Police Quarterly

When the police use deadly force, their actions are judged by the reasonableness standard. This article seeks to inform the reasonableness standard by examining the ability of police officers to respond to armed suspects. The results of a reaction time experiment are presented. In this experiment, police officers encountered a suspect armed with a gun, pointing down and not at the police officer. The police officer had his gun aimed at the suspect and ordered the suspect to drop the gun. The suspect then either surrendered or attempted to shoot the officer. The speed with which the officer fired if the suspect chose to shoot was assessed. Results suggest that the officers were generally not able to fire before the suspect. Implications for the reasonableness standard and policy are discussed.

According to tokenism theory, “tokens” (those who comprise less than 15% of a group’s total) are expected to experience a variety of hardships in the workplace, such as feelings of heightened visibility, isolation, and limited opportunities for advancement. In the policing literature, most previous studies have defined tokenism narrowly in terms of gender. The current research extends prior research by examining tokenism as a function of gender and race, with an examination of racial/ethnic subgroups. Particular attention is paid to Latino officers as this study represents the first known study of tokenism and Latino police officers. Quantitative analyses reveal that, for the most part, token police officers do experience the effects of tokenism as predicted by tokenism theory. Although all minorities experienced some level of tokenism, Black males and Black females experienced greater levels of tokenism than Latino officers, suggesting that race is a stronger predictor of tokenism than gender.

The use of force by police officers is a regular source of interest among the public, media, scholars, and criminal justice professionals. Tasers have emerged as an important and increasingly popular technology for police departments. Despite the increasing adoption and use of Tasers and the controversy surrounding their use, relatively little prior research examines the factors associated with Taser use by police officers. Guided by the focal concerns theoretical perspective, the current study uses data from a medium-size police department to analyze the factors that influence Taser use. Logistic regression models provide evidence that Taser use is influenced by suspect resistance as well as the race and gender of the suspect involved. Implications for policy and research are discussed.

Research indicates that Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) programs, a police response to citizens with mental illness (consumers), are beneficial; however, much of it is qualitative and limited to assessing the impact of the training CIT officers receive without considering other factors affecting consumer dispositional outcomes. It also is unclear whether the observed benefits persist over time. The purpose of this research is to use empirical data to address some of these unanswered questions, especially as they surround officer behavior. This study found differences between large and small law enforcement agencies and changes in dispositions of consumers over time. Policy and practice implications are discussed.

Collaboration between law enforcement agencies, at all levels of government, has been identified as a salient component of post–September 11 policing. This study surveys a representative sample of Texas police chiefs concerning their perceptions of the level of collaboration that is occurring between their respective departments and federal agencies. Results suggest that the majority of chiefs hold generally low perceptions of federal-local collaboration. Furthermore, regression analyses show that preparedness and departmental strategy perceptions are predictive of federal-local collaboration. Regarding structural factors, chiefs of large departments as well as university departments are more likely to report higher levels of collaboration with federal agencies. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.