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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to draw a better understanding of the potential impact of daylight in officer decision making. In order to this, the authors test the veil of darkness hypothesis, which theorizes that racial bias in traffic stops can be tested by controlling for the impact of daylight, while operating under the assumption that driver patterns remain constant across race.Design/methodology/approachPublicly available traffic-stop records from the Louisville Metro Police Department for January 2010–2019. The analysis includes both propensity score matching to examine the impact of daylight in similarly situated stops and coefficients testing to analyze how VOD may vary in citation-specific models.FindingsThe results show that using PSM following the VOD hypothesis does show evidence of racial bias, with Black drivers more likely to be stopped. Moreover, the effects of daylight significantly varied across citation-specific models.Research limitations/implicationsThe data are self-reported from the officer and do not contain information on the vehicle make or model.Practical implicationsThis paper shows that utilizing PSM and coefficients testing provides for a better analysis following the VOD hypothesis and does a better job of understanding the impact of daylight and the officer decision-making on traffic stops.Social implicationsBased on the quality of the data, the findings show that the use of VOD allows for the performance of more rigorous analyses of traffic stop data – giving police departments a better way to examine if racial profiling is evident.Originality/valueThis is the first study (to the researchers' knowledge) that applies the statistical analyses of PSM to the confines of the veil of darkness hypothesis.

This study presents findings on the community release performance of prisoners incarcerated for a drug offense and released over a 30-month period (July 2002 – December 2004). Within this sample, propensity score matching was used to construct comparable groups of parolees and offenders released unconditionally into the community. The authors find that drug offenders released from prison are highly likely to be returned to prison postrelease and drug offenders released on parole are more likely than their counterparts to be returned to prison. In addition, drug offenders on parole are substantially more likely than drug offenders released without supervision to be reincarcerated within 5 years after release.

Purpose – One of the most popular texts on his subject, Donald T. Phillips’ Lincoln on Leadership – Executive Strategies for Tough Times, offers a superb examination of the President’s views on how to lead an organization. The purpose of this paper is to outline Lincoln’s leadership principles (15 chapters, 126 principles), illustrated and supported by 14 stories that narrated by Lincoln himself. This analysis is based upon papers submitted by police managers who analyzed Lincoln on Leadership that considered his examples through the lenses of their personal and professional experiences in policing. These police managers attended the Administrative Officer’s Course at the Southern Police Institute at the University of Louisville. In their assignment, these students identified three principles and three stories they felt were most significant to police leadership. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a content analysis of police student responses to questions about Lincoln on Leadership. Findings – These police leaders made specific reference to the following leadership methods as practiced by Lincoln. It is best to get out among the troops from time to time to show your support, make direct observations and get relevant information about conditions and experiences. Honesty and integrity are crucial foundations for leadership that are irreplaceable. Give credit where credit is due. It is one of the best ways to establish credibility and loyalty. Sometimes leaders must do things they would rather not do but it is best to handle things quickly before disaster results. Yet, it is also often best to avoid conflict and difficulties when you can so you do not create problems for yourself – if there is another acceptable way to get the job done. When something needs to be done, leaders do not wait for others to do it for them. They strike when the time is right and the situation demands it. Research limitations/implications – These respondents represent a non-random, convenience sample and may not represent the population of police managers. These officers are selected by their departments to attend the AOC. Thus, they are interested in career development and their views may not be typical of the population of police managers. Practical implications – The research findings support leadership conclusions in the research literature on leadership in general and police leadership in particular. Social implications – The findings indicate that these police leaders are open to the use of methods that would be more acceptable to the community and members of the police organization. Originality/value – The study provides a glimpse into the views of police leaders and the methods that they endorse.

In 1998, Kentucky’s adopted the Racial Justice Act (RJA). The key sponsor of the law, Kentucky Senator Gerald Neal asserted that it was not a result of whether you were for or against the death penalty but “whether the death penalty should be subject to the same standards of nondiscrimination as any other institution in our state.” However, one noted negative effect of the RJA is that prosecutors have adopted policies to seek the death penalty in every eligible case, rather than making this decision on a case-by-case basis. This study examines the outcome of such policies in Jefferson County, Kentucky from 2000 to 2010.

Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball demonstrates how Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane used research evidence to improve his team’s performance in a cost-effective manner. This presentation focuses upon the responses of police managers attending the Administrative Officer’s Course in the Southern Police Institute at the University of Louisville. The respondents identified three elements of Moneyball that could be applied to police management: 1) using statistical analysis to guide operations, 2) challenging the status quo, and 3) doing more with less.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine the opinion of 126 police managers from 23 US states regarding their ideal leadership style as expressed under the items of the leader behavior description questionnaire (LBDQ).Design/methodology/approachPolice managers attending a management course – the Administrative Officer's Course at the Southern Police Institute during the academic year 2007‐2008 – were surveyed regarding their opinions of ideal leadership styles. They responded to items on the leadership behavior questionnaire. The analysis is based on this survey.FindingsItem analysis of their responses revealed the existence of three subscales (servant, autocratic, and laissez‐faire leadership), ANOVA revealed a strong preference for the style of servant leadership. These results indicate that these police managers believe that leaders should follow the tenets of servant leadership. They rejected the creeds of both the autocratic, command and control method and the hands‐off, detached style of laissez‐faire leadership. Policing has been long considered an autocratic, quasi‐military organization, yet these police managers expressed a decided preference for servant leadership.Research limitations/implicationsTaking into account the limitations of the data set used in current analyses, the sample characteristics and the sample size, results should be interpreted cautiously. The sample used in this analysis is not a probability sample and cannot be considered representative for the entire population of American police officers. Because this is only an exploratory analysis, the sample used was relatively small. In addition, the LBDQ may not be the most appropriate scale to assess levels of servant leadership. Future studies on this subject and population should take heed of these limitations. However, due to the positive responses received from this sample concerning the applicability of servant leadership in police organizations, justification for further research on this subject is warranted.Originality/valueThe results indicate this sample of police managers believe that leaders should follow the tenets of servant leadership as expressed under the items of the leader behavior description questionnaire. Compared to these values, they rejected the creeds of both the autocratic, command and control method and the hands‐off, detached style of laissez‐faire leadership. Policing has been long considered an autocratic, quasi‐military organization, yet these police managers expressed a decided preference for the style of servant leadership. Perhaps a new wave of leaders is coming to policing with different ways of thinking about how the organization should operate.

This study examines the perceived ideal leadership behaviour in police organisations. It is based on a survey of 126 police managers from 23 US States who attended the Administrative Officers Course at the Southern Police Institute during the academic year 2007–2008. The questionnaire used in this investigation includes the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire Form XII (Stodgill, 1963). The main objectives of this exploratory analysis are to rank the importance of leadership characteristics based on police officers' perceptions, to create a typology of leadership styles preferred, and to identify the demographic factors that are most likely to influence variations in opinions regarding the behaviour of an ideal police leader. This research shows that individual characteristics can influence not only managerial styles, but also leadership preferences. In particular, results imply that gender and race play an important role in structuring leadership preferences. Female police officers do not appear to differ from men in their preferences for a predominantly task-centred and structured leadership. However, women seem to favour more than men do: (1) a type of leader who can be considered ‘transformational’; or (2) a more democratic, worker-oriented leader, who would allow subordinates freedom of action and would respond well to the followers' concerns. Compared with Whites and other racial minorities, African American police officers tend to favour more a structured task-centred leadership orientation or a leadership style described as transformational.

The purpose of the present study was to explore hypotheses related to the influence of race relations and perceptions of safety on public opinion regarding racial profiling in traffic stops. Using a representative sample of the United States of America, our results indicate that views regarding race relations influenced public opinion on racial profiling in traffic stops, but perceptions of safety did not influence this view.

Community policing has evolved as the new organizational orthodoxy of policing. Volumes have been written on the subject by academics and research scholars. However, the voices of those who are charged with the reorganization of their departments and the implementation of community policing have been relatively silent. This article presents data drawn from the content analysis of the written views of community policing held by a select sample of middle managers from across the country. The respondents were attending the administrative officers course at the Southern Police Institute at the University of Louisville. During the course of their studies, they read current anthologies on community policing research. These findings identify and discuss a number of problems that they have encountered in the implementation of community policing. As such, they represent a practitioner’s assessment of community policing.

As in several other states, Kentucky passed legislation to get tough with juveniles and battle a rising tide of delinquency and violent crime. The necessity of this policy was unquestioned. This analysis examines national juvenile crime statistics and data on juvenile homicides in Kentucky. It uses the Barnett scale to examine whether juvenile murderers were more deliberate, random, or vicious killers over time. The results of the study do not support the get tough movement or the continued availability of the death penalty for juveniles in Kentucky.

Data from a probability sample of 400 households in Bucuresti are used to examine the nature of support for the reintroduction of the death penalty, abolished in 1989, in Romania. Results show that workers are more likely to support the reintroduction of the death penalty. Persons who see crime as increasing wish to reinstate the death penalty. Also, persons who perceive their neighborhoods as unsafe are more likely to support the return of executions. Two significant interaction effects were found. One was between worker status and perceptions of neighborhood safety. Neighborhood safety has the strongest negative effect on support for the reintroduction of capital punishment among workers. The second interaction effect was between perceptions that crime is increasing and perceptions of neighborhood safety. Among respondents who see crime as increasing, the variable of neighborhood safety has a positive effect on support for the reintroduction of capital punishment in Romania.

This research uses data from a community wide assessment of knowledge, attitudes and behaviors to determine risks for HIV infection among traditional high risk populations. This analysis is based upon a sample of self-identified injection drug users. It examines the multiple avenues to infection that threaten this population. The role of criminal justice practitioners in the control and reduction of the likelihood of HIV transmission by this population is also considered Policy makers should reevaluate traditional methods of compelling interactions between offenders and revise their means and systems for communicating information about HIV to injection drug using offenders.

This study is based upon a data set on the capital sentencing process in Kentucky. Here, we examine the effect of Kentucky’s “truth in sentencing” statute on murder cases. The evidence suggests that a sentence of life without possibility of parole can serve as an alternative to capital sentencing that avoids racial discrimination.

This study re-examines the effect of race of the victim on the probability that an accused murderer is charged with a capital crime and sentenced to death in Kentucky. It adds over five years of data to our original study. The results show that Blacks accused of killing Whites had a higher than average probability of being charged with a capital crime (by the prosecutor) and sentenced to die (by the jury) than other homicide offenders. This finding remains after taking into account the effects of differences in the heinousness of the murder, prior criminal record, the personal relationship between the victim and the offender, and the probability that the accused will not stand trial for a capital offense. Kentucky’s “guided discretion” system of capital sentencing has failed to eliminate race as a factor in this process.

Drug testing has become a significant part of community supervision. This article summarizes the results from a Jefferson County (Kentucky) program. During the program, the level of positive tests has continuously declined to a rate of 35%. Marijuana and cocaine were consistently the drug of choice for this population. Lower recidivism rates were recorded for offenders who completed the treatment offered by the Kentucky Substance Abuse Program, Inc. (KSAP).

Drug policy making is the central focus of this analy sis To date, this process has been plagued by some well-known dy sfunctional aspects of public administration This article considers the experience of one state, Kentucky, under the Federal government's new dmg policy initiatives to demonstrate the nature of this policy-making process

This article presents comparative results from the first two years of a drug testing program for probationers and parolees in Louisville, Kentucky. Comparisons are made between the research findings from the first and second years of the program and to the results from the drug use forecasting program (DUF). For both years, marijuana (59% and 53% of all tests) and cocaine (36% and 28%) were the drugs typically abused. Clients who completed the Kentucky Substance Abuse Program (KSAP) were less likely to recidivate. Client attributes associated with substance abuse were established through the use of discriminant function analysis.

This analysis examines Kentucky murders between 1976 and 1986. Special attention is given to the manner in which these homicides vary by age of victim. Multiva riate analysis considers the seriousness of homicides. Causal models are formulated for murders featuring juvenile and elderly victims. Overall, the homicide severity was linked to both legal and social factors. In particular, homicides featuring elderly victims and those with juvenile victims were determined to be especially serious.

This study examines the effect of the victim's race on the probability that an accused murderer is charged with a capital crime and sentenced to death in Kentucky. Our results show that blacks accused of killing whites had a higher than average probability of being charged with a capital crime (by the prosecutor) and sentenced to die (by the jury) than did other homicide offenders. This finding remains after we take into account the effects of differences in the heinousness of the murder, prior criminal record, the personal relationship between the victim and the offender, and the probability that the accused will not stand trial for a capital offense.

This study examines the characteristics and institutional experience of inmate elders from one medium security institution. It also features a stratified random sample of inmates aged 49 and under from the same institution. Data were collected from inmates files and interviews with inmate elders (aged 50 and older) and institutional staff. Specific attention is given to policy issues concerning the treatment of this special needs group.

Faced with ever increasing prison populations, state corrections officials are searching for ways to reduce the rate of incarceration. This study examined a combination of two programs, shock probation and intensive supervision. By comparing intensive shock to regular shock probation cases, it was determined that intensive supervision led to increased contact and referrals resulting in more positive adjustment (i.e. a higher employment rate) but failed to produce a significantly lower recidivism rate.

During the past decade, the move toward determinate sentencing has been rapid, spurred by the fear of crime and a spiralling crime rate. In the 1920s the state of Ohio faced similar circumstances and altered its sentencing structure. This note examines this event and reveals that some unintended negative consequences can result from a shift in sentencing.

The reimposition of capital punishment by the United States Supreme Court in 1976 has resulted in the execution of ninety prisoners, as of September 1, 1987.1 The use of the death penalty continues despite research evidence from several states which has consistently demonstrated that offenders who have white victims in general, and black offenders who kill whites in particular, are more likely to face a "death qualified" jury and receive a death sentence.2 For this reason, the growing use of capital punishment and its sen