Procedural Justice: Performance Evaluations August 2013 Voiceover: Beat Intro 00:00 This is the Beat—a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics facing our nation. Tawana Waugh 00:08 Hello and welcome. My name is Tawana Waugh and on behalf of the COPS Office I’d like to introduce you to Chuck Wexler, Executive Director of the Police Executive Research Forum. Chuck is here to discuss incorporating procedural justice into law enforcement performance measurements. Chuck, you are working on a project that examines performance measurements in law enforcement with a goal of standardizing ways for evaluating officer performance that will also serve as a way to increase job satisfaction through procedural justice. Can you tell us more about this project? Chuck Wexler 00:46 Sure, and I want to thank you and I want to thank the COPS Office for asking us to talk about this project. PERF has a great relationship with the COPS Office and I think this project is reflective of that kind of thinking. So thank you, and thanks to the COPS Office. This project, which as I say, is funded by the COPS Office. This term—procedural justice—a number of academics have written about it. Of course, Tom Tyler has really captured the imagination of this topic. Allan Lind, Steve Mustrofsky, Jeff Fagan, all of these people who were very taken by the concept of procedural justice and very much recognize the importance of measuring officers’ performance. So why is this important? Well first, because it’s a matter of principle. Residents of a community think that the police should treat them fairly and with respect. Also, I think when you look at the issues— respect and trust in community—that underscores what the police do every day. To take one example—I think this example helps us to understand what procedural justice is all about—if you look at a targeted enforcement effort in a high-crime neighborhood, very often they can hinge on whether those neighborhoods see the police as open-minded and fair or whether they see them as an occupying army. Really the question is in these kinds of circumstances; how do the police interact with the community? Well, as I mentioned earlier, people have conducted research on this question. For example, when motorists are pulled over, kind of enforcement strategy, you would think that the people who get a warning have a much better feeling about the police. The research has found whether a person gets a ticket or a warning is not the critical factor. I’ll say that again, the research has shown whether a person gets a ticket or a warning is not the critical factor. Whether, for example, the officer treats someone with dignity and respect. Another key factor is whether the officer gives you a chance to explain the situation. Another factor is whether the officer is being neutral and consistent. Finally, procedural justice involves whether the police gives the public an opportunity to provide input on broader issues. Those kinds of factors really are very important in terms of how a citizen sees the police, and whether they see the police in this way determines whether they trust and respect the police. It’s not a matter of getting the ticket, it’s a matter of the process and how they were treated. Those are the major concepts, I would say, what procedural justice is all about. This process is about building a performance management approach that includes systems and strategies. What we will produce will be more than just a performance measurement tool; it will also be a series of tools and resources that will help sergeants and first-line supervisors improve their performance in terms of procedural justice. That is our challenge. We’re also going to be looking for ways in which supervisors might be able to verify whether a given officer is really working to implement procedural justice. Is there data? How do we operationalize these concepts? We’ve been talking to Tom Tyler about this and this is really cutting-edge stuff. How we are doing this is we are working with a group of police across the country in about five different police agencies: Denver; Brooklyn Park, Minnesota; Arlington, Texas; Minneapolis; and Los Angeles. With those five cities we are doing focus groups and we will be working with them to develop a performance mechanism which will incorporate the procedural justice principles into something useful for police departments. Tawana 04:52 Why is the procedural justice application to performance measurements necessary for the future of policing? Chuck 04:59 We think that procedural justice is the key part of community policing. You might think about procedural justice as 2013’s version of where community policing is going. There’s the issue of how to build this trust. We also have, and this is really important, internal procedural justice. That’s how you treat officers within their own agencies. I think that’s a really important insight. You have, for example, officers that don’t believe that they are being treated fairly. This performance evaluation system will be looking both externally as well as internally. One thing that we already know is that human resource systems in police departments have advanced when it comes to incorporating community policing into their process. We may talk about community policing, we may talk about procedural justice, but what we really haven’t done is figure out a way to integrate these concepts into these kind of evaluation systems. Tawana 06:02 If officers are evaluated through a procedural justice framework, what are the benefits to agencies and what are the benefits to the communities that these agencies serve? Chuck 06:13 A performance management system based on procedural justice will increase the skills and abilities of the officers as well as the leadership because we will be creating a mechanism to ensure that all officers and their supervisors will formally discuss officers’ ideas and problem-solving partnerships. They’ll sit down with the officers. They will agree on goals for each officer and evaluate whether those goals are accomplished. This type of system will hold supervisors accountable and will incorporate the officers into the performance process to give them a voice. The most important outcome of using this kind of procedural justice framework, we believe, is the institutionalization across the department. We want to create a culture within the police department which will benefit the community, will reduce crime, and will bring the community into this whole focus on trust and respect. Tawana 07:15 What advice would you give to a chief or sheriff who is uncertain of how to start the organizational change of performance measurements? Chuck 07:23 Police departments tend to have very traditional, very hierarchical structures. Implementing is a major change; it’s not an easy thing to do. Making changes is not done overnight. You have to get people to buy in. I think you have to have this internal legitimacy before you can move externally. The process has to be transparent. You have to have an opportunity for employees to have a voice in it; it just can’t be pushed down on them. I hope that the outcome of this project will be a framework performance management approach. I also want—some of the deliverables are an executive guidebook which will frame the issues and package the resources and will include an overview of the project, summary of the comprehensive approach and how to implement it, recommendations for first-line supervisors’ selection and training, any handbook for first-line supervisors on performance management, ample evaluation tools. This is one of three procedural justice related initiatives funded by the COPS Office. We hope that this project, this guide, and the trainings from other projects, a valuable resource, any police executive could adopt procedural justice policy. Tawana 08:41 So where can listeners go to find out more information or who can listeners contact for further information? Chuck 08:49 Here at PERF we have our top researcher. Her name is Sunny Schnitzer. She can be reached at 202- 454-8320. That’s Sunny Schnizter at 202-454-8320. Also, we’re going to have a national webinar on our website, www.policeforum.org. Tawana 09:15 Well, Chuck, thank you so much for your time and expertise. Chuck 09:19 It’s a pleasure to talk to you and thanks to the COPS Office for what you’re doing. Voiceover: Beat Exit 09:25 The Beat was brought to you by the United States Department of Justice COPS Office. The COPS Office helps to keep our nation’s communities safe by giving grants to law enforcement agencies, developing community policing publications, developing partnerships, and solving problems. Voiceover: Disclaimer 09:41 The opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or polices of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.