Race,Space,and Being Policed

Abstract

Research on race and policing has consistently documented the link between race, space, and policing with racial disparities in perceptions and experiences often explained by nature of policing within low-income, distressed communities of color. This study adds a new dimension to past research by examining the relationship between race, racial composition of place, and residents’ experiences with southern police across public and semipublic spaces within a middle-class, low-crime, tourism-driven resort area. Using grounded theory methods, this study combines survey data with in-depth group interviews and structured observations to reveal variability in participants’ experiences with southern patrols. Specifically, African American participants expressed concern for excessive police distribution, differential enforcement, and social exclusion, offering the least supportive attitudes regarding officer demeanor. These findings highlight the importance of using comprehensive measures to access residents’ experiences with police and contribute to the understanding of how various geographic contexts might produce racial disparities, highlighting the salience of race in the policing of ethnically diverse public spaces.

Keywords

minority group threat criminal Blackman criminological theories citizen satisfaction race and policing treatment by the police race and public opinion African/black Americans race/ethnicity

Its the tar baby no one wants to mess with (as quoted from a city official in response to after-hours scene in resort area, 1999).

A clearer picture emerged Tuesday of who was responsible for the chaos that enveloped the resort strip over the weekend, resulting in three shootings, three stabbings and widespread unruly behavior…They were here on a College Beach Weekend marketed heavily on social media to students of colleges around Virginia, including historically black schools. Roughly 75 percent of those arrested were black (as cited by Shapiro & Souza, 2013) Though crowds hover around 400,000 and garner much attention, the event results in relatively few arrests. City police records indicate 7 individuals were charged with felonies during Black College Beach Weekend in 2013 and 10 in 2014, 112 and 171 with misdemeanors respectively, and 108 and 118 with traffic violations for the respective years (West, 2014).

Introduction

For the better part of American history, race has been a central determinant in the definition, construction, and regulation of public spaces. The quotes referenced earlier are illustrative of the recent and not so recent hysteria surrounding a city’s challenge to create safe zones across public space untarnished by the presence of criminogenic populations in the interests of capitalist pacification (see Neocleous, 2011). Amid fears of unsightly reviews from Trip Advisor and declines in the tourism industry, locals and police work together to secure insecurity (Neocleous, 2011). Seeing that police are the domestic institution responsible for preserving spatial sovereignty (Herbert, 1997), they are often called upon to enforce existing configurations of power. As the law affirmed the legitimacy of police action, early police practices supported and sustained institutions injurious to African Americans and other marginalized groups including slavery, segregation, overt discrimination, and social exclusion (Kennedy, 1997; Muhammad, 2010; Russell, 1998), formulating the basis for police behavioral patterns that persist in many environments today (Bass, 2001a, 2001b; Jones-Brown, 2000a; Williams & Murphy, 1990).

Research affirms that despite societal expectations for equity in the distribution of law enforcement (Arthur & Care, 1994; Tyler, 2001), different groups experience policing in different ways (Alpert & Dunham, 1988; Banton, 1964; Brown & Benedict, 2002; Browning, Cullen, Cao, Kopache, & Stevenson, 1994; Brunson & Miller, 2006; Eitle, D’ Alessio, & Stolzenberg, 2002; Fagan & Davies, 2000; Geller & Toch, 1996; Georges-Abeyie, 2001; Jones-Brown, 2000b; Flowers, 1988; Skolnick & Fyfe, 1993; Taylor Greene, 2000). In the United States, African Americans more than members of other ethnic groups are more likely to report negative police–citizen encounters including greater surveillance and detention (Browning et al., 1994; Brunson, 2007; Fagan & Davies, 2000; Hurst, Frank, & Browning, 2000; Weitzer, 1999) and the use of disparate and aggressive tactics (Alpert, MacDonald, & Dunham, 2005; Brunson, 2007; Fagan & Davies, 2000; Huebner, Schafer, & Bynum, 2004; National Research Council, 2004; Weitzer & Tuch, 2002, 2005). In addition, research finds differences in the nature of policing which are impacted by place as well as person characteristics. Much of this variation has been linked to police practices within low-income, distressed communities of color (Anderson, 1990; Brunson, 2007; Brunson & Miller, 2006; Fagan & Davies, 2000, Reisig & Parks, 2000; Sampson & Jeglum-Bartusch, 1998; Tyler & Wakslak, 2004; Weitzer & Tuch, 2002, 2005). Jones-Brown (2007) offers that police confrontation of Blacks that appear “out of place” in public areas is possibly the most blatant form of overpolicing (p. 104). This is further expanded to include citizen policing of blackness, including recent cases where White and mixed race males have been acquitted of killing young Black men for playing loud music or walking with a hoodie under Florida’s “stand your ground” and self-defense laws.¹

Research finds that these experiences translate into both attitudes toward the police and behavior, specifically willingness to work with the police. Police attitudinal studies find higher levels of distrust of and dissatisfaction with police services among African Americans (Barlow & Barlow, 2002; Bordua & Tifft, 1971; Hagan & Albonetti, 1982; Hagan, Shedd, & Payne, 2005; Jones-Brown, 2000a; Sampson & Jeglum-Bartusch, 1998; Stewart, Baumer, Brunson, & Simons, 2009; Webb & Marshall, 1995; Weitzer, 1999, 2000, 2002; Weitzer & Tuch, 2002). Scholars assert that negative perceptions of police contribute to a cycle of reduced police effectiveness because they result in a lack of citizen cooperation. This in turns leads to increased crime and further distrust of police as well as general dissatisfaction with other social institutions (Brown & Benedict, 2002; Brunson, 2007; Kane, 2005).

What has not been explored yet is how experiences of policing and attitudes about policing may lead individuals to change their behavior in other ways. In particular, do experiences with or perceptions of police practices affect individuals’ level of comfort in a public space and thus their decision to use that space? Or, in other words, do police practices support today the segregation of people by race in terms of use of public space? The present work adds to the existing literature on race and policing by examining residents’ perceptions of southern police patrols, their related attitudes toward the police, and the effect these have on use of this space. Data for the current study are drawn from four in-depth focus groups involving 37 participants.

Race, Place, and Policing

The evolution of American policing occurred within the context of White racial dominance, elitism, and strained police–minority relations (Bass 2001a; Bayley & Mendelsohn, 1969; Kennedy, 1997; Taylor Greene, 2000; Websdale, 2001; Websdale, 2001; Williams & Murphy, 1990). In no other region of the United States did racial composition of space direct police practices and behavior more than in the South. This section provides a theoretical framework useful in assessing the nexus of race, space, and policing and a review of the literature in this area. The section begins with an examination of how critical criminology looks at race and policing.

Conflict Perspectives on Race and Policing

Within criminology, it is critical criminology, which most consistently addresses issue of race and policing. Critical scholars assert that policing maintains the social and economic dominance of some groups at the expense of others, likely resulting in more negative views of police among neglected groups (Alpert & Dunham, 1992; Cashmore & McLaughlin, 1991; Turk, 1969). This model posits that dominant groups use state apparatuses to control subordinate groups that threaten their political and/or economic interests (Blalock, 1967; Turk, 1969). Although majority group members historically received the service they desire, for those with little or no access to political or economic power, police–citizen interaction has been characterized by underprotection and underenforcement in some ways (Barlow & Barlow, 2002; Kennedy 1997; Reiss & Bordua, 1967) and overpolicing in others (Bass, 2001a, 2001b; Blauner, 2001; Websdale, 2001).

Scholars in this area recognize the establishment of slave patrols during the late 17th century as the precursor to modern police forces (Bass 2001a; Rousey, 1996; Taylor Greene, 2000; Websdale, 2001; Williams & Murphy, 1990; Wood, 1984). Klockars (1985) submits that the patrol function and concept of police was first adopted and accepted by southern slave patrols. Hadden’s (2001) seminal work Slave Patrols documents how the system of law enforcement birthed in the new colonies expanded the traditions of the posse comitatus and hue and cry systems of early England along racial lines. According to this view, the institution of slavery necessitated the first system of White policing of Black populations within the United States (Hawkins & Thomas, 1991).

To ensure optimal efficiency of the slave system and to quell fears of slave insurrections, slave codes were policed and enforced by all segments of the White community. For example, legislation from South Carolina in 1690 illuminates early attempts to establish a police system by requiring “all persons, under penalty of forty shillings, to arrest and chastise any slave away from his home plantation without proper ticket” (Patterson, 1992, pp. 38–42, as cited in Websdale, 2001, p. 20). Lower populations of bondsmen and their geographic dispersion within the Virginia territory delayed the formal introduction of slave patrols, relying instead on independent slave catchers and constables to capture runaways. However, by 1680, the Virginia legislature required slaves to carry passes when away from the plantation, with a comprehensive slave code passed in 1705 modeled after earlier statues in Barbados and South Carolina (Hadden, 2001).

However, caution should be exercised when connecting historical patterns of racialized policing with contemporary police practices. As slave patrols served the function of private policing within certain contexts and led to the emergence of White supremacist organizations like the Klu Klux Klan, some scholars suggest our present system of law enforcement is more accurately based on police reforms within large northeastern cities (Miller, 1977; see also Hadden, 2001). Others contend that the first major reform of the traditional colonial system began in much earlier periods with the establishment of military-style police forces in cities in the deep south with large slave populations (Rousey, 1996; see also Alfers, 1976; Hindus, 1980; Marchiafava, 1977).

Through combined foot and mounted patrol, patrollers enforced codes that prevented enslaved Blacks from engaging in a variety of activities including congregating in public, leaving masters’ property without a pass, commerce, literacy, engaging in inappropriate conduct in the presence of a White female, making loud noises, weapon possession, defending oneself from assault, and to repress any perceived or real attacks upon the status quo (Hawkins & Thomas, 1991; Kennedy, 1997; Russell, 1998; Williams & Murphy, 1990). Despite informal beginnings, there is evidence that slave patrols evolved into an organized system with a hierarchical command structure (Grant & Terry, 2008; Wood, 1984). Designed to restrict every part of life including movement, leisure, and contract, the enforcement of slave codes via aggressive, racialized policing cemented an association between blackness and criminality (Jones-Brown, 2007; Kennedy, 1997; Websdale, 2001). Together slave codes created a system of deference that reinforced dichotomized notions a “purity and pollution” (Websdale, 2001, p. 20), ensuring legal and social distinctions between races for generations to come.

Legally sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), police officers were required to enforce Jim Crow laws and thus were naturally viewed by most African Americans as agents of a repressive social order (Brown & Benedict, 2002; Cashmore & McLaughlin, 1991; Decker, 1985; Hawkins & Thomas, 1991; Muhammad, 2010; Williams & Murphy, 1990). As described by Hawkins and Thomas (1991), for many Whites “white police in black communities provided the first line of defense against ‘the black hordes’ [while] to the black community, white policemen represented nothing less than a hostile occupation army” (p. 65). The authors contend that the perception of unpoliced Blacks, particularly in the South, has become an obsessive fear for many Whites dating back centuries. Hawkins and Thomas (1991) posit that this fear reinforces a policing syndrome, in which many Whites find it necessary to regulate the actions of others via personal policing or by eagerly requesting formal intervention. As evidenced by the literature, southern police structures having emerged from a tradition of slave patrols took on a distinctively aggressive and discriminatory character toward the policing of Black populations. These differential tactics are especially important to understand, as a new continuum of public and private space has surfaced in recent decades as characteristics such as level of access, land use, and interest served have brought fluidity and range to previously concrete concepts (Button, 2003; White & Sutton, 1995).

Race and Space

As differences in control over and use of space are important, the police have a key role to play in the regulation of public spaces. Critical criminologists argue that the character of a city is constructed and shaped by those who exert economic and political power, which in effect has major implications on the types of services and accommodations accessible to various segments of the population (Ferrell, 2001). Ferrell (2001) suggests “new strategies and techniques of regulation and control emerge in and around these spaces-techniques that involve the policing of public perception as much as the policing of populations” (p. 166). He outlines this process by suggesting conflicts over cultural space reinforce patterns of power and privilege in the promotion of spatial and cultural cleansing, whereby undesirable groups are removed from particular locations and situations. Ferrell (1997a) highlights how this agenda has been advanced across America’s cities citing city efforts to remove homeless populations from public sight in Phoenix, Arizona, and Atlanta’s efforts to “push the poor from the city center as a way to get conventioneers, tourists, and suburban white people to come downtown and spend their money” (p. 30).

Highlighting the nature of power and class in America, Brockett (2000) suggests African Americans as a whole do not comprise the class that the police would have an interest in protecting. Similarly, Blauner (1972) submits police are critical to maintaining the colonized status of African Americans. As “key agents in the power equation,” he states that police enforce “the culturally repressive aspects of [White Anglo-Saxon] middle-class American values against the distinctive ethnic orientations of Afro-Americans and other minority subcultures” (Blauner, 1972, pp. 98–99). Feagin (1991) in a study of discrimination in public places among middle-class African Americans found that the probability of discrimination increases, as Blacks move from intimate settings to the workplace to public streets. He posits that while middle-class status and organizational resources provide some protection from discrimination in many workplaces, this weakens as African Americans move to public accommodations such as large stores and city restaurants where contacts are mainly with strangers. He concludes that public streets afford Blacks the greatest public exposure to White strangers and the least protection against overt discriminatory behavior, including physical threats and harassment by police officers.

Feagin’s (1991) findings about differences in discrimination across type of space are important to keep in mind as we think about race, space, and policing. In addition to private spaces and public, the emergence of semi- or quasi-public spaces is noteworthy. Although legally privately owned, semipublic spaces such as shopping malls, industrial parks, residential communities, recreational domains, and the like are “common places in which daily life is carried out in public view” (von Hirsch & Shearing, 2000, p. 80). The rules that outline appropriate modes of conduct in semipublic spaces are often constrained by the ambiguity of these new collective zones leading to questions about the moral and legal status of such spaces. von Hirsch and Shearing (2000) note that in these newly created areas, “property owners under existing law have broad entitlements to exclude undesired entrants, with the authority of the state…making them also common to many but not all” (p. 80). As the streets of mainstream America provide the backdrop where inequalities of race, age, class, and power are publicly enforced (Bass, 2001a; Ferrell, 1997a), they are the sites to constant processes of social inclusion and exclusion. Similarly, Haywood (2012) highlights how increased urbanity “requires new scattered zones of safety and control, where otherness, irrationality and dissent are banished beyond boundaries of exclusion and distinction” (p.14).

Research on Race, Place, and Policing

Previous studies of race and experience with police have centered on the nature of police–citizen encounters. Routinely discussed within the context of citizen perceptions of or satisfaction with police, research generally assesses the impact of direct or indirect contact (Brunson, 2007; Feagin & Sikes, 1994; Jones-Brown, 2000b; Murty, Roebuck, & Smith, 1990; Rosenbaum et al., 2005; Scaglion & Condon, 1980; Weitzer & Tuch, 2002) and whether encounters are police or citizen initiated (i.e., voluntary or involuntary; see Brunson, 2007; Hawdon, Ryan, & Griffin, 2003; Jesilow, Meyer, & Namazzi, 1995; Walker, Richardson, Williams, McGaughry & Denyer, 1972; Weitzer, 2002). Although the causal order of citizen contact and opinions about police is not clear (Leiber, Nalla, & Farnworth, 1998), studies indicate contact perceived as positive improves perceptions of police while negative contact has the opposite effect be it direct or indirect (Browning et al., 1994; Feagin, 1991; Feagin & Sikes, 1994; Jones-Brown, 2000; Kaminski & Jefferis, 1998). Other studies suggest police-initiated contacts result in more negative attitudes about police than citizen-initiated encounters (Jesilow et al., 1995; Smith & Hawkins, 1973).

There is reason to think that type of policing varies by context. Given the proactive, aggressive policing tactics applied most often in high-crime, low-income distressed communities of color, residents in these environments are much more likely to experience police-initiated direct and indirect contact (Anderson, 1990; Brunson, 2007; Sampson & Jeglum-Bartusch, 1998). A preponderance of studies have documented disproportionate stop and frisk tactics used by police against minority males (Browning et al., 1994; Brunson & Miller, 2006; Gelman, Fagan, & Kiss, 2007; Fagan & Davies, 2000; Harris, 2002; Hurst et al., 2000; Kane, 2002; Kennedy, 1997; Moore, Lesser, & Smith, 2008; Rennison, 2001; Skolnick & Fyfe, 1993; Weitzer, 1999) with legal justification for these tactics provided by the U.S. Supreme Court in State v. Dean and People v. De Bour. Rennison (2001) reported Blacks and other racial minorities not only experience higher rates of victimization than Whites but that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to be searched, handcuffed, and arrested during traffic stops. Additional data released from the Department of Justice suggest African Americans and Hispanics are more often subject to the threat and actual use of force during police–citizen encounters.

Smith (1986), using observational data from 5,688 police–citizen contacts within 60 neighborhoods, across three metropolitan areas, found that police often behave differently in different neighborhood contexts. Offering support for the notion of ecological contamination and Blalock’s racial threat hypothesis, Smith found that police were more likely to use coercive authority in minority and racially mixed communities, which he suggests may reflect officer’s beliefs regarding the “kinds of people” who live in a particular environment (p. 338). However, his data also indicate that this was not attributable to the race of the individuals confronted by police but rather the racial composition of the area. He suggests all persons regardless of race or ethnicity were treated as suspects when encountered in bad areas. Still, one of the most identifiable correlates of bad areas has been denoted in the racial composition. Examining the effects of neighborhood racial composition on the perceptions of racially biased policing among 763 African American adolescents selected from 71 neighborhoods, Stewart, Baumer, Brunson, and Simons (2009) found that discrimination against Black youth by police most often occurred in predominantly White neighborhoods. Using multilevel data from two waves of the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS) from Georgia and Iowa, the authors concluded that higher levels of perceived racial discrimination by police were even more pronounced in White areas that experience recent growth in the size of their Black population and in neighborhoods with higher levels of affluence and higher rates of violence.

In effort to explain research findings that link police behavior to the racial composition of an area but not an individuals’ race or ethnicity, Alpert, MacDonald, and Dunham (2005) suggest an individual’s minority status may be heightened when that individual travels through a largely segregated or White community. Other studies have also found higher incidence of racially biased police practices in predominantly White neighborhoods (Fagan & Davies, 2000; Gelman et al., 2007; Stolzenberg, D’Alessio, & Eitle, 2004). The legacy of racial residential segregation has led to the high proportion of Black and Latino residents living in disadvantaged communities, making deciphering the effects of race/ethnicity and residence in low-income, high-crime areas and experience with police more challenging. Noting the lingering effects, Bass (2001a) states “residential segregation has created cognitive boundaries that defined those places that were regulated to racial minorities and those that were not” (p. 163). She suggests African Americans and other minorities who venture outside of their neighborhoods are subject to frequent police harassment for being “out of their place” (Bass, 2001a, p. 163). Russell (1998) adds the “out-of-place” doctrine “encourages police to view black men as de facto guilty, without reference to legal indicators of criminal activity” (p.38).

Taken together, numerous studies establish a decidedly discriminatory and at times brutal nature has accompanied the policing of African Americans in both public and private domains through much of the 20th century (Alpert, Dunham, & Smith, 2007; Barlow & Barlow, 2002; Bass, 2001b; Brunson, 2007; Cole, 1999; Fagan & Davies, 2000; Harris, 2002; Kane, 2002, Muhammad, 2010; Russell, 1998; Websdale, 2001). Previous research attributes much of African American dissatisfaction with police to the experiences of African Americans in urban disadvantaged communities (Anderson, 1990; Brunson, 2007; Brunson & Miller, 2006; Carr, Napolitano, & Keating, 2007; Fagan & Davies, 2000), where the use of aggressive, directed policing tactics are more common. Fewer studies have examined these processes across ethnically diverse public and semipublic commercial space within a middle-class environment. Particularly as it relates to African Americans, this trajectory could offer greater insight into understanding the processes of attitude formation relative to citizens’ experiences with police. To address this void, this study utilizes qualitative data alongside survey research to assess the influence of race and racial composition of place on citizens’ experiences with southern patrols across low-crime, ethnically diverse public and semipublic spaces within a resort city. The author contends that this approach can improve our understanding of how race both individually and via group composition impacts how citizens experience police in this environment.

Previous studies have shown then how the behavior of police differs and that differences in attitudes by race and ethnicity are related to perceptions of differential policing. What we do not see is how all this affects the behavior of individuals. In addition, much of the past research is based on quantitative analyses. This type of analysis, while particularly important for generalizability, has two limitations that more qualitative analysis could balance. First, previous studies although having large sample sizes provide limited information on the encounters with the police. Questions are limited to items such as have you had contact with the police, what type of contact, and how satisfied were you with that contact. Second past studies are ahistorical and without context. Context is important to understanding perceptions of the police and the attitudes that develop toward them (see Brunson, 2007; Brunson & Miller, 2006; Brunson & Weitzer, 2009; Weitzer, 1999, 2000, for review of qualitative studies in this area). Important contextual items include past experiences with the police as well as experiences of others. The purpose of the current study is to use data from four focus groups to explore perceptions of policing tactics, attitudes toward the police, and how those attitudes shape behavior by race for a particular semipublic area.

Methodology

Data

Data for this study came from a larger project examining police strategies and behavior across public commercial space and its impact of various publics. Data for the larger study included 202 surveys, four focus groups that included a total of 37 individuals, content analysis of police records and community meetings, and structured observations within the study site. The current project is based on data from focus groups, which took place from January 2009 through August 2009. Focus groups were utilized to more accurately assess the multilayered, cumulative, and nuanced matter in which individual’s experiences with police shape their attitudes and behavior as well as group dynamics rather than one-time assessments common in survey research.

Participants for the focus groups were drawn from the 202 individuals who completed the survey. Survey participants were purposively selected through snowball and convenience sampling and recruited through several local organizations, a local university, on-site, and from contacts made in the field. During survey interviews, individuals were asked to leave contact information if they were willing to take part in a group interview. Those who agreed were encouraged to bring their friends or associates who also frequent the resort area. All focus group participants were residents within the broader metropolitan region comprising several cities. Participation in the study was voluntary and respondents were assured confidentiality. Participants were not compensated for their participation.

The number of focus group interviewees per group ranged from 6 to 13 participants. Interviews were conducted by a single principal investigator in various residences throughout the city as directed by the principal point of contact. Interviews ranged from 56 min to 104 min with a mean time of 1 hr and 10 min. Focus groups were taped and later transcribed and serve as the primary data of analysis in this article. The survey questionnaire contained background information and items assessing citizens’ experiences, perceptions, and evaluations of police derived from the work of Alpert and Dunham (1988) and Brunson (2007). Grounded theory methods were employed to identify central points marked by codes, which were analyzed to form congruent categories leading to a workable theory on how experiences with police influence group behavior (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Special attention was given to ensure concepts and observations were those most commonly articulated and experienced by interviewees. Group interviews shed light into how diverse groups conceptualize and experience police services along with the adjustments they make to engage in activities they find pleasurable. Reliability was strengthened through triangulation of structured observations, survey data, responses across group interviews, and detailed recall from interviewees. Expressions that were not heavily identified with or common to the majority of participants were explicated (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).

Research Setting

The setting for this study is a southern metropolis home to more than 400,000 residents. Centrally located near several other major cities, the area boasts of its top-ranked resort beaches and lively urban cultural center. The city functions as a racially diverse middle-class suburb and respected resort area, which is home to hundreds of hotels, motels, nightclubs, specialty shops, bars, and restaurants expanding over 40 blocks. The principal site of investigation includes a 10-block radius that contains the most populated section of the commercial strip and acts as the primary hangout for a racially diverse group of patrons primarily aged 35 and under. Youthful strip goers have claimed the most popular portions of the commercial strip in and around the bar district as prime staging ground for exposure and leisure. This section of the strip is often described as “the place to see and be seen.”²

Relative to its size, the city maintains a remarkably low crime rate. Ranked as one of the safest cities with resident populations between 350,000 and 900,000, the metropolis sustains the lowest crime rate in the region at approximately two times lower than the national average. The city is best known for the tourism it brings to the area with millions of annual visitors contributing significantly to the city’s budget. The median family income in the city approximates US$65, 000 with the majority of city inhabitants (roughly 70%) owning their own residence. City residents are young with a median age of 39, and nearly 75% of city dwellers are between the ages of 18 and 54 years with a near even spilt with respect to gender. The majority (58%) of adults living in the city are married and approximately 60% have attended some college or report earning bachelor’s or postgraduate degrees. Although the city exhibits significantly more racial diversity than found in national statistics, it is the least diverse city within the region. The setting’s relative racial homogeneity, low-crime ranking, and middle-class status define a type of area that is underinvestigated while assessing race and experiences with police. Table 1 offers a cross-regional comparison by city using census data from 2010.

Table 1.

Select City Characteristics Within the Region, 2010.

	Target City	City A	City B	City C	City D
% African American	19	43	30	53	43
% Poverty	7	19	7	16	13
% Female headed	12	19	14	11	17
Household
Median family income	US$64,618	US$36,891	US$56,302	US$36,742	US$47,342

Note. Adapted from U.S. Census (2010).

In addition, the setting offers a history that helps to contextual individuals’ perceptions of police. Prior to the mid-1960s, Jim Crow laws restricted African Americans’ access to oceanfront beaches, with entry into resort area allotted only to those workers hired to clean segregated hotels. Beginning in the 1980s, the city experienced its share of racial tension including charges of excessive and discriminatory policing of Black partygoers and local and commercial concerns regarding the quality of the crowd choosing resort areas as places of leisure. These tensions, largely contained to Blacks and Whites, erupted in the largest civil disturbance in the city’s history requiring the intervention of the National Guard and gaining national media attention. A vital lifeline to the city, the resort area experienced a decline in tourism during the subsequent years, which prompted elected and appointed officials to resolve to alter the atmosphere of the beachfront by advancing the goals of a family-oriented environment. This evolving image was promoted through a series of new code enforcements directed at eliminating certain behaviors at the strip, such as no cruising laws, car music ordinances, cursing restrictions, the closing of city parking lots, and activation of bright light technology after designated times. Today, African Americans comprise less than 6% of resort area residents; however, they often account for the majority of patrons on weekend evenings during the summer months. Recently, numerous Black partygoers celebrating Black College Weekend at the oceanfront were arrested and charged with violent and nonviolent crimes furthering public perception of the rowdiness of Black youth and calls for tighter enforcement.

Focus Groups

Of the 202 survey respondents, 18% or 37 individuals also agreed to take part in focus group interviews. In an effort to ease discussions of the influence of race on perceptions/experiences with local police, focus group interviews were organized by the race/ethnicity of interviewees. African Americans comprised the majority of sample at 59% or 22 respondents with Whites and persons of mixed ethnicities, each representing 14% of focus group participants with 5 interviewees each. Hispanics and Asian Americans were less than 1% of the sample at 2 and 3 interviewees, respectively. The makeup of each focus group is found in Table 2.

Table 2.

Demographics of Focus Group Participants.

	Focus Group 1 (N = 6)	Focus Group 2 (N = 12)	Focus Group 3 (N = 13)	Focus Group 4 (N = 6)
Gender
% Male	83	50	69	50
Race
%AA	16	92	77	0
Mean age	20	33	28	24
% AA and under 25	33% (2)	0%	31% (4)	0%
Mean income	0-US$24,000	US$24,001-US$48,000	US$24,001-US$48,000	US$24,001-US$48,000
Education level	13.5	14	14.5	15

Note. AA = African American.

In addition to basic demographic information regarding the groups’ makeup are a number other important factors that make each group distinctive. The first focus group, which took place on January 7, 2009, was the most diverse in regard to race and ethnicity, but members of this group of participants looked very similar in physical appearance and would likely be perceived as belonging to the same racial group. The physical attributes of these interviewees were highlighted in other group interviews as less threatening to Whites and police.³ That is, all the participants in this group had fair to light brown skin complexions, little to no facial hair, and a similar hair texture and style (i.e., most of the males had low-cut hairstyles). Although these participants made use of cultural slang, their style of dress, which can be characterized as casual conservative, and their ability to switch in and out of mannerism often associated with “Hip Hop, black, or perceived gang culture” appeared to yield them greater protection against arbitrary policing tactics (see Brunson & Weizter, 2009).⁴ The second focus group, which took place April 25, 2009, was very diverse with respect to skin tone, hair texture and styles, and style of dress from business causal to more relaxed or street casual attire. As a whole, this group was older with no participants between the ages of 18 and 25, appeared more phenotypically Black, and had features and mannerisms more likely to be perceived by others as threatening and/or more in line with popular “Hip Hop, black, or perceived gang culture,”⁵ such as style of dress, musical preferences, regular use of cultural slang, expressive hand motions, and a louder pitch and tone.

The third focus group, which took place on May 2, 2009, was also very diverse with several individuals sharing what are likely perceived as more Afrocentric features such as darker complexions and/or cultural hairstyles including locks, braids, and afros along with mixed race individuals, lighter and medium complexion Blacks, and a Filipino American with fairly dark skin. There was a mixture of younger participants more likely to be perceived by others as belonging to the Hip Hop generation largely due to their style of dress, musical preferences, and the use of cultural slang as well as somewhat older, professional African Americans in business casual attire and participants in their late 20s to earlier 30s in more relaxed, casual attire. All of the participants in the final focus group, which took place on August 25, 2009, had fair complexions, used little to no cultural slang, and dressed in relaxed, casual attire. The characteristics highlighted, such as skin tone, clothing, vernacular, hairstyles, and musical preferences, were referenced in each of the focus groups and emerged as dominant themes within the process of grounded theory development. These characteristics have also been noted in other literature as elements involved in the reconstruction and expression of black culture (Anderson, 1999; Kubrin, 2005; Thompkins, 2001).

Study Findings

Race, Place, and Policing

Findings clearly illustrate that race influences perceptions of policing even across public spaces where serious crime is not a factor. That is, similar provisions of police services, police allocation, patrol methods, and proactive assistance and investigation invoked different sentiments from participants by race. With respect to police allocation, participants described seeing police in large numbers and responded in unison in the first three focus groups, comprised of African Americans and other racialized minorities, with a resounding always when asked to rank how often they see uniform city officers patrolling the oceanfront strip. In the last focus group comprising of predominantly White young adults, the responses were not as definitive but generally suggested uniform police were often seen during summer months, on weekends, and during the evening hours.

Although the majority of respondents across ethnic categories identified a strong police presence, African Americans were the most cohesive in their response toward the use of expanded patrol suggesting an omnipresence of police power along the commercial strip. The pattern observed within the first three focus groups comprised of racial minorities was to initially suggest police allocation was consistently high in volume, and then to acknowledge factors that might lead to divergence from this model. Still, very few respondents indicated they had encounters of proactive investigation or assistance with patrolling officers.

Group interviewees identified every patrol method except boat to include motor, horse, bike, motorcycle, and foot patrol and characterized police action as proactive suggesting officers “make their presence known” and “make sure you follow the rules.”⁶ African Americans were more likely than White participants to identify horse patrol as a principal method utilized along the strip and voiced greater concern within group interviews regarding the appropriateness of their use. Most comments were directed to either the size of the horses or the way they were used by patrolling officers. Group interviewees posited that during the daytime hours, the demeanor of mounted officers was friendlier even allowing passersby to pat the horses. However, during times of high-pedestrian traffic, mounted units were used as a primary source of crowd control. Three of the six participants in the fourth group stated they had on occasion petted the horses of mounted units, while no African American interviewee suggested the same. It appears that at least in this part of Virginia, African American respondents’ experiences with horses are limited. In fact, for the majority of African American focus group participants seeing mounted units along the commercial strip served as their first encounter with horses and many likened their presence to the use of canine units during 1960s civil rights’ struggle. Negative experiences with mounted units were particularly documented during the second and third group interviews.

For instance, the excerpts given subsequently were exacted from third focus group and offer a good summary of the manner in which many African American participants described police use of saturation and mounted patrol. Jordan, a 30-year-old Virginia Beach resident suggested, “They ride up on a horse making you move out of the way…instead of just asking.” Another respondent suggested, “they got to watch how they carry them horses. The horses are huge and kind of scary,” to which a 24-year old Latina female chimed in, “What are you going to trample me with a horse?” Although discussants in the fourth focus group acknowledge high levels of police distribution and the use of a variety of patrol methods, they often described the presence of police as necessary, given the nature of the crowd at the oceanfront. Three female participants interviewed during this focus group recalled occasions where patrolling officers offered to escort them to their vehicles or call for a cab when they were too intoxicated to drive. Participants in this focus group suggested that when the police do stop and question pedestrians they are either “genuinely concerned” or they sense something is “fishy.”

Race and Space: Being Policed and the Creation of “A Police State”

Police practices appear to effect resort area patrons in different ways with African Americans more likely to view police allocation as intrusive and/or unnecessarily aggressive. Numerous focus group participants described the distribution of police services along the oceanfront strip as inciting to violence and conflict and frequently used the terms “police state,” “waiting for something to happen” and “trying to provoke” as characterizations of police action.⁷ The belief that some police officers along the oceanfront strip seek conflict as a reprieve from the usually mundane task of policing quieter parts of the city was referenced repeatedly throughout the first three focus group interviews. Gender and age were far less significant than race in producing such views of police. Individuals in the second focus group were the most vocal about their dissatisfaction and distrust of police services in the resort area, followed by participants in the third and first focus groups, with participants in the fourth focus group being the most verbally supportive of police distribution and actions along the commercial strip.

Using other cities within and outside the region comparatively, several participants referenced lower levels of crime in the city as cause for police eagerness for action. *Adam a participant in the first focus group who attends a university outside the region offered this assessment:

In *Leesville, the officers don’t really mess with you unless you are overly belligerent. I feel like in the beach, you take one wrong step and you stumble you get a drunk in public instead of them making sure you are not drinking in driving like give them a ride home…At school it’s more a slap on the wrist, it happens but at the beach they are more uptight…I feel like beach police wait for things to happen like they want things to happen.

Even among those not engaging in actions seen as deviant, minority respondents describe feelings of anxiety caused by a fear of unintentionally violating some law or provision due to the level of police scrutiny. Many Black respondents believed oceanfront police presumed their mere presence signaled an alarm for enhanced surveillance. Among some discussants, feelings of safety were overridden by nervousness linked more to the number of patrol officers rather than their demeanor. The following quotation was documented during the first focus group, detailing a conversation that took place between four minority males including one that were previously mentioned Adam, along with newcomers Tyrone, J.T., and Juan. The dialogue commences with an inquiry into how the presence of police along the oceanfront strip makes strip goers feel. Offering a dichotomized view of feeling safe or nervous, Tyrone began, “Yeah, I feel more intimated than safe.” Juan added, “You feel like you have to be more cautious than you normally are.” J.T., the only Black male in the group, suggested “I feel like I’m the bad guy and like I didn’t even do nothing [Group laughter]. Like they are just waiting on me.”

Conversely, participants in the fourth focus group did not report feelings of intimidation and instead described police actions as justifiable based on enforcing the law.⁸ More aligned with a benevolent view of police, this perspective is summed up in the following comment offered by a 25-year-old White male who stated, “They are only there for a presence like when something happens they feel like they are tasked to handle it.” Others in the group echoed these sentiments and suggested the police are there as a deterrent to potential troublemakers. Although many individuals in this group indicated high levels of police distribution along select portions of the strip, they often hung out in areas less populated by “urban” youth and thus were under less direct supervision than some of the other interviewees.

Differential Enforcement

Focus group participants in groups that were predominantly Black discussed openly their beliefs that the harshest police scrutiny and actions were reserved for Black males along the strip. African American focus group participants repeatedly referenced intoxicated White pedestrians and their treatment by police as an indication of disparate policing practices. In fact, this specific demographic was noted in all of the focus groups comprised of racial minorities (Focus groups 1–3) as receiving less police attention than others. Specifically, respondents suggested White females who are openly intoxicated along the strip are often overlooked by police and avoid sanction though the same officers are likely to pester minority youth for noncriminal behaviors like cursing and loitering.

When respondents were asked directly whether they think patrolling officers treat most groups at the beach similarly or certain groups different from others, the majority of respondents indicated they believed groups were treated differently based on race primarily but also age. African American youth and other racial minorities were repeatedly identified as most targeted groups throughout interviews. Directly associated with this belief was the lack of enforcement against White violators. An African American male from the second focus groups notes, “they see a white dude stumble out the bar and don’t do nothing. You already been known he’s drunk, cursing and everything and then they get off the horse and want to arrest you.” This was immediately followed by a 27-year-old black female who added, “but you see Caucasians, white people get all loud, drunk yelling I pay your taxes…”

As outlined earlier, respondents in this group suggested Whites along the strip were more likely to be belligerent toward authorities with little consequence. These sentiments also surfaced during the first and third group interviews. As discussions of preferential treatment toward White strip goers under the influence emerged in the third group interview, *Tim, a Black male of mixed ancestry in his late 30s, highlights the perceived belligerence of Whites by asking, “how many black people [do] you know that’s really going to be talking a whole lot of junk to a cop because he knows what the cop [is] going to do.” Participants in this group readily agreed.

Interposing gender, Adam from the first focus group suggests “I feel like girls don’t get hemed up—Caucasian girls usually don’t get as um…They show more courtesy toward a woman. They [women] don’t seem to get handcuff[ed] say as [much as] a rowdy minority.” Other group members suggested African American girls get treated more similarly to non-Black minority males than their White female counterparts. Although participants in the first focus group were generally reluctant to discuss race, when asked directly whether they felt most groups of people were treated the same by police along the strip, a pattern different than the one observed during the second and third group interviews emerged. First, participants suggested all youth were generally treated similarly and then they noted an exception for young White females. Next, they suggested that minorities are treated differently than Whites and eventually concluded that Black males receive the greatest scrutiny and are victim to more aggressive police tactics.

Physical appearance and clothing were also discussed as factors that could explain differential policing practices. J.T. from the first focus group offers this example:

You could like take clothes for example, like you could have two groups of five, 20-year-old males. One groups dressed in polos and skinny jeans and sneakers and the other ones have fitted caps and baggy jeans and stuff like that, they are going to be treated differently.

Here, he implies that individuals regardless of race would be treated differently based on perceptions of their attire. The distinction in clothing, however, lends itself to racial considerations, as those adorning batty jeans and fitted caps would be characteristic of Black/Hip Hop culture and often overly represented as a symbol of gang attire and/or having criminal tendencies. In particular, recent bands on white T-shirts and fitted hats within some school districts and in certain bars and clubs within the study area illustrate this perception overlooking the diversity within the culture. Nonetheless, non-Black individuals who embraced Hip Hop culture might also be subject to biased policing as suggested by participants within this group. Interestingly, it is implied in the quotation mentioned earlier that Black youth might be subject to less scrutiny if dressed in attire uncharacteristic of Black culture as in the recent trend toward polo shirts and fitted or skinny jeans.

A similar discussion occurred during the third group interview in which young males of African descent explained how skin tone, hairstyle, and clothing overlap to produce a prototype of gang involvement or perceived increased propensity for criminal behavior among patrolling officers. In response to the same question outlined earlier, *Tony a dark skin 20-year-old male with shoulder length locks suggested southern patrols use stereotypes of Black dangerousness to signal of which groups to patrol aggressively. He suggested “It depends on who they are with…that’s what I’m saying if you have dreads and you are posted up it’s a problem.” He continues:

Yeah, the cops will stand right next to us, and follow and watch us the whole time we’re down there. They will not move because we all are standing there posted up. Now, you got a group of White boys, they all in collared shirts, in their little fitted hats or whatever and their vans [shoe brand] or little plaid shorts. They might look at them real quick but then they are going to keep it moving but if they ask for let’s say, they ask for directions, its like “Yeah, sure man, I’ll be happy to take you there” [mocking the officer] and all that. But if we are all standing there with dreads and all that and ask for directions, they look at us like we’re crazy. You know what I’m saying.

His comment indicates that while Black youth in particular may be subject to greater scrutiny than other ethnic groups along the strip, those who have particular characteristics are subject to the most disparate treatment. Specifically, having darker skin, Afrocentric hairstyles such as locks, afros, or braids, and loose-fitting clothing were identified as factors that make some Black males appear more threatening to White authority. Tony reluctantly shared his experience with officers and club bouncers along the strip, after being prompted by his friend *Bobby, who is of the same age and ethnicity but appears more “clear cut” with a low haircut, glasses, and a medium skin tone. Tony described an incident where he and three of his friends were trying to get into a predominantly White club at the oceanfront and despite having what they perceived nearly identical outfits on, he was told his shorts were too long. Bobby chimed in, “We both had on basically white T-shirts with print on it, black shorts and black vans or whatever. The only difference was he had dreads and I had a low cut.”

Interestingly, while African American participants under the age of 25 suggested they frequent the “Black club” at the strip more often than other establishments, they suggested club owners often charged patrons more based on their attire or gender. Several respondents within this demographic indicated they often charged Black males US$25.00 or more for mere entrance. On the other hand, respondents suggested most “White bars/clubs” at the beach do not require a cover charge or rarely charge patrons more than US$10.

Other group members exchanged similar stories regarding their experiences at the beach from a bouncer asking one Black male to alter the direction of the hat he was wearing in order to gain entry into a club to young males suggesting they had to split their group of friends into two smaller groups as not to draw unwanted police attention. Linking the manner in which police at the oceanfront patrol to broader social control issues within the city, an older participant explained how he was denied entry into a popular club in the city but outside the resort area while with a group of coworkers because of his locks. The establishment he referenced later faced a civil lawsuit and was forced to reverse its policy. White respondents in the fourth group did not directly identify any select race as subject to differential treatment and instead was consistent in their view that most youth and individuals who are rowdy face harsher police treatment. One male from this group explained, “People are pretty much treated fair, it is more so how you carry yourself like if you are being rowdy and loud.”

Social Exclusion

In assessing the overall impact of police practices on various publics, there is evidence of social exclusion with age and race being significant factors in respondents’ decision to avoid the oceanfront strip. Although it is likely that older regional residents in general may no longer see the oceanfront strip as inviting, a large percentage of focus group participants who were of African descent and 28 years of age or older suggested they no longer view this location as a viable place for entertainment. Many participants reported spending more time at the oceanfront during their younger years, citing the presence of police as the main reason why they ceased choosing the strip as a recreational outlet. Among this group, individuals were more likely to suggest the nature of policing along the strip was aimed at limiting the number of Blacks visiting the resort area at night. Although they suggested police distribution might also affect other demographics in a similar fashion, evidenced by the comments of other non-Black minority participants, most believed the impetus for harsher regulations was directly driven by the increased presence of Black youth.

African American respondents under 30 years of age were more likely to indicate limited exclusion, suggesting the presence of police along the strip deters them from choosing the oceanfront as often as they would like or akin to older respondents visiting only during daytime hours. For example, *Tamika from the third focus group suggests “Yeah, you feel like if they don’t want us there then I don’t want to be there. I don’t want to give them my dollars if they don’t want us there in the first place…You can’t enjoy yourself.” Although the sentiments expressed earlier were the most common among minority respondents, there were some exceptions. In particular, older males who were gainfully employed with certain physical characteristics were more likely to offer fairly positive views of police actions. Akin to respondents in the fourth group interview, instead of viewing police as the problem, these males connected current policies to the rowdiness of Black youth and their overall demeanor. Tim from the third group interview falls into this camp and presents a different perspective than other members outlined subsequently:

Ah yeah, it’s funny, cause I have a totally different perspective probably from the majority of everybody here…I think cause…see in high school I used to hang with white people too. And I think a lot of what’s going on today is from our actions in the eighties…The way we carried/handled ourselves down the beach.

Similar comments were echoed by a light-skin African American male named *Jerome during the second group interview, who was 48 years old and employed within the medical industry. Although he admits that he no longer visits the oceanfront area, despite residency in the city for the past 30 years, his reasons were quite different. He explained, “It’s been years. I haven’t been to the beach, I just don’t go. I know for a fact that you can’t categorize all police. You can’t.” Confessing that he has on a few occasions driven home while under the influence, he states “white officers who told me to park the car and have taken me home. They could’ve said, hey look, your ass is drunk, you’re gone.” Although interviewees acknowledged that not all officers along the strip were consistently rude or aggressive, they were more likely to identify the individual characteristics of respondents who reported nonaggressive exchanges, such as skin tone, age, and economic class as factors contributing to the irregularity of such experiences.

Discussion and Conclusion

As predicted by earlier studies, policing practices along the commercial strip were perceived more adversely by African American strip goers (Anderson, 1999; Brunson, 2007; Jones-Brown, 2000a; Kane, 2002; Weitzer, 2000). That is, this group was more likely to describe the nature of police actions along the strip as arbitrary, intrusive, biased, and/or unnecessarily aggressive. Although African Americans frequently described police allocation as intimidating, inciting, and excessive, interviewees were more disturbed by the manner in which officers posture and engage specific publics than their mere presence. African American respondents across ages and gender voiced particular disdain for the manner in which mounted units were used along the strip and described situations of differential and/or biased policing as common features of oceanfront policing.

Akin to Georges-Abeyie’s (2001) concept of “petit apartheid,” African American strip goers were more likely than others to identify instances of informal aggression stemming from patrol officers and establishment security. Often hidden from official data, these encounters were based on slights and indignities such as entry refusal, close and continuous monitoring, glares and offensive comments, increased cover and parking charges as well as the general posturing of officers when engaging minority publics. Highlighting the significance of accumulated negative experiences on respondents’ general perceptions of police, (Brunson, 2007; Feagin, 1991; Feagin & Sikes, 1994) police–citizen encounters involving micro/macro aggressions (Russell, 1998; Thompkins, 2001) heavily influenced respondents’ overall perception of police and their decision to seek this venue as a place for recreation. Group interviews support the existing literature that suggests despite the accuracy of shared experiences, the dissemination of personal narratives during group dialogue strengthened perceptions of biased policing (Feagin, 1991; Feagin & Sikes, 1994; Weitzer, 2002).

African American respondents exhibited considerable cohesion in views toward aggressive policing, differential enforcement, and police harassment. Still, the nature of policing in this environment has not entirely deterred the population of most concern: young Black males. That is, social exclusion occurred more among African Americans over the age of 25 across gender and income categories than among younger Blacks more likely to be perceived as rowdy. In fact, educated African Americans between the ages of 25 and 45 indicated that despite desires to partake in the services and ambience the oceanfront area provides, the nature of policing within this environment encourages them to take their money elsewhere.

Black youth indicate their clothing, group size, and selection of friends are considered and at times modified in effort to reduce police scrutiny, allowing them to see the oceanfront strip as a viable space for leisure. Interestingly, White focus group respondents indicated they too made adjustments when visiting the strip; however, these were not directly based on perceptions of policing (see Brunson & Weitzer, 2009). Some of their adjustments included taking a cab to the area to reduce parking concerns and to prevent drinking and driving, while others dealt with selective avoidance of certain selections of the strip most populated by rowdy youth. Despite seemingly public access, the nature of policing within the oceanfront area influences the actions, behaviors, and decisions members of diverse groups make toward the pursuit of leisure activities.

There were some notable limitations of this research. First, data derived entirely from focus group interviews are limited by self-report by participants and possible inaccuracies in the retelling of events and encounters. Second, the local police department offered only limited participation, as they were engaged in a civil law suit alleging claims of biased policing at the time of the study. The charges were later dismissed. Site considerations including racial climate, city demographics, military presence, and city’s history might have also impacted group findings. This study may be limited by the discomfort of group participants to openly discuss race and how its impacts views regarding social control with a single researcher of African American descent. The use of a grounded method allowed for potential bias in the interpretation and analysis of data, despite incorporating the techniques to limit this occurrence. And yet, no study design effectively eliminates all potential bias. Although much more work remains, this approach offers a new view into the delivery of police services within commercial space.

Theoretical Contribution and Policy Implications

Findings suggest that style, dress, and music popularized by Black culture are criminalized within this environment. Findings support Marable’s (2007) claim that “racial categories are constantly reinforced in the behaviors and social expectations of all groups by the manipulation of social stereotypes and use of the legal system to carry out methods of coercion” (p. 186). Hence, policing “blackness” within ethnically diverse public commercial space takes the form of legal revanchism where outsiders who intrude on carefully crafted images of “family friendly fun” face aggressive regulations that aim to erase them from public view (Ferrell, 2001). The enforcement of new codes and regulations directed at subjugated groups across public space encompass a variety of behaviors including anticruising statutes, no cursing laws, the creation of outdoor cafes to reduce loitering, and others regarding vehicle modification, noise levels, and movement.

Outlined by focus group participants, groups of Black youth with hairstyles, clothing, skin tones, and/or mannerisms that are perceived as particularly threatening who are stationary along the commercial strip elicit the most directed police attention. This is especially the case, if several individuals with these characteristics are in groups of four or more. However, when Black youth who “fit this description” are with others who do not bare the same characteristics (closer haircuts, more fitted clothing, lighter skin tones, use of “proper” English, etc.), they are less likely to face similar police scrutiny supporting the halo effect outlined by Smith (1986). This perspective offers a nuanced view of the theory of ecological contamination (Brunson & Weizter, 2009; Smith, 1986) that relates more to groups of people than places. These findings highlight the importance of perceived group dangerousness within low-crime, ethnically diverse public areas. This is to suggest that when members of other ethnic groups are with groups of young Black males or females who are perceived as threatening based on their hairstyle, clothing, skin tone, the number of people in a group, or some other ambiguous factor, non-Blacks are treated in the same fashion as threatening individuals despite the environment.

Collectively, study findings highlight the connectivity of several theories, which interact to produce a nuanced understanding of the function of race in the policing of public commercial space. An elaboration of the conflict perspective to include contextual and sociohistorical variables alongside cultural criminology and a critical assessment of environmental criminology has yielded a understanding of the salience of race which transcends assertions in prevailing literature that hypothesize more equitable treatment of Blacks in public space relative to their treatment in residential neighborhoods (Bursik & Grasmick, 1993; Sampson, McAdam, MacIndoe, & Weffer-Elizondo, 2005; Shaw & McKay, 1969). Supporting in its place the work of Feagin (1991), the present study found anti-Black discrimination accompanies Blacks, as they move into the public sphere where contacts are mainly with strangers. This suggests a spatial dimension to discrimination, where blacks are “relatively protected” in private or friendship settings such as in or near their home, workplace, or school relative to their exposure to discrimination across public space. Within this environment, the partial comfort of middle-class status, organizational resources, and familiarity/reputation is lost, as Blacks interact mostly with White strangers “who react primarily on the basis of one ascribed characteristic” (Feagin, 1991, p. 102), leaving Blacks vulnerable to overgeneralized stereotypes of “blackness” and “black criminality.” Although the study’s findings do not suggest order maintenance policing inevitably reinforces a conflict orientation between police agents and racial minorities in heterogeneous communities with racialized histories, it does suggest police departments should take proactive measures to ensure its mission, philosophy, goals, and operation work collectively toward the explicit pursuit of fair, effective, and unbiased policing.

Future research should focus on innovative policing models that allow for the regulation of public space without criminalizing select groups. Improving perceptions of police and policing may reduce secondary deviance and other crimes of resistance⁹ based on negative views of the government and other formal systems of justice (Brunson, 2007; Tyler, 2001). Finally, increasing confidence in the overall systems of justice may reduce tensions between local police and Black publics toward the inclusion of all groups as unmolested users of public space.

Footnotes

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank Ruth Triplett and Travis Linnemann of Old Dominion University and the editor and anonymous reviewers at Race and Justice Scholar for helpful comments and advice on earlier drafts of this article. I am also extremely grateful to Helen Taylor-Greene, Todd Clear, and Delores Jones-Brown for their contribution in seeing this project through.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

References

Alfers

K. G.

(1976). Law and order in the capital city: A history of the Washington Police, 1800-1886. Washington, DC: George Washington University.

Alpert

G. P.

Dunham

R. G.

(1988). Policing multi-ethnic neighborhoods. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Alpert

G. P.

Dunham

R.G.

(1992). Policing urban America. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

Alpert

G. P.

Dunham

R. G.

Smith

M. R.

(2007). Investigating racial profiling by the Miami-Dade Police Department: A multimethod approach. Criminology & Public Policy, 6, 25–56.

Alpert

G. P.

MacDonald

J. M.

Dunham

R. G.

(2005). Police suspicion and discretionary decision making during citizen stops. Criminology, 43, 407–434.

Anderson

(1990). Streetwise: Race, class, and change in an urban community. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Anderson

(1999). Code of the street: Decency, violence and the moral life of the innercity. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

Arthur

J. A.

Care

C. E.

(1994). Race, class, and support for police use of force. Crime Law and Social Change, 21, 167–182.

Banton

(1964). The police in the community. New York, NY: Basic Books.

10.

Barlow

D. E.

Barlow

M. H.

(2002). Racial profiling: A survey of African American police officers. Police Quarterly, 5, 334–358.

11.

Bass

(2001a). Policing space, policing race: Social control imperatives and police discretionary decision. Social Justice, 28, 156–176.

12.

Bass

(2001b). Out of place: Petit apartheid and the police. In Milovanovic

Russell

(Eds.). Petit apartheid in the U.S. criminal justice system: The dark Figure of racism (pp. 43–53). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.

13.

Bayley

Mendelsohn

(1969). Minorities and the police: Confrontation in America. New York, NY: Free Press.

14.

Blalock

H. M.

(1967). Toward a theory of minority-group relations. New York, NY: John Wiley.

15.

Blauner

(1972). Racial oppression in America. New York, NY: Harper and Row.

16.

Blauner

(2001). Still the big news: Racial oppression in America. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

17.

Bordua

Tifft

(1971). Citizen interviews, organizational feedback, and police-community relations decisions. Law and Society Review, 6, 155–182.

18.

Brockett

(2000). Conceptual incarceration: A thirteenth-amendment look at African Americans and policing. In Markowitz

M.W.

Jones-Brown

D.J.

(Eds.), The system in black and white (pp. 109–124). Westport, CT: Praeger.

19.

Brown

Benedict

W. R.

(2002). Perceptions of the police: Past findings, methodological issues, conceptual issues, and policy implications. Policing, 25, 543–580.

20.

Browning

S. L.

Cullen

F. T.

Cao

Kopache

Stevenson

T. J.

(1994). Race and getting hassled by the police: A research note. Police Studies, 17, 1–11.

21.

Brunson

R. K.

(2007). Police don’t like black people: African American’s accumulated police experiences. Criminology and Public Policy, 6, 71–102.

22.

Brunson

R. K.

Miller

(2006). Young black men and urban policing in the United States. British Journal of Criminology, 46, 613–640.

23.

Brunson

R. K.

Weitzer

(2009). Police relations with black and white youths in different urban neighborhoods. Urban Affairs Review, 44, 858–885.

24.

Bursik

R. J.

Grasmick

H.G.

(1993). Neighborhoods and crime: The dimensions of effective community control. New York, NY: Lexington.

25.

Button

(2003). Private security and the policing of quasi-public space. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 31, 227–237.

26.

Carr

P. J.

Napolitano

Keating

(2007). We never call the cops and here is why: A qualitative examination of legal cynicism in three Philadelphia neighborhoods. Criminology, 45, 445–480.

27.

Cashmore

McLaughlin

(1991). Out of order? Policing black people. New York, NY: Routledge.

28.

Cole

(1999). No equal justice: Race and class in the American criminal justice system. New York, NY: The New Press.

29.

Decker

S. H.

(1985). The police and the public: Perceptions and policy recommendations. In Homant

R. J.

Kennedy

D. B.

(Eds.), Police and law enforcement 1975-1981 (pp. 89–105). New York, NY: AMS Press.

30.

Eitle

D'Alessio

S. J.

Stolzenberg

(2002). Racial threat and social control: A test of the political, economic, and threat of black crime hypotheses. Social Forces, 81, 557–576.

31.

Fagan

Davies

(2000). Street stops and broken windows: Terry, race, and disorder in New York City. Fordham Urban Law Journal, 28, 457–504.

32.

Feagin

J. R.

(1991). The continuing significance of race: Antiblack discrimination in Public places. American Sociological Review, 56, 101–116.

33.

Feagin

J. R.

Sykes

M. P.

(1994). Living with racism: The black middle class experience. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

34.

Ferrell

(1997a). Youth, crime, and cultural space. Social Justice, 24, 21–38.

35.

Ferrell

(2001). Remapping the city: Public identity, cultural space, and social justice. Contemporary Justice Review, 4, 161–180.

36.

Flowers

R. B.

(1988). Minorities and criminality. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

37.

Geller

W. A.

Toch

(Eds). (1996). Police violence: Understanding and controlling police abuse of force. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

38.

Gelman

Fagan

Kiss

(2007). An analysis of the New York City Police Department’s “stop-and-frisk” police in the context of claims of racial bias. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 102, 813–823.

39.

Georges-Abeyie

(2001). Petit apartheid in criminal justice: The more things change, the more things remain the same. In Milovanovic

Russell

(Eds.), Petit apartheid in the U.S. criminal justice system: The dark figure of racism (pp. 9–14). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.

40.

Grant

Terry

(2008). Law enforcement in the 21st century (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

41.

Hadden

(2001). Slave patrols: Law and violence in Virginia and the Carolinas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

42.

Hagan

Albonetti

(1982). Race, class, and the perception of criminal injustice in America. American Journal of Sociology, 88, 329–355.

43.

Hagan

Shedd

Payne

(2005). Race, ethnicity, and youth perceptions of criminal injustice. American Sociology Review, 70, 381–407.

44.

Harris

D. A.

(2002). Profiles in injustice. New York, NY: New Press.

45.

Hawdon

Ryan

Griffin

S. P.

(2003). Policing tactics and perceptions of police legitimacy. Police Quarterly, 6, 469–491.

46.

Hawkins

Thomas

(1991). White policing of black populations: A history of race and social control in America. In Cashmore

McLaughlin

(Eds.), Out of order? Policing black people (pp. 65–86). New York, NY: Routledge.

47.

Haywood

(2012). Five spaces of cultural criminology. British Journal of Criminology, 52, 441–462.

48.

Herbert

(1997). Policing Space: Territoriality and the Los Angeles Police Department. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

49.

Hindus

M. S.

(1980). Prison and plantation: Crime, justice, and authority in Massachusetts and South Carolina, 1767–1878. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

50.

Huebner

B. M.

Schafer

J. A.

Bynum

T. S.

(2004). African American and White perceptions of police services: Within-and between-group variation. Journal of Criminal Justice, 32, 123–135.

51.

Hurst

Frank

Browning

S. L.

(2000). The attitudes of juveniles' toward the police: A comparison of black and white youth. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 23, 37–53.

52.

Jesilow

Meyer

J. A.

Namazzi

(1995). Public attitudes toward the police. American Journal of Police, 14, 66–88.

53.

Jones-Brown

D. D.

(2000a). Race as a legal construct: The implications for American justice. In Markowitz

M. W.

Jones-Brown

D. D.

(Eds.), The system in black and white: Exploring the connections between race, crime, and justice (pp. 137–152). Westport, CT: Praeger.

54.

Jones-Brown

D. D.

(2000b). Debunking the myth of officer friendly: How African Americans males experience community policing. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 16, 209–229.

55.

Jones-Brown

D. D.

(2007). Forever the symbolic assailant: The more things change, the more they remain the same. Criminology and Public Policy, 6, 103–122.

56.

Kaminski

R. J.

Jefferis

E. S.

(1998). The effect of a violent televised arrest on public perceptions of the police: A partial test of Easton’s theoretical framework. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 21, 683–706.

57.

Kane

R. J.

(2002). The social ecology of police misconduct. Criminology, 40, 867–896.

58.

Kane

R. J.

(2005). Compromised police legitimacy as a predictor of violent crime in structurally disadvantaged communities. Criminology, 43, 469–498.

59.

Kennedy

(1997). Race, crime, and law. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.

60.

Klockars

(1985). The idea of police. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

61.

Kubrin

(2005). Gangstas, thugs, and hustlas: Identity and the code of the street in rap music. Social Problems, 52, 360–378.

62.

Leiber

M. J.

Nalla

M. K.

Farnworth

(1998). Explaining juveniles’ attitudes toward the police. Justice Quarterly, 15, 151–173.

63.

Marable

(2007). Race, reform and rebellion: The second reconstruction and beyond in Black America, 1945–2006 (3rd ed.). Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.

64.

Marchiafava

L. J.

(1977). The Houston police, 1878-1948. Houston, TX: William Marsh Rice University.

65.

Miller

W. R.

(1977). Cops and bobbies: Police authority in New York and London, 1830-1870. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

66.

Moore

Lesser

Smith

G.B.

(2008, February 29). Frisk-y rides for blacks and Latinos. Retrieved from http://www.nydailypress.com

67.

Muhammad

K. G.

(2010). The condemnation of blackness: Race, crime, and the making of modern urban America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

68.

Murty

Roebuck

Smith

J. E.

(1990). The image of police in black Atlanta communities. Journal of Police Science and Administration, 17, 250–257.

69.

National Research Council. (2004). Measuring racial discrimination. In Blank

R. M.

Dabady

Citro

C. F.

(Eds.), Panel on methods for assessing discrimination. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.

70.

Neocleous

(2011). A brighter & nicer new life: Security as pacification. Social & Legal Studies, 20, 191–208.

71.

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).

72.

Reisig

M. D.

Parks

R. B.

(2000). Experience, quality of life, and neighborhood context: A hierarchical analysis of satisfaction with police. Justice Quarterly, 17, 607–630.

73.

Reiss

A. J.

Bordua

(1967). Environment and organization: A perspective on the police. In Bordua

(Ed.), The police (pp. 25–55). New York, NY: John Wiley.

74.

Rennison

C. M.

(2001). Criminal victimization 2000: Changes 1999-2000 with trends 1993-2000. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics.

75.

Rosenbaum

D. P.

Schuck

A. M.

Costello

S. K.

Hawkins

D. F.

Ring

M. K.

(2005). Attitudes toward the police: The effects of direct and vicarious experience. Police Quarterly, 8, 343–365.

76.

Rousey

D.C.

(1996). Policing the Southern city: New Orleans 1805-1889. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

77.

Russell

(1998). The color of crime: Racial hoaxes, white fear, black protectionism, police harassment, and other macroaggressions. New York, NY: New York University Press.

78.

Sampson

R. J.

Jeglum-Bartusch

(1998). Legal cynicism and subcultural tolerance of deviance: The neighborhood context of racial differences. Law and Society Review, 32, 777–804.

79.

Sampson

R. J.

McAdam

MacIndoe

Weffer-Elizondo

(2005). Civil society reconsidered: The durable nature and community structure of collective civic action. American Journal of Sociology, 111, 673–714.

80.

Scaglion

Condon

R.G.

(1980). Determinants of attitudes toward city police. Criminology, 17, 485–494.

81.

Shapiro

Souza

(2013, May 1). Va. Beach event promoters still a mystery to police. The Virginian Pilot. Retrieved from http://www.hamptonroads.com

82.

Shaw

McKay

H. D.

(1969). Juvenile delinquency and urban areas. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

83.

Skolnick

J. H.

Fyfe

J. J.

(1993). Above the law. New York, NY: Free Press.

84.

Smith

(1986). The neighborhood context of police behavior. In Reiss

Tonry

(Eds.), Communities and crime (pp. 313–341). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

85.

Smith

P.E.

Hawkins

R.O.

(1973). Victimization, types of citizen-police contacts and attitudes toward the police. Law & Society Review, 8, 135–152.

86.

Stewart

E. A.

Baumer

E. P.

Brunson

R. K.

Simons

R. L.

(2009). Neighborhood racial context and perceptions of police-based racial discrimination among black youth. Criminology, 47, 847–888.

87.

Strauss

Corbin

(1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

88.

Stolzenberg

D’Alessio

Eitle

(2004). A multilevel test of racial threat theory. Criminology, 42, 673–698.

89.

Taylor

M. C.

(1998). How white attitudes vary with the racial composition of local populations: Numbers count. American Sociological Review, 63, 512–535.

90.

Taylor Greene

(2000). Race and police violence. In Markowitz

M. W.

Jones-Brown

D. D.

(Eds.). The system in black and white: Exploring the connections between race, crime, and justice (pp. 73–84). Westport, CT: Praeger.

91.

Thompkins

D. E.

(2001). The presence and affect of Petit apartheid. In Milovanovic

Russell

(Eds.), Petit apartheid in criminal justice. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.

92.

Turk

(1969). Criminality and legal order. Chicago, IL: Rand-McNally.

93.

Tyler

T. R.

(2001). Public trust and confidence in legal authorities: What do majority and minority group members want from law and legal institutions? Behavioral Sciences Law, 19, 215–235.

94.

Tyler

T. R.

Wakslak

C. J.

(2004). Profiling and police legitimacy: Procedural justice, attributions of motive, and acceptance of police authority. Criminology, 42, 253–281.

95.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC Metro Area—Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics, 2010. Demographic Profile Data. Retrieved from http://www.factfinder.census.gov

96.

von Hirsch

Shearing

(2000). Exclusion from public space. In von Hirsch

Garland

Wakefield

(Eds.). Ethical and social perspectives on situational crime prevention (pp. 77–96). Portland, OR: Hart.

97.

Walker

Richardson

Williams

Denyer

McGaughey

(1972). Contact and support: An empirical assessment of public attitudes toward the police and the courts. North Carolina Law Review, 51, 43–79.

98.

Webb

V. J.

Marshall

C. E.

(1995). The relative importance of race and ethnicity citizen attitudes toward the police. American Journal of Police, 24, 45–66.

99.

Websdale

(2001). Policing the poor: From slave plantation to public housing. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.

100.

Weitzer

(1999). Citizen perceptions of police misconduct: Race and neighborhood context. Justice Quarterly, 16, 819–846.

101.

Weitzer

(2000). Racialized policing: Residents' perceptions in three neighborhoods. Law and Society Review, 34, 129–155.

102.

Weitzer

(2002). Incidents of police misconduct and public opinion. Journal of Criminal Justice, 30, 397–408.

103.

Weitzer

Tuch

(2002). Perceptions of racial profiling: Race, class and personal experience. Criminology, 40, 435–457.

104.

Weitzer

Tuch

(2005). Racially biased profiling: Determinants of citizen perceptions. Social Forces, 83, 1009–1030.

105.

White

Sutton

(1995). Crime prevention, urban space, and social exclusion. Journal of Sociology, 31, 82–99.

106.

Williams

Murphy

(1990). The evolving strategy of police: A minority view. National Institute of Justice, 13, 29–51.

107.

Wood

(1984). Slavery in colonial Georgia. Athens: University of Georgia Press.

108.

West

(2014, May 1). Police: More charged during 2014 Beach Weekend. 10 On Your Side Wavy.com. Retrieved from http://wavy.com/2014/05/01/virginia-beach-releases-beach-weekend-crime-data/