Viewing Firearm Danger Through the Lens of Police Officers

Terrill, William; Somers, Logan J.

doi:10.1177/10887679221108329

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…roll calls), while specialized unit officers (i.e. SWAT, fugitive apprehension, street crimes) were surveyed in April 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic (see Terrill and Somers (2023) for greater detail on survey methodology). Out of the 997 officers who were present to take the survey over the course of the project, 850 completed it with a response rate of slightly above 85%.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent study completed by Terrill and Somers (2023) attempted to address this limitation by providing an assessment of officers' perceptions of danger in various types of armed citizen encounters. When presented with varying hypothetical scenarios that varied by the subject's race (i.e.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They were then asked to select contextual factors that would heighten their perceptions of danger if present. Their results revealed a great deal of variation in how officers perceived danger, demonstrating that “… officers do not simply treat all suspects with a firearm similarly” (Terrill and Somers, 2023 , p. 69). For instance, officers identified much higher levels of danger when subjects had a firearm in hand or when they were displaying aggressive resistance.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6. Please see Terrill and Somers (2023) for a complete discussion and the descriptive statistics of all nine scenarios.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the relationship between officers' broad cultural attitudes and their situational perceptions of firearm danger

Somers

Terrill

2023

PIJPSM

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PurposeThe focus of the current study is to assess whether officers' broad attitudinal orientations are linked with their situational perceptions of danger in various armed citizen encounters.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on survey data from 672 officers employed at a large metropolitan police department. The police culture literature is used to inform measures of occupational stress, danger, citizen distrust, views of upper management, and role orientation in relation to how officers perceive danger across a series of scenarios involving armed citizens that varied in terms of firearm placement and citizen resistance. Along with a host of control variables, a series of multivariate models are used to evaluate the degree to which these aggregated cultural views may shape officers' situational perceptions of danger.FindingsThe results indicate that a stronger endorsement of broad attitudinal orientations involving occupational danger and citizen distrust are linked with higher perceptions of danger in armed-citizen encounters, especially as the situations become more discretionary.Originality/valueEmpirical research related to police culture has typically relied upon highly aggregated assessments of how officers view their occupational and organizational work environments. However, yet to be explored is whether these broad views impact officers' assessments of specific encounters, particularly those that are dangerous in nature. The findings from this study also have the potential to inform ambiguous use of force standards that are heavily influenced by officers' situational assessments of danger.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6. Please see Terrill and Somers (2023) for a complete discussion and the descriptive statistics of all nine scenarios.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the relationship between officers' broad cultural attitudes and their situational perceptions of firearm danger

Somers

Terrill

2023

PIJPSM

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Examining UK and US police officers' perceptions of community sentiment, performance, and fear of on-duty victimization

2023

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Did California Act to Save Lives? AB 392 and fatal officer-involved shootings

Powell

2023

Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice

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American police face considerable criticism from the public about the perceived unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force in civilian interactions. Police reform advocates often call for widespread change to reduce officer-involved shootings and other forms of deadly force. Some, such as California, pursued statewide legal interventions to limit police deadly force. AB 392, the California Act to Save Lives, changed the deadly force standard so that objectively reasonable officers, when considering the totality of circumstances, can only use deadly force when necessary to defend human life. The stricter standard was designed to limit officer deadly force and reduce civilian deaths so this paper considers the efficacy of AB 392 on the incidence of fatal force in California. The results of interrupted time series and synthetic control method (SCM) analyses find no evidence of a reduction in deadly force after the passage of AB 392. Any effort to change deadly force should be coupled with legislative changes and evidence-based practices. Policymakers, practitioners, and researchers will need to explore a multi-pronged approach to reduce deadly force encounters.

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Viewing Firearm Danger Through the Lens of Police Officers

Cited by 4 publications

References 35 publications

Assessing the relationship between officers' broad cultural attitudes and their situational perceptions of firearm danger

Assessing the relationship between officers' broad cultural attitudes and their situational perceptions of firearm danger

Examining UK and US police officers' perceptions of community sentiment, performance, and fear of on-duty victimization

Did California Act to Save Lives? AB 392 and fatal officer-involved shootings

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