Empowering the police to fight terrorism in Israel

Abstract

Police agencies are often seen as reliant on the public to give them the authority and power necessary to carry out their responsibilities, including controlling crime. As many police agencies begin to take on counterterrorism functions, this empowerment of the police is necessary in their fight against terrorism. To our knowledge, no study to date has focused on the empowerment of the police in their counterterrorism role and the factors that influence the willingness of the public to afford the police discretionary authority in terrorism matters. Using a sample of Israeli Jewish adults, we assess the impact of legitimacy-based evaluations, as well as fear of terrorism and political ideologies, on the public's willingness to empower the police to handle homeland security matters. Police legitimacy and political ideology have a direct impact on police empowerment, while procedural justice, police performance, distributive fairness, and fear of victimization by terrorism also have indirect effects.

Assessing the Direct and Indirect Effects of Legitimacy on Public Empowerment of Police: A Study of Public Support for Police Militarization in America

“…First, perceptions of legitimacy matter for public willingness to empower police. Consistent with findings by Sunshine and Tyler (), Pryce (), and Metcalfe and Hodge (), as citizen perceptions of police legitimacy increase, so too does their willingness to empower the police. This finding builds on prior empowerment research in two important ways.…”

“…11 To the extent that other countries are experiencing militarization, or already maintain a militarized police force (Beede 2008;Lutterbeck 2004;McCulloch 2004), questions about empowerment persist and should be examined. We are aware of only one study examining public empowerment of police in a non-American context (see Metcalfe and Hodge 2017). In non-Western or developing countries, where police effectiveness, rather than procedural justice, appears to drive legitimacy (Tankebe 2009(Tankebe , 2013, perceived effectiveness may be more salient for public willingness to continue empowering police (Pryce 2016).…”

“…Among Ghanaian immigrants in Washington, DC, Pryce () found obligation to obey the police to have similar effects. Metcalfe and Hodge () also found, among Israeli adults, that elements of legitimacy were robust correlates of public willingness to empower police to fight terrorism. Despite this evidence, additional research into this relationship is necessary, as these studies did not fully elaborate on why legitimacy might influence empowerment.…”

Are the Effects of Legitimacy and Its Components Invariant? Operationalization and the Generality of Sunshine and Tyler’s Empowerment Hypothesis

“…Other research has demonstrated the breadth of the legitimacy–empowerment link. Among Israelis, Metcalfe and Hodge (2018) found trust in police and perceived obligation to obey independently increased support for allowing the police to fight terrorism. Yesberg and Bradford (2018) found that London residents who more strongly trusted the police were more supportive of arming the police.…”

Norms, Normativity, and the Legitimacy of Justice Institutions: International Perspectives

“…Other work has put institutional trust centre-stage. For example, in a study of police-citizen relations in Israel, Metcalfe et al(2017) argued that:…”