Recently in Law Enforcement Category

Source: Lorraine Hope, William Lewinski, Justin Dixon, David Blocksidge, and Fiona Gabbert, Psychological Science, first published on March 7, 2012
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From the abstract:
Understanding memory performance under different operational conditions is critical in many occupational settings. To examine the effect of physical exertion on memory for a witnessed event, we placed two groups of law-enforcement officers in a live, occupationally relevant scenario. One group had previously completed a high-intensity physical-assault exercise, and the other had not. Participants who completed the assault exercise showed impaired recall and recognition performance compared with the control group. Specifically, they provided significantly less accurate information concerning critical and incidental target individuals encountered during the scenario, recalled less briefing information, and provided fewer briefing updates than control participants did. Exertion was also associated with reduced accuracy in identifying the critical target from a lineup. These results support arousal-based competition accounts proposing differential allocation of resources under physiological arousal. These novel findings relating to eyewitness memory performance have important implications for victims, ordinary citizens who become witnesses, and witnesses in policing, military, and related operational contexts.

Source: Karen L. Amendola, David Weisburd, Edwin E. Hamilton, Greg Jones, Meghan Slipka, Police Foundation, December 2011

From the summary:
This report presents the results of the first known comprehensive randomized experiment of CWWs in law enforcement. The Police Foundation experiment was designed to test the impacts of three shift lengths (8-, 10-, and 12-hour) on performance, health, safety, quality of life, sleep, fatigue, alertness, off-duty employment, and overtime among police. In addition to scientifically rigorous research design and methodology, the number of reliable outcome measures employed to analyze the impact of shift length, including departmental data, laboratory simulations and exercises, and previously validated self-report instruments, make this study one of the most comprehensive ever undertaken in this area. The experiment was conducted in the Detroit (MI) and Arlington (TX) Police Departments between January 2007 and June 2009.

The study found some distinct advantages of 10-hour shifts and identified some disadvantages associated with 12-hour shifts that are concerning. It is important that agencies implement strategies and policies that are evidence based, and the findings of this study provide important information for law enforcement leaders and other policy makers to consider when examining both the most efficient and effective practices for their agency, as well as the safety and quality of life of their personnel and the public they serve.
See also:
- Trends in Shift Length: Results of a Random National Survey of Police Agencies
Source: Karen L. Amendola, Meghan G. Slipka, Edwin E. Hamilton, Police Foundation, December 2011
- Law Enforcement Shift Schedules: Results of a 2005 Random National Survey of Police Agencies
Source: Karen L. Amendola. Edwin E. Hamilton, Laura A. Wyckoff, Police Foundation, May 2006; revised November 2011
- Law Enforcement Shift Schedules: Results of a 2009 Random National Survey of Police Agencies
Source: Karen L. Amendola, Meghan G. Slipka, Edwin E. Hamilton, Michael Soelberg, Police Foundation, November 2011
- The Impact of Shift Length in Policing on Performance, Health, Quality of Life, Sleep, Fatigue, and Extra-Duty Employment
Karen L. Amendola, David Weisburd, Edwin E. Hamilton, Greg Jones, Meghan Slipka, Police Foundation, December 2011, Executive summary

Source: Christopher Barnum, Public Personnel Management, Vol. 40 no. 4, Winter 2011
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This article reports the findings of a case study that examines the effect of compressed work scheduling on the overall organizational efficiency of a medium size police department. An efficient scheduling design is one that utilizes a high percentage of employees during busy times and fewer employees during slower times. Efficient scheduling is important because it can mitigate the problems associated with understaffing including tired employees, increased overtimes, and strained officer and citizen relations. This investigation examined the efficiency of four work scheduling proposals. Two of these were compressed scheduling plans and two were traditional designs. The examination found that a proposed 8-hour plan was the most efficient schedule analyzed. Its staffing patterns closely followed fluctuations in call volume, with more officers working during busy times and fewer during slower times. Statistical analysis establish that this model is significantly better than a 12-hour model currently used by the department, or a 8-hour scheduling plan used by the department in 1999. A proposed 10-hour model was found to be the second most efficient. Although not statistically different from other models, its staffing levels generally followed call volume patterns especially during late night peak times.

Source: Shantha M. W. Rajaratnam, Laura K. Barger, Steven W. Lockley, Steven A. Shea, Wei Wang, Christopher P. Landrigan, Conor S. O'Brien, Salim Qadri, Jason P. Sullivan, Brian E. Cade, Lawrence J. Epstein, David P. White, Charles A. Czeisler, JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 306 no. 23, December 21, 2011
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From the abstract:
Context: Sleep disorders often remain undiagnosed. Untreated sleep disorders among police officers may adversely affect their health and safety and pose a risk to the public.

Objective: To quantify associations between sleep disorder risk and self-reported health, safety, and performance outcomes in police officers.

Conclusion: Among a group of North American police officers, sleep disorders were common and were significantly associated with increased risk of self-reported adverse health, performance, and safety outcomes.

Source: National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, December 20, 2011

From the press release:
After an alarming increase in 2010, the number of law enforcement deaths spiked even higher in 2011, rising more than 16 percent nationwide as of December 19, 2011. Firearms-related fatalities rose sharply for the second year in a row at almost 20 percent, while traffic-related deaths decreased by about 11 percent over the previous year. And deaths due to causes other than firearms or traffic-related incidents are up an alarming 92 percent.

Source: Maia Szalavitz, Time, Healthland Blog December 19, 2011

The first study to look at the arrest histories of American youth since the 1960s suggests a sharp increase: about one-third of people are cuffed for something more serious than a traffic violation before their early 20s.
See also:
- Cumulative Prevalence of Arrest From Ages 8 to 23 in a National Sample
Source: Robert Brame, Michael G. Turner, Raymond Paternoster, and Shawn D. Bushway, Pediatrics, Published online December 19, 2011
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- More Than 30 Percent Of Americans Arrested By Age 23, Study Says
Source: Mark Memmott, NPR, Two-Way Blog, December 19, 2011

Source: Tracey Kyckelhahn, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ 236218, December 2011

In 2007, federal, state, and local governments spent $228 billion and employed 2.5 million persons for police protection, corrections, and judicial
and legal services. Local police protection represented the largest share of both total justice expenditures (32%) and employment (36%), followed by state corrections (19% of expenditures and employment).

The findings in this report are based on the Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts (JEE) series, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Government Finance Survey and Annual Survey of Public Employment. The data include yearly information on federal, state, and local government expenditures and employment for three justice functions: corrections, police protection, and judicial and legal services (for definition of terms, see page 9). Expenditure data are presented in real terms (see Methodology for more details). Extract tables from this series are accessible on the BJS website.

Source: FBI, 2011

From the press release:
According to information released today by the FBI, 56 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty last year; 72 officers died in accidents while performing their duties; and 53,469 officers were assaulted in the line of duty. The 2010 edition of Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted released today provides comprehensive tabular data about these incidents and brief narratives describing the fatal attacks.

Source: United States Sentencing Commission, October 2011

From the press release:
Today the United States Sentencing Commission submitted to Congress
its 645-page report assessing the impact of statutory mandatory minimum penalties on federal sentencing....In the report, the Commission recommends with respect to drug offenses that Congress reassess certain statutory recidivist provisions, and consider possible tailoring of the "safety valve" relief mechanism to other low-level, non-violent offenders convicted of other offenses carrying mandatory minimum penalties....The Commission also addresses the overcrowding in the federal Bureau of Prisons, which is over-capacity by 37 percent.
See also:
- U.S. study urges sentencing reform
Source: UPI, October 31, 2011
- States Redefine Felonies to Cut Costs
Source: Whitney Wetzel, WDTV.com, 02 November 2011
- State budget cuts clog criminal justice system
Source: Greg Bluestein, Associated Press, October 26, 2011

Source: Lois M. Davis, Michael Pollard, Kevin Ward, Jeremy M. Wilson, Danielle M. Varda, Lydia Hansell and Paul Steinberg, Prepared for the National Institute of Justice by the RAND Corporation, document number 232791, December 2010

This study examined the long-term adjustments that large, urban law enforcement agencies made to accommodate the renewed focus on counterterrorism and homeland security. The researchers present case studies of five major law enforcement agencies in major metropolitan areas to understand their experiences in these areas post-9/11.