NCJ Number
186326
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 27 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2000 Pages: 667-687
Date Published
December 2000
Length
21 pages
Annotation
A survey asked 265 Canadian police officers to speculate on how they would handle a hypothetical traffic offense involving speeding by a 30-year-old female driver and how the use of mobile videotaping of their actions would influence their discretionary behavior.
Abstract
The research rested on recognition that the bureaucratic apparatus of policing provides little control over how police use discretion, because police agencies are street-level bureaucracies. The vignette provided reasons to justify either enforcement or lenience. The study examined whether surveillance might weaken the predilection for lenience in favor of more mechanical police practices. The participants came from five Canadian police agencies in the central and Atlantic regions. The 235-item survey asked half the participants to imagine that their actions were being videotaped. It did not present this request to the other participants. The survey included five indicators of role performance, three social variables, and three demographic variables, measured on a Likert-type scale. That data analysis used descriptive and multivariate techniques. Results revealed that a complex interplay of factors shaped the responses. These factors included the institutional context, organizational expectations, personal insecurities, job satisfaction, work experience, and social integration. Nevertheless, the predilection for leniency was strong. Responses to several items underscored the bureaucratic yet discretionary nature of policing. The vignette responses revealed a disinclination to regard a strict application of the law as fair. The analysis concluded that surveillance can encourage, as well as inhibit, the police predilection for lenience. Tables, note, and 32 references (Author abstract modified)