of education, average age and average time in
service) and whether these variations can be explained.

2. Whether the rate of sustained excessive force complaints in the department
resulted from a combination of variables that represent demographic composition of the
department.

3. Analyze each pair of relationship between independent and dependent
variables, while controlling for other independent variable in the model. This is to ﬁnd

the most signiﬁcant relation among rate of total and sustained.

The pumose of the study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between demographic
characteristics in the department and the rates of total and sustained excessive force
complaints. Although the rate of excessive force complaints is not an accurate measure
of police use of excessive force, it is the measurement that shows sufﬁcient evidence to

prove officer wrongdoing.

While police ofﬁcers sometimes need to use force to maintain public order,
excessive force can have adverse effects on the relationship between police and the
public. As shown by the 1991 riots in Los Angeles, the consequences of police use of
excessive force resulted in the destruction and death in Los Angeles and the nation (Pate
& F ridell, 1993). Despite the fact that police are allowed to use an appropriate amount of
force to accomplish legitimate police tasks, little is known about the impact of
demographic characteristics of the department on the rates of excessive force complaints.

The study of the demographic characteristics of individual ofﬁcer can allow an
agency to use the results as a guide to understanding the behavior of ofﬁcers in their
agencies. However, it does not give an individual agency adequate information to
compare itself to other agency that has similar characteristics. The study of the
demographic characteristic composition in several departments might explain some of the
variation in rate of sustained complaints. In other words, it might give the agency the
power to compare itself to other agencies.

The central purpose of this study is to discover whether there is a signiﬁcant
relationship between demographic composition in the department and rate of sustained
excessive force complaints. Understanding the relationship of these variables (i.e.,
gender, race/ethnicity, level of education, average age and average time in service) and
the rate of sustained excessive force complaints, could help agencies to establish
minimum requirements for the job or understand the important of excessive force
complaints. For example, if given the knowledge that by increasing the number of police
ofﬁcers with higher education, the rate of sustained excessive force complaints will

decrease, then agencies might consider changing of the minimum education requirement.

Prior to this research, studies of the relationship between demographic
characteristics of police ofﬁcers were mostly done at the individual level. This research,
on the other hand, approaches the problem of excessive force based upon each
department as the unit of analysis. The nature of this unit of analysis allows me to
conduct macro-level analysis, i.e. department, instead of the individual ofﬁcer.

Understanding the relationship of demographic characteristics and ofﬁcers use of
force might result in decreased rates of excessive force complaints. First, this implication
might prevent the department from paying a large amount of civil claim damages.
Second, an understanding of excessive force might improve the relationship between
police and the community. Third, it also shows the commitment to fairness and
discipline in the use of authority (Alpert & Moore, 1997), which will create trust and

public conﬁdence in police.

Hypotheses

This study will approach the data on rate of sustained excessive force in each
department based on the assumption that the department with different demographic
characteristic composition should have different rate of sustained excessive force
complaints. It will be hypothesized that there are signiﬁcant differences between each
law enforcement agency on:

1. The percentage of ofﬁcer with high school education in the department and

the rate of sustained excessive force complaints, controlling for gender, race,

average age and average time in service.

10

The percentage of female ofﬁcer in the department and the rate of sustained
excessive force complaints, controlling for level of education, race, average
age and average time in service.

The percentage of white ofﬁcer in the department and rate of sustained
excessive force complaints, controlling for gender, level of education, average
age and average time in service.

The average age of ofﬁcer in the department and rate of sustained excessive
force complaints, controlling for average time in service, gender, level of
education, and race.

The average time in service and rate of sustained excessive force complaints,

controlling for average age, gender level of education, and race.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

The review of literature in this chapter will approach the existing research that
explains the variation of excessive force complaints by using demographic characteristic
of police ofﬁcers. This chapter will include a discussion of complaint as a measurement
of police performance, demographic characteristic of police ofﬁcers, and higher

education requirements for employment.

Complaints: Measurement of police performance

The use of citizen complaints as a measurement is not new. In 1971, Reiss (1971)
suggested that the potential clients are the best judges in judging the performance of any
bureaucratic organization. The same author further commented that citizen complaints
may account for signiﬁcant input in a police department because of there about the
quality of police service. This notion is similar to other focus on the researchers’
opinions that complaints reﬂected the citizen perception that police use of force has
exceeded the acceptable limits (Adams, 1995; Wagner & Decker, 1997). The United
States Commission on Civil Rights (1981) suggested that citizen complaints can be
served as an indicator of public perception.

Since the police are the most visible group of government (Flanagan & Vaughn,

1995; Sweeney, 1982), the performance of the police is therefore important. The public

not only perceives police as public employee, but also as symbols of law, order, justice,
bravery, vigilance, and integrity (Sweeney, 1982).

Police performance is currently measured using reported crime rate, overall arrest,
clearance rates, and response rates (Alpert & Moore, 1997). However, these traditional
measures cannot display the commitment to fairness and discipline in the use of police
authority. It has been suggested that citizen complaints are useful in evaluating police
performance (Bayley, 1996; Spielberger, Ward, & Spaulding, 1979; Wagner & Decker,
1997) especially the negative aspect of performance (F roemel, 1979).

According to Bayley (1996), there were two groups of indicators to measure
police performance: direct and indirect. The author explained both groups as follows:

Performance is measured directly when the indicators reﬂect what police achieve

by way of public beneﬁts. Performance is measured indirectly when indicators

show what the police are doing in terms of actions. . .direct measurement evaluate
the ends of policing; indirect measurement evaluate the means of policing

(Bayley, 1996, pp. 46).

In Bayley’s (1996) article, “substantiated complaints about police behavior” were viewed
as “hard” or objective direct measurements because they reﬂected concrete events, which
showed whether the police were being effective (Bayley, 1996). This same idea was
found in Wagner and Decker (1996), who suggested that the citizen complaint is a
“barometer of police performance”. Wagner and Decker also mention that the

department can improve the public image of the police and community relations by using

the information obtained through citizen complaints (Wagner & Decker, 1996).

13

Demographic characteristics of police ofﬁcers

The approach to understanding behavior of using the variation in demographic
characteristic assumed that different personality characteristics produce different
responses to similar situation (Worden, 1995). For the most part, the studies of
demographic characteristics have been done at the individual level (Friedrich, 1980;
Riksheim & Chermak, 1993; Sherman, 1980). The demographic characteristics that will
be discussed in this research consist of gender, race/ethnicity, average age, average length
in service, and level of education.

Ofﬁcers ’gender: In recent study by Belknap and Shelley (1992), 85% of 64 total
responses stated that women’s style of policing differed from men’s. As a consequence,
studies about the difference in detection and arrest behavior between male and female
ofﬁcers also increased (Grennan, 1987).

The ﬁnding involving gender of ofﬁcers shows mix results. Koenig (1978) and
suggested that policewomen are more likely than policemen to use deadly force because
of the belief that female ofﬁcers were lacking physical strengths as compare to male
ofﬁcers, therefore; female ofﬁcers may be more inclined to use ﬁrearms . In contrast,
Grennan (1987) found that female ofﬁcers in male/female patrol teams were less likely to
discharge ﬁrearms during a violent situation than male partners. This ﬁnding was similar
to the study of Horvath (1987), who indicated that male patrol ofﬁcers in both
metropolitan and outstate agencies were involved in the more fatal or injury incidents
than female ofﬁcers.

Steffensmeier (1979) found that the presence of female ofﬁcers on patrol resulted

in decreased citizen complaints. Policewomen tend to use less physical force and are still

14

effective in solving problems reported by women. Since most complaints to the police in
low-income areas came from women, this quality was signiﬁcant (Sherman, 1973).
Another study suggested that male ofﬁcers were more likely to generate citizen
complaints (Van Wormer, 1981). Furthermore, several studies found that policewomen
improved relations with citizens (Bloch & Anderson, 1974; Sichel et al., 1978) and would
receive more cooperation and assistance from citizens when they request citizen help
dealing with disturbances (Sherman, 1973).

Research during the 1970’s have shown that there was no difference in
performance between male and female ofﬁcers (Bloch & Anderson, 1974; Sichel et al.,
1978). Despite the ﬁnding favorable to female ofﬁcers, other researches found citizen
opinion to be in favor of male ofﬁcers in violent situations (Bell, 1982; Johns, 1979;
Kennedy & Homant, 1981).

Race and ethniciy: According to Sherman (1980), an ofﬁcer’s race believed to
have effect on that ofﬁcer’s behavior. Sherman states that black ofﬁcers were more
likely to use force than whites ofﬁcers but that the relationship was a spurious result of
disproportionately assignment in high-crime neighborhoods (Sherman,1980).

The literature concerning the race of the officer and sustained excessive force
complaints has not established the clear pattern (Riksheim & Chermak, 1993). Some
studies reported that number of complaints was found to be intra-racial in nature. Carter
(1986) reported that Hispanic ofﬁcers were more likely to use force against Hispanic
citizens. In contrast, F yfe (1988) found inter-racial interaction between white ofﬁcers
against black citizens, and, black ofﬁcers against Hispanic and white citizens. Another

ﬁnding by F yfe (1981) in his earlier research, which analyzed the record of all incidents

involved ofﬁcers’ discharging ﬁrearms, showed that black and Hispanic ofﬁcers were
more likely to discharge their ﬁrearm than their white colleagues.

When compared with the type of force used between white and black ofﬁcers, two
studies, which were conducted ﬁfteen years apart, yielded similar result. They both
indicated that black ofﬁcer appeared more likely to use force than their white peers, but
are less likely to use excessive or improper force with citizen (Friedrich, 1980; Worden,
1995). In the same study, Friedrich (1980) also stated that there was no relationship
between use of force and ofﬁcer’s race. A study of 1,915 ofﬁcers in New York City
Police Department in 1957 revealed no signiﬁcant difference in number of civilian
complaint allegations of harassment, or criminal charges between white and black
ofﬁcers (Cohen & Chaiken, 1972).

Average age: It is widely know that younger ofﬁcers tend to be more assertive
compared to older ofﬁcers, therefore; more likely to commit errors (Sherman, 1980). An
archival study by Cohen and Chaiken (1972) found a signiﬁcant difference among
ofﬁcers’ age and complaints ﬁled against them. They found that the oldest ofﬁcers in the
same cohort were less likely to have civilian complaint for discourtesy, racial slurs, or
excessive force. In a study of use of force in the Rochester, New York, police
department between 1973 to 1979, Croft (1987) also reported that younger ofﬁcers were
signiﬁcantly likely to use force than older ofﬁcers. A more recent study revealed an
average age for ofﬁcers with at least one complaint was 31.6 years while the average age
of all sworn ofﬁcers was 36.05 years (Lersch & Mieczkowski, 1996).

In addition, a study from 583 closed case ﬁles accusing 827 ofﬁcers of

misconduct indicated that the “typical” police ofﬁcer against whom complaints were ﬁled

was not distinguishable from other ofﬁcers (Wagner, 1980). The same study stated that,
in general, ofﬁcers received fewer complaints after age 30. Sixty-eight percent of
ofﬁcers against whom complaints were lodged were younger ofﬁcers (21-29 years)
(Wagner, 1980).

However, the argument about the relationship between average age of ofﬁcers and
citizen complaints pointed out that experience of ofﬁcers also related to age and
complaints. Since young recruits were more likely to be assigned to higher crime areas,
they may be required the to use greater use of force (Toch, 1995). Alpert (1989) made a
statement that age had no inﬂuence on the decision to use force in the arrest of citizen.

Average Length of Service: In particular, it seems reasonable to assume that
experienced police ofﬁcers perform better than novice police ofﬁcers, which then result
in less complaints. A study of large police department in Sunnyville revealed the average
age of ofﬁcers against whom more than one allegation of misconduct was made had
fewer years in service than ofﬁcers receiving fewer allegations (Lersch &Mieczkowski,
1996). Furthermore, Friedrich (1980) reported the small indication that more experienced
ofﬁcers use force less excessively and tend to be more reasonable.

The study of the relationship between length of service and use of excessive force
seems to result in an association between ofﬁcers’ experience and performance. More
experienced ofﬁcers do less police work, but the work they do is better in term of the
quality and quantity (Forst et al., 1977). Friedrich (1980) also found that experienced
ofﬁcers appeared calmer and did not act out their frustrations when dealing with citizens.

Another argument was that less experienced ofﬁcers made more contact with

citizens and more arrest, however, F orst et al. (1977) found that experienced ofﬁcers

l7

made arrests that result in conviction than rookie ofﬁcers. Yet, in their study, Forst and
his colleagues noted that the difference in conviction rate might came from the
assignment and experienced ofﬁcers received.

Officers“ Education: Among the demographic characteristic of police ofﬁcers,

 

education was, by far, the most extensively studied. In their archival study, Cohen and
Chaiken (1972) discovered, in their archival study of New York Police Department in l
1957, that more educated ofﬁcers received fewer civilian complaints than less educated
ofﬁcers. Twenty four percent of the non-college-graduated ofﬁcers, had a civilian
complaint, compared to eight percent of college graduates who had such complaint.
They also found that the ofﬁcers with at least one year of college education were found to
be very good in performance.

In the late 19605, an urge to improve the quality of police increased due to the
Civil Rights movement and social disruption among the police and certain segments of
the public. Therefore, “President’s Commission recommend that police educational
standards be raised, with the ultimate goal of requiring a baccalaureate degree as a
minimum standard for employment” (Radlet & Carter, 1994). The national research in
1989 supported by the Police Executive Research Forum claimed not only that college-
educated officers performed the tasks of policing better than their non-college colleagues
but also that college-educated ofﬁcers had fewer citizen complaints, fewer administrative
and fewer personnel problems (Carter et al., 1989). Sanderson (1977) studied the Los
Angeles Police Department and concluded that college education had a positive effect on

the ﬁve performance variables he tested. There were academy performance, disciplinary

l8

history (average sustained complaints lower than non-college education), absenteeism,
termination, and career advancement (Sanderson, 1977).

More studies about the relationship between citizen complaints and level of
education reported similar ﬁndings: police ofﬁcers with a college education received
fewer citizen complaints. According to the study of Sherman (1980), four studies
showed that college-educated ofﬁcers behave differently. McGreevy (1964) and Bozza
(1973) found college-educated ofﬁcer more active in detection practice and made more
arrest, respectively. Cohen and Chaiken (1972), as mentioned above, found fewer citizen
complaints in college-educated than those ofﬁcers without college degree. Cascio (1977)
replicated the study of Cohen and Chaiken by studying 940 police ofﬁcers in Dade
County, Florida, and found that higher level of education tended to associate with fewer
injuries, fewer disciplinary actions, fewer preventable accident, fewer sick time per year,
and fewer physical force allegation (i.e. fewer excessive force allegations).

The relationship between higher education and fewer civilian complaints can also
be found in the studies of Shemock (1992), and, Carter and Sapp (1989). In the 1989
ﬁnding, the authors stated that 98.4% of the police department participating in the study
indicated that ofﬁcer with two or more years of college education received fewer citizen
complaints (Carter & Sapp, 1989).

However, some researchers argued that ofﬁcers with higher education do not
differ from ofﬁcers with lesser education (Allen, 1996; Smith, 1978). In his thesis, Allen
found no difference between ofﬁcers with and without a college degree when examining
the issue of complaints initiated against them, and the same relationship occurred when

he controlled for years of experience (Allen, 1996). Earlier study by Cascio (1977) also

19

suggested that “perhaps it is the effect of intelligence and motivation rather than the
effect of education per se, that differentiates effective from ineffective performance” (pp.
92).

Furthermore, there is an argument that college-educated ofﬁcers may do a worse
job than non-college educated ofﬁcers. They might be more likely to be excessively
aggressive and more likely to use their weapons and to make arrests because college
“gives him (or reinforces for him) his sense of duty” (Wilson, 1975). This argument
received support from a 1977 archival study of the data about 24 police departments in
three metropolitan areas (Rochester, N.Y., St., Louis, MO., and Tampa-St. Petersburg,
F L.). The analysis suggested that ofﬁcers with college degrees were more likely to use
force (5.3 percent) compared to officers with associate degree (4.1 percent) and ofﬁcers
with no college degree (2.9 percent). However, from the same analysis ofﬁcers with

college degrees were somewhat less likely to use improper force (Worden, 1995).

Higher education reguirement for employment

One southern sheriff once said, “the only way to improve law enforcement is to
improve the law enforcement ofﬁcer” (as cited in Saunders, 1970, pp. 35). Higher
education as a minimum requirement for police ofﬁcers was formally addressed in court
in the case of Davis v. Dallas, 777 F.2d 205 (5th Cir, 1985). The Dallas appeal court
accepted the forty-ﬁve semester hours as an educational requirement to be reasonable.
The court’s opinion in Davis showed that the police profession could be fulﬁlled by the

college-education.

The effort to improve police performance by using higher education originated
almost a century ago. This section contains an overview of research that attempts to
enhance level of education as a requirement for police officers. The following review
divided into three sections chronologically: early the efforts to improve police
performance, aﬁer 19605 the Civil Rights Movement, and, National Study in 1989
Earlv effort to improvepolice performance

August Vollmer, who was the chief of police in Berkeley, California, was later
known as the father of American policing, attempted to reform policing to be close to
professional quality through technology and higher personnel standards (Radelet &
Carter, 1994). His department was the ﬁrst to use lie detector machines in criminal
investigations (Swanson, Territo, & Taylor, 1993; Uchida, 1997). He also encouraged
his newly appointed ofﬁcers to attend classes in police administration that were taught at
the University of California. In 1916, August Vollmer started the ﬁrst school of
criminology at the University of California.

Some years later, in 1931, the National Commission on Law Observance and
Enforcement, known as the Wickersham Commission, recommended police reform.
Wickersham’s report stated that politic inﬂuence should be separated from police job
(Swanson, Territo, & Taylor, 1993). It was the ﬁrst time that need for higher education
in criminal justice was ofﬁcially recognized (Bennett & Marshall, 1976).

The Commission found that “the great majority of police are not suited either by
temperament, training, or education for their position,” (National Commission on Law
Observance and Enforcement, 1931, pp. 58) and, further, identiﬁed the need of formal

training and a strong educational background for police ofﬁcers. Police were also urged

21

to work with university to develop scientiﬁc program in law enforcement (Baker, 1995).
This emphasis on law enforcement resulted in 1935 the National Police Academy, where
local police leaders and ofﬁcials were educated in the “professional” and “scientiﬁc”
aspects of law enforcement (Swanson, Territo, & Taylor, 1993).

After the 19605 and the Civil Rights Movement

During the 19605, policing in America faced a difﬁcult time: rise in crime, the
civil rights movement, anti-war sentiment, and riots in the cities (Uchida, 1997). Under
these circumstances, the police need to be not only intelligent, courageous, impartial and
honest, but also understanding, and show ﬂexibility in contending with group unrest,
riots, and mass demonstrations (Locke & Smith, 1976). Furthermore, the US.
Commission on Civil Rights in 1961 stated the need to improve the police to be of
professional quality:

...that congress consider the advisability of enacting a program of grants-in-aid

to assist State and local governments, upon their request, to increase the

professional quality of their police forces. Such grants-in-aid might apply to the

development and maintenance of (1) recruit selection tests and standards; (2)

training programs in scientiﬁc crime detection; (3) training programs in

constitutional rights and human relations; (4) college level schools of police
administration; and (5) scholarship programs that assist policemen to receive

training in school of police administration. (pp. 112).

The President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice
in 1967 responded to the need to increase educatiOnal level of police. The need for
higher education of police was discussed in two volumes: The Challenge of Crime in a
Free Society, and, the Task Force Report: The Police.

The ﬁrst volume, The Challenge of Crime in Free Society, recommended that all

departments raise their educational standard for recruits, and, that all law enforcement

ofﬁcers should have baccalaureate degrees. The 1967 commission suggested that “the

22

ultimate aim of all police departments should be that all personnel with enforcement
powers have baccalaureate degrees” (President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and
the Administrative justice, 1967, pp. 107).

In second volume, Task Force Report (1967), explored the history of the law
enforcement, administrative, personnel or proﬁle of the police, and policy issues in detail
such as employment requirement, police training, and police compensation. The report
suggested that we need to improve education requirements, in order to improve the
quality of service provided by law enforcement agencies (Hayeslip, 1989). It also
recommended that all ofﬁcers should have at least high school diploma and should be
required to complete at least two years of college education. In addition, the Task Force
Report also suggested police departments to establish the minimum educational
requirement of a baccalaureate degree for all administrative and supervisory positions.

The recommendation of the President’s Commission report led the legislation to
create the Ofﬁce of Law Enforcement Assistance (OLEA) under the US. Department of
Justice. In 1968, the Congress passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Street Act of
1968, which then created the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)
(Roberg & Kuykendall, 1993, pp.350-351). The LEAA was established in an attempt to
improve effectiveness and reduce crime. Under LEAA, in 1968, the Law Enforcement
Education Program (LEEP) was initiated to provided ﬁnancial aid for police personnel to
pursue a college education.

The support from LEEP encouraged colleges and universities to develop law
enforcement and criminal justice degree programs. Before 1966, only 184 institutions

offered program for police ofﬁcers, but that number increased to 1,070 institutions in

23

1976. The percentage of police ofﬁcers with college degree also increased from 20
percent of all ofﬁcers in 1960 to 32 percent by 1970, and, 46 percent by 1974 (Sherman,
1978).

The issue of higher education as a minimum requirement for police ofﬁcers have
continuously gone to court since 1972. In Castro v. Beecher(1972), where the plaintiffs
claimed violations of their civil rights in recruiting and hiring practices of the Boston
Police Department, the court afﬁrmed the requirement of a high school education for the
Boston Police Department.

In 1973, an inﬂuential report, “Report on Police” by National Advisory
Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals (NAC), was released. This report
suggested the timetable to ensure that all police ofﬁcers will complete a baccalaureate by
1982 (Baker, 1995). The NAC recommended raising the educational requirement for
entry-level ofﬁcers to two years of college by 1975, three years by 1978, and to a
baccalaureate by 1982. Despite the plan in 1973, Carter and his colleagues (1989) found
only 22.6 percent of police ofﬁcers earned a baccalaureate degree by 1988 (Carter et. al.,
1989).

After 1972 decision and the “Report on Police” another court decision in 1975
(Arnold v. Ballard) supported the notion that an education requirement can be related to
police performance by citing the 1972 study of the New York Police Department by
Cohen and Chaiken (1972) that there was a signiﬁcant correlation between higher
education and improvement in police performance. The notion in Arnold suggested that
the high school education show an education accomplishment and ability that might be

essential in training and perform as a police measurement (Arnold v. Ballard, 1975).

24

Finally, over a decade after Arnold, the court upheld a challenge to the Dallas
Police Department’s requirement of 45 semester hours of accredited college or university
credit with at least C average in Davis v. City of Dallas (1985). This case was brought by
a class of black plaintiffs challenging the City of Dallas for its requirements for hiring
police ofﬁcers. In Davis, the City explained the need for higher education requirement
by citing two prominent reports: the 1967 report by the President’s Commission on Law
Enforcement and Administration of Justice, which recommended that all police ofﬁcers
have baccalaureate degree; and, the 1973 report of NAC on police, which stated the need
for police ofﬁcers who were intelligent, articulate, mature, and knowledgeable.

The City also presented the testimony of four expert witnesses to support the
relationship between college education and police performance. One expert witness
testiﬁed that “to a greater maturity and soundness of judgement, greater tolerance of
ambiguous situations; ...and complicated nature of a police task. . .ofﬁcers with the
education will perform better than ofﬁcers who do not have it” (pp.220). Another expert
witness, Julius Debro, added that quality of education is decreased and high school
diploma change over the course of time. Debro also explained the beneﬁt of higher
education as follows:

you get better performance; you get better police ofﬁcers who are less

authoritarian; you improve your race relationships with ethnic groups throughout

the community; police ofﬁcers generally tend to be less stressful. You improve,
most of all, professionalism, in which police ofﬁcers are now trying to become
professional. (Davis v. City of Dallas, 1985, pp.221).

The Court found that the City’s education requirement is job-related based on

national commission studies and on expert testimonies. The Court stated that:

Defendant’s experts established the relationship between college education and

25

performance of police officers. A study by on one expert relied upon factual data

from two large metropolitan areas that tool two years to complete, showing

signiﬁcantly higher performance rates by college educated ofﬁcers. Another
expert testiﬁed about numerous studies and recommendations of college
education for police ofﬁcers. A persuasive point was made that a high school
diploma today does not represent the same level of achievement which it
represented ten years ago. The Court agrees with Defendant’s expert’s
conclusions that 45 hours of college today represents [a] considerably lower level
of achievement than it would have in the early 70’s.(Davis v. City of Dallas,
1985,pp.222)

The Court ruling in Davis, which accepted the minimum educational requirement
to be a Bona F ide Occupational Qualiﬁcation (BFOQ), established the legal notion that
college education is a minimum requirement for police employment. The court also
suggested that the police department do not need to follow the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines, which require “to apply not only the
formalized tests but to all other measures of employee qualiﬁcation” (Davis v. City of
Dallas, 1985, pp. 217). The reason stated by the Court was:

Because of the professional nature of the job, coupled with the risks

and public responsibility inherent in the position, we conclude that empirical

evidence is not required to validate the job relatedness of the educational

requirement.(Davis v. City of Dallas, 1985, pp. 217).

National study in 1989

The national study in 1989 the State of Police Education: Policy Direction for the
21St Century (Carter, Sapp and Stephen, 1989) discussed important issues about the
beneﬁts of higher education and its impact on police. This study responded to the
national studies of police education that started since 19605. The ﬁnding in this study

provided valuable knowledge regarding higher education and also “. . .motivate police

departments with such policies already in place to accelerate their implementation, as

26

well as reafﬁrm their commitments to the goal of a well-educated police force” (Carter et
al., 1989, pp. V).

One of the ﬁndings about advantage of college-educated ofﬁcers was that 456 out
of 464 responses (98.3%) agreed that college-educated ofﬁcers receive fewer
complaints. The study also stated several advantages of college-educated ofﬁcers. Those
ﬁndings are: communicate better with community, write better report, more effective
performance, less citizen complaints, more initiative-police task, more professional, use
discretion wisely, better decision maker, more respect to the community, more sensitive-
racial ethnic groups, less disciplinary problems (Carter et al., 1989, pp. 47)

The study revealed also information about the average education level of police
ofﬁcers at the time of study. The average education level of the police officers included
in the 1989 study was 13.6 years of education, which is one year higher then the average
education level of all persons 25 years old (12.6 years of education) estimated by the
Bureau of the Census in 1984 (Carter et al., 1989).

Another study suggested that the ﬁnding in the study of Carter et a1. (1989)
provided support to establish requirement for higher education because it might reduce
the chance of liability (Carter & Sapp, 1989). The reason was that police ofﬁcers with
higher education use discretion more wisely, make better decisions, and, more
importantly, fewer citizen complaints and fewer disciplinary actions were found among
ofﬁcers with higher education (Carter & Sapp 1989). The further suggestion for police
administrators were to reduce risk of ofﬁcer misconduct or negligence and reduce
liability insurance costs by require a formal college education for sworn police ofﬁcer

(Carter & Sapp, 1989).

27

Summag

Citizen complaints might be viewed as measurement of negative performance and
did not indicate the effectiveness of the police. However, they provide the valuable
information that administrators could use to improve their ofﬁcers’ performance and
reduce liability risk that might result in a large amount of payment and destroy public
trust in police.

The following study focuses on the aspect of demographic characteristics and
sustained excessive force complaints. The researcher is aware of the possibility that the
sustained excessive force might result from some variables other than demographic
characteristics. Nonetheless, the demographic characteristics were chosen to be studied
in this research on the basis that people with different characteristics behave differently in
the same situation (Worden, 1995).

The preceding review indicated that although the understanding about
demographic characteristics has become more reﬁned, some questions remain
unanswered. The macro-level or demographic characteristic of ofﬁcers in the
departmental level needs to be addressed because “. . .macro-level rather than micro-level
(individual) concerns seem most appropriate when considering efforts to stem police

behavior perceived offensive by citizens” (Wagner & Decker, 1997, pp. 307).

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the methodology used in this thesis will be discussed. This
research hypothesizes that police departments with different demographic characteristics
should have different rates of sustained excessive force complaints. Several items that
will be discussed in this chapter include: the source of the data, the descriptions of

variables, and the methodology that will be performed in this analysis.

Source of data

The data for this thesis were originally conducted by Pate and Fridell (1993) and
sponsored by the Police Foundation. The original research was designed as a national
survey to collect data from law enforcement agencies on police use of force. Some
elements that will be used throughout this thesis are the demographic characteristics of
ofﬁcers in the department and the rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints
per 1,000 ofﬁcers in the department.

Pate and Fridell (1993) obtained a list of the law enforcement agencies from the
Law Enforcement Sector portion of the 1990 Justice Agency List (J AL) which was
produced by the Government Division of the Bureau of the Census. This list is
considered to be more complete and exhaustive than the list produced by the FBI’s
Uniform Crime Report (Schafer, 1997). According to Pate and Fridell, 15,801 agencies

from the total of 17,708 agencies on the Law Enforcement Sector list were found to be

29

sheriffs’ departments, county police departments, municipal police departments, or state
agencies. Of those 15,801 agencies, 9% were agencies serving between 50,000
inhabitants or more, 8.2% of agencies were serving between 25,000 to 49,999 persons,
around 16% served jurisdictions of 10,000 to 24,999 persons, and the majority (66%) of
15,801 agencies served less than 10,000 inhabitants. Although only 9% of all agencies
served 50,000 inhabitants or more, the majority of sworn police ofﬁcers (64.8%) were
employed by this type of agency (Pate & Fridell, 1993). After the stratiﬁcation procedure
was applied, the ﬁrst total sample resulted in 1,725 agencies. However, 28 agencies of
those selected agencies were eliminated because they no longer existed, were not law
enforcement agencies, or were listed twice in the directory. The ﬁnal list of agencies,
then, resulted in the sample size of 1,697 agencies.

The initial survey package, comprising a cover letter, questionnaire, a return
envelope, and a post card, was mailed in August 1992. The post card was to be returned
to the Police Foundation upon receipt. The ﬁrst follow-up took place in early September
and the second follow-up was at six weeks after the initial mailing. Telephone calls were
made to departments that had not returned questionnaires, but returned the post card.
After the two follow-ups and telephone calls, a total of 1,11 1 completed questionnaires
were received. The overall response rate was 67.2%. The distribution of number and
percentage of responding agencies by agency type and number of sworn personnel are

described in Table l.

30

Table l
Responding agencies by agency type and number of sworn personnel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number of Type of law enforcement agency Total
£12; Sheriff County City State
1 to 24 52 2 131 0 185
(4.7%) (0.2%) (1 1 8%) --- (16.7%)
25 to 49 49 3 109 0 161
(4.4%) (0.3%) (9.8%) --- (14.5%)
50 to 99 78 6 155 O 239
(7%) (0.5%) (14%) --- (21.5%)
100 to 249 69 5 207 6 287
(6.2%) (0.5%) (18.6%) (0.5°@ (25.8%)
250to 499 31 10 68 10 119
(2.8%) (0.9%) (6.1%) (0.9%) (10.7%)
500 to 999 15 4 32 13 64
(1 .4%) (0.4%) (2.9%) (1.2%) (5.8%)
1,000 or 9 2 29 16 56
more (0.8%) (0.2%) (2.6%) (l .4%) (5%)
total 303 32 731 45 1,111
(27.3%) (2.9%) (65.8%) (4.1%) (100%)

 

 

Note: The number of sworn personnel was categorized according the original report (Pate & Fridell,
1993)

Table 1 shows that city police departments represented the highest percentage of
the sample (65.8% or 731 agencies) when compared to sheriff departments (27.3% or 303
agencies), state police departments (4.1% or 45 agencies), and county police departments
(2.9% or 32 agencies). Police departments that had total sworn ofﬁcers between 100 to
249 ofﬁcers were among the highest percentage group represented in this study (25.8%).
Of all categories, city police departments that had 100 to 249 sworn ofﬁcers had the
highest return rate (18.6%) in this sample.

Table 2 displays the descriptive statistics characteristic of the demographic
composition variables from the original sample (1,111 agencies), the average rate of
sustained excessive force complaints per 1,000 sworn ofﬁcers among 834 response

agencies was 3.75 complaints with the minimum from 0 complaint to 333.33 complaints

31

per 1,000 ofﬁcers. From 1081 valid responses, average male and female officers in each
agency were 91.34% and 8.67% respectively. Furthermore distributions of race and
ethnicity among 1067 valid responses presented a combination of 88.96% white ofﬁcers
and 11.04% minority ofﬁcers (i.e., Blacks, Hispanics, Indians, Asians and others) on
average for each department. According to the composition of educational level from
responding departments, ofﬁcers with high school education in each department
represented the highest percentage (44.07%). Average age and average time in service of
ofﬁcers in the department were reported to be 36.19 years and 10.27 years respectively.
Table 2

Descriptive statistics characteristic of the demographic composition variables from the
original sample (1,111 police departments)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Variable Number Average Median Minimum Maximum
of
responses
Rate of total 840 44.14 23.26 0 833.33
excessive
force
complaints per
1,000 ofﬁcers
Rate of 834 3.75 0 0 333.33
sustained
complaints
Male ofﬁcers 1081 91.34% 93.29% 0 100
Female 1081 8.66% 6.71% 0 100
ofﬁcers
Whites 1067 88.96% 93.04% 0 100
Minorities 1067 1 1.04% 6.96% 0 100
High school 771 44.07% 45.45% 0 100
Age 805 36.19 yrs. 36 24 60
Time in 804 10.27 yrs. 10 1 37
service

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The descriptive statistics in Table 2 show a possibility that the means might be
affected by extreme values in the sample. For example, the average number of sustained

excessive force per 1,000 ofﬁcers was 3.75 complaints with the minimum from 0 to;

maximum 333.33 complaints. In fact, 592 agencies (more than 50% of the sample)
reported 0 complaints in their agencies, nonetheless; two departments report an extremely
high number of complaints (100 and 333.33 per 1,000 ofﬁcers). The average score took
those high values into account, therefore; the mean might possibly be effected by scores
that were extremely low or extremely high. In this situation, the mean is not an
appropriate indicator that should be used in the sample. Since the mean can be distorted,
the median (the middle score in a distribution of ranked score) might be a better measure
of central tendency because extreme values in the sample had no effect on the median

(Bachman & Paternoster, 1997; Norusis, 1997).

Descriptions of variables

Since the main focus of this research is the effect of demographic characteristics
and education on the rates of excessive force complaints, the following variables will be
discussed: 1) rate of total excessive force complaints per 1,000 sworn ofﬁcers, 2) rate of
sustained excessive force complaints per 1,000 sworn officers, 3) percentage of ofﬁcers
categorized by gender, 4) percentage of ofﬁcers categorized by race and ethnicity,

5) percentage of ofﬁcers with high school education, 6) average age of ofﬁcers, and,
7) average time in service. These variables are selected to represent the demographic
characteristics of the department.

According to the different number of valid responses as shown in Table 2, the
sample size that will be used throughout this thesis had been reduced from 1,111 agencies
to 528 agencies. Departments that had missing values were excluded from the sample in
order to establish the new sample, which contains complete value in every relevant

variable that will be included in the analysis model. Furthermore, two departments with

33

extremely high rates of excessive force complaints (333.33 and 833.33 complaints per

1,000 ofﬁcers) were removed from the sample to decrease the standard error. The

distribution of responding agencies by agency type and number or sworn personnel is

shown in Table 3.

Table 3
Distribution of responding agencies by agency type and number of sworn personnel

From the sample size of 528 agencies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number of T pe of law enforcement agency Total
sworn Sheriff County City State
ofﬁcers
1 to 24 39 2 107 0 148
(7.4%) (0.4%) (20.3%) --- (28%)
25 to 49 26 2 63 0 91
(4.9%) (0.4%) (1 1 .9%) --- (17.2%)
50-99 26 2 85 0 113
(4.9%) (0.4%) (1 6. 1%) --- (21 .4%)
100 to 249 26 3 92 0 121
(4.9%) (0.6%) (1 7.4%) --- (22.9%)
250 to 499 7 2 22 1 32
(1.3%) (0.4%) (4.2%) (0.2%) (6.1%)
500 to 999 1 2 5 4 12
(0.2%) (0.4%) (0.9%) (0.8%) (2.3%)
1,000 or 0 1 6 4 1 1
more --- (0.2%) (1 . 1%) (0.8%) (2.1%)
Total 125 14 380 9 528
(23.6%) (2.7%) (72 %) (1 .7%) (100%)

 

 

 

 

The sample size that will be used throughout this thesis is 528 police departments.

The highest amount of information contributed to this study came from city police

departments, since they account for 72% (3 80 agencies) of the sample. The fewest

number of agencies by type of agency are state police departments, which is 1.7% of the

sample. More than half of the agencies (352 agencies or 66.6%) included in this sample

have less than 100 sworn ofﬁcers in the department. Among 528 agencies, the highest

response (28% or 148 agencies) comes from departments with 1-24 sworn ofﬁcers.

34

 

Since the effect of demographic characteristics and education on rates of
excessive force complaints is the focus of this thesis, the following table represents

descriptive statistics for each variable that will be included in the analysis model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 4
Descriptive statistics characteristic of the demographic composition variables
(528 agencies)
Variable Average Median S.D. Minimum Maximum
Rate of total 39 16.34 63.16 0 500
excessive force
complaints per
1,000 ofﬁcers
Rate of sustained 3.33 O 9.35 0 100
complaints
Percentage of 91.78% 93.75% 9.17 20 100
male ofﬁcers
Percentage of 8.21% 6.25% 9.17 0 80
female ofﬁcers
Percentage of 90.5% 94.5% 13.13 0.89 100
white ofﬁcers
Percentage of 9.5% 5.5% 13.13 0 99.11
minority ofﬁcers
Percentage of 43.51% 44.69% 28.25 0 100
ofﬁcer with only
high school
Average age 36.24 yrs. 36 4.63 24 60
Time in service 10.06 yrs. 10 3.76 1 37

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dgpendent variables: The dependent variables in this thesis are rates of total and

 

sustained excessive force complaints per 1,000 sworn ofﬁcers. Regardless of the size of
the agencies, the reported number of excessive force complaints in each department was
transformed to be a rate per 1,000 ofﬁcers. Table 4 shows the distribution of
demographic characteristics. Both rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints

in this data reﬂected those excessive force complaints ﬁled in1991 (Pate & Fridell, 1993).

35

After decreasing the sample size to 528 agencies, the means of rate of total and
sustained excessive force complaints per 1,000 sworn ofﬁcers are 39 and 3.33
respectively. However, it is important to note that the standard deviations of these two
variables are high, consequently; the means of both variables might be distorted by
extreme values in the sample. In other words, the extremely high rate of sustained
excessive force complaints in several agencies affected the mean of the entire sample. To
illustrate, 406 agencies reported no sustained excessive force complaints, nevertheless
they have a mean of 3.33 sustained complaints per 1,000 ofﬁcer because of extreme
values in some agencies. In this situation, it is more appropriate to use the median as a
measure of central tendency.

Independent variables: Gender of ofﬁcers in the department is the ﬁrst independent
variable to be discussed. In this research, the focus will be on the percentage of female
ofﬁcers in the department, since research has indicated that female ofﬁcers can improve
relationships with citizens and decrease citizen complaints (Bloch & Anderson, 1974;
Sichel et al., 1978; Steffensmeier, 1979). In this sample, the average percentage of
female ofﬁcers in the departments is 8.21%.

The next variable that will be examined in this thesis measures race and ethnicity.
From this sample, the average percentage of white ofﬁcers in each department is 90.5%.
The average percentage of minority ofﬁcers, including Blacks, Hispanics, Indians, Asians
and others, is 9.5% in each department. It has been argued that ofﬁcer race and ethnicity
have an effect on ofﬁcer’s behavior (Sherman, 1980), and yet some have found no

signiﬁcant differences in the number of civilian complaints between black and white

36

_..I'. '

 

ofﬁcers (Cohen & Chaiken, 1972). Since the majority of ofﬁcers in this sample are
white, the percentage of white ofﬁcers will be included in the analysis model.

According to several studies about the relationship between educational level and
performance of the police, college-educated ofﬁcers behave differently from less
educated ofﬁcers (Cascio, 1977; Cohen & Chaiken, 1972; Shemock 1992). Regardless
of the attempt to increase the education level of the police, almost half of the departments
in this survey are still made up of ofﬁcers with only a high school education. The
average percentage of ofﬁcers in the department with only high school education in this
sample is 43.51%.

The last two variables that will be included are average age and average time in
service. The minimum average age that reported in this particular sample is 24 years and
maximum at 60 years old. Overall, the average age of ofﬁcers in the department is 36.24

years and average time in service is 10.06 years.

Methodology

Since the unit of analysis in this research is not a single ofﬁcer but rather a single
department, it is important to note that the results of analysis will be applied to the
department, not an individual ofﬁcer. The dependent variables for this thesis are ratio
level and are labeled as “rate of total excessive force complaints per 1,000 sworn
ofﬁcers” and “rate of sustained excessive force complaints per 1,000 sworn ofﬁcers”.
Each number in this variable represents the rate of excessive complaints of each

individual department.

37

The independent variables measure demographic characteristics are selected from

5 groups: gender, race and ethnicity, level of education, average age, and average time in

service. Those selected ﬁve variables are percentage of female ofﬁcers, percentage of

white officers, percentage of ofﬁcers with only high school education, average age and

average time in service. These ﬁve variables are ratio level variables. An additional

independent variable, type of agency, is measured as a dummy variable. City police

departments were coded as one and other agency types were code as zero. Due to the

nature of these variables, a multivariate regression will be employed in separate models

for each dependent variable. This is to determine the effect of each demographic

characteristic on rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints. The hypotheses

in this research are that there is a signiﬁcant relationship between:

1.

The percentage of ofﬁcers with high school education in the department and
the rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints, controlling for
gender, race, average age, average time in service and type of agency.

The percentage of female ofﬁcers in the department and the rates of total and
sustained excessive force complaints, controlling for level of education, race,
average age, average time in service and type of agency.

The percentage of white ofﬁcers in the department and rates of total and
sustained excessive force complaints, controlling for gender, level of
education, average age, average time in service and type of agency.

The average age of ofﬁcers in the department and rates of total and sustained
excessive force complaints, controlling for average time in service, gender,

level of education, race and type of agency.

38

5. The average time in service and rates of total and sustained excessive force
complaints, controlling for average age, gender, level of education, race and
type of agency.

6. The type of agency and rates of total and sustained excessive force
complaints, controlling for gender, level of education, race, average age and
average time in service.

Since the average age and average time in service might be highly correlated due
to the nature of the variables themselves, it is important to note that the problem of
multicollinearity might occur. Multicollinearity might create a problem when
determining the amount of attribution of a unique variable to explain variation in the
dependent variable. This is because the explained variation is shared between more than
one independent variable, if the independent variables are highly correlated among each
other (Bachman & Patemoster,l997). In other words, it might be difﬁcult to distinguish
the amount of explained variation determined by either average age or average time,
since those two variable might possibly be highly correlated.

One way to identify multicollinearity is to examine the correlation between
independent variables. The higher the correlation between independent variables, the
greater the problem of multicollinearity. Bivariate correlation procedure will be used to
examine the correlation between these variables. If the correlation between each pair of
independent variable is .70 or higher, multicollinearity might be a problem (Bachman &

Paternoster, 1997).

39

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS

Chapter 4 will address the following ﬁndings: 1) the comparison between the rate

of total excessive force complaints and the rate of sustained excessive force complaints

by types of agencies, 2) the relationship between demographic characteristics and rate of

excessive force complaints, and 3) multivariate regression analysis of the effect of each

independent variables on the dependent variables.

The comparison between the rate of total and sustained excessive force complaints

Table 5
Average rate of excessive force complaints per 1,000 ofﬁcers by type of agency

 

 

 

 

 

 

Type of agency Statistics Rate of total Rate of sustained
excessive force excessive force
complaints per complaints per

1,000 ofﬁcers 1,000 ofﬁcers
Sheriff mean 20.39 1 .41
Number of agencies 125 125
Standard deviation 49.27 9.46
County mean 29.21 4.13
Number of agencies 14 14
Standard deviation 24.74 8.28
City mean 45.81 3.97
Number of agencies 380 380
Standard deviation 67.41 9.39
State mean 22.55 1.71
Number of agencies 9 9
Standard deviation 28.98 1.79

 

 

 

 

Table 5 contains statistical information of the rate of total excessive force

complaints and rate of sustained excessive force complaints by type of law enforcement

40

 

agency (i.e., sheriff, county, city and state police). When comparing the mean of the
rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints by types of agencies, city police
departments in this sample had the highest average rate of total excessive force
complaints per 1,000 ofﬁcers (45.81 complaints). Because the standard deviation is also
high (67.41), it is an indication that the distribution among city police departments is
highly dispersed, and the mean might be effected by extreme values. Unlike the rate of
total excessive force complaints, the average rates of sustained complaints appear to be
similar regardless of the types of agencies. As shown in Table 5, not only the city police
departments in this sample appear to have a higher rate of total excessive force
complaints than other types of agencies, but city police are also the most common in this
sample (380 agencies from the total of 528 agencies). F urtherrnore, city police
departments also have more contact with citizens than other types of agencies therefore
they will probably receive more complaints than the other agencies. For these reasons,
the following analysis will include type of agency to examine the difference of rate of

excessive force complaints when controlling for the type of agency.

The relationship between demographic characteristics and rate of egcessive force

 

complaints

A correlation matrix was calculated to observe the relationship between the
independent variables and the rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints.

The results of the analysis are displayed in Table 6.

41

Table 6

Correlations of demographic characteristics and excessive force complaints

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demographic Rate of total excessive Rate of sustained excessive
characteristics force complaints in the force complaints per 1,000
department per 1,000 ofﬁcers
ofﬁcers
Correlation Sig. Correlation Sig.
Percentage of ofﬁcers with -0.007 0.874 -0.042 0.340
high school education
Percentage of female 0.069 0.112 0.042 0.338
ofﬁcers
Percentage of white ofﬁcers -0.138** 0.002 -0.191 ** 0.000
Average age of ofﬁcers in -0.039 0.368 -0.098* 0.025
the department
Average time in service -0.032 0.456 0.021 0.635
15 this agency a city 0.174M 0.000 0.110* 0.012
department?

 

 

 

*Signiﬁcant at p s .05
“Signiﬁcant at p S .01

The result of the correlation matrix indicates low correlations (rs .464) among

independent variables, therefore eliminating the concern of multicollinearity (see

Appendix A). As seen in Table 6, the racial composition of the department and type of

agency seems to be signiﬁcantly related at the 0.1 level to both rates of total excessive

force complaints and rate of sustained excessive force complaints. It is negatively related

to the rates of excessive force complaints. In other words, the higher percentages of

white ofﬁcers the department has, the fewer rates of total and sustained excessive force

complaints in the department (r = -.138, and r= -.191 respectively).

The average age of ofﬁcers in the department does not seem to have any

relationship with the rate of total excessive force the department received, but it appears

to be signiﬁcantly related to the rate of sustained excessive force complaints in the

department (r = -.098, p S .05). This ﬁnding can also be interpreted that when the

42

 

average age of ofﬁcers in the department increase, the rate of sustained excessive force
complaints decreases. However, the correlation between average age and rate of
sustained excessive force complaints (-.098) is relatively small.

Another variable that is signiﬁcantly related to both rates of total and sustained
excessive force complaints is type of agency. Being a city police department is
signiﬁcantly related to the rate of total excessive force complaints in the department at
the .01 level (r =.174) and related to the rate of sustained excessive force complaints at
the .05 level (r =.110). Since the city police departments might have more of a chance to
associate with the public, there is more of a chance to receive complaints than any other
type of agency.

From Table 6, the correlation matrix indicates that there is no signiﬁcant
relationship between educational level, gender of ofﬁcers, average time in service and the
rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints. Furthermore, the signiﬁcant
relationships that have been found are also weak since the highest correlation is only .174
(type of department). This ﬁnding is surprisingly different from the precedent literature
which suggest that the college-educated ofﬁcers behave differently from less educated

ofﬁcers and have fewer citizen complaints (Cohen & Chaiken, 1972; Sherman, 1980).

43

Multivariate analysis of ﬁre effect of each independent variables on the dependent

variables

Table 7
Regression analysis of demographic characteristics and rate of excessive force complaints
per 1,000 ofﬁcers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demographic Rate of total excessive Rate of sustained
characteristics force complaints per excessive force
1,000 ofﬁcers complaints per 1,000
ofﬁcers
Coefﬁcients Standardized coefficients Standardized
coefﬁcients coefficients
Constant 70.93 1 * - 18.884* * -
Percentage of ofﬁcers with 0.022 0.010 -0.007 -0.021
high school education in
the department
Percentage of female 0696* 0.101 0.058 0.057
ofﬁcers in the department
Percentage of white -0.567** -0.1 18 -0. 126** -0. l 77
ofﬁcers in the department
Average age of ofﬁcers in -0.093 -0.007 -0.218* -0.108
the department
Average time in service of -0.461 -0.027 0.194 0.078
ofﬁcers in the department
15 this agency a city 28.716” 0.204 2235* 0.107
department?
R2 0.060 0.061

 

 

 

 

 

*Signiﬁcant at p S .05
“Signiﬁcant at p s .01

Table 7 displays the results of multivariate regression analysis in separate models
for each dependent variable. This is to estimate the directed effects of each of the
dependent variables on the rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints. From
the correlation matrix in Table 6, the correlations indicate that there are negative
correlations between racial composition, average age of ofﬁcers and the rates of total and
sustained excessive force complaints. These relationships have changed slightly when

the multivariate regression is applied.

44

The demographic characteristics and type of agency explain 6.0% of the variation
in the rate of total excessive force complaints (r2= .06). The multiple coefﬁcient of
determination (r2) indicated the proportion of variation in the dependent variable
explained by the independent variables in the model. By using all of the demographic
characteristics (racial composition, educational level, gender of ofﬁcers, average age and
average time in service) and type of agency (city police department), 6.0% of the
difference among rate of total complaints in the department can be explained. In other
words, r2 = .06 indicated that the model did not suitable for the data in term of combined
ability of the independent variables to explain the variation in the dependent variables.
However, 94% of the variation in the rate of total excessive force complaints remains
unexplained by using only demographic characteristics variables.

As shown in Table 7, gender of ofﬁcers in the department is signiﬁcantly related
to the rate of total excessive force complaints at the .05 level. The unstandardized
coefﬁcient value of 0.696 means that for an increase of 1% the female ofﬁcers in the
department, the predicted rate of total excessive force complaints increases by 0.696.
The racial composition in the department also has signiﬁcant relationship with the rate of
total excessive force complaints. The predicted rate of total excessive force complaints
decreases by .567 complaints for a change of 1% increase in white ofﬁcers in the
department. In addition, the agency type is also signiﬁcantly related to the rate of total
complaints in the department. While controlling for other demographic variables, city
police departments are predicted to have 28.716 more complaints than non-city police.

Another dependent variable “the rate of sustained excessive force complaints per

1,000 ofﬁcers” can also be explained by these demographic characteristics. However, the

45

demographic characteristic variables can explained only 6.1% of the variation in the rate
of sustained excessive force complaints (r2: .061 ). Three independent variables that
have a linear relationship with the rate of sustained complaints are racial composition,
average age of ofﬁcer, and type of agency.

Similar to the linear relationship of racial composition and the rate of total
excessive force complaints, the rate of sustained excessive force complaints decreased
to .126 complaints when the percentage of white ofﬁcers increases by 1 %. However, the
signiﬁcant relationship of gender and the rate of excessive complaints disappear from this
model, but the signiﬁcant relation of average age appears while controlling for other
variables. The rate of sustained excessive force complaints decreases by .218 complaints
for a 1 year increase in average age of ofﬁcers in the department. Since agency types
were coded as 0 and 1, it can be interprets that the city police departments will have
2.235 more sustained excessive force complaints than non-city police departments.

The standardized coefﬁcients for rates of total excessive force complaints yield
the assumption that type of agency is the best predictor for the rate of total excessive
force complaints. This is because the standardized coefﬁcient for type of agency is
higher than any other independent variable, nevertheless; r=.204 is still an indication of
weak relationship. The standardized coefﬁcient demographic characteristics and the rate
of sustained excessive force complaints suggest that racial composition be highly related
than other independent variable (r=.177). In other words, the rate of sustained excessive
force complaints in the department is best predicted by the racial composition in the

department.

46

It is important to note that the percentage of white ofﬁcers and type of agency
remains signiﬁcant in explaining the rates of both total and sustained excessive force
complaints, even controlling for other demographic characteristics. The most consistent
predictor for both models is race of ofﬁcers in the department and type of the department.
Since the education level and average time in service are no longer signiﬁcant, the null
hypotheses for both variables are accepted.

In addition, the coefﬁcients for the independent variables can be used to create the
estimated regression equation as:

The rate of total excessive force complaints=70.93 + 0.022*percentage of high
school graduated ofﬁcers + 0.696*percentage of female ofﬁcers — 0.567*percentage of
white ofﬁcers — 0.093*average age of ofﬁcers — 0.461 *average time in service +
28.716*city police department.

For example, the non-city police department with 50%high school graduate, 50%
female ofﬁcers, 50% white ofﬁcers, 20 years of average age, and 10 years of average
time in service would have 35.8195 total complaints per 1,000 ofﬁcers.

Another equation is for estimate the rate of sustained excessive force complaints
in the department. This equation is:

The rate of total excessive force complaints=18.884 -— 0.007*percentage of high
school graduated ofﬁcers + 0.058*percentage of female ofﬁcers — 0.126*percentage of
white ofﬁcers — 0.218*average age of officers + 0.194*average time in service +
2.235*city police department.

By using the same conditions used in the above equation, the calculated rate of sustained

excessive force complaints is 14.31 complaints per 1.000 ofﬁcers in the department.

47

Summary

The ﬁnding in the thesis came from 528 police departments all over the United
States. The attempt in this thesis is to ﬁnd the relationship among demographic
characteristics and the rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints. The unit
of analysis is each department not the individual ofﬁcers. Of the six independent
variables considered in this thesis, type of agency and racial composition in the
department have constantly shown signiﬁcant relationship with both the rates of total and
sustained excessive force complaints. Furthermore, education level and average time in
service showed no signiﬁcant relationship with the rates of excessive force complaints.
However, the regression models show small amounts of explanation in the variation of

the rates of excessive force complaints (R2=0.060, R2 = 0.061).

48

CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION

This ﬁnal section will discuss the result reported in Chapter 4 and drawn
conclusions based on those results. The purpose of this thesis was to determine the
relationship between demographic characteristics and the rates of excessive force
complaints. Although police ofﬁcers rarely employ force let alone excessive force, it is
important to understand it. This is because a single incident of excessive force can create
a disturbance in the society.

The quantitative methods used in the previous chapter provide the understanding
of some of the rates of excessive force complaints in the departments, nevertheless; many
variations of them remain unclear. In this chapter, the limitation of this study will be
discussed and each research hypothesis will be addressed followed by a discussion on the

implication of these ﬁndings.

Limitation of this study

The deﬁnition of and measurement issues regarding excessive force are
problematic (Alpert and Smith, 1994). There is no single, accepted deﬁnition of
excessive force among researchers and analysts (McEwen, 1996). The same incident

might be reported in different ways from one department to another. For example, if a

49

complainant ﬁles two complaints about one incident, one department might record these
as two separate complaints but another department might record them as one incident.

Another problem with this thesis is that it is difﬁcult to ﬁnd sufﬁcient literature on
the effect of demographic composition of the department on use of excessive force.
Although the ﬁrst empirical study of police use of deadly force was done over 30 years
ago (Robin, 1963), most of the prominent research has focused on the individual level
(Cohen and Chaiken, 1972; Sherman, 1980; Friedrich, 1980). However, due to the nature
of data, the unit of analysis in this research is the department, not the individual police
ofﬁcer. The number of sustained excessive force incidences is the number of misconduct
that each department reported. Therefore, the only type of conclusion that will be used
throughout this study refers to the characteristic composition of the department, not the
individual ofﬁcer. Furthermore, the analysis of the macro-level (department) rather than
the micro-level (individual) seems most appropriate to study police behavior (Wagner &
Decker, 1997).

Because analysis in this thesis relies on data gathered in the national survey on
police use of force during 1991 and 1992 by Pate and Fridell (1993) for the Police
Foundation, several assumptions about this data set must be taken into consideration.
First, the issue of excessive force is sensitive. It might be possible that agencies refused
to respond to the survey or provide inaccurate information because of the sensitive nature
of the topic. Second, the problem was about the reliability of the original research. It is
important to note that I have to assume that the responses from each agency were

consistent, dependable, and stable.

50

Third, there are some concerns about the validity of the original survey. Some
agencies might be unable or unwilling to provide certain types of information. For
example, small agencies might not have systematic record of use of force in the
department. Furthermore, it is also possible that different agencies use the different
deﬁnitions in responding to the original survey.

Fourth, another assumption that needs to be understood is that the reported data is

76.

incomplete. Therefore, the conclusion from this research based on this particular data set
cannot and should not be interpreted to represent more than what it is intended to be.

Fiﬁh, there might be some variables other than demographic characteristics of department

 

that inﬂuence the rate of sustained excessive force complaints. Examples of those I
variables include demographic characteristics of suspects, suspect demeanor, situation of
the incident, and department policy. However, this thesis is focused on the composition
of demographic characteristic of the department, not other variables. This is because of
the belief that the ofﬁcer with different personality characteristics presumably produce
different responses to similar situations (Worden, 1995).
Conclusion drawn from hypothesis one

HI: There is a signiﬁcant relationship between the percentage of ofﬁcers with

high school education in the department and the rates of total and sustained

excessive force complaints, controlling for gender, race, average age, average

time in service and type of agency.

Surprisingly, as observed from Table 7, the level of education and the rates of
total and sustained excessive force complaints do not have a linear relationship with one
another. This is because it is reasonable to believe that ofﬁcers with higher education

should perform signiﬁcantly better than the ofﬁcers with lesser education. The results of

this analysis support the null hypothesis that there is no signiﬁcant relationship between

the percentage of ofﬁcers with high school education in the department and the rates of
total and sustained excessive force complaints, while controlling for gender, race average
age, average time in service and type of agency. This ﬁnding is opposite from the
existing literature which indicated that the ofﬁcers with high education receive fewer
citizen complaints (Carter & Sapp, 1989; Cascio, 1977).

The null ﬁnding for the effect of education on the rate of excessive force
complaints question the attempt of increasing education level in police requirements.
However, the rate of excessive force complaints is not the only measure of police
performance. Though increasing educational level does not seem to decrease the rate of
excessive force complaints, it is reasonable to believe that by increasing educational level
in the department the police performance might be better. For instance, the higher
education enable police ofﬁcers to write better reports and communicate better with
public (Carter & Sapp 1989). Therefore, the beneﬁt of increasing educational level in the
department should not be overlooked due to the null ﬁnding per se.

Conclusion drawn from hypothesis two
H2: There is a signiﬁcant relationship between the percentage of female ofﬁcers in

the department and the rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints,
controlling for level of education, race, average age, average time in service and

type of agency.

As presented in Table 7, the signiﬁcant relationship of percentage of female
ofﬁcers in the department with total excessive force complaints was suppressed when
applied to the rate of sustained excessive force complaints. This ﬁnding might be
interpreted that people ﬁled excessive force complaints more toward female ofﬁcers than

male ofﬁcer (R=.696), but the complaints were not sustained or the force were justiﬁed.

52

Conclusion drawn from hypothesis three

H3: there is a signiﬁcant relationship between the percentage of white ofﬁcers in

the department and rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints,

controlling for gender, level of education, average age, average time in service
and type of agency.

The ﬁnding indicated that the racial composition in the department is signiﬁcantly
related to the rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints, while controlling for
other demographic characteristics. Though the relationship is signiﬁcant, the coefﬁcients
for both rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints are weak. It is possible to
assume that other variables might be a better explanation for the variation in the rate of
excessive force complaints. The relationship between the racial composition and the rate
of excessive force occur because people might possibly choose to ﬁle complaints against
minority ofﬁcers rather than white ofﬁcers. Another possible reason is that there are
more minority ofﬁcers in the high crime rate area and have some culture conﬂict with
citizen, therefore, they tend to have more complaints than white ofﬁcers.

Conclusion drawn from hypothesis four

H4: there is a signiﬁcant relationship between the average age of ofﬁcers in the

department and rates of total and sustained excessive force complaints,

controlling for average time in service, gender, level of education, race and type
of agency.

As shown in Table 7, average age of ofﬁcers in the department is independent
for the rate of total excessive force complaints, while controlling for other demographic
characteristics. However, it is signiﬁcantly related to the rate of sustained excessive
force complaints at .01 level. The negative coefﬁcient suggests that the rate of sustained

excessive force complaints in the department might decrease when the average age of

ofﬁcers in the department increases. The result of this analysis speciﬁes that age has

53

linear relationship with the rate of sustained excessive force. One can conclude that the
age of ofﬁcers associate with experience and patient, therefore; the relationship might not
be only age per se. Nevertheless, according to the ﬁnding, it is possible that by
increasing the minimum age requirement, the rate of sustained excessive force complaints
might decrease.

Conclusion drawn from hypothesis ﬁve

H5: there is a signiﬁcant relationship between average time in service and rates of

total and sustained excessive force complaints, controlling for average age,

gender, level of education, race and type of agency.

The analysis showed that average time in service of ofﬁcers in the department
does not have any signiﬁcant relationship with the rates of excessive force complaints.
This result is, somehow, surprising. This is because it seems reasonable to assume that
experienced ofﬁcers should perform signiﬁcantly better than novice ofﬁcers, thereby; the
rates of excessive force should be signiﬁcantly related to the average time in service of
ofﬁcers in the department.

Conclusion drawn from hypothesis six

H6: there is a signiﬁcant relationship between the type of agency and rates of total

and sustained excessive force complaints, controlling for gender, level of

education, race, average age and average time in service.

The type of agency is signiﬁcantly related to the rates of total and sustained
excessive force complaints. City police department seems to have more excessive force
complaints that other type of agency. This ﬁnding is understandable because city police

might associate more with people and deal with people from all walks of life,

54

consequently, they have more chance to receive more complaints than other type of
agency.

Since this ﬁnding suggests that the type of agency is signiﬁcantly related to the
rate of excessive force complaints, the city police departments should be aware of the
potential problem they might have with excessive force complaints. For example, the
city police departments might want to create a program focus on reducing use of force, or
educate the ofﬁcers in the department about the use of appropriate force in various

situations.

 

Summary

The ﬁndings in this thesis suggest that in general the rate of excessive force
complaints does not highly signiﬁcantly related to the demographic characteristics.
These ﬁndings can be implied that there are something else more than just the character
of ofﬁcers in the department that contribute to the excessive force complaints in each
department. The study of excessive force should be done in every police department in
order to improve public relations and regain public trust. In addition, the study of
excessive force can also served as an indication of ofﬁcers who are prone to use force in
the future.

During the past 30 years, the study of use of force has become more reﬁned.
However, the study about the strategies to reduce, control, and, limit the use of force by
their agencies remain at large. If the agency has the power to target the violent-prone

ofﬁcers, the number of excessive force cases will decrease. A possible topic for future

55

research should focus on the identiﬁcation of violent-prone ofﬁcers and education

program to reduce the use of force by the agency.

56

APPENDICES

57

 

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58

APPENDIX B

Deﬁnition
The following is a list of deﬁnition for some terms and concepts used in this

study. Some terms were selected from the study of Pate and Fridell (1993):

1' _.
11
Police misconduct: A police ofﬁcer’s commission of criminal offense; neglect of s
duty; violation of Departmental policies, rules, or procedure; conduct which may tend to
reﬂect unfavorably upon the employee or the Department. The type of misconduct 1:
examines in this study is excessive/ undue/ unnecessary use of force; brutality (including ,1
use of weapons, cuffs, etc.) 1
l.

Unfounded: The complaint was not based on facts as shown by the investigation,
or the reported incident did not occur.

Exonerated: The incident occurred, but the action taken by the ofﬁcer(s) was
deemed lawful and proper.

Not sustained: The allegation is supported by insufﬁcient evidence which could
not be used to prove or disapprove the allegation.

Sustained: The allegation was supported by sufﬁcient evidence to justify
disciplinary action against the ofﬁcer(s).

Civil suits: Legal action alleging non-criminal negligence such as false arrest,
negligence, and abuse of authority.

Criminal charges: Legal action based upon police misconduct that violates local,
state or federal law.

Other important terms and concepts for this study are:

Citizen complaint: An allegation of misconduct that was ﬁled by citizen against
the law enforcement agency or police ofﬁcer.

Necessary force: The least possible level of psychological, verbal, or physical

force appropriate for the circumstance used to solve a problem, restrain a suspect, and
control the situation.

59

Unnecessary force: The excessive level of force that ofﬁcer utilized to control the
situation when the lower level of force can be used to overcome the resistance.

Excessive force: “Any ofﬁcer behavior involving the use of more force than is
necessary to effect an arrest or search; and/or the wanton use of any degree of physical
force against another by a police ofﬁcer under the color of the ofﬁcer’s ofﬁce” (Carter,
1994).

60

 

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61

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