American Policing and the Danger Imperative

Abstract

In spite of long-term declines in the violent victimization of U.S. police officers, the danger of police work continues to structure police socialization, culture, and behavior. Existing research, though attentive to police behavior and deviance that negatively affects the public, analytically ignores how the danger of policing engenders officer behavior that harms police themselves. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews in three U.S. police departments, this article describes how police are informally and formally socialized into the danger imperative-a cultural frame that emphasizes violence and the need for officer safety-and its effect on officer behavior. As a result of perception mediated through the danger imperative, officers engage in policy-compliant and policy-deviant behaviors to protect themselves from violence. Unfortunately, policy-deviant behaviors such as unauthorized highspeed driving and not wearing a seatbelt, though justified in the name of safety, lead to catastrophic car accidents that injure and kill both police and members of the public. This article concludes with discussion of how seemingly mundane policy deviant behaviors are a reflection of assumptions within police culture that undergird police practices that damage public wellbeing and perpetuate boarder inequalities in U.S. policing.

A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Academy Socialization on Police Integrity

“…Research on training academies has uncovered several important themes regarding police socialization. Socialization has been found to (1) focus on producing conformity and deference to authority; (2) instill a sense of belonging and intense feelings of solidarity and loyalty, including feelings of responsibility for peers and an obligation to protect the department and the profession; (3) differentiate officers from civilians; (4) emphasize the value of street knowledge or experience and deemphasize the value of book knowledge (including classroom training and training by non-police experts); (5) assert that officers are held to a higher standard than others while simultaneously communicating that officers need to act for the greater good, even if this sometimes means breaking the rules; (6) put danger and officer safety at the center of training and police decision-making; and (7) define the ideal officer as an aggressive, masculine, and crime-fighting White male (Alain & Baril, 2005;Alain & Gr egoire, 2008;Chan et al, 2003;Chappell & Lanza-Kaduce, 2010;Conti, 2009;Conti et al, 2011;Conti & Doreian, 2014;Conti & Nolan, 2005;Prokos & Padavic, 2002;Sierra-Ar evalo, 2021).…”

“…Lessons about police integrity are transmitted to recruits through both the hidden and explicit curriculums. Research suggests the process of learning police integrity is complex, often communicated by telling stories, and shaped though socialization mechanisms described in studies of police academies such as dialectical interaction, inconsistencies between expectations and reality, the paramilitary model of training, and the centrality of officer safety (Alain & Baril, 2005;Alain & Gr egoire, 2008;Chan et al, 2003;Chappell & Lanza-Kaduce, 2010;Conti, 2009;Conti et al, 2011;Conti & Doreian, 2014;Conti & Nolan, 2005;Ford, 2003;Sierra-Ar evalo, 2021). Further, international research highlights how police socialization is conditioned by political climate (Alain & Baril, 2005;Alain & Gr egoire, 2008;Chan et al, 2003;White, 2006).…”

“…Finally, considering that officers' attitudes about the seriousness of integrity behaviors are one of the strongest predictors of their willingness to report misconduct, future research must carefully explore the processes and policies in the socialization process that lead to a reduction in police integrity attitudes (Klockars et al, 2007;Kutnjak Ivkovi c et al, 2013. Previous research suggests that the reliance on war stories that undermine the formal curriculum, the emphasis on fear and danger, and frustration and disappointment associated with the realities of police work are areas worthy of exploration (Alain & Baril, 2005;Alain & Gr egoire, 2008;Chan et al, 2003;Chappell & Lanza-Kaduce, 2010;Conti, 2009;Conti et al, 2011;Conti & Doreian, 2014;Conti & Nolan, 2005;Ford, 2003;Sierra-Ar evalo, 2021).…”

Is Police Misconduct Contagious? Non-trivial Null Findings from Dallas, Texas

“…Nevertheless, use of department records is particularly problematic to the extent that police sub-culture is characterized by codes of silence whereby deviance is under-reported (Cancino and Enriquez 2004 ; Ivković 2003 ). Furthermore, our use of department records is extra troublesome to the extent that misconduct is systematically overlooked for the purposes of compiling official records—particularly if, hypothetically speaking, the DPD had a culture of “noble” deviance (Punch 2000 ; Wolfe and Piquero 2011 ) during the study period whereby rules were routinely “bent” or widely flouted in the interest of, for example, “better” policing outcomes (e.g., an arrest) or bolstering officer safety (e.g., use of emergency lights, speeding, and brandishing weapons in association with putatively mundane incidents; see Sierra-Arévalo 2021 ).…”

Bad apples and incredible certitude

“…Though such estimates may hold only in very specific (even unlikely) circumstances, they are often preferred on the grounds that there is little stomach for uncertainty among policy makers (see also Manski, 2010Manski, , 2018). 2 Besides network-based research, decades of ethnographic research document how officers' peers shape police behavior on the street, including misconduct and use of force (Hunt, 1985;Sierra-Arévalo, 2019, 2021Van Maanen, 1974;Westley, 1953). 3 See Table 1A for enumeration of CK's original estimates and the same estimates recalculated with spillovers.…”