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Evaluating Police-Community Relations Globally Read chapter Read first chapter

2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

8. Search and Seizure Jurisprudence: Community Perceptions of Police Legitimacy in the United States

Authors : S. Hakan Can, Durant Frantzen

Published in: Policing and Minority Communities

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Perceptions of police legitimacy have a significant impact on reported crime rates and public order, particularly as it relates to police searches and seizures. Research has shown that variations in community demographics play a vital role in how the police are perceived by their constituents, as well as how crime is differentially enforced in these communities. One limitation from this line of research is the tendency to focus on racial differences (e.g., Black vs. White), with less attention devoted to ethnic variations. This study examines how perceptions of police searches and seizures (as defined by U.S. Supreme Court case law) compare in a majority-Hispanic community in the Southwest and a majority-White community in the Northeast. We also explore the differential perceptions toward police legitimacy as defined by the type of police search or seizure; that is, whether vehicle stops and searches are viewed as more or less legitimate compared to person and residential searches and whether such views vary according to race and ethnicity, as well as region. Results indicate that perceptions of police search legality are mediated by region. Differences in racial perceptions of the police were found among respondents in the Northeast, with African-Americans least likely to favor police search policies compared to Hispanics and Whites. However, no such differences were found in the Southwest. The findings are discussed within the larger context of police-community relations research.

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previous chapter The Impact of Police Shootings in the United States on Police-Community Relations
next chapter Diversity and Policing in Canada
Appendix
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Footnotes
1
We field-tested the instrument with a group of ten police officers and made some changes prior to deploying it to the study population. All of the participants acknowledged that the scenarios represented the “most essential facts” of the search once alterations had been made. Kessler (2009) used a similar approach to gauge perceptions of citizens on whether they felt “free to leave” after having been confronted by a police officer while riding a bus or walking on the sidewalk. Building on this instrument, we were careful to include as many of the key legal issues of each search as possible: (1) whether consent, plain view, or any other exceptions to the normal probable cause requirement applied to the search, and (2) whether the facts arising to probable cause or reasonable suspicion were sufficiently identified.
 
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Metadata
Title
Search and Seizure Jurisprudence: Community Perceptions of Police Legitimacy in the United States
Authors
S. Hakan Can
Durant Frantzen
Copyright Year
2019
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Book
Policing and Minority Communities

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19181-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-19182-5

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19182-5_8