Community Policing and Police Agency Accreditation in the United States, 1992 and 1994 (ICPSR 2560)

Version Date: Mar 30, 2006 View help for published

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Gary W. Cordner, Eastern Kentucky University; Gerald L. Williams, Eastern Kentucky University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02560.v1

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This study was undertaken to examine the compatibility of law enforcement agency accreditation and community policing. It sought to answer the following questions: (1) Are accreditation and community policing compatible? (2) Do accreditation and community policing conflict? (3) Does accreditation support community policing? (4) Did any of this change with the 1994 "top-down" revision of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) standards? To that end, the researchers conducted separate content analyses of the 897 accreditation standards of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) in effect at the end of 1992 and the revised set of 436 standards published in 1994. The standards were coded on 27 variables derived from the literature on community policing and police administration. Information was collected on the basics of each accreditation standard, its references to issues of community-oriented policing (COP) and problem-oriented policing (POP), and general information on its compatibility, or conflict with COP and POP. Basic variables cover standard, chapter, section, and applicability. Variables focusing on the compatibility of community-oriented policing and the accreditation standards include sources of legitimacy/authorization, community input, community reciprocity, geographic responsibility, and broadening of functions. Variables on problem-oriented policing include level of analysis, empirical analysis, collaboration with nonpolice agencies, evaluation/assessment, and nature of the problem. Variables on management and administration concern officer discretion, specialization by unit, specialization by task, formalization, centralization, levels/hierarchy, employee notification, employee involvement, employee rights, specific accountability, and customer orientation. General information on the compatibility or conflict between a standard and community-oriented policing/problem-oriented policing includes overall restrictiveness of the standard, primary strategic affiliation, focus on process, and focus on administration.

Cordner, Gary W., and Williams, Gerald L. Community Policing and Police Agency Accreditation in the United States, 1992 and 1994. [distributor], 2006-03-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02560.v1

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United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (92-IJ-CX-K038)
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1992 -- 1996
  1. The codebook, user guide, and data collection instrument are provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.

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Community policing and law enforcement agency accreditation are two of the most significant police reform initiatives of the late 20th century. Whether these two major developments, one primarily operational and the other mainly administrative, are compatible or in conflict emerged as a serious issue in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The spectacular rise in the popularity of community policing in the middle 1990s has made this question much more timely and important. This study examined the compatibility of accreditation and community policing. It sought to answer the following questions: (1) Are accreditation and community policing compatible? (2) Do accreditation and community policing conflict? (3) Does accreditation support community policing? (4) Did any of this change with the 1994 "top-down" revision of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) standards?

To examine the compatibility of community policing and accreditation, the researchers conducted separate content analyses of the 897 accreditation standards of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) in effect at the end of 1992 and the revised set of 436 standards published in 1994. Each content analysis was done in three stages: (1) three researchers independently coded each standard, (2) a consensus coding was reached, and (3) the coding of all standards was reviewed for internal consistency. The standards were coded on 27 variables derived from the literature on community policing and police administration. Information was collected on the basics of each accreditation standard, its references to issues of community-oriented policing (COP) and problem-oriented policing (POP), and general information on its compatibility or conflict with COP and POP.

All 1992 and 1994 CALEA Accreditation Standards.

Law Enforcement Accreditation Standard.

Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) standards

Basic variables cover standard, chapter, section, and applicability. Variables focusing on the compatibility of community-oriented policing and the accreditation standards include sources of legitimacy/authorization, community input, community reciprocity, geographic responsibility, and broadening of functions. Variables on problem-oriented policing include level of analysis, empirical analysis, collaboration with nonpolice agencies, evaluation/assessment, and nature of the problem. Variables on management and administration concern officer discretion, specialization by unit, specialization by task, formalization, centralization, levels/hierarchy, employee notification, employee involvement, employee rights, specific accountability, and customer orientation. General information on the compatibility or conflict between a standard and community-oriented policing/problem-oriented policing includes overall restrictiveness of the standard, primary strategic affiliation, focus on process, and focus on administration.

Not applicable.

None.

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1999-11-19

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Cordner, Gary W., and Gerald L. Williams. COMMUNITY POLICING AND POLICE AGENCY ACCREDITATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1992 AND 1994. ICPSR version. Richmond, KY: Eastern Kentucky University [producer], 1998. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1999. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02560.v1

2006-03-30 File SA2560.ALL was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB2560.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File SP2560.ALL was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.

1999-11-19 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.