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Assessing Police Officers' Decision Making and Discretion in Making Traffic Stops in Savannah, Georgia, 2002
This study aimed to fill a void in the research regarding
police behavior by focusing on the formation and creation of cognitive
suspicion by officers. The study also examined formal actions (stops)
taken by the police pursuant to that suspicion. The study was
conducted using observational research methods and collected
quantitative and qualitative data on officer suspicion. Data were
collected by observers who rode along with patrol officers from April
2002 to November 2002. Field observers used three major data
collection instruments in order to gather as much relevant information
as possible from a variety of sources and in diverse situations. The
Officer Form was an overall evaluation of the officer's
decision-making characteristics, Suspicion Forms captured information
each time an incident occurred, and a Suspect Form was a compilation
of data from the citizen who had the encounter with the
officer. Additional documents included informed consent forms, a card
detailing the language to be used for the initial contact with
citizens, and hourly activity forms. Anytime a suspicion was formed or
a formal action was taken after a suspicion was formed, the observer
debriefed the officer as to his or her thoughts and elicited the
officer's overall rating of the encounter. Data in this collection
include general demographic characteristics of the officer and the
suspect, as well as the area in which the suspicion was formed. Data
was also gathered regarding what led the officer to form a suspicion,
and why a person was or was not stopped.
Complete Metadata
| @type | dcat:Dataset |
|---|---|
| accessLevel | restricted public |
| bureauCode |
[
"011:21"
]
|
| contactPoint |
{
"fn": "Open Data Office of Justice Programs (USDOJ)",
"@type": "vcard:Contact",
"hasEmail": "mailto:opendata@usdoj.gov"
}
|
| dataQuality |
false
|
| description | This study aimed to fill a void in the research regarding police behavior by focusing on the formation and creation of cognitive suspicion by officers. The study also examined formal actions (stops) taken by the police pursuant to that suspicion. The study was conducted using observational research methods and collected quantitative and qualitative data on officer suspicion. Data were collected by observers who rode along with patrol officers from April 2002 to November 2002. Field observers used three major data collection instruments in order to gather as much relevant information as possible from a variety of sources and in diverse situations. The Officer Form was an overall evaluation of the officer's decision-making characteristics, Suspicion Forms captured information each time an incident occurred, and a Suspect Form was a compilation of data from the citizen who had the encounter with the officer. Additional documents included informed consent forms, a card detailing the language to be used for the initial contact with citizens, and hourly activity forms. Anytime a suspicion was formed or a formal action was taken after a suspicion was formed, the observer debriefed the officer as to his or her thoughts and elicited the officer's overall rating of the encounter. Data in this collection include general demographic characteristics of the officer and the suspect, as well as the area in which the suspicion was formed. Data was also gathered regarding what led the officer to form a suspicion, and why a person was or was not stopped. |
| distribution |
[
{
"@type": "dcat:Distribution",
"title": "Assessing Police Officers' Decision Making and Discretion in Making Traffic Stops in Savannah, Georgia, 2002",
"accessURL": "https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04340.v1"
}
]
|
| identifier |
"3148"
|
| issued | 2006-01-16T00:00:00 |
| keyword |
[
"cognitive processes",
"decision making",
"police citizen interactions",
"police officers",
"police patrol",
"suspect identification",
"traffic offenses"
]
|
| language |
[
"eng"
]
|
| license | http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/ |
| modified | 2006-01-16T00:00:00 |
| programCode |
[
"011:060"
]
|
| publisher |
{
"name": "National Institute of Justice",
"@type": "org:Organization",
"subOrganizationOf": {
"id": 22,
"name": "Office of Justice Programs",
"acronym": "OJP",
"parentOrganization": {
"id": 10,
"name": "Department of Justice",
"acronym": "DOJ"
},
"parentOrganizationID": 10
}
}
|
| rights | These data are restricted due to the increased risk of violation of confidentiality of respondent and subject data. |
| title | Assessing Police Officers' Decision Making and Discretion in Making Traffic Stops in Savannah, Georgia, 2002 |
