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Citizen Interviews, Organizational Feedback, and Police-Community Relations Decisions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

David J. Bordua  and
Larry L. Tifft
David J. Bordua
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Larry L. Tifft
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago Circle
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Extract

Police-community relations programs are intended to be long-range, full-scale efforts to acquaint the police and the community with each other's problems and to stimulate action aimed at solving problems; they have been criticized, however, as being concerned mainly with raising the professional image of the police in the minds of the public (President's Commission, 1967a: 100). In some ways, they seem to have functioned to slow down change and to maintain present police policies and practices.

The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (1967b: 178) has indicated that some of these policies and practices cannot be justified. The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (1968: 158) comments that some activities of even the most “professional” police departments may heighten tension and enhance the potential for civil disorder.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 6 , Issue 2: Special Issue on the Police , November 1971 , pp. 155 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 by the Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

AUTHORS' NOTE: The authors would like to thank Professors Eugene Eidenberg and Kenneth Southwood for critical comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The data reported here are from a larger study of lower-level police supervision begun in 1967. Research support was provided under the Law Enforcement Assistance Act of 1965 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Law Enforcement Assistance Grant No. 385-(266)-(S-215).

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