Assessing Officers’ Perceptions of Risk via Electronic Police Records

• In Event: Improving the Tracking of Police Officer Activity Through Novel Technology Applications (Sponsored by Division of Policing)

Abstract

Electronic police records have historically been used by criminologists to assess the nature and outcome of public-police interactions. Advances in call logging have expanded the use of electronic police records to include the assessment of more unit-level variables, including officer perceptions. As part of the present research, I draw upon electronic police records for a sample of police calls for service to assess when – and potentially why – officers designate incidents as low risk (or “Code 4”). From a substantive perspective, my results provide empirical insight into the correlates of this seminal moment within the police transactional record. From a methodological perspective, my work demonstrates a new medium for retrospectively assessing officer perceptions via calls for service data.

Author

• Rylan Simpson, Simon Fraser University