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A Stone’s Throw from the Metropolis: Re-Examining Small-Agency Homeland Security Practices
Abstract
Police agencies nationwide have enhanced their homeland security preparedness capacity since the 9/11 attacks. Evidence suggests that departments have not uniformly adopted measures to prepare for and respond to critical incidents. Rather, larger agencies are more likely than their smaller peers to take such steps. Small agencies do not constitute a homogenous group; some experience geographic isolation while others are near major metropolitan areas. Unclear is whether small agencies (25 or fewer full-time sworn personnel), those that are commonly found to be less prepared, benefit from proximity to large-agency peers. This study examined whether physical and relational proximity to large departments contributed to homeland security preparedness in over 300 small departments. A structural equation model revealed that interactions with large agencies facilitated preparedness but physical proximity had no direct effect. Increasing geographic isolation from large-agency peers indirectly affected preparedness by stifling the level of inter-department interactions.
... There are local law enforcement agencies that continue to receive limited resources for conducting intelligence and counterterrorism (Mishkin, 2013). Even though efforts have been made to enhance the information and intelligence sharing of federal, state, and local agencies to combat terrorism, this implementation is not uniformly apparent in rural America (Giblin, Burruss, & Schafer, 2014). Addressing the seeming deficiency in inter-agency collaboration, this study focused on the lack of effective practices in the information and intelligence sharing between U.S. Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement in rural America . ...
... Finally, given the fundamentally decentralized structure of law enforcement nationwide, diffusion of innovation theory provides a framework for understanding how it is possible for an enterprise such as homeland security to spread across law enforcement agencies from the federal to rural and local level. Donaldson's (2006) seminal work on structural contingency theory has been widely adapted to the literature on police organization, especially in the context of homeland security (Brinser & King, 2016;Giblin et al., 2014;Schaible & Sheffield, 2012). This theory understands organizations as operating within a rational and taskoriented environment of which the organization must make sense and adapt accordingly (Brinser & King, 2016;Donaldson, 2006). ...
... Funding, or lack thereof, has been found in previous literature to either facilitate or terminate the adoption of innovations and initiatives (Alizadeh, 2015;Dahle & Archbold, 2015;Schaible & Sheffield, 2012). This problem is exacerbated for rural local law enforcement, who must compete with larger municipal agencies for federal funding (Giblin, Burruss, & Schafer, 2014). Lack of funding, personnel training, equipment, and agency size are common concerns for rural local police even before the added expenditure of homeland security (Carson, 2016;Dahle & Archbold, 2015;Giblin et al., 2014). ...
On September 11, 2001, the United States experienced multiple high-casualty terrorist attacks that our nation’s federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies seldom envisioned occurring, let alone plan for such horrific events. These events had a subsequent profound effect on our criminal justice system and those in positions to protect the public from such events. In 2002, Congress passed H.R. 5005 Homeland Security Act of 2002, establishing a new Department of Homeland Security at the federal level. The establishment of a federal agency charged with protecting the homeland had a ripple-like effect on law enforcement practices and ultimately in information and intelligence sharing among federal homeland security agencies and local police departments. However, the problem is that there appears to be a lack of effective information and intelligence sharing between federal homeland security agencies and local police departments. This mixed-method convergent concurrent study was to examine to what extent the level of information and intelligence sharing between rural local law enforcement in New York and federal homeland security agencies prevent threats to the security of the northern border in New York and to explore the best practices for identifying and prioritizing remediation of gaps in sharing homeland security-related information and intelligence. The population of the study were individuals who are working in Northern New York with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement agencies. For the quantitative phase of the study, 100 participants were asked to answer a survey questionnaire online. For the qualitative phase of the study, 12 participants were asked to answer a semi-structured, open-ended survey questionnaire. A systematic analysis and coding of the quantitative and qualitative survey data were conducted. The findings of this study have confirmed assertions made by previous literature as to why gaps in interagency communication on homeland security occur. Issues of infrastructure such as adequate intelligence training, incoherent chains of command and sharing practices, a lack of funding to law enforcement departments in rural areas, and conflicting rules that make intelligence sharing impossible due to the possibility of violating a law or clearance protocol all have contributed to communication gaps.
... Scholars have attempted to account for this variation by applying a contingency theory framework, which posits that organizations respond rationally to external environmental influences to more effectively meet their goals; police agencies faced with higher levels of risk, a key external contingency, are more likely to take steps to enhance their preparedness. Empirical studies support the contingency framework, consistently finding a relationship between risk and police homeland security activities (Burruss, Giblin, & Schafer, 2010;Davis, Mariano, Pace, Cotton, & Steinberg, 2006;Davis et al., 2004;Giblin, Burruss, & Schafer, 2014). These studies are limited, however, in their measurement of risk. ...
... Although some similarities exist, these past studies have operationalized risk and preparedness slightly differently; nevertheless, perceived risk consistently appears as a significant predictor of homeland security preparedness. This has been demonstrated in national surveys addressing the state of terrorism preparedness among local law enforcement agencies in the United States (Davis et al., 2004(Davis et al., , 2006, in small and large municipal agencies across Illinois (Burruss et al., 2010;Schafer et al., 2009), and in a national sample of small municipal agencies (Giblin et al., 2014; for an exception, see Gerber, Cohen, Cannon, Patterson, & Stewart, 2005). ...
... The present study draws on and extends data collected via a 2011 national survey of 350 small (fewer than 25 full-time sworn officers) municipal law enforcement agencies (Burruss, Schafer, Giblin, & Haynes, 2012;Giblin et al., 2014). The survey provides indicators of homeland security preparedness and perceived risk of terrorism. ...
The connection between perceived risk of homeland security incidents and homeland security preparedness has received considerable support in policing literature. From a contingency theory perspective, organizations rationally respond to risks in their external environments by taking steps to prepare for homeland security incidents. In past studies examining homeland security preparedness levels, risk has typically been measured using agency executives' perceived likelihood of specific homeland security incidents occurring within their jurisdiction within a specified time range, and has largely ignored objective risk factors. In other disciplines, researchers and government organizations consider three dimensions when assessing risk: threat, vulnerability, and consequences. In the present study, the objective risk factors of social vulnerability, experience with past hazards, and built environment vulnerability not only fail to predict risk perceptions but are also not associated with preparedness measures. However, consistent with prior research, subjective risk perceptions remain a significant predictor of preparedness levels. © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.
... Organizations in fields as diverse as auditing, banking, nonprofits, newspapers, and education have all displayed this mimetism (Anafinova 2020;Haveman 1993;Judge, Li, and Pinsker 2010;Han 1994;Rambotti 2017), and police organizations have as well (Carter 2016;Giblin 2006;Maguire 2014). Police personnel from different agencies frequently discuss common practices during phone calls or site visits and often describe their innovations as modeled on other, more successful agencies (Giblin 2006;Giblin, Burruss, and Schafer 2014). Police innovations diffuse through socially networked law enforcement agencies, with new policies spreading to those with personal relationships among their personnel Skogan and Harnett 2005;Weisburd and Lum 2005). ...
... The geographic proximity of such work groups amplifies both the likelihood and intensity of personal connections. Giblin et al. (2014) found that personnel in small police departments were more likely to interact with personnel in large departments if they were physically proximate, and the small departments increased their homeland security preparation as a result. We suspect that these networks do not just exchange information, but also exert social pressures that will encourage mimicry and herding in police practices. ...
What makes police departments change their practices? Do they transform in isolation, or do they mimic their neighbors? Combining insights from organizational theory and urban sociology, the authors argue that organizational change diffuses, in part, through physically proximate institutions. They apply this theory to an underexamined trend: the decline of misdemeanor arrests in the United States between 1990 and 2018. The study first explores the spatial dynamics of low-level law enforcement by graphing and mapping trends across a range of metropolitan types, finding that suburbs made the fewest low-level arrests and central cities reduced their arrests the most during these years. A spatial autoregressive panel data model reveals that police departments decreased their misdemeanor arrests more when nearby departments did so, net of crime rates and other controls, evincing spatial mimicry. Police reform efforts need not target only state and federal governments but can diffuse outward from city-level changes.
... For example, the vast majority of local agencies should not attempt to mimic the New York or Los Angeles Police Departments, as many of their ILP practices may not be applicable or appropriate for the average municipal agency. Giblin, Burruss, and Schafer (2014) provide evidence of this emulation in their study of homeland security practices among agencies of varying characteristics in Illinois. In short, their study noted that increased interaction among agencies had a positive effect on homeland security practices and that geographic proximity also appeared to be a significant facilitator of adoption. ...
... The latter mimetic pressures were perceived to represent the larger institutional environment and thus demonstrated greater influence on organizational practices. This institutional model has been used to predict community policing and homeland security practices (Burruss et al., 2012;Giblin et al., 2014) among local law enforcement. In both studies, the authors concluded that the aforementioned institutional factors were more salient predictors of adoption, with the exception of agency size. ...
Previous research employing an institutional theoretical framework posits environmental factors play an integral role in the adoption of police practices. The present study applies this framework to examine the adoption of intelligence-led policing (ILP). Data from a purposive sample of national intelligence personnel from 254 agencies are used to employ both a measurement and structural model to explain ILP adoption. Weighted least squares estimation is employed through an asymptotic distribution free function to estimate the measurement and structural equation models. Models exhibit good fit indices, while institutional pressures, among others, had a significant and positive effect on ILP adoption. Findings support the role of institutional pressures in the diffusion of police practice. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.
Background
Criminal justice agencies are well positioned to help prevent the radicalisation of individuals and groups, stop those radicalised from engaging in violence, and reduce the likelihood of terrorist attacks. This Evidence and Gap Map (EGM) presents the existing evidence and gaps in the evaluation research.
Objectives
To identify the existing evidence that considers the effectiveness of criminal justice interventions in preventing radicalisation, violent extremism and terrorism.
Search Methods
We conducted a comprehensive search of the academic and grey literature to locate relevant studies for the EGM. Our search locations included the Global Policing Database (GPD), eight electronic platforms encompassing over 20 academic databases, five trial registries and over 30 government and non‐government websites. The systematic search was carried out between 8 June 2022 and 1 August 2022.
Selection Criteria
We captured criminal justice interventions published between January 2002 and December 2021 that aimed to prevent radicalisation, violent extremism, and/or terrorism. Criminal justice agencies were broadly defined to include police, courts, and corrections (both custodial and community). Eligible populations included criminal justice practitioners, places, communities or family members, victims, or individuals/groups who are radicalised or at risk of becoming radicalised. Our map includes systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, and strong quasi‐experimental studies. We placed no limits on study outcomes, language, or geographic location.
Data Collection and Analysis
Our screening approach differed slightly for the different sources, but all documents were assessed in the systematic review software program DistillerSR on the same final eligibility criteria. Once included, we extracted information from studies using a standardised form that allowed us to collect key data for our EGM. Eligible systematic reviews were assessed for risk of bias using the AMSTAR 2 critical appraisal tool.
Main Results
The systematic search identified 63,763 unique records. After screening, there were 70 studies eligible for the EGM (from 71 documents), of which two were systematic reviews (assessed as moderate quality), 16 were randomised controlled trials, and 52 were strong quasi‐experimental studies. The majority of studies (n = 58) reported on policing interventions. Limited evidence was found related to courts or corrections interventions. The impact of these interventions was measured by a wide variety of outcomes (n = 50). These measures were thematically grouped under nine broad categories including (1) terrorism, (2) extremism or radicalisation, (3) non‐terror related crime and recidivism, (4) citizen perceptions/intentions toward the criminal justice system and government, (5) psychosocial, (6) criminal justice practitioner behaviours/attitudes/beliefs, (7) racially targeted criminal justice practices, (8) investigation efficacy, and (9) organisational factors. The most commonly assessed outcomes included measures of terrorism, investigation efficacy, and organisational factors. Very limited research assessed intervention effectiveness against measures of extremism and/or radicalisation.
Authors’ Conclusions
Conducting high‐quality evaluation research on rare and hidden problems presents a challenge for criminal justice research. The map reveals a number of significant gaps in studies evaluating criminal justice responses to terrorism and radicalisation. We conclude that future research should focus attention on studies that consolidate sound measurement of terrorism‐related outcomes to better capture the potential benefits and harms of counter‐terrorism programs, policies and practices which involve criminal justice agencies.
Background
Multiagency responses to reduce radicalisation often involve collaborations between police, government, nongovernment, business and/or community organisations. The complexities of radicalisation suggest it is impossible for any single agency to address the problem alone. Police‐involved multiagency partnerships may disrupt pathways from radicalisation to violence by addressing multiple risk factors in a coordinated manner.
Objectives
1. Synthesise evidence on the effectiveness of police‐involved multiagency interventions on radicalisation or multiagency collaboration
2. Qualitatively synthesise information about how the intervention works (mechanisms), intervention context (moderators), implementation factors and economic considerations.
Search Methods
Terrorism‐related terms were used to search the Global Policing Database, terrorism/counterterrorism websites and repositories, and relevant journals for published and unpublished evaluations conducted 2002–2018. The search was conducted November 2019. Expert consultation, reference harvesting and forward citation searching was conducted November 2020.
Selection Criteria
Eligible studies needed to report an intervention where police partnered with at least one other agency and explicitly aimed to address terrorism, violent extremism or radicalisation. Objective 1 eligible outcomes included violent extremism, radicalisation and/or terrorism, and multiagency collaboration. Only impact evaluations using experimental or robust quasi‐experimental designs were eligible. Objective 2 placed no limits on outcomes. Studies needed to report an empirical assessment of an eligible intervention and provide data on mechanisms, moderators, implementation or economic considerations.
Data Collection and Analysis
The search identified 7384 records. Systematic screening identified 181 studies, of which five were eligible for Objective 1 and 26 for Objective 2. Effectiveness studies could not be meta‐analysed, so were summarised and effect size data reported. Studies for Objective 2 were narratively synthesised by mechanisms, moderators, implementation, and economic considerations. Risk of bias was assessed using ROBINS‐I, EPHPP, EMMIE and CASP checklists.
Results
One study examined the impact on vulnerability to radicalisation, using a quasi‐experimental matched comparison group design and surveys of volunteers (n = 191). Effects were small to medium and, aside from one item, favoured the intervention. Four studies examined the impact on the nature and quality of multiagency collaboration, using regression models and surveys of practitioners. Interventions included: alignment with national counterterrorism guidelines (n = 272); number of counterterrorism partnerships (n = 294); influence of, or receipt of, homeland security grants (n = 350, n = 208). Study findings were mixed. Of the 181 studies that examined mechanisms, moderators, implementation, and economic considerations, only 26 studies rigorously examined mechanisms (k = 1), moderators (k = 1), implementation factors (k = 21) or economic factors (k = 4).
All included studies contained high risk of bias and/or methodological issues, substantially reducing confidence in the findings.
Authors' Conclusions
A limited number of effectiveness studies were identified, and none evaluated the impact on at‐risk or radicalised individuals. More investment needs to be made in robust evaluation across a broader range of interventions.
Qualitative synthesis suggests that collaboration may be enhanced when partners take time to build trust and shared goals, staff are not overburdened with administration, there are strong privacy provisions for intelligence sharing, and there is ongoing support and training.
[Abstract] of Homeland Security charged with protecting the homeland had a ripple-like effect on law enforcement practices and ultimately in information and intelligence sharing among federal homeland security agencies and local police departments. However, the problem is that there appears to be a lack of effective information and intelligence sharing between federal homeland security agencies and local police departments. This study examined the extent of information and intelligence sharing between rural local law enforcement in New York and federal homeland security agencies and explored best practices for identifying and prioritizing remediation of gaps in sharing homeland security-related information and intelligence.
Research on the factors that influence crime clearance rates has primarily studied violent crimes in large cities. However, property crimes are among the most commonly occurring and least frequently cleared offenses, and the majority of police departments in the United States serve small jurisdictions. Thus, this study undertook an examination of the predictors of clearance rates for burglary, larceny, and vehicle theft in a sample of agencies serving populations of 50,000 people or fewer. Independent variables included both policing factors (e.g., workload, funding, broken windows arrests) and social disorganization indicators (e.g., residential instability, poverty). Negative binomial regression analyses revealed variation in the significance of the predictors across the three crimes. Additionally, many predictors found to be influential in prior work were insignificant in this study, which suggests differences in the nature of crime clearance between large cities and smaller jurisdictions and a need for further research in this area.
In this article, we provide guidance for substantive researchers on the use of structural equation modeling in practice for theory testing and development. We present a comprehensive, two-step modeling approach that employs a series of nested models and sequential chi-square difference tests. We discuss the comparative advantages of this approach over a one-step approach. Considerations in specification, assessment of fit, and respecification of measurement models using confirmatory factor analysis are reviewed. As background to the two-step approach, the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory analysis, the distinction between complementary approaches for theory testing versus predictive application, and some developments in estimation methods also are discussed.
Many claims have been made about how the events of September 11 have thrust American policing into a new era, one wherein homeland security is the dominant strategy. To examine the validity of such claims, a sample of 208 Texas police chiefs is surveyed concerning their perceptions of homeland security as a strategy for local law enforcement. Factors that influence those perceptions are also examined. The findings reveal that, whereas the majority of chiefs felt that homeland security had become the dominant strategy of the police institution, few believed that homeland security had become the overriding strategy of their respective departments. Furthermore, regression analyses suggest that federal collaboration, preparedness, and threat perceptions were predictive of homeland security perceptions. Regarding department size, chiefs of very small departments are more likely to report homeland security as their dominant strategy in relation to chiefs of larger departments. Policy implications are discussed.
Police organizations are a ubiquitous aspect of the landscape of criminal justice in the United States. Yet, little attention has been paid to the failure of police agencies and the consequences of such failure. This article uses structural contingency theory and organizational institutional theory to explore why 31 police agencies were disbanded during the 1990s. The findings indicate that agencies disband because they face significant environmental changes in their contingency and institutional environments. Contingency reasons for disbanding are mostly related to budgetary constraints. Institutional reasons
usually involve agencies that engage in behaviors that violate the expectations of powerful sovereigns. Overall, police agencies disband because they cannot adapt to changes in their contingency and institutional environments or they change in inappropriate ways, and their small organizational size does not provide a sufficient buffer against external intrusion from the institutional environment, which results in disbanding.
The organizational structures of large municipal police departments in the United States have changed substantially during the twentieth century. Many of these changes can be attributed to new technologies, increasing demands from communities to broaden the scope of their services, and efforts to prevent corruption. Precinct-based police organizations employing only sworn police officers have been transformed into highly centralized, specialized, formal organizations with tall hierarchies and large administrative units. Community policing reformers have attempted to reverse this progression toward more “bureaucratic” organizational forms. They argue that police should thin out their administrative components to cut red tape and to focus more resources on the goals of the organization than on the organization itself; deformalize, eliminating unnecessary rules and policies; despecialize, to encourage departmentwide problem solving; “delayerize,” to enhance communications and decision making by flattening the organizational hierarchy; and civilianize, to use departmental resources more efficiently. By altering many of their key administrative arrangements, critics argue, police departments can develop more flexible, more responsive service delivery. Using a quasi-experimental design combining data from a variety of sources, this paper examines whether the community policing movement has succeeded in altering the organizational structures of large municipal police departments over the six-year period from 1987 to 1993. The sample agencies experienced only minimal changes in organizational structure during the study period, and there were no significant differences in levels of change between agencies that claim to practice community policing and those which do not.
Specialized police gang units are a rapidly emerging form of concentrated social control. Prior research, however, into the creation of specialized gang units suffers from a number of theoretical and methodological shortcomings. These shortcomings make it difficult to understand which of several potential explanations can best account for the establishment of specialized police gang units. Three perspectives are examined that have been hypothesized by policymakers and academics to explain the creation of gang units: contingency theory, social threat theory, and resource dependency theory. Using data obtained from police departments and communities around the country, the explanatory power of measures derived from these three theories is explored, while controlling for several environmental and organizational influences.
Purpose
Police agency networks are likely to be important for the adoption of policing innovations and the visibility of demonstration projects. This study of police network data has four main goals: to use multivariate models for the influence of agency characteristics on the sort of agency it contacted; to investigate the extent of symmetry of ties in the police network; to examine models for the specific departments chosen as agencies' network contacts; and to identify, through network data, agencies as “relative experts” in several different policing domains.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses Weiss agency survey data to conduct a variety of analyses of agencies' choices of informal communication partners.
Findings
The analysis showed regularities in agencies' choices of contacts. Whether a contact was of the same type or from the same state as the respondent was influenced by the respondent's population and type. There was some evidence of size‐based asymmetry in contacts. The choice of a particular contact was influenced by agency type, population and geographic distance. There appeared to be “relative experts” in specific policing domains.
Originality/value
The results increase understanding of the structure of the agency network. By describing the nature of communication ties on planning issues, the results give essential background for any efforts to encourage the diffusion of policing innovations (or successful practices) by inducing ties between particular agencies. Results can also help predict the potential visibility of demonstration projects if placed in particular agencies.
Though homeland security has been the focus of ample rhetoric since the 9/11 attacks, empirical accounts of actual innovations in local American policing have been lacking. This study considers the measurement of homeland security innovations within small municipal departments in the state of Illinois. Using survey data, the analysis examines perceptions of risk, engagement in preparatory measures, and perceptions of response capacities within these small agencies. The analysis also considers whether innovation and associated issues are influenced by being located in the Chicago metropolitan area, an urban county, or a rural county. Results suggest limited differences across these regions, with most differences likely emerging due to variation in respondent’s proximity to larger peer agencies. The results are discussed within the context of extant literature on policing in small agencies and rural communities.
The study of rural crime has the potential to make important contri- butions to crime policy, criminological theory, and research methods in criminology. Although most places in America remain rural, researchers have paid insufficient attention to rural crime and have not utilized the wide variations among rural areas as natural laboratories for research. This chapter outlines what is known about rural crime and suggests likely rural crime issues for the future. Understanding rural crime requires understanding factors that make rural life distinct from urban life, including geography and culture. Understanding rural crime and anticipating future rural crime issues also requires under- standing how technology, economic factors, and demographics shape the nature of rural crime. Official police data and victimization data are used to examine the levels of rural crime and to compare patterns of rural and urban crime. A variety of sources are used to examine substance abuse and domestic violence, two types of crime that appear to have similar rates across rural and urban areas. The chapter also focuses on the emerging issue of environmental crime in rural areas. And, despite the importance of race in urban studies of crime, little rural crime research has directly addressed links between race and crime.
The objective of this Campbell systematic review is to determine the effectiveness of counter‐terrorism strategies from the available social scientific research literature using systematic review methods.
From over 20,000 studies we located on terrorism, we found only seven which contained moderately rigorous evaluations of counterterrorism programs. We conclude that there is little scientific knowledge about the effectiveness of most counter‐terrorism interventions. Further, from the evidence we were able to locate, it appears that some evaluated interventions either didn't work or sometimes increased the likelihood of terrorism and terrorism‐related harm.
The findings of this review dramatically emphasize the need for government leaders, policy makers, researchers, and funding agencies to include and insist on evaluations of the effectiveness of these programs in their agendas. These agendas would include identifying ways to overcome methodological and data challenges often associated with terrorism research, increasing funding to evaluate existing programs through methodologically rigorous evaluation designs, and paying attention to existing evaluations of programs when implementing them. Further, programs should be assessed to establish if they cause more harm than good or if they create unanticipated consequences.
Purpose – The purpose of this research is to compare traditional and community policing agencies with regard to how individual officers are formally evaluated and to assess organizational goals and objectives in each type of agency. Design/methodology/approach – A 75-item questionnaire was mailed to 600 municipal and county law enforcement agencies. A total of 11 hypotheses were tested regarding performance evaluation content, the values of police supervisors and organizational objectives. Findings – Community policing agencies have added new output measures but continue to value enforcement statistics as much as their more traditional counterparts. Additionally, many community policing agencies have not updated their formal systems to incorporate community policing concepts. Research limitations/implications – Survey responses were obtained from only one supervisor per agency and the knowledge of each individual was varied. However, if supervisors from traditional and community policing agencies are equally competent, results should be unbiased. Further research is needed to assess the reasons why many agencies have not updated their formal evaluation systems to incorporate community policing concepts. Practical implications – There may be a conflict between police supervisor values and formal evaluation procedures in many community policing agencies. Further assistance or guidance may be needed to aid police administrators in updating and improving their formal systems of officer performance evaluation. Originality/value – This is the first nationwide assessment of police officer performance evaluation during the community policing era.
Recent federal legislation and numerous public policy debates have relied heavily on estimates of the number of police agencies and police officers in the USA. Historically, these estimates have been problematic, varying tremendously over time, across different sources, and using different methodologies. Currently, the two main sources of agency-level data for estimating these numbers are the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports and the Census Bureau’s Law Enforcement Directory Survey. While there is a great deal of overlap between these two databases, each contains thousands of departments not listed in the other. Also, among those departments listed in one or more of these databases, there is tremendous variation in the number of police officers recorded. While some of the disparity can be explained by banal differences in counting and record-keeping methods, much is rooted in differing definitions of what constitutes a “police officer” and a “police agency”. In this study, we closely examine both databases in an effort to account for the differences between them. In addition, we introduce a new data source derived from the records of the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). Based on a thorough exploration of all three databases, we discuss the impact of their differences on criminal justice policy and police research. We first develop our own estimate of the number of police departments and police officers in the USA that differs substantially from other current estimates. We then estimate the number of police officers that the COPS office and future evaluators should use as the baseline for measuring the Clinton Administration’s success at adding 100,000 officers to the streets of America. Finally, we offer a modest set of recommendations for achieving greater uniformity across separate police agency databases.
Structural equation modeling (SEM) has undergone rapid advances in recent years that have made this technique useful to social scientists studying a variety of topics. The hypothesis‐testing and model‐evaluation capacity of SEM makes this modeling strategy useful for research in criminal justice and criminology. The flexibility of this strategy and the availability of user‐friendly software programs add to the appeal of SEM. This article is a basic introduction to the use of SEM in criminal justice and criminology. An overview of SEM, popular computer programs, and the sequence of steps in building and evaluating models is provided with the intent of offering readers a general roadmap of the use of SEM. The article concludes with a list of recommended readings for those wishing to study this topic in detail.
Discusses how current goodness-of-fit indices fail to assess parsimony and hence disconfirmability of a model and are insensitive to misspecifications of causal relations (a) among latent variables when measurement model with many indicators is correct and (b) when causal relations corresponding to free parameters expected to be nonzero turn out to be zero or near zero. A discussion of philosophy of parsimony elucidates relations of parsimony to parameter estimation, disconfirmability, and goodness of fit. AGFI in {lisrel} is rejected. A method of adjusting goodness-of-fit indices by a parsimony ratio is described. Also discusses less biased estimates of goodness of fit and a relative normed-fit index for testing fit of structural model exclusive of the measurement model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, compelled most Americans to imagine
the unimaginable. Increased interest was focused on lessons learned, specifically if local law enforcement agencies had made
appropriate organizational changes to manage potential terrorism events. The purpose of this study was to assess perceptions
of law enforcement officers in the state of Michigan regarding organizational changes post 9/11. A total of 247 law enforcement
officers participated in the study by completing three instruments, the Police Unit Assessment of Terrorism (PAT) Scale, Domestic
Unit Assessment of Terrorism (DAT) Scale, and a short demographic survey. The officers who perceived their work load had increased
since 9/11 were more likely to have more positive perceptions on both the PAT and DAT.
KeywordsTerrorism–Preparedness–Law enforcement agencies
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice is one of the smallest of the U.S. principal statistical agencies but shoulders one of the most expansive and detailed legal mandates among those agencies. Ensuring the Quality, Credibility, and Relevance of U.S. Justice Statistics examines the full range of BJS programs and suggests priorities for data collection. BJS's data collection portfolio is a solid body of work, well justified by public information needs or legal requirements and a commendable effort to meet its broad mandate given less-than-commensurate fiscal resources. The book identifies some major gaps in the substantive coverage of BJS data, but notes that filling those gaps would require increased and sustained support in terms of staff and fiscal resources. In suggesting strategic goals for BJS, the book argues that the bureau's foremost goal should be to establish and maintain a strong position of independence. To avoid structural or political interference in BJS work, the report suggests changing the administrative placement of BJS within the Justice Department and making the BJS directorship a fixed-term appointment. In its thirtieth year, BJS can look back on a solid body of accomplishment; this book suggests further directions for improvement to give the nation the justice statistics--and the BJS--that it deserves. © 2009 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
The Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey is a comparative organizational research platform from which studies of police organizational structures can be launched. This article briefly describes the survey and its origin, discusses its capacity to provide measures of organizational dimensions, and considers how the survey results can best be used to increase our understanding of police organizations.
This article explores the possibility of efficacy-performance spirals in individuals, groups, and organizations. Spirals are deviation-amplifying loops in which the positive, cyclic relationship between perceived efficacy and performance builds upon itself. Collective efficacy is defined, and upward and downward spirals are considered. Evidence from multiple levels of analysis is presented, and factors affecting the occurrence, continuation, and stopping of spirals are proposed. In addition, we consider compositional and cross-level effects by proposing factors that will moderate the relationship between spirals at different levels of analysis. Overall, 15 propositions are presented as guidelines for future research.
Municipal governments’ efforts in preparing for possible terrorist events are critical to effective homeland security. Using data gathered from a nationwide sample of municipal officials, the authors identify determinants of homeland security preparedness in U.S. cities, across several attitudinal and behavioral indicators. The authors find that perceptions of terror threat vulnerability and response capacity are tied to factors such as city size and budgetary constraints. Perhaps more important, the authors show that administrative capacity demonstrates consistent explanatory power for both perceived policy commitment and specific preparedness actions. From these analyses, the authors outline several key policy implications for homeland security policy making.
Collaboration between law enforcement agencies, at all levels of government, has been identified as a salient component of post–September 11 policing. This study surveys a representative sample of Texas police chiefs concerning their perceptions of the level of collaboration that is occurring between their respective departments and federal agencies. Results suggest that the majority of chiefs hold generally low perceptions of federal-local collaboration. Furthermore, regression analyses show that preparedness and departmental strategy perceptions are predictive of federal-local collaboration. Regarding structural factors, chiefs of large departments as well as university departments are more likely to report higher levels of collaboration with federal agencies. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Since the development of homeland security, scholars have debated the relationship between community-oriented policing and homeland security innovations in local police departments. Most of the literature that assesses this relationship has been “conjecture or anecdotal,” and few studies have systematically measured these impacts. Few studies have examined the influence that organizational structures and administrative factors have on terrorism response preparedness among local law enforcement agencies. To fill these gaps, this study evaluates a national sample of local police agencies drawn from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2003 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) Survey. Results show that community policing efforts are positively correlated with terrorism preparedness efforts. Results also show that a number of organizational factors including organization size, budget per capita, and functional differentiation were positively correlated with terrorism preparedness, whereas formalization and spatial differentiation were negatively correlated.
Self-efficacy (one's belief in one's capability to perform a task) affects task effort, persistence, expressed interest, and the level of goal difficulty selected for performance. Despite this, little attention has been given to its organizational implications. This paper reviews the self-efficacy concept and then explores its theoretical and practical implications for organizational behavior and human resource management.
Many mechanistic rules of thumb for evaluating the goodness of fit of structural equation models (SEM) emphasize model parsimony; all other things being equal, a simpler, more parsimonious model with fewer estimated parameters is better than a more complex model. Although this is usually good advice, in the present article a heuristic counterexample is demonstrated in which parsimony as typically operationalized in indices of fit may be undesirable. Specifically, in simplex models of longitudinal data, the failure to include correlated uniquenesses relating the same indicators administered on different occasions will typically lead to systematically inflated estimates of stability. Although simplex models with correlated uniquenesses are substantially less parsimonious and may be unacceptable according to mechanistic decision rules that penalize model complexity, it can be argued a priori that these additional parameter estimates should be included. Simulated data are used to support this claim and to evaluate the behavior of a variety of fit indices and decision rules. The results demonstrate the validity of Bollen and Long's (1993) conclusion that "test statistics and fit indices are very beneficial, but they are no replacement for sound judgment and substantive expertise" (p. 8).
A major problem encountered in covariance structure analyses involves decisions concerning whether or not a given theoretical model adequately represents the data used for its assessment. Given that X2 goodness-of-fit tests are joint functions of the difference between theoretical and empirical covariance structures and sample size, gauging the impact of sample size on such tests is essential. In this paper, we propose a simple index (critical N) and tentative acceptance criterion, which, by focusing on sample size, provide an improved method for assessing goodness-of-fit. Both small- and large-sample examples are presented, illustrating the utility of the proposed method for assessing theoretical models.
Disaster response by law enforcement is an understudied topic in both police and disaster research. This paper analyses the actions of the police during a flood in a US city using a general model of disaster response by law enforcement. This model suggests that, because citizens have different priorities and engage in different behaviours before, during, and after a disaster, law enforcement must employ different styles of policing in each stage of a disaster to meet both the needs of citizens and the challenges of the disaster. Using information gathered from newspaper articles, we find strong support for the validity of this model. We also find that law enforcement actions were successful before and during the flood, but police response after the flood did not conform to the model and, consistent with our hypothesis, proved less effective. Implications for future research regarding the role, responsibilities, and efficacy of the police in disasters are discussed. Language: en
Policing has always been responsive to social and attitudinal shifts in society. Beginning with the shift to modern policing, systems of policing have changed in important ways in a relatively short period of time. Most recently, scholars, practitioners, and elected officials have called for a new paradigm shift in policing. In response to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 some have called upon the police to take a more active stance in counter terrorism initiatives and move toward a homeland security model of policing, a system that emphasizes intelligence gathering, covert investigations, information sharing, and immigration enforcement. The findings from this study suggest that local police departments operationalize homeland security priorities to varying degrees. Data from this study revealed that the police agencies under study did not make attempts to move toward a homeland security focus. While none of the agencies completely disregarded homeland security efforts, the majority of agencies continued to conduct business as usual. What did change was the level of cooperation with federal agencies and information sharing. This change was fostered, in major part, by the increased participation in the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force program. In the final part of the analysis, police officer perceptions concerning the ability of community policing to adequately respond to the threat of terrorism are explored.
Using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (1992–1994), this study tests Donald Black's theory about the behavior of law, specifically the decision to mobilize social control through legal agencies. Results suggest that numerous extralegal factors (e.g., race, gender, wealth, education) affect both crime victims' decisions to call for police intervention and police decisions to arrest. The analysis also suggests that factors predicting calls to police may be different from those presaging arrest. We conclude that the degree of social control (or, in Black's terms, the “quantity of law”) mobilized is not explained significantly by many of the factors that the theory predicts: The poor relied on the police more than did middle-class people, and women used the law more often than men. These findings may indicate that existing measures of crime and legal mobilization do not adequately capture the variation in Black's dependent variable: That is, people with higher status and more access to resources may mobilize social control at the compensatory and therapeutic end of the scale, rather than at the penal end. Alternatively, the data may illustrate changes in police and courts' handling of domestic violence incidents — changes that have occurred since Black first advanced his theory. We discuss implications about the possibility of social change and the need for revising theory.
The present study examined the effects of institutional pressures on homeland security preparedness among law enforcement agencies in Illinois. The data come from the Illinois Homeland Security Survey (IHSS). Specifically, the study employed three theories to explain homeland security preparedness: contingency theory, resource dependence theory, and institutional theory. We hypothesized that institutional pressures will lead to isomorphism as agencies attempt to conform to institutional expectations about appropriate activities in a homeland security era. To evaluate these theories and their impact on homeland security practices, the authors used confirmatory factor analysis. The IHSS data lend strong support to the application of organizational theory as a lens through which homeland security preparedness can be understood. Institutional pressures, such as professional and government publications, training, professional associations, and the actions of peer agencies, significantly influenced municipal and county agencies in Illinois. Funding, while often thought important to encourage preparedness, was not a significant predictor. The results of this analysis advance our understanding of homeland security preparedness via institutional theory by suggesting that the larger environment is salient.
This study identified several important issues that may help increase the understanding of group efficacy constructs. First, it examined multiple assessment methods of collective efficacy and group potency for their predictive validity. Second, it tested their appropriate levels of analysis because this is a central issue for operationalization of the constructs. Finally, it examined how performance feedback affected members' group efficacy perceptions and subsequent performance. Data came from 31 student work groups, which performed two group decision-making tasks over 15 weeks. Results of regression analysis indicated that individual assessment had higher predictive validity than group assessment. Results of within and between analysis showed that group members developed more homogeneous perceptions of their group's efficacy over time. Results of partial least squares analysis indicated that group potency and collective efficacy mediated the relationship between initial performance feedback and subsequent group performance. Based on these results, the authors offer several theoretical and practical implications.
The homeland security mission has placed many new demands on the U.S. system of federalism. The successful implementation
of homeland security policy requires cooperation among all levels of government—federal, state, and local. Regionalism offers
a powerful tool for encouraging greater intergovernmental cooperation and improved homeland security preparedness. We assess
the impact of regionalism on intergovernmental cooperation and the implementation of the homeland security mission in Florida,
an early proponent of the regional approach. From a regional perspective, we evaluate how intergovernmental complexity, the
quality and quantity of intergovernmental networks, and security vulnerabilities contribute to perceived improvements in intergovernmental
cooperation and homeland security preparedness. The results of a 2004 mail survey of city and county officials suggest that
regional organizational structures are most effective in promoting intergovernmental cooperation and preparedness where the
intergovernmental landscape is the most complex and where security vulnerabilities are the most intense.
American policing has been said to have gone through three eras: the political, reform, and community; and consists of four different models of policing: traditional, community policing, problem-oriented and zero-tolerance. With the tragic events of 11 September 2001, and the government's movement toward enhanced domestic security, the author argues that we have entered a new era in American policing and are witnessing the adaptation of a new style of policing, namely Homeland Security. Drawing upon the works of Kelling and Moore (G L Kelling and M H Moore in Perspectives on Policing No 4, Washington DC, National Institute of Justice, 1988; G L Kelling and M H Moore, in J R Greene and S D Mastrofski (eds) Community Policing: Rhetoric or Reality ? Praeger, 1991, pp 3–25) and Greene (J R Greene in Criminal Justice 2000: Policies, Processes, and Decisions of the Criminal Justice System Vol 3, 2000), the author advances their work to highlight what this new era and style of policing means for American policing.
The present research evaluates the hypothesis that dimensions of police organizational structure germane to police reformers may be affected by the dynamics of organizational size and urbanism, thus constraining the ability of reformers to invoke desired structural changes. Using data gathered from police departments in Illinois, we examined the impact of urbanism and size on four dimensions of agency structure of interest to advocates of police reform: concentration, height or segmentation, civilianization, and supervisory ratio. Size revealed both linear and nonlinear influences on two dimensions of structure. This finding suggests that research on factors affecting organizational structure, typically conducted in large departments, may not generalize to smaller agencies. The authors concluded that the influence of size, though affecting dimensions of organizational structure, was generally too modest to substantially constrain structural variation.
This study examines the perceived risk of a terrorist attack, terrorism preparedness activities, and organizational capacity in over 500 Illinois law enforcement agencies. Survey results show that the perceived risk of an attack is relatively low but organizations are taking steps to prepare for large-scale emergencies. The study also found that perceptions of risk predicted the level of preparedness activities and that an organizational leader's confidence in his or her organization's ability to respond to a terrorist incident is influenced by the number of preparedness measures taken. Implications of the research are explored.
This article examines the views of the law enforcement community concerning critical issues related to local preparedness for possible terrorists' incidents. Information is derived from a statewide conference held on domestic preparedness in Ohio. Representatives from law enforcement agencies located in all 88 counties of the state attended the conference, and determined a set of top-five priority issues in response to four discussion questions: (1) critical equipment needs; (2) critical training needs; (3) critical internal issues; and (4) critical external issues.
Analyzes the impact of collective bargaining on the supplemental compensation of employees in large police departments across the nation. Suggests that collective bargaining does make a difference in terms of economic benefits; hazardous duty pay, differential shift pay and educational incentive pay are all more likely to be present when the collective bargaining process is available, and merit pay (a more likely management prerogative policy) is less likely to be present. The correlation between collective bargaining and personnel policy varies greatly, however, when controls for fiscal capacity, organizational size, and region are added to the analysis. Geographic region turns out to constitute an important contextual variable deserving primary attention in future analyses of police personnel policies and practices.
This conceptual article focuses on the small-town municipal-level police department, as a distinctive model within the mosaic of US policing. As an example of the success of a low-tech, nonmilitarized, open systems model, the small-town police department stands in stark contrast to its urban counterpart. As a result of its affinity towards generalization as opposed to specialization, the small-town department has higher crime clearance rates and is organizationally receptive to the demands and requirements of community-oriented policing. The small-town police department’s absence of “professionalism” and militarism is key to its community connectedness, the foundation of its efficacy.
People in the United States have been terrorized on U.S. soil with targeted violence, on various scales and with varying success, for decades.1 Yet, the recent September 2001 attacks and the earlier bombing of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building vividly demonstrate something disturbing and new: Some contemporary terrorists, both home-grown and foreign, are not deterred by-indeed may even be attempting to produce-human casualties on a massive scale. These events are part of a pattern of increasing lethality that started in the 1990s.2 Even more troubling is that, while conventional explosives may continue to be the predominant terrorist weapon, the magnitude of the September 11 attacks coupled with the spread of anthrax-laced letters have led some to conclude that chemical or biological weapons are now more likely than ever to be used.3 Although, strictly speaking, terrorism4 has never been absent from the set of threats facing American citizens, the magnitude and character of recent events have called into question the readiness of the nation's state and local emergency response and health and medical personnel to respond effectively to the next incident, to correctly identify hazards as they occur, and to mitigate damage to persons and property. In particular, response to the anthrax incidents subsequent to September 11 was less than reassuring. While the mode of attack made initial identification and response difficult, authorities also had a hard time organizing, coordinating, and communicating an appropriate response even after anthrax was identified.5 This issue paper has two purposes: (1) to suggest some nationally representative measures of local responder preparedness for chemical and biological terrorism as a baseline for the current debate; and (2) to illustrate the limitations of our measures and describe why quantifying preparedness for terrorism, by any measure, is elusive.
The purpose of this study is to examine the policies that have been used against urban terrorism, and to evaluate their effectiveness. In order to see if a particular policy is effective, the level of terrorist activity will be plotted over time, and then examined to see if the fluctuations bear any relationship to the introduction and operation of the policy.
Measurement invariance is usually tested using Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis, which examines the change in the goodness-of-fit index (GFI) when cross-group constraints are imposed on a measurement model. Although many studies have examined the properties of GFI as indicators of overall model fit for single-group data, there have been none to date that examine how GFIs change when between-group constraints are added to a measurement model. The lack of a consensus about what constitutes significant GFI differences places limits on measurement invariance testing. We examine 20 GFIs based on the minimum fit function. A simulation under the two-group situation was used to examine changes in the GFIs (ΔGFIs) when invariance constraints were added. Based on the results, we recommend using Δcomparative fit index, ΔGamma hat, and ΔMcDonald's Noncentrality Index to evaluate measurement invariance. These three ΔGFIs are independent of both model complexity and sample size, and are not correlated with the overall fit measures. We propose critical values of these ΔGFIs that indicate measurement invariance.
This paper is an explorative study of changes in police organizational structure and operations, and the mindset and culture of individual officers in the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The purpose is to understand the extent and nature of police integration, which represents a philosophical and operational departure from the traditional, localized policing feature in the U.S. A small, non-random survey of police officers from departments of various sizes and documentary research of open source materials and government publications are used to gauge this development. Findings suggest that significant changes have taken place in anti-terror training, communications, and in some instances, regionalized operations and partnerships. Most officers surveyed suggest also that their mindset or culture has changed, regardless of the size of the departments they work in. There is no evidence, however, that the traditional, localized police structure is being replaced by a more integrated system for the purpose of fighting terrorism. The police may instead have reinforced the bureaucratic professional crime-fighting model. The implications of these findings and related institutional concepts are discussed.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, US law enforcement agencies at all levels began altering their strategies, placing an emphasis on the use of aggressive tactics and invasive technology. It is not clear, however, whether the new measures have had any deterrent impact on terrorism or serve the best interests of the public. This paper provides an overview of the post‐September 11 changes in law enforcement, with a focus on the impact the changes have had on community policing programs. It is suggested that aggressive tactics and invasive technology will fail to reduce the threat of terrorism and that strategies based on the fundamental tenets of community policing could be effective against terrorist organizations.
Readers who want a less mathematical alternative to the EQS manual will find exactly what they're looking for in this practical text. Written specifically for those with little to no knowledge of structural equation modeling (SEM) or EQS, the author's goal is to provide a non-mathematical introduction to the basic concepts of SEM by applying these principles to EQS, Version 6.1. The book clearly demonstrates a wide variety of SEM/EQS applications that include confirmatory factor analytic and full latent variable models.
This article examines the adequacy of the “rules of thumb” conventional cutoff criteria and several new alternatives for various fit indexes used to evaluate model fit in practice. Using a 2‐index presentation strategy, which includes using the maximum likelihood (ML)‐based standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) and supplementing it with either Tucker‐Lewis Index (TLI), Bollen's (1989) Fit Index (BL89), Relative Noncentrality Index (RNI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Gamma Hat, McDonald's Centrality Index (Mc), or root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), various combinations of cutoff values from selected ranges of cutoff criteria for the ML‐based SRMR and a given supplemental fit index were used to calculate rejection rates for various types of true‐population and misspecified models; that is, models with misspecified factor covariance(s) and models with misspecified factor loading(s). The results suggest that, for the ML method, a cutoff value close to .95 for TLI, BL89, CFI, RNI, and Gamma Hat; a cutoff value close to .90 for Mc; a cutoff value close to .08 for SRMR; and a cutoff value close to .06 for RMSEA are needed before we can conclude that there is a relatively good fit between the hypothesized model and the observed data. Furthermore, the 2‐index presentation strategy is required to reject reasonable proportions of various types of true‐population and misspecified models. Finally, using the proposed cutoff criteria, the ML‐based TLI, Mc, and RMSEA tend to overreject true‐population models at small sample size and thus are less preferable when sample size is small.
The distribution of State Homeland Security Grants has been characterized as pork barrel spending, where political considerations and not terrorism risk are determining the allocation each state receives. Using revealed preference analysis, we test this claim. From 2004 to 2006, measures of terrorism risk are found to be positive determinants of funding while measures of political influence and party affiliation of elected officials show no positive relationship with grant funding. These results are not compatible with the assertion that funding is distributed due to political factors.
This study seeks to answer the question “What are police doing to counter terrorism?” We use a multistep process to unearth
these global tendencies of police responses. First, we review existing studies which have surveyed police agencies about their
counterterrorism activities. To supplement this existing research, we then report preliminary findings from three new studies
currently underway by the authors and others. We conclude by providing an agenda for future research and action given this
exercise. Specifically, the one major lesson that emerges that influences our agenda is: Despite the proliferation and spending
on police counterterrorism efforts, very little is known about the nature and effectiveness of police counterterrorism strategies.
Clearly, building the knowledge and a research infrastructure to support such knowledge with regard to police counterterrorism
strategies is an essential and currently missing component of this research and action arena.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 have resulted in profound changes in the U.S. policy system. The federal government
has responded to the events of 9/11 and to the ongoing terrorist threat by passing new laws, creating the Department of Homeland
Security, issuing presidential directives, developing new preparedness and crisis management programs, and reorganizing and
redirecting existing programs. Among the effects of these actions are a decrease in emphasis on preparedness and response
for natural and technological disasters; an increase in the role of law enforcement agencies and the military in the management
of domestic emergencies, accompanied by a decline in the importance and influence of the emergency management profession;
and an increase in the importance of “special purpose” initiatives that have the potential for interfering with efforts to
develop comprehensive, integrated, all-hazards approaches to managing extreme events.