Citizen Perceptions of Police-Citizens Interactions: Implications for Public Health

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

Police-citizen interactions are a well-studied area of police scholarship (Alpert, Dunham, and MacDonald 2004; Epp, Maynard-Moody, and Halder-Markel 2014; Lai and Solomon Zhao 2010). Larger cities such as Chicago are often the main sites of police-citizen interaction studies. Smaller cities often get overlooked, yet they need to be studied to better understand these interactions in smaller urban environments. This quantitative, survey method research study was conducted in “Steeltown”, a deindustrialized rustbelt city of 65,000 that is actively engaging in crime analysis as well as a new community policing initiative. The research question being asked was, what factors shape how citizens perceive police-citizen interactions and what potential implications do these interactions have for public health? Surveys were collected from citizens (N=200) living in hotspot and non-hotspot areas to get a better sense of their perceptions of police-citizen interactions as well as the potential implications that living in hotspot or non-hotspot areas might have on public health. Citizens were initially recruited from block watch meetings, but were also recruited through snowball and convenience sampling. Results supported that police over-presence and absence shaped citizen perceptions of police-citizen interactions. In addition, police-citizen interactions contribute to cumulative disadvantage that has implications for public health.

Author

• Alicia Sharee Clark-Williams, Westminster College