An Empirical Analysis of Depolicing Behavior

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-27-2023

School

Criminal Justice, Forensic Science, and Security

Abstract

Depolicing is a behavior that occurs when law enforcement officers disengage from proactive police work. Despite the term’s more recent popularity, these behaviors have been identified in policing literature for decades. Scholars have primarily tried to quantify the depolicing phenomenon through the lens of public scrutiny and the Ferguson Effect. However, there are currently no quantitative studies that have attempted to examine the multitude of reasons as to why depolicing behavior could potentially occur. The current inquiry uses survey data retrieved from eight municipal law enforcement agencies to further examine potential predictors of depolicing. The predictor variables consisted of public scrutiny, liability concerns, organizational unfairness, burnout, physical danger, COVID-19, and years of experience. Our results indicate that public scrutiny, liability concerns, COVID-19, and years of experience are all significant and positive predictors of depolicing. We also found that agency location and rank significantly impacted depolicing behavior. The findings and limitations are discussed.

Publication Title

Police Practice and Research

Volume

25

Issue

1

First Page

53

Last Page

70

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