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Many police officers now carry less-lethal tools, which provide police officers with the means to apprehend resistant suspects without the need for hands-on tactics or firearms.  Hopefully this reduces the risk of civilian injury and death.  Still, a civilian can sustain an injury from a less-lethal tool.  Since most police agencies support the use of these tools, why not use the one that works but also reduces the risk of civilian injury?  Dr. Keven Petersen from the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte joins the podcast to discuss his recent study, “Less‑Lethal Weapons and Civilian Injury in Police Use of Force Encounters: A Multi‑agency Analysis,” coauthored by Christopher S. Koper, Bruce G. Taylor, Weiwei Liu and Jackie Sheridan‑Johnson.

Main Topics

• An officer’s use of force is linked to police-community relations.
• Ranking the different less-lethal force tools on the force continuum remains challenging. 
• Chemical agents appear to cause the least harm to civilians.
• The impact on officer’s safety remains important.

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Gunshot detections systems work.  No, gunshot detection systems don’t work.  Can we have it both ways?  It’s kind of like the first line in A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”  Well?  Which is it?   This week we’ll be discussing Gunshot Detection Systems and the impact on evidence collection and crime.  Dr. Eric Piza, the Lipman Family Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice and Director of Crime Analysis Initiatives at Northeastern University, joins the podcast to discuss his 2024 study, “Gunshot detection technology effect on gun violence in Kansas City, Missouri: A microsynthetic control evaluation, coauthored by David N. Hatten, George O. Mohler, Jeremy G. Carter, and Jisoo Cho.

Main Topics

• The price tag for a gunshot detection system (GDS) can get very expensive very quickly.
• The use of a gunshot detection system was associated with higher levels of ballistic evidence collection in the GDS target area and surrounding location. 
• The GDS did not influence any of the gun violence categories involving confirmed victims (i.e., fatal and non-fatal, shootings, aggravated assaults).
• We also get into the political aspects of research, and the role of an academic in policy debates.

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Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on an unproven tool is wasteful, and Artificial Intelligence equipment for policing can be just such an expensive outlay.  While there is a growing body of research showing the AI benefits and limits within policing, the jury is still out on its overall utility.  Professor Ian Adams joins the podcast to discuss his paper titled, “Improving police behavior through artificial intelligence: Pre-registered experimental results in two large US agencies,” published in Criminology (coauthored by Kyle McLean and Geoff Alpert).

Main Topics

• Using AI to audit body camera transcripts, there was an 80% increase in professional behavior in an already professional department.
• Substandard behavior was significantly reduced in a department with existing problems.  
• The improved behavior may not be a change in the hearts of officers, but better is still better.

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Almost 25% of guns are used multiple times at or very close to the same place or reused within a relatively short period of time.  Just like “hot spots” for crime, guns can share similar repeat characteristics. In fact, a single firearm should be considered “durable hardware” that may never go away.

The emphasis on “gun crime” research has led to a relative lack of understanding about “crime guns” themselves.  In other words, the tools that are a part of gun crime, the guns, are rarely the subject of research.  Today we are joined by Dr. Jonathan Reid, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Reid discusses his recent publication titled, “The Gun’s Journey to Crime: Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Repeat Criminal Firearm Use” (co-authored by Yan Zhang, William King, Jennifer Clausen, and William Wells). Click play and learn more about crime guns, not just gun crime.

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Police officers understand evidence.  From their time in the police academy to the first time they testify in court, even traffic court, an officer understands the importance of providing clear provable information.  The evidence has to contribute to an argument that something is more than likely than not to be true.  But when we to listen to news reports they are going to focus on the most serious issues.  Unfortunately, the most serious issues are not the most common.  In academics we call this "an N of 1."  This does not stop people, the news media, or politicians from exploiting that single incident.  But this is not evidence.  The entire policing field understands the N of 1, because the field of policing can be targeted based on the behavior of a single officer.  Whether the behavior is justified or corrupt, that single incident is thrown about as something common to policing.  Again, this is not evidence.  On today’s episode we’re going to be speaking with Calvin Proffit about the true nature of immigration and its relationship to crime.  This is often discussed in the media, but we’re going to look at what the research evidences tells us about this issue.  Calvin is a PhD candidate in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati.  Calvin is the lead author of “Gun Violence in the Age of Mass Migration: An Empirical Assessment of Immigration Effects on U.S. County-Level Firearm Homicides, 2000–2015,” which was published just a month or so ago.

Main Topics

• This research is a macro examination of crime patters across locations and demographics.
• Thirty years of research shows immigration insulates a neighborhood from crime. 
• “Immigrant Revitalization” can decrease gang and gun violence.
• The macro level data finds a negative relationship between gun homicides and immigrant populations.
• When it comes to “gang-related” violence, this seems to be a unique problem.

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We’ve all seen the movies in which a suspect is being interviewed by a bad cop and a good cop.  The detectives badger or con the suspect to a point of offering a false confession just to stop the process.  In the real world it is believed that false confessions make up 13% of wrongful convictions.  In the realm of evidence-based policing a relatively new approach to conducting suspect interviews is something called science-based interrogations.  The research into science-based interrogation is limited but growing.  An important component of using a science-based approach to interrogations is the training provided to those police officers and detectives who will use this tool.  Joining the podcast today is Dr. Melissa Russano who will be discussing two studies examining the impact of training on the use of science-based interrogation (SBI) methods.  Melissa is a Professor of Criminal Justice at Roger Williams University.  She holds a Ph.D. in Legal Psychology, and she teaches courses in Research Methods, legal psychology, and investigative interviewing.  You can contact Dr. Russano at [email protected] if you would like to further discuss her research, which includes:

Russano, M. B., Meissner, C. A., Atkinson, D. J., Brandon, S. E., Wells, S., Kleinman, S. M., & Jones, M. S. (2024). Evaluating the effectiveness of a 5-day training on science-based methods of interrogation with US federal, state, and local law enforcement investigators. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 30(2), 105.

Russano, M. B., Meissner, C. A., Jones, M. S., Rothweiler, J. N., Taylor, P. J., Cory, C., & Brandon, S. E. (2025). Evaluating the effectiveness of a practitioner‐designed science‐based interviewing and interrogation course: A collaborative training and research effort. Legal and Criminological Psychology.

Main Topics

• These studies take lab-based research and apply them in the policing field.
• SBI has multiple components, and each can improve the effectiveness of gaining cooperation and information from suspect, witnesses, and victims. 
• Applying the traditional the accusatorial model is actually counterproductive.

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A sign means something.  When you see a stop sign there’s no mystery about its meaning.  Some signs are not as clear, and we have to interpret their meaning.  For example, when someone sees neighborhood disorder or social incivilities, such as obvious drug dealing, these serve as warning signals about the potential for crime victimization.  This can then lead to a fear of crime.  Sometimes other factors can come into play that impact a person’s fear.  These “other factors” interfere with the original sign, signaling something that makes you feel safe.  This is important for people who live in areas that suffer from a multitude of disorders or incivilities.  What are some of the other factors that can influence a person’s perception of safety?  If we know what those factors are, can we increase them, thus improve feelings of safety? 

Joining the podcast is Doctor Travis M. Carter, an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.  He discusses his recent study titled “Explaining the relationship between neighborhood disorder and crime fear.”

Main Topics

• Incivilities create the perception of crime, but social capital, perceptions of enhanced informal social control and social cohesion, serve as cognitive heuristics that signal to people that their chances of victimization are lower.
• The “reassurance factor” describes people’s confidence in their local police as directly tied to fear of crime in their neighborhood. 
• The research findings suggest that perceptions of ongoing local social processes by neighbors and the police are fundamental to understanding why disorder is associated with fear of crime.

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A society wants order and the police were developed as the government vehicle to achieve that goal.  There is often tension between the goal of order and how it is achieved.  The tension often results from errors on the part of the responding officer.  This explains why alternative methods for dealing with lower-level social disorders have been explored.  Nevertheless, alternative systems to deal with order maintenance and peace keeping may carry their own risks and unknown costs.  How do we know precisely the risk level of different call types?  Should regular police officers continue to respond to low-level problems?  Joining the podcast is Dr. Loren Atherley, the Sr Director of Performance Analytics & Research and the Senior Research Scientist for the Seattle Police Department.  We discuss his recent study titled, Risk Managed Demand: Operational Risk Management in Police Response to Calls for Service.

Main Topics

• An “all-hazards response” is the traditional approach to social problems that require police intervention.
• Risk Management literature tells us that risk can be minimized but not eliminated.   So, how much risk are we prepared to accept with a non-officer response?
• The research identified 4 tiers of social response.
• There is no clearly identified “call type” that is low hazard; rather a model of call triage is being developed.

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Mental health calls to the police can be challenging for many reasons.  One of the primary problems with sending the police is that they are not usually properly trained to handle a person experiencing a mental health crisis.  The past few years have seen shifts from a law enforcement to a service response.  The Co-Responder model melds police officers and social service clinicians with the goal of improving services while maintaining safety for the responders, the public, and the patient.  Dr. Vaughn Crichlow, the dean of the School of Justice Studies at Roger Williams University joins the podcast to discuss his recent study exploring the perspectives of police and clinicians and their perceived impact of the co-responder program.

Main Topics

• Both officers and clinicians bring different perspectives that needed to be understood by each other to develop a successful co-responder program.
• The research uncovered different themes, such as sense-making, collaboration, and safety, that will be important for agencies interested in developing a co-responder model.
• The public believes these programs are important, but there can still be hurdles in their acceptance if they have questions about police legitimacy.
• The co-responder model does not replace the police; it is a collaborative approach to handle these calls for service.

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Increasing the number of female police officers is a challenge for police agencies.  While there has been ample research on this topic, the issue remains, and so the research continues.  Dr. Kathleen Padilla, from the School of Criminal Justice & Criminology at Texas State University, joins the podcast to discuss her 2024 study exploring the advice current and former female officers would give those who are thinking about entering the police profession.

Main Topics

• Females in policing can no longer be considered “token” hires.
• The “30x30” program is intended to increase the number of female officers.
• Cultural and operational changes may have already improved female representation.

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