Reforming the police through procedural justice training: A multicity randomized trial at crime hot spots

Weisburd, David; Telep, Cody W.; Vovak, Heather; Zastrow, Taryn; Braga, Anthony A.

doi:10.1073/pnas.2118780119

Cited by 77 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(32 reference statements)

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“…While the evidence from crossover designs is increasing its value for operational policing, the evidence from parallel track designs continues to provide invaluable global knowledge. A recently published 9-month comparison of two parallel tracks of hot spot patrols (in 3 US cities at once), for example, found that a 5-day course of procedural justice training for hot spots patrol officers reduced both arrests and crime, as well as perceptions by local residents that police used excessive force or harassed local citizens (Weisburd, et al, 2022). Only a long-term study using that design could have discovered such important facts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over three decades since it was first tested in a parallel track randomized controlled trial (Sherman & Weisburd, 1995), "Hot Spots Policing" (HSP) may now be the most widely researched and adopted strategy of evidence-based policing (Sherman, 1998(Sherman, , 2013. With over eighty rigorous evaluations showing consistent benefits of HSP, no other policing strategy can offer more independent assessments (Braga et al, 2019; see also Barnes et al, 2020;Basford et al, 2021;Bland et al, 2021;Weisburd, et al, 2022). Hailing HSP as the crime reduction strategy with strongest evidence, one UK policing minister (Malthouse, 2021) has offered special funding for police agencies to implement it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Test-As-You-Go” for Hot Spots Policing: Continuous Impact Assessment with Repeat Crossover Designs

Sherman

2022

Camb J Evid Based Polic

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Hot spots policing is rapidly changing its evidence-base. Instead of producing more results of one-off, conventional experiments that provide an evidence-base across police agencies (Braga et al., (Campbell Systematic Reviews, 15(3), 2019), hot spots policing (HSP) experiments in the UK are now providing continuous impact assessment (CIA) within police agencies, and within each hot spot. This new mission for experiments entails a change in research design, from the conventionally fixed assignment of each hot spot to a single treatment (in what is technically called a “parallel-track” design) to alternating treatments for each hot spot (in what is known as a “repeat crossover” design). Crossover design experiments are designed for an “on”-days-versus- “off”-days, “test-as-you-go” operating model, using test results in each hot spot for immediate operational feedback to improve performance. This feature can empower police supervisors with compelling evidence for officers about their impact on crime in recent weeks. This approach has great promise, but it also has a great threat. The promise is for integrating evidence more tightly with daily police operations. The threat is that crossover tests may underestimate the true benefits of HSP because they ignore the lingering, “residual deterrence” effects of HSP “on” days continuing into “off” days without HSP. That “carryover” effect of HSP in prior days may take up to 4 days to “wash out” (Barnes et al., 2020). Until it does, crime during HSP “off” days may be lower than if there had been no recent HSP “on” days, thus making HSP look less effective than it truly is. This problem is purely a matter of what analysts do, rather than what police officers do. As long as the officers deliver on their assigned tasks of which hot spots to patrol when, both research designs can have validity. But the problem of how to analyze the effects of these patrols is up to the analysts to solve. If the analysts handle the problem by deleting a certain number of days in between treatment changes for each hot spot—technically known as a “washout” period—they will provide valid impact assessments of HSP. More important, they can do that with a design that requires no long-term denial of service to large numbers of hot spots assigned to a control group, as in traditional random assignment to parallel tracks of treatment vs. control (e.g., Sherman & Weisburd, (Justice Quarterly, 625–648, 1995)).Repeat crossover trials are therefore an excellent improvement over parallel-track trials, subject to omitting crime measures from the washout period for eliminating carryover effects during crossover periods from one treatment condition to another. The following discussion shows how analysts and police leaders can use and implement crossover designs with high internal validity, without biased measures of crime on control days.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Test-As-You-Go” for Hot Spots Policing: Continuous Impact Assessment with Repeat Crossover Designs

Sherman

2022

Camb J Evid Based Polic

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“…Finally, we note that extant criminal justice reform efforts often seek to change o cer behavior via broad and abstract cultural changes 31,32 . Police departments often resist change, however.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Transparency Statement Transforms Community-Police Interactions

Yeager

Dobson

Dittmann

2022

Preprint

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Over the last three decades, billions of dollars have been invested in community-oriented policing approaches that are meant to promote positive interactions between officers and civilians. However, trust in law enforcement remains low. Our qualitative analysis of over 500 hours of naturalistic observations suggested this is because police officers can make civilians feel threatened even when they are not actively investigating a crime. Here we use a pre-registered field experiment (N = 232 community members interacting with police officers) to show that civilians are less threatened and report greater trust when officers add a 10-word “transparency statement” (“I'm walking around trying to get to know the community”) to the beginning of interactions communicating their benevolent intent. Corroboration of these conclusions comes from natural language processing analyses of the interaction transcripts and from ambulatory sensors that monitored community members’ sympathetic nervous system activation. Further, five online experiments isolated the conditions under which transparency statements were most impactful (total N = 2,241). This multi-method investigation highlights an under-appreciated reason why authority figures such as police so often fail to promote positive relationships with the community: a lack of transparency about the reasons for their behavior.

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“…Hot spots policing evaluations further suggest that the strongest crime control gains may be driven by situational strategies to change underlying conditions rather than increased traditional enforcement strategies (Braga & Bond, 2008; Braga & Weisburd, 2010). Recent research suggests that training officers in procedural justice and legitimacy‐enhancing techniques generates stronger crime control gains while improving citizen perceptions of the police and public safety in hot spot areas (Weisburd et al., 2022). Economizing on making arrests and conducting stops, improving community conditions, reducing racial disparities, and treating citizens with respect and dignity are values very much in line with public health's commitment to harm reduction.…”

Section: Moving Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gun violence is a public health crisis that needs more applied criminologists

Braga

2022

Criminology & Public Policy

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Research SummaryGun violence was declared a “public health crisis” after shootings increased in many U.S. cities during the course of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The public health approach to gun violence prevention offers many advantages such as an applied research model, the mobilization of a wider range of stakeholders, and a commitment to harm reduction. Too often, however, the public health community seems unaware of criminological research on gun violence and avoids including criminal justice interventions in their comprehensive plans.Policy ImplicationsCommunities need immediate relief from the persistent trauma of repeated shootings. Criminal justice interventions represent important responses to outbreaks of gun violence that should be included among recommended public health programs intended to address proximate and upstream causes of gun violence. Gun violence prevention policy and practice would be strengthened by more deliberate attempts to foster complementary public health and criminology research and development collaborations. More applied criminologists need to become engaged in gun violence research to meet this call.

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Reforming the police through procedural justice training: A multicity randomized trial at crime hot spots

Cited by 77 publications

References 29 publications

“Test-As-You-Go” for Hot Spots Policing: Continuous Impact Assessment with Repeat Crossover Designs

“Test-As-You-Go” for Hot Spots Policing: Continuous Impact Assessment with Repeat Crossover Designs

A Transparency Statement Transforms Community-Police Interactions

Gun violence is a public health crisis that needs more applied criminologists

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