Enhancing Citizens’ Perceptions of the Police Through an Innovative Interaction Protocol: The EPJETS Model

• In Event: Building Trust: Strategies for Strengthening the Police-Community Relationship

Abstract

Building trust between the police and the community is essential for effective policing and public safety. The Enhancing Procedurally Just Encounters Through Substantiation (EPJETS) model aims to transform police-citizen interactions by promoting safety, equity, and justice for all. The EPJETS protocol incorporates several novel elements into policing practices by recording and sharing videos of interactions, providing geospatial evidence for enforcement, and delivering procedural justice messages. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess the impact of the protocol on compliance, citizen satisfaction, and trust. The fidelity of the delivery of the EPJETS protocol was measured through NLP models. A total of 1199 traffic stops were conducted from October 2022 to March 2024 by Atlantic City and Pleasantville Police Departments to test the impact of the model. A survey was offered to the drivers immediately after the completion of the stops, and 55% of the drivers completed the survey. We found that the EPJETS intervention improves perceptions of compliance, distributive justice, and the necessity for traffic enforcement, as well as perceptions of police professionalism related to BWCs. Our findings provide valuable insights for enhancing the relationship between law enforcement and the community, with potential implications for policing practices on a broader scale.

Authors

• Nusret Mesut Sahin, Stockton University

• Joel Caplan, Rutgers University

• Rob Voigt, Northwestern University

• Manish Madan, Stockton University