The Influence of Community Characteristics on Police Officers’ Approaches to Patrolling Latinos in Three Towns

Abstract

Race and policing research has identified both macro-level structural factors and micro-level racial meanings that contribute to racial disparities in policing outcomes. However, prior research has not examined how the various features of communal contexts shape officers’ construction of racial meanings. The current study, which is based on ethnographic ride-along interviews with and observations of 52 officers in three suburban communities of varying racial, ethnic, and class diversity in a northeastern state, weds symbolic interactionist and macro-level studies by examining how communal contexts shape both the meanings that police officers attach to Latinos in relation to other pan-ethnic groups and officers’ patrolling of Latinos. The author finds that communal features and processes condition officers’ racial schemas and patrolling practices in significant, variable ways across the three communities. How officers perceived and approached Latinos not only varied across the three towns but differed from that of other pan-ethnic groups. Variability in the communal features and processes influencing officers’ racial schemas and patrolling of racial minorities across these towns suggests the need for a theoretical approach that treats officers’ racial meanings and patrolling approaches as communally situated.

Schools and Crime

“…As mentioned, being out of school on a school day may arouse police suspicion. A transfer to a disciplinary alternative school may also elevate police scrutiny (Reck 2015, Rios 2011. School arrests, even for minor offenses, may directly criminalize youth if they are referred to court and subsequently ordered to participate in informal or formal probation (or other court sanction).…”

Mano Suave–Mano Dura: Legitimacy Policing and Latino Stop-and-Frisk

“…A great deal of academic inquiry focuses on stop-and-frisk as a form of racial profiling, specifically with African Americans and to a lesser extent with Latinos (Alpert, Macdonald, and Dunham 2005; Barlow and Barlow 2002; Durán 2009; Epp et al 2014; Gabbidon and Greene 2012; Glaser 2014; Glover 2009; Petrocelli, Piquero, and Smith 2003; Pool 2012; Reck 2014; Rios 2017; Weitzer and Tuch 2002; Wordes and Bynum 1995). This investigatory stop finds its legal basis in the Supreme Court case Terry v. Ohio (1968), which authorizes officers to pat-down suspects when they have “reasonable suspicion” of criminal activity.…”

(Mis)Perceptions of Ethnic Group Size and Consequences for Community Expectations and Cooperation With Law Enforcement

“…Differing effects on informal and formal social control depending on which group is being misperceived suggests that group-specific consequences of misperceptions are typically community situated, based on the stereotypes and meanings that are attached to particular people and places (Reck, 2015). People typically make judgments on others when specific instances of occurrences are easily conceptualized on a frequent basis as well as how recently and directly the information has been encountered (Drakulich, 2012, p. 325).…”

“…Y. Warren et al, 2012). In the United States, Australia, and United Kingdom, institutionalization of exclusionary barriers has included forms of prejudice to certain groups such as a lack of uniform treatment by police officers (Bonner, 2014; Oliveira & Murphy, 2015; Reck, 2015; Miles-Johnson, 2013a, 2013b, 2015) and/or an absence of fair treatment within the criminal justice system (Cherney & Murphy, 2011; Rocque, 2011; Thomas, Moak, & Walker, 2013). Such barriers also include hostility and other forms of discrimination toward growing groups of immigrant populations (Gibson, McAllister, & Swenson, 2002; D.…”