Improving Evidence Collection Through Police-Prosecutor Coordination in Baltimore, 1984-1985 (ICPSR 9290)

Version Date: Jan 18, 2006

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Principal Investigator(s):
Susan Martin

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09290.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The purpose of this data collection was to investigate the effects of changes in police evidence procedures and the effects of providing feedback to officers on felony case charge reductions or dismissals due to evidentiary problems. The data were designed to permit an experimental assessment of the effectiveness of two police evidence collection programs implemented on April 1, 1985. One of these was an investigative and post-arrest procedural guide. The other was an individualized feedback report prepared by prosecutors for police officers. The officer file includes information on each officer's sex and race, length of police service, and assignment changes during the study period. Data on the offender and the case files include time of arrest, information on arresting officer, original investigating officer and principal investigating officer, offense and victim characteristics, arrestee characteristics, available evidence, case processing information, and arrestee's criminal history.

Citation

Martin, Susan. Improving Evidence Collection Through Police-Prosecutor Coordination in Baltimore, 1984-1985. [distributor], 2006-01-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09290.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (84-IJ-CX-0075)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

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Time Period(s)

1984 -- 1985

Date of Collection

1985

Data Collection Notes

  1. For reasons of confidentiality police officer badge numbers were replaced with unique identifiers in each of the files. Data on the individualized feedback report should not be used for purposes of analysis due to problems in implementing this portion of the study.

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Sample

The sample for the officer file consisted of all police officers on patrol in four shifts in the Western and Eastern Divisions of the Baltimore County Police Department during the period April 1, 1984 through November 30, 1985. The target population was all felony cases (except homicide, rape/other sex offenses, and child abuse) from police and prosecutor records for the time period April 1, 1984 through November 30, 1984 and April 1, 1985 through November 30, 1985.

Universe

All police officers in the Baltimore County Police Department and all felonies committed between April 1, 1984 and November 30, 1985 in Baltimore County.

Data Source

official police department and State Attorney General records

Data Type(s)

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Original Release Date

1990-03-02

Version History

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:
  • Martin, Susan. IMPROVING EVIDENCE COLLECTION THROUGH POLICE-PROSECUTOR COORDINATION IN BALTIMORE, 1984-1985. Washington, DC: The Police Foundation [producer], 1986. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1990. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09290.v1

2006-01-18 File CB9290.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

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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.