Crimes and Policing in the Information Age

- by Atreyue Ryken

In today’s post 9/11 America, policing and crime have both evolved with the help of the Internet, such as the Silk Road from our Anderson reading for this week. The Internet is making it easier for crimes to be committed secretively, but just as easily publicly. Criminal masterminds such as those behind the Silk Road are able to make practically untraceable transactions online, while at the same time many less-adept criminals can be located thanks to services like Twitter and Facebook. The Internet, and especially the social media services of it are used by government agencies such as the FBI and CIA, as well as local police departments, based on the level and nature of the crimes in question.

However, private institutions can also act as police online. One recent example, taken from the New York Times, is about a young 14-year old Dutch girl impersonating a terrorist on Twitter. She sent out the following tweet: “Hello my name’s Ibrahim and I’m from Afghanistan,” it read. “I’m part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I’m gonna do something really big bye.” American Airlines quickly responded with, “Sarah, we take these threats very seriously. Your IP address and details will be forwarded to security and the FBI.”. This prompt response shows just how seriously this company takes its security, both offline and online. The young girl responded with ““I’m just a girl.” And “I’m so sorry I’m scared now,” essentially begging for forgiveness, and claiming she didn't realize the gravity of her 'joke'. Her local police department said she could face charges, and American Airlines gave no comment , however after threatening to involve the FBI, it was clear that she could have gotten in a lot worse trouble than she did.

These crimes aren't only talked about online, but they are committed. Last week, a Canadian computer science student was arrested for an Internet Privacy Breach, involved in the loss of taxpayer data from Canada's tax agency website. Hackers and traffickers are able to do amazing things online, and much as the crimes have evolved, so have the methods to police them. Just as we learned in class from the Oakland Police Department about using fake Facebook and Twitter followers to catch predators, and how in the Anderson article about the Silk Road, and its eventual end through government intervention.

Times are changing rapidly, and the forces that police need to adapt just as rapidly. New methods to gain information, steal information, and to distribute and sell physical goods and services across the Internet are being established every day, and are becoming harder and harder to trace. Personally, I feel that this new age will promote higher education in government officials and state and local police, and I can see an emphasis on basic computer science and programming knowledge being a requisite for most modern forms of policing in the near future.

Source 1: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/world/europe/dutch-girl-twitter-threat.html?_r=0

Source 2: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/police-charge-canadian-internet-privacy-breach-23354998

The Continuity of a "Fix"

- by Jorge Toledo

The Borrowed Pants case in Cops, Teachers, Counselors reveals a startling bias within the punishment paradigm of the United States. Specifically, the relevant judgment for this assessment was made by the police officer when he reassured himself of his decisions on the girls upon discovering how their lives turned out. He was easier on the adolescent that turned out to have her life together and tougher on the delinquent that continued to have problems. Unfortunately, this sign of perceived validation is a façade that disguises the negative self-fulfilling implications of ascribing an identity in the first place.

In order to engage this discussion, it is important to distinguish the institutionalization of self-actualizing identities by law enforcement from their inevitable occurrence in the interaction between people. When two people engage each other for the first time, at times, a situation will occur in which one person perceives the other to be disinterested in developing a friendship and will thus attempt to embody some sort of reciprocation that concludes their chances of affiliation. In this situation though, the initial perception drives decision-making on both parts but does not actively work to secure its own accuracy.

In the case of law and punishment in the American justice system, the original “fix” induces several procedural mechanisms that necessarily operate to solidify the mold. A clear example of this phenomenon from front line workers was shown in class during the segment from Michael Moore's TV Nation. Even after the police officers noticed Brian Anthony was not guilty after his first-ever arrest, they told him they were now watching him. This reveals the inability to depart from the perception first ascribed to him. Unfortunately, the system works to further entrench individuals the deeper into the operations they go.

The lasting effects of engaging with the legal system seem more devastating given the methodology guiding recent convictions. At 716 per 100,000 people, the United States incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than any other country in the world. These imprisonments come with collateral consequences that make it difficult, if not impossible, to get a job, get a loan, sustain relationships, engage politics etc after getting out. The few alternatives left for convicts helps explain much of the elevated reincarcertaion rates that would, at a glance, seem to further justify their initial conviction. But, the effects of confinement and probation are far from therapeutic.

The “fixes” put on others by front line workers not only attempt to determine future behaviors, but inherently shape them. The debilitating consequences of a lawbreaker identity are counterproductive to the aims of policing. This is particularly alarming given that the umbrella of criminals often includes victims of terrible conditions (like destructive households or sex workers) or offenders of victimless crimes. Therefore, the law is in many ways creating a new threat by housing all offenders in deplorable conditions then throwing them out to the world with incredible restrictions on every aspect of their life. There is a complete disregard for the lack of rehabilitative capacity of imprisonment given the fact that most convicts will be reintroduced to society, at some point. And, granted that there is an inevitability to putting a fix that we have discussed in class, there needs to be a discussion on readjusting the permanence of that fix given the dynamic nature of identity itself.

Sources:

Cops, Teachers, Counselors: Stories from the Front Lines of Public Service
By Steven Williams Maynard-Moody, Michael Craig Musheno

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/13/incarceration-rate-per-capita_n_3745291.html

http://www.pennlawreview.com/print/?id=361

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2072736

Twitter: A Double Edged Law Enforcement Aid

 - by Michael Wu
 As the world becomes increasingly virtually connected through the Internet, police officials have to stay on the cutting edge of technology especially real-time social media networks to aid their crime fighting efforts. In a paper published by the journal Decision Support Systems, University of Virginia’s researchers found, that in 19 out of 25 of the crime types they studied, the addition of Twitter data improves crime prediction performances versus a standard approach of post-crime “kernel density estimation” also known as “hot spot” policing. [1]

With over 140 million users worldwide who are posting over a combined 340 million tweets per day, research has found that through Twitter analytics events such as elections or national revolutions can be forecasted through tracking the content and geographic locations of these tweets. Since tweets contain both geographic clues through “tagging” oneself at events and content about what events are happening in real time, police are able to improve crime prediction and more efficiently allocate police patrols to aid their constituents and save on costs.

Lead researcher Matthew Gerber of the university's Predictive Technology Lab and author said, “Even tweets that have no direct link to crimes may contain information about activities often associated with them. What people are tweeting about are their routine activities. Those routine activities take them into environments where crime is likely to happen.” [2]

While most crimes are not out right confessed to on Twitter or other social media sites, police are able to use context clues to piece together locations where crime is more likely to occur. For example at a party as people tweet about how they are getting drunk together and there are certain crimes that become more likely as inebriation rises among people, police can know that the likelihood of a crime occurring in that area is higher and allocate more police officers around the area accordingly.

The importance of real-time data became apparent last week when a 14-year old Dutch girl jokingly tweeted a terror threat at American Airlines. In the tweet she wrote, “@AmericanAir hello my name's Ibrahim and I'm from Afghanistan. I'm part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I'm gonna do something really big bye.” American Airlines subsequently followed up by responding, “@QueenDemetriax_ Sarah, we take these threats very seriously. Your IP address and details will be forwarded to security and the FBI.” Subsequently the girl was arrested and charged with posting “false/alarming announcements” under Dutch laws. [3]

While the previous scenario was much less serious than a legitimate bomb threat, the speed with which authorities were able to respond to the threat being posted demonstrates the power of Twitter analytics. The girl turned herself in within a few hours after authorities began to close in on her location after receiving the tweet. In a real-world terrorist situation the speed at which authorities move to apprehend a terror suspect could mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people. [4]

One interesting thought I had concerning the topic of social media network posts to aid policing was how the Internet and its social media site surveillance are still at their nascent stage in being utilized as a law enforcement aid. While Twitter can be a helpful tool as seen in the swift arrest of the Dutch 14-year old girl, it can also serve as a double-edged sword. Just hours after this particular arrest, dozens of teenagers sent tweets at American Airlines parodying the girl’s “terrorist threat” as the news went viral. In addition to wasting taxpayer money and man-power as authorities then have to shoulder the responsibility of investigating all of these tweets, these types of “trolls” and jokes only dangerously serve to obfuscate legitimate threats and hinder law enforcement efforts to engage with social media.
      
[1] http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2014/04/20/researchers-twitter-can-predict-crime/6DaUTjYGHMtZqpezsIGxwL/story.html

[2] http://ptl.sys.virginia.edu/ptl/sites/default/files/manuscript_gerber.pdf

[3] http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/14/travel/dutch-teen-arrest-american-airlines-terror-threat-tweet/

[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/04/14/dozens-of-teenagers-are-now-tweeting-bomb-jokes-to-american-airlines/

Racial Profiling or Racist Policing

- by Tina Truong

Driving while Black is an unseen crime in the United States. Even though, “Driving while Black” is a term generally heard by most, many are unsure of what the terms means and how it actually affects African Americans. Even more notorious than “Driving while Black” are the NYPD’s stop and frisk policies, which allow the NYPD is stop pedestrians who they deemed suspicious. Outraged poured over the stop and frisk policies, garnering national attention. So why not for driving while black? The main differentiator is the idea of legitimacy. For the NYPD’s stop and frisk, it appears as if these pedestrian stops are racially motivated, with 88% of those stopped being released due to their innocence. However, when someone is stopped over a traffic infraction, it is harder to track “innocence” as a crime has been committed, even if the crime is minor such as a traffic accident or broken headlight.

When looking at racial profiling, some may “explain away” the large disparity between those who are stopped, by saying that African Americans are stopped more because they are committing more crimes. This is still discrimination. As citizens and academics, we must try to determine if these racial traffics stops are a product of statistical discrimination or preference based discrimination. Statistical discrimination is the inequality of race, gender, etc based on stereotypes. This can be anything from charging elderly people more for life insurance to requiring a Bachelor’s degree for a job. If this case were true than racial disparities in a large collection of data of stops and searches do not imply prejudice. This would give validity to a police officer who attempt to maximize successful searches if black drivers are more prone to carrying contraband. However, if police officers are profiling drivers because the officer is racist themselves; this would be an example of preference based policing.

Researchers have tried to examine this problem many ways. Generally racial profiling is difficult to prove because of hidden or lack of data. One of the most compelling tests I found for determining this question is known as the Knowles, Persico and Todd model. In this game theory-esque model, they tried to de-emphasized guilt and innocence. In their statistical model, they placed motorist and officers up against each other giving each two actions, shown in the picture. The researchers determined that the police take into account race, gender, age, residential address of the driver, interior of the car, the smell of the driver or car, whether the driver is intoxicated and their demeanor. Their model implies that if police are unprejudiced the rate of guilt should not vary across groups. With data from Interstate 95 in Maryland, the Researchers found equal guilt rates for African-Americans and whites and conclude that the data is not consistent with racial prejudice against African-Americans.

But even if there is legitimate reason for African Americans and other minorities to be stopped more, we have to consider what happens during these stops? For Karen Brank in the Harris Reading, additional cops were called, and she was handcuffed and detained for a traffic ticket; something Brank was sure that if she was white, she would not have had to go through. This is not just just stories. In a recent Arizona case, it was proven that Hispanics, when stopped by police, were detailed 14 seconds longer on average.

Sources:

Shamena Anwar & Hanming Fang, 2006. "An Alternative Test of Racial Prejudice in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 127-151, March.

David A. Harris. Driving While Black and All Other Traffic Offenses: The Supreme Court and Pretextual Traffic Stops, 87 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 544 (1996-1997)

John Knowles & Nicola Persico & Petra Todd, 2001. "Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(1).

“Stop-and-Frisk Data.” Nyclu.org. New York Civil Liberties Union, 2013. Web. 10 Mar 2014.

David Schwartz. Judge Grills Arizona Sheriff's Aide in Racial Profiling Case. (2014, April 3) www.reuters.com.

Interagency Collaboration and Local Law Enforcement Surveillance

- by Atli Thorkelsson

In the wake of 9/11, one of the biggest changes made to nationwide policing systems has been a massive increase in information sharing. As criminals become increasingly global, information must be shared more widely and more rapidly than ever before, or that is the reason given for the increasing centralization of information controlled by policing agencies. Not only is information more readily available to federal agencies, but there is also more of it. Since the WTC attacks, there has been a push to increase the ability of local and state agencies to gather and analyze intelligence about citizens[1].

Both of these trends raise concerns. For one thing, this vastly increases the amount of manpower and funding devoted to gathering and analyzing information about the American public. With the widespread accusations of racism, harassment, and any other number of complaints leveled against organizations like the NYPD and LAPD, there is no lack of distrust there, and so it is certainly a cause for concern that these agencies are being given more power in collecting information about any individuals or groups that they choose are a threat. If racism and profiling is so prevalent on a street level[2], there is little chance of minorities being given a fair shot in surveillance done behind closed doors.

In addition to concern over local law enforcement’s increasing power, another thing to be aware of is the increasing centralization of information. Federal agencies no longer need to do their intelligence gathering on an individual basis – as long as any agency in the country does it, federal agencies can get a hold of the information gleaned and use this to build more complete profiles of people. As has been discussed in this class, this information can be used in a number of ways and is certainly cause for concern.

[1] http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/policing-post-911-era.html


[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/stop-and-frisk-nypd-mistrust_n_3955175.html

Diversification and its Importance to Community

- by Dylan Tong

As Sergeant Joshi in her presentation and Professor Musheno throughout the course have emphasized, diversity is one of the most important elements for the police to create legitimacy with the communities they police. Diversity allows the law enforcement agency to not only make necessary changes within its organization to become in-sync diversification-wise with the community it serves but also to establish stronger connections with neighborhood associations. By bringing in officers from the communities they are going to policing, they act as both agents of order and agents within the communities. This allows officers to bring in concerns they’ve experienced within their own communities and address them efficiently, such as the fear of the police being present in their neighborhoods.

In her presentation, Sergeant Joshi mentioned that “the police coming into the neighbor was never a good thing growing up.” This sense of fear affects many communities such as Oakland. During the recruitment for new officers, Oakland Police officers, residents, and community advocates voiced their opinion that “new cops should live in the Oakland, know the city, and care about its interests.” This solution has been brought up ever since we learned about policing and legitimacy, especially within the Alameda-Bernal Heights Model.

One East Oakland resident Reggie Wooden points out that “Like every other black kid growing up in Oakland, a fear in cops is just bred in your from day one.” As an applicant for a position within Oakland Police Department, his goal is to break the cycle of fear born in those growing up in Oakland. By using his own knowledge of the city, he as well as many other applicants hope to aid the police in turning the negative image of law enforcement around and make people feel safe when the police are patrolling their neighborhood.

Local knowledge is proving to be more important as a factor in recruiting and for good reasons. Officer Juan Sanchez, who has been a recruiter for eight years, originally entered the force when it believed that it was best to recruit out of state. Having grown up in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, he criticizes the old model, believing local knowledge is valuable since it promotes stronger ties with the community. These ties can result in locals recognizing him, conversing with him in their native language, and feeling comfortable reporting potential crimes happening in the area. Increasing diversification then provides law enforcement with the means of creating or repairing legitimacy within communities they police.

However, there is still a lot of work which must be done to repair the distrust with the police. One report says that between 2000 and 2010, just 16 officers were responsible for nearly half of the total shootings. A community member under a gang injunction believes the police are similar to a gang insofar as they protect each other and don’t snitch if their partner does something wrong. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to be let go once you become a cop, resulting in some of these officers never truly being accounted for.

Nonetheless, increased diversification is a positive step in the right direction for law enforcement. In order to create a more positive image, it is necessary for law enforcement to understand the community they police and be a part of it, whether it be going up to kids and asking them to play basketball with them as part of their patrol duties or organizing community meetings. Although having greater trust in the police is important for community, having trust within the community amongst its own residents should also be an important factor. By cultivating a sense of community amongst those living in it and with those watching over it, it should help speed up the process of turning communities with negative attitudes such as Oakland around.

Sources:

http://kalw.org/post/can-new-crop-oakland-cops-help-build-community-trust

http://www.npr.org/2012/09/27/161885219/aurora-colo-tries-to-capitalize-on-its-ethnic-riches

Prostitution vs Human Trafficking

- by Alexander Solodovnikov

Last week’s lecture by guest speaker Sgt. Holly Joshi brought up some crucial points regarding human trafficking, particularly in the sphere of prostitution. To be honest, prior to this lecture my opinion on this issue was similar to the one that Sergeant had before her service in the human trafficking department: prosecution of the adults consenting to exchange money for sexual services should not be the priority of police. Activities like drug dealing seem to bring way greater negative externalities for the society, such as illegal distribution of guns and rise of violent crimes as a consequence of it. Thus, police should be concentrating on investigation and prevention of activities that cause greater public disorder and not spending their time on what seems to be a harmless market exchange from the first sight.

However, Sergeant has managed to draw some great distinctions between prostitution as a voluntary exchange of services for money and human trafficking as a control over person through force, fraud for labour or services (including sexual). Her examples of ‘pimps’ taking control over 13 year old girls and persuading (forcing) them to get involved in sexual work in the exchange for food and breaking away from their parents, clearly illustrate that all types of prostitution cannot be treated in the same manner. Human trafficking is surely a better term for the characterisation of cases described by Sergeant. The instances that involve coercion of women by the third-party (‘pimp’) cannot be considered to be a voluntary market exchange and have to be investigated by the police.

Another point made by Sergeant that was particularly of interest was about the use of social media and modern technologies by ‘pimps’ as a tool for the recruitment and advertisement. CNN reported last week about a 22 year old woman Devin Miller who is suspected in procuring two underaged girls and offering their services via ads on several websites in Florida. Investigation determined that one of the girls was 16 and had been reported missing. Interview of one of the girls revealed that they have often robbed men at gunpoint when they arrived. However, none of these robberies were reported as Miller threatened men to tell the police that they came to her house to get sex services. According to this report, besides the prostitution and robberies, drug use has also occurred in that house. It was a tip submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding these internet ads that brought attention of the Sheriff’s office to this case. This report illustrates how many criminal activities can be hidden behind what seems to be a voluntary market exchange. It also confirms the necessity of monitoring over the websites and social networks by the police and civil society for the prevention of human trafficking crimes.

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/09/justice/florida-teen-prostitution-robbery-lure/

Lecture on ‘Human Trafficking’ by Sgt. Holly Joshi

From One Extreme to the Other

- by Jesse Ryckman

Overreaction and knee-jerk responses must be standard operating procedure for school boards these days. In a we-don’t-know-what-else-to-do response to drugs and violence in public schools, education bureaucracies across America instituted zero-tolerance policies punishing all infractions however minor and without regard to extenuating circumstances. As an example, Aaron Kupchick, in his book, Homeroom Security, cites the case of a six-year-old Latino boy who was arrested and taken to court for telling his teacher in an angry outburst that he would bring “a gun and a bomb” to school. The judge immediately dismissed the case and complained about seeing “a Niagara of cases like this due to [counterproductive] zero-tolerance policies.”[1] And we’ve all heard of the cases where kids have been suspended for pointing their fingers in the shape of a gun or for bringing a Nerf gun to school for a class project.[2]

Zero tolerance policies initially began in 1994 as the result of a mandate by the federal government. Although the federal mandate applied only to firearms, most states took it a step further and applied the rule to include anything that could be used or perceived as a weapon.[3] These zero-tolerance polices are now often derided as zero-intelligence policies for all the good they do.[4] According to Kupchick, these ineffective one-size-fits-all policies are a response to “fear and general insecurities rather than careful, evidence-based deliberation.”[1] They often ignore real student problems and generally cause more problems than they fix. The ACLU and other civil rights advocates stated that the policies “lead to a school-to-prison pipeline that discriminates against minority students.”[3] Attorney General Eric Holder said, “A routine school disciplinary infraction should land a student in the principal’s office, not in a police precinct.”[5]

With the increasing unintended consequences of yet another federal mandate, in January of this year the Obama administration urged schools to abandon zero-tolerance policies. Based on the premise that zero tolerance policies discriminate against minorities, the administration “recommended” that schools should handle all disciplinary issues internally, and to make sure that minority students were not disciplined in numbers disproportionate to their race. (The “recommendation” came with a threat that schools would face “strong action” if they ignored it.)[5]

Not wanting to be impertinent (or loose federal funding), the second largest school district in the United States, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) took immediate action. Great! But what did they do? Well, it’s somewhat hard to believe, but in what is being called “ground-breaking action” by the Los Angeles Times, the LAUSD school board decided to virtually eliminate punishment altogether! Yes, really. The new policy bans suspensions of students for “willful defiance.”[6] That means that if a student says to a teacher, “F--- you, I’m not turning off my cell phone, and you can kiss my a--,” well, the student can no longer be suspended. Can’t wait to see what the unintended consequences of this policy will be.

Like I said at the beginning, overreaction and knee-jerk responses must be standard operating procedure these days. Kupchick attributed the zero-tolerance policies to “fear and general insecurities rather than careful, evidence-based deliberation.” Who was it that said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same?”

From too much discipline to none at all. From one extreme to the other. Just before the introduction to his book, Kupchick quotes Will Rogers: “The schools ain’t what they used to be and never was.” Boy, ain’t that the truth!

Sources:

1. Kupchick, A. [2010]. Homeroom security: school discipline in an age of fear. New York, NY: New York University Press.

2. http://www.delawareonline.com/story/life/family/2014/04/07/guns-public-health-issue-even-kids-know/7436459/

3. Kaitlyn, J. [2013]. How federal zero tolerance policies failed to promote educational success, deter juvenile legal consequences, and confront new social media concerns in public schools. Journal of Law & Education, Fall2013, Vol. 42 Issue 4, p739-749.

4. http://www.delawareliberal.net/2009/10/06/zero-tolerance-is-zero-intelligence/

5. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/obama-administration-recommends-ending-zero-tolerance-policies-in-schools/#the-rundown

6. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/14/local/la-me-lausd-suspension-20130515

Personal data on the Internet : is Europe really more protective than the US?

- by Romain Millard

During one of his classes, Professor Musheno argued that Europe had massively invested to protect privacy compared to the United States. I got interested in this dichotomy and I wanted to see whether the gap between the two continents had got any significant impact on the recent PRISM scandal.

In a context of discussion between the EU and the USA regarding to the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s revelations, Rikke Frank Joergensen, special advisor at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, analyses the gap between the protective legislation on privacy and the actual surveillance practices on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in an essay published on February 27th 2014.

First, she challenges the dichotomy EU-US regarding to the protection of private data. She reminds that formally, the United States is part of the international move for a better protection of personal data on the Internet, alongside with its European partners. A few days before the beginning of Snowden scandal, it even participated to the launch of the new OECD Privacy Framework which insisted on the necessity to increase « privacy protection in the digital environment ». The United States is also supposed to be bound to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 whose Article 12 promotes the right to privacy and to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCR) issued by the United Nations in 1966 whose Article 17 bans « arbitrary or unlawful interference with anyone’s privacy or correspondence and establishes for all state parties a positive obligation to create a legal framework for the effective protection of privacy rights against interference or attacks. »

It is true that formally, European legislation and precedent offer an extensive protection of personal data. In 2008, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) itself has stated that « the protection of personal data is of fundamental importance to a person’s enjoyment of his right to privacy » (S. and Marper v. the UK, December 4, 2008). Overall, data protection is recognized by the Article 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union as a binding fundamental right.

Yet, Joergensen notices that this legal framework did not allow to prevent the intrusive PRISM program from collecting data produced by European citizens, since most Internet-service providers come from the United States (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple etc…). If the EU may officially negociate stricter agreements for the exchange of personal data with the USA, it has actually little power to enforce its standards toward its American partner. For the moment, the propositions to respond the PRISM scandal only consist in enhancing the existing European protective mechanisms, reviewing the EU-US agreements but they do not dare to challenge the lawfulness of the PRISM programme with regard to international human rights law.

Several reports are expected to be issued by the United Nations over the next months, noticeably the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, at the General Assembly of next September. This report should be about « the protection and promotion of the right to privacy in the context of domestic and extraterritorial surveillance to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council».

Joergensen’s essay shows that, formally, the rules on privacy are more legally binding in the European Union. Yet, due to its internal divisions and its institutional weaknesses, it does not have the means to fully enforce its standards, especially toward a foreign partner as powerful as the United States. In my opinion, it is very unlikely that the reports issued by the United Nations will have any effect on the determination of the American legislators who support intrusive programmes like PRISM under the banner of national security. The Republican Senator Lindsay Graham summed up the thought of many of her colleagues with this sentence : “We got to hit them before they hit us”. Even if it implies to hit allies?

Sources

http://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/can-human-rights-law-bend-mass-surveillance

http://policyreview.info/articles/news/eu-and-us-discuss-divergent-recommendations-mass-surveillance/228

Can Arming Teachers Be the Solution as Street-Level Workers?

- by Sophie Park

Many of us still remember the awful shooting incidents at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, which resulted with the death of 20 children, ages six and seven, and six adults. The reoccurrence of such incidents, like the New Mexico middle school shooting, continue to trigger emotions of shock to society. While we perceive those public schools as one of the safest government institutions, these events have left a permanent scar on the community, and there are never-ending debates on how they can be stopped. The main focus of these debates has been on whether or not teachers should be armed. The National Rifle Association’s Executive Vice President, Wayne LaPierre, believes that “only a good guy with a gun can stop school shootings,” which was said after the Sandy Hook incident (Memmott). Some states have already agreed to permitting schools to have teachers armed to ensure the safety of their students.

State-level VS Street-level

As Professor Musheno mentioned in lecture, we have found that the roles of the police and teachers as the matter-of-fact agency for problem solving, particularly in these incidents, were very much alike and compatible at the same time. The shootings have resulted in questioning the accessibility and competence of local law enforcement, who arrived at the shooting scene 14 minutes after the first call. Society has begun demanding additional forms of protection, one that is more practical and easily accessible on sight: trained and armed teachers on school grounds to protect their students, should a shooter walk in.

Apart from the uncertainty in the effectiveness of arming teachers or the risks exposing children to more dangerous situations and firearms on a daily basis, the main concern with this issue is the idea of “street-level workers” working under the state power to push individuals to meet certain social morals. Do we want to substitute trained policemen with social workers? Moreover, do their professional or occupational identities as “teachers” and society’s perception of them as morally upright justify the supposed sense of trust in them? If so, then, are the concerns raised by distraught citizens stemming from the local law enforcement, itself, or from the apparent dysfunctionality of the institution as the sole means against fighting such crimes? Do we want to supplement law enforcement with street-level workers?

Professional Identity VS Social Identity

We may view the police and teachers as state-level versus street-level workers, with cops having a direct response to serving and protecting society and teachers indirectly upholding their public responsibility by enforcing social norms on their students. The author, Maynard-Moody, and Professor Musheno also illustrate such similarities through the story of “Lack of Support,” in the book, “Cops, teachers, counselors: stories from the front lines of public service.” The story defines the struggles and concerns teachers have when they desire to correct or change their students’ behaviors. There is a blurry line where teachers are not clear about the extent of their authority, and feel lost and helpless, explained as “teachers' unsettled occupational identity” (61). Such feelings are a result of the confusion between their occupational identity, which questions their legal authority, and their social identity, which internalizes their roles as street-level workers who feel responsibility to enforce morals. As Maynard-Moody and Professor Musheno also point out, “Street-level workers describe themselves as citizen agents enforcing moral standards and norms, but they are also and unavoidably state agents. They cannot reject the state-agent role and the demands and tensions it brings to their work. Street-level workers cannot shed the responsibility that comes with the state-assigned power over others” (157). The identity issues arising from the alternative or supplementary means of arming teachers in their professional or social role creates a controversial matter. There is also the issue of teachers being capable of harnessing the coercive power policemen have over their students or administration. What good would the policy do if armed teachers are incapable of functioning effectively as security for the children in these incidents? As another story in Professor Musheno’s book, “Remembering My First Arrest” illustrates, teachers being able to function as street-level workers may conflict with the issues of the reality of bureaucratic or administrative aspects of school systems that they are in, which is not at the same level of reality as other social workers who can only work under the state power. 

State and citizen narratives

The concept of the police as local law enforcement also confronts the difficulties in state-citizen narratives: “The cop reveals a tension between his occupational and social identities as he digresses from the incident to a characterization of officers who dominated the occupation in the 1970s and early 1980s” (68). Because the cop also has struggles in the bureaucratic setting that might challenge an individual’s social identity, observing shooting incidents and the problem solving process in a state-citizen narrative is very critical. Could teachers completely take their social identities apart from their occupational identities? What would one decide under the bureaucratic imperative settings? This is a fundamental concern that needs to be answered first before we aggressively have teachers armed. The issues of teachers as “street-level workers” with unsettled identities, challenged narratives from different angles, bureaucratic realities, and being able to yield the same level of authority to establish coercion and enforcement must all be settled in order to successfully protect schools from future shootings.

Sources

http://www.indianagazette.com/news/opinions-letters/as-i-see-it-back-whites-bill-on-arming-teachers,19611681/

http://krqe.com/2014/03/04/educators-law-enforcement-receive-new-school-safety-training/

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/living/schools-teacher-shooter-defense-training/

http://kut.org/post/only-good-guy-gun-can-stop-school-shootings-nra-says

“Cops, teachers, counselors: stories from the front lines of public service” by Steven Maynard-Moody and Michael Musheno

Psychological effects of racial profiling

- by Warinya Rojanasuwan

The ultimate goal of police department is to prevent crime. They would use any methods that they found helpful in finding the suspects or prevent dangerous situations to occur. There are few theories that we have learned in this class such as broken window or community based policing, to name a few. Another method that has emerged and might be the most disturbing way of catching the suspect is racial profiling. Not only it doesn’t help prevent the crime, it also creates psychological effects to minorities, majorities and people in the society.

Racial profiling is defined as “a practice in law enforcement based on the belief that a person's category membership (e.g., ethnicity, national origin) functions as an indicator of criminal propensity”(sun). There are a lot of stop and frisks going on especially on the roads on the highway. With the innovation of technology, officers now able to use MDT to track drivers and record their profile. The data has shown only a small group of officers are using the machine results in higher level of stopping African American driver. It is not wrong that officers have a feeling about race and place but it’s resulted that, when the technology is available to them, they tend to use it to confirm their believes or conceptions more. (Meehan).

The problem is, not only it creates the inequalities and violate the fourth amendment, it also increase a lot of other problems such as rate of hate crime and make black people believe the place that they belong is jail or unpleasant place. This also creates what one of the researcher, Amy Hackney calls it reverse deterrent, the study that you could find in article below shows that racial profiling does increase the crime in white people because they believe they could get away with it easily. The study also shows that it didn’t decrease the cheating in black people as well. So what would be the advantages of racial profiling at all if the goal is to eliminate crime?

The good news is there’s still hope! Recently, the Chief police of Palo alto, Ron Davis has tried community policing method by sending his officers to the community, make them get to know each others and prep the police with the information he should know. Both the citizen and officers admitted that it changed their view towards each other. The citizens feel like the officers are trying to help and they response positively. It resulted in the decreasing rate of recidivism rate for about 40 percent in three years. Davis believed it has stopped his officer from stereotyping and encourage other city to follow.

Sources

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-inertia-trap/201308/how-stop-and-frisk-affects-white-people

http://kalw.org/post/psychology-racial-profiling-policing

http://atlantablackstar.com/2012/06/08/psychology-professor-explores-the-science-behind-racial-profiling/

A Second Chance for a Worthy Client

- by Victoria Rodriguez
“Cops, Teachers, Counselors” uses storytelling to chronicle the patterns of front line workers’ discretionary judgments of offenders and citizen-clients. Decisions that front line workers make depend on interplay between rules and personal beliefs. Their expectations are tempered by hard-earned street smarts about individuals within different contexts. Front line workers pragmatically adjust aid depending on assessments of the clients’ character and identity. Moments of exceptional help arise from assessments that deem the client or offender worthy.

In Florida, a Publix grocery store manager caught a struggling mother, Jessica Robles, shoplifting hundreds of dollars of groceries for her hungry children. Instead of being arrested, however, a police officer, Vicki Thomas, decided to buy the mother food and give her a ride home. Officer Thomas explains,

“She was crying. I said, ‘Okay, what did she take?’ And he pointed to a grocery cart that was full of groceries. She just filled up the grocery cart and she just walked out, which shocked me and I asked her, ‘Why?’” Thomas recalled. “She said, ‘My children were hungry.’ And that immediately impacted me.”

Thomas and her partner completed paperwork, and then she grabbed her debit card and bought $100 of groceries that would sustain the Robles family for a few weeks. When Officer Thomas brought the groceries out, Robles burst into tears and hugged the officer. Officer Thomas exercised discretion whether to arrest Robles or charge her with a misdemeanor since the amount of goods totaled just under $300. Thomas technically arrested Robles, who had no priors for shoplifting, but did not take her into custody. The officers dropped Robles and the groceries off at her house, and met her children, who were incredibly thankful.

Thomas claims Robles’ case was unusual. Why did Robles deserve extraordinary services? For Thomas, it was personal. She states, “My grandchildren flashed before my eyes. I knew at that time I was going to buy her groceries.” Thomas continues, "She touched me, when I asked her why she did it and she said she needed to feed her children, I could relate. I was a single mom and without the help of my family, that could have been me. And so I needed to do my job but I also needed to help her."

Robles represented a positive social identity, but had engaged in unacceptable conduct. Legal mandates would not address Robles’ poverty or hunger; demonstrating the tension between the demands and limits of law. Thomas identified with Robles’ social position, creating a close emotional space to allow her to provide services. Thomas decided that Robles had both flaws and strengths that the current policies and laws did not adequately address. Instead, Officer Thomas bypassed the rigid legal structure, and engaged in extra-legal support.

Moody-Maynard and Musheno argue extraordinary service for worthy clients happens more frequently than Officer Thomas leads on. For example, in “Cops, Teachers, Counselors,” another deserving client, Francisco, made a mistake by selling small amount of marijuana. Moody-Maynard and Musheno claim that people like Francisco and Robles, who have had difficult lives, are unlikely to become career criminals; therefore, they are allowed to break the law at least once. By giving these hardworking parents a chance, they prevent hardship on their families and save state resources by not jailing individuals unlikely to commit crimes.

While Florida law enforcement has been incredibly brutal and incompetent in prior cases involving young people of color—namely, Jordan Davis and Trayvon Martin—Officer Thomas’ brand of community policing is a step in the right direction to gain the trust of marginalized communities. Furthermore, Officer Thomas, a 23-year veteran, formed part of the just 2% of women serving in police enforcement in 1990. Today, that figure has reached 25%; more closely mirroring the compositions found in the population. Officer Thomas’ extraordinary service to a needy mother who she personally identified with exemplifies the importance of being in touch with the community’s necessities and tribulations to increase legitimacy and positive visibility.

Sources:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/10/florida-cop-buys-100-in-groceries-for-woman-caught-shoplifting-food/

“Cops, Teachers, Counselors” by Steven Maynard-Moody and Michael Musheno

Policing Urban Youth in Schools and on the Streets

- by Mandeep Thind

Violence and criminal activities that occur in schools aren’t something new. The scariest thing a parent has to hear is a violent attack against school students. Unfortunately, the percentage of these crimes has grown in schools across the country. Schools that are near violent neighborhoods and unsafe districts are even more dangerous. In order to keep schools safe, educators are starting to hire more aggressive security measures and police officers that have received the right type of training. For educators, an undeniably effective method of reducing the chances of violent activities happening on campus is tighter security.

In our required text, Policing the lives of Black and Latino boys, author Victor Rios tells his own story of how he grew up in the ghetto of Oakland and was pulled to join a gang at the age of thirteen. He states, “I joined the gang seeking protection that I thought the police and other authority figures in my community had failed to provide.” I remember in high school one of my friends who was of African American descent would always get stopped by the school security because they always thought he was up to no good even though he was innocent. For example, Rios talks about how his friend Smiley used to get stopped by the police while walking home from school just because his baggy clothes had a connection with a gang.

Just this past Saturday, at UC Santa Barbara a event called Deltopia which is a giant drunken street party into what people described as a “riot.” Once it turned violent, hundreds of law enforcement officers were sent in to help. More than hundreds were arrested and citations were also given. News reported that there was cases of alcohol poisoning and people were sent to the hospital. A freshman at UC Santa Barbara explained how the riot got out of control and people were tearing down stop signs, holding them up like weapons and even burning things. Many law enforcement officers were sent to the hospital because students threw glass bottles at them, so, either way, this is a illustrative example of policing getting out of control. The question that rises here is how we, as a society, could prevent riots at schools from happening and also how we could construct a good relationship with law enforcement. With all aspects considered, having tighter security in schools would be effective in disciplining students, thereby paving a clearer path for the future.

Sources:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/04/06/299913190/deltopia-spring-break-party-morphs-into-riot-in-santa-barbara

http://www.noozhawk.com/article/ucsb_students_react_to_deltopia_riots_20140406

Rios, Victor M. Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. New York: New York UP, 2011. Print.

The Rise of Women in Law Enforcement

- by Thomas Smith

Last week in lecture, Professor Musheno commented on the rising proportion of women to men in law enforcement that has taken place in recent years. However, there are still a number of factors inhibiting the representation of women in law enforcement, including bias from male officers, the lack of recruitment strategies and mentoring programs for female officers, and the prevalence of sexual harassment in these departments. Despite these setbacks though, the solidarity of women in law enforcement has continuously grown due to support in the forms of lawsuits, studies showing the effectiveness of female police officers, and the public.

Many discrimination lawsuits have been filed by female candidates and officers, which often result in agencies being forced to change their policies regarding hiring and/or promoting women. In addition to this, many female officers have filed sexual harassment lawsuits as well, and a majority of these cases are decided in the plaintiff’s favor. Unfortunately, many of the women who bring up these lawsuits are faced with retaliation and resentment afterwards from the police department, but it’s very possible that the people who are willing to challenge the system will benefit everyone in policing in the long run.

Several studies have also shown that women have a style of policing that is very distinct from that of male officers, in that they are much less confrontational and less reliant on physical force, all while still performing their duties at a satisfactory level. Because of this, police brutality and excessive force (two problems that have caused major setbacks for police forces, in terms of money needed to settle lawsuits and the legitimacy of the police department) are considerably less prevalent among female officers. There are also studies showing that the growing population female police officers have made law enforcement agencies more adept at handling cases of violence against women, namely domestic violence. These studies have suggested that female officers believe more strongly in the need to sympathize and understand domestic disputes when trying to successfully resolve them, as well as the need to respond to domestic violence as a crucial police duty. Also, if the victims of domestic abuse feel that their pleas will be treated more seriously, it would help to reduce the number of domestic violence cases that go unreported.

Lastly, while there is some resistance from within the law enforcement agencies, attitudes regarding female police officers have been gradually changing for the better, and most are no longer skeptical about women’s ability to handle any situation as well as a male could, hence the slow but steady growth of their position in law enforcement.

Sources:

http://cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/07-2013/women_in_law_enforcement.asp

http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&article_id=1000

The Front-Line Troops: Paramilitary Policing in American Neighborhoods

- by Jessica Siah

One of the topics that Professor Musheno focused on these past few lectures have been frontline workers interactions with their citizen-clients and how that, in turn, impacts the citizens’ orientation of the government and public services. Blader and Tyler’s research also shows that people’s judgment of fairness is influenced by two aspects of the street-level workers that they encounter: “the quality of decision making by those authorities and the quality of the treatment that they receive from them” (747). This means that the increasing tendency of public law enforcement to use paramilitary tactics is highly concerning and may undermine the legitimacy of the agency itself.

According to an article in The Economist, evidence shows that the American police are behaving more and more like soldiers rather than cops. The Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) units of many police departments were initially formed to deal with high-risk operations that are outside the ability of normal law officers; however, the past few decades have seen a mission creep in the use of SWAT teams. Peter Kraska, a professor of Justice Studies, estimates that “SWAT teams were deployed about 3,000 times in 1980 but are now used around 50,000 times a year” (The Economist). What is problematic about this statistic is that SWAT teams are often called on for mundane crimes, such as serving search warrants in homes and routine patrols of high-crime areas.

Most SWAT raids rely on “no-knock” warrants obtained from a court, which allows unannounced, forceful entry into a private property if police have a “reasonable suspicion” that signaling their presence would endanger themselves or their mission (The Economist). Such burden of proof is vague and broad, thus, relying on public law enforcement judgments about the suspects involved and how to interpret the legal standard in certain circumstances. In our reading, Maynard-Moody and Musheno demonstrate that frontline workers often use discretion to give extraordinary help to a select few citizen-clients that they feel are worthy. Conversely, when responding to those deemed unworthy or “the bad guys,” the same workers may use rules and procedures to justify their moral judgment and irresponsible use of power (150-151). An example of this can be seen in the statement made by Gary Mikulec, chief of the Ankeny PD, when he defended the decision to raid the house of a disabled ex-serviceman for allegedly stolen items. While they found no such things, two suspects were nonetheless taken into custody on unrelated charges because according to the chief they “were not very good people” (The Economist).

Street-level discretion is arguably more problematic for police since their job entails dangerous situations in which they rely on quick encounters to engage in the crudest from of identity-making, often making judgments based on superficial characteristics. Under such circumstances, public law enforcement can become “rouge agents” as they attempt to get “the bad guys” (Maynard-Moody and Musheno 151). In the context of paramilitary policing, the tactics used – entering heavily armed with guns drawn and shield in front, using a battering ram to force their way inside – emphasizes a big display of force to subdue the enemy quickly. For the hapless individuals caught in such situations, they may feel that they are being treated more like criminals rather than citizens with rights. If people’s opinion of front-line workers do matters, then the fact that a Reason-Rupe Poll found that 41% of Americans believe police misconducts have been increasing is alarming for both the legitimacy of public law enforcement agencies and the government itself.

Sources:

http://www.psy.tcu.edu/justice.pdf

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21599349-americas-police-have-become-too-militarised-cops-or-soldiers

Cops, Teachers, Counselors by Maynard-Moody and Musheno

http://reason.com/poll/2014/04/03/april-2014-national-telephone-survey

How Much Effort Is Enough?

- by María Rubio

When it comes to law enforcement, race is a factor that is inevitably present. A closer examination of this topic reveals the various problems present not only in law enforcement but also within the community itself. Legitimacy of law enforcement is a necessary component in any society. Although racial profiling negatively affects the legitimacy of law enforcement, it is not enough for them to hire people of minority groups because people can still find problems with this strategy and can continue to call into question the legitimacy of law enforcement.

There are two problems concerning Stockton, California (which is the second most violent city): 1. there are not enough police officers compared to the total population size, and 2. there are not enough minority officers to adequately represent the demographics of the city. African-Americans make up roughly about 12% of Stockton’s population, yet only 2% of police officers are African-American. This contradicts the notion that the new generation of police officers are “becoming like urban neighborhoods” because otherwise the percentage of African-American police officers would be closer to 12%. This can affect the legitimacy of Stockton PD since minorities could feel that they were victims of racial profiling whenever they get stopped by an officer, even if the officer was not guilty of racial profiling.

Councilman Holman of Stockton suggests that they need to “hire more racially diverse officers”, which reflects the idea that law enforcement officers should look like the people in their neighborhood. It can help strengthen police legitimacy when minorities are fairly represented in the police force. However, another problem arises even when the police department is racially diverse. Though people might say that they weren’t necessarily victims of racial profiling, they could be more likely to view those racially diverse officers as traitors for stopping people of their same race. This goes against the idea that diversity in the police department will “bolster legitimacy at the grass roots level”. It’s not that this happens every time, but inevitably some people will feel this way, which can erode legitimacy.

Sergeant Nance of the Stockton Police Officers’ Association agrees with Holman’s claim but goes on to say that they “need more officers, not of any sort of race or sex”, which is contradictory in itself. She argues that they can’t lower the standards in order to allow applicants in (minority applicants tend to score lower). Going back to the statistics of the population compared to the police officers, about 11% of those who apply to become police officers are African-American, which represents the percentage of African-Americans in the city but most of them aren’t being hired. Though it can be argued that the most qualified candidates should get the jobs, the fact that most qualified candidates are not from minority groups can create legitimacy issues. However, hiring more racially diverse officers also has the potential to create legitimacy issues if the minority community views these officers as traitors and unjust for stopping people of their same race. There needs to be a different approach that solves the problem of there not being enough police officers and enough officers from minority groups without affecting legitimacy or at least only affecting legitimacy at a minimal level.

Sources:

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130623/A_NEWS/306230319

Musheno, Michael. Lecture 1 April 2014.

Community Policing: A Solution to Problems in Community Relations and Urban Youth

- by Kevin Ramirez

Past lectures and readings have implied that community policing is considered to be an incomplete policing strategy. However, despite this, David Sklansky (2) states that it “… may deserve a longer run”. In terms of addressing problems in urban communities, I would agree that a form of community policing may be beneficial in urban communities in the long run.

This past week’s readings have focused on how policing may affect youth in urban communities. Nicole Bracy (94) states that police officers in schools have the important task of being a role models for students. This is something that community policing could achieve outside schools actually by allowing police to be active community leaders in the communities they serve in. This could in one way address problems such as juvenile crime, and provide the building blocks for a better relationship between communities and the police.

Evidence of this has been seen in the Southeast Division of the LAPD which encompasses several housing projects in the Watt-area neighborhood. Also, the Southeast Division has been known to have one of the highest crime and poverty rates in the city of Los Angeles, and generally the Southeast Division has had an uneasy relationship with the residents who reside within the jurisdiction of the Southeast Division. However in 2011 it was reported by a Joel Rubin from the LA Times that a form of community policing has been used in the Southeast Division. Programs such as youth activities programs take urban youth into field trips such as beach trips, sports games, and such things to build a relationship with the next generation of residents. Another similar program that targets at-risk youth has shown to reduce juvenile arrests in the Southeast division by 40% according to the Southeast Division Captain Phillip Tingirides. Currently, the LAPD’s Southeast Division offer a multitude of youth programs that aim to build a better relationship with the community.

Until recently it was reported by Kurt Streeter from LA Times that the community of Jordan Downs, one of the housing projects within the Southeast Division, has had a better relationship with the police that has slowly build since 2011 because of community policing strategies. In 2011 the community safety partnership was initiated in the Jordan Downs housing project. This allowed funding to go through that allowed the Southeast Division to start programs that would allow community engagement. Because of this police officers in the programs have become familiar faces in the housing project. Programs include coaching youth football teams, helping Girl Scout troops, and even providing programs that aid violent crime victims. However, this is not exclusive to the Jordan’s down housing project, but similar programs in the other housing projects that are within the Southeast Division’s jurisdiction have showed similar community engagement. According to the LAPD, since the implementation of these programs in the housing projects, violent crime is down 57% in Imperial Courts, 54% in Jordan Downs and 38 % in Nickerson Gardens (Siegler, 2013)

Despite the slow progress, it seems that the LAPD Southeast Division has achieved good results from using a community policing approach within the last four years. In my opinion the best way to facilitate a better relationship between police officers and a community are programs that focus on youth. Having police officers serve as mentors and even community leaders could have a beneficial effect in a community by offering a different perspective to urban youth. It does provide a foundation for a better relationship between the police and the community. But such efforts take time to develop given current problems in the Southeast Division. Given what they have achieved in the last four years. Imagine what they can achieve in the long run.

Sources:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/01/local/la-me-lapd-pals-20110802

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/16/local/la-me-jordan-downs-cops-20140217

http://www.lapdonline.org/southeast_community_police_station

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/07/25/205198028/Once-Crime-Ridden-South-L-A-s-Watts-Sees-Violence-Drop

Out to Protect: The Acceptance of Gay and Lesbian Police Officers in 2014

- by Tiarra Pittman 

It is no secret that the public workforce, specifically public law enforcement agencies, look very different than they did just a few decades ago. Law enforcement today prides them selves on being diverse, ethno-racially, in gender, and in age. There is another aspect of diversity that is becoming more and more prevalent within the police force, one that has been historically kept in the closet. There is a growing acceptance of gay and lesbian police officers across the nation. Now, law enforcement agencies include a larger number of gay and lesbian cops than there has ever been before. As the ethno-racial diversity of urban communities changed, so did the diversity of the officers that policed those neighborhoods. As discussed in lecture by Professor Musheno, all in all, urban public law enforcement agencies are becoming more like the urban neighborhoods that they police. Similarly, it is possible that an increase in openly gay and lesbian citizens has led to an increase in openly gay and lesbian officers, the officers merely a reflection of the new population being served. If not a new population, then possibly due to the growing support for same-sex marriage in America, which has risen from 33% (2003) in favor, to now 49% (2013) in favor. This shift in attitude can be attributed to what the Pew Research Center calls "Millenials", people born after 1980 (ages 18-32). A staggering 70% of "Millenials" today are in favor of same-sex marriage and they make up the larger share (27%) of the adult population in the U.S. today. In 2003, they made up just 9% of the population. This long-term shift in attitude may be one of the reasons why public law enforcement agencies today are far more accepting of gay and lesbian officers than the agencies that policed our parents and grandparents.

You could say that historically our nation hasn’t been the most accepting to gays and lesbians. There are different stereotypes associated with being gay or lesbian that have made it very difficult for that population to assimilate into mainstream society without being discriminated against. There is nothing different about the public law enforcement agency and its gradual, but progressive assimilation of gay and lesbian officers. The police force is a predominately masculine environment. Gay men, who are stereotypically viewed as soft, feminine, weak beings are considered a threat to masculinity. On the contrary, lesbian women, who are stereotypically viewed as strong, tough, stoic beings are NOT a threat to law enforcement agencies because their public image conform and compliment, rather than jeopardize the masculine environment that the cops have created. The fact of the matter is, all gays are not behaviorally synonymous to one another and similarly, all lesbian women are not butch and tough. It is therefore incorrect to assess the capabilities gay and lesbian officers using stereotypical generalizations.

Law enforcement requires a very unique blend of skills ranging from the toughest of characteristics to the softest, empathetic traits. These skills can be expressed by anyone, regardless of sexual orientation. With the growing acceptance of gay and lesbian officers within public law enforcement, also finally blossoming is the refreshing idea that gay and lesbian officers are as capable and competent as other police officers serving their respective communities. Not only that, but a lot of agencies have now created support organizations for gay and lesbian officers and special projects, like the “You Can Be Anything Project”, that encourage gay and lesbians to pursue careers in whatever they please to do, including public law enforcement.

Sources:

Gallup Polls: Same-Sex Marriage

Insidediscoverpolicing.org

www.people-press.org

The Prevalence of Racial Profiling

- by Jan Lugue 

In today's day and age, society is striving towards equal treatment as quickly as it can. Political correctness is on a lot of people's minds, policing their thoughts, words, and actions so as not to reopen past grievances towards certain groups. The movement against racial profiling emerges from this concern, to make sure that no individual is being mistreated based solely on their race. There are those who understandably fight against racial profiling and are ready to go to court when they feel like they are being mistreated. There are also others who may be wrongfully accused of racial profiling because statistics are against them. However, the number of organizations who are actually implementing measures to effectively fight profiling appears to be limited.

A few months ago, African American judge and former president of the LA police Commission David S. Cunningham accused the UCLA Police Department of racial profiling. After he finished his morning workout at a local gym, he said he was pulled over by a couple of police officers for a seat belt violation. He said that while he did remove his seat belt so he can pay the parking fee at the gym's lot, he had little time to put it back on before he was pulled over. These officers were caught on patrol car video as they used "excessive force" in detaining the judge as well as treating him with little respect when they threw him in their car. Although no grounds were found for Judge Cunningham's allegations, he has recently reopened the issue by filing a $10 million dollar claim against UCLA's administration for physical and emotional damages, money that can otherwise be used to implement ways to counter possible profiling incidents.

On the other hand, the Oakland police department has recently shown that their arrests go deeper than racial profiling. Several critics note that African Americans make up a disproportionate number of arrests and pull overs by the Oakland PD. A recent study however shows that while this may be true, most suspects described on crimes were also African Americans. While it may seem like the department is using racial profiling at first glance, one cannot ignore the fact that crimes in Oakland are, in fact, committed by African Americans. However the difficulty in discussing this topic (which might make the city appear to be defending the police department's "use" of profiling) means that making the issue and possible solutions transparent for both sides hard to achieve. Oakland PD has just recently started recruiting locally to dissuade these racial profiling claims. Time will tell if this will be effective.

Instead of readily pressing charges or avoiding the topic, the city of San Jose seems to have found an effective way to combat profiling. SJPD recently implemented a policy which forces all police officers to make note of every single circumstance in which they ask someone to sit on the curb, get in their car, or put handcuffs on. Now officers have to state the reason and manner of their stops, the race of the individual, and the outcome of the stop regardless of whether an arrest was made or not. This means that any officer who clearly stops members of a specific group can be found and disciplined accordingly. As San Jose Police Auditor Ladoris Cordell stated, "No other police department in the country is doing this, and they should be." This practice would likely reduce the prevalence of racial profiling among police departments.

Sources:
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/johnson/article/Oakland-crime-issue-goes-far-deeper-than-racial-5355633.php

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_25410009/report-blacks-comprise-62-percent-oakland-police-stops

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Judge-Alleges-Racial-Profiling-by-UCLA-Police-243428651.html

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Jose-Police-Unveil-New-Limited-Detention-Policy-222207931.html

Can the Oakland Police Build Trust With the Community?

- by Dash Oliver

Oakland, California has had the infamous title of being the most dangerous city in the United States. A recent study showed that blacks are stopped and searched more often than any other racial group in the city, making up 62% of the total stops. With this, one could understand the tensions between the Oakland Police Department and the community. These results may lead one to question if the police can repair the relationship between the community and themselves. The police recognize the crime rate of the community and are working to establish better monitoring in Oakland.

Although blacks make up only 28% of the city’s population, they make up the majority of the stops by police in Oakland even though they were no more likely to be found with illegal possessions than any other racial group. Interim Police Chief Sean Whent says the department is, “committed to working toward an Oakland that ensures equal opportunities, protections and successes for all”. This study, however, would make it difficult for the community to believe this. In his lecture, Interim Assistant Chief Paul Figueroa explained that the department must find a way to use resources most efficiently to show that they can lower the homicide rate. He believes that targeting areas and people that they know engage in violence. Guns, he says, is key to lowering the overall crime rate in Oakland. However, stop and searches would suggest that the Oakland police profile blacks, even though they are no more likely to have illegal possessions. These individuals who are stopped may not even be involved with violent activities, yet must face the reality of racial profiling, hindering the relationship between the police and the community. As civil rights attorney John Burris says, “It’s disappointing, but we’ve always suspected this to be true”, showing that the Oakland community is not blind to this problem.

Furthermore, the Oakland Police Department shows that it wants the police to be more integrative with the community. Whent says, “We want the police to be representative of the community”, while Mayor Jean Quan says, “Not enough Oakland kids are applying” to the police academy. Figueroa was raised and Oakland and said he was motivated to help his community. However, low Oakland native graduation rates from the academy could be signs of the lack of trust between the police and community. City leaders understand that natives may have negative interactions with the police, and that “appealing to the younger demographic may be an uphill battle”, thus making recruiting Oakland kids more difficult. Figueroa says that in order to build this trust, the police will have to give a voice to the community, cannot be so secretive, and make the relationship collaborative.

Overall, the Oakland Police Department has a difficult task in building a relationship with the community. Members from the department show a desire to improve relations and give equal opportunity for all ethnicities for protection. Unfortunately, these types of studies of racial profiling will hinder this trust and may continue to create tension between the two parties, leaving questions to whether this can be established.

Sources:
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Blacks-stopped-more-often-in-Oakland-data-show-5345500.php

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-law/study-raises-questions-about-oakland-police-stops/nfK3x/

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/2-investigates-opd-looks-recruit-younger-native-of/nd5FZ/