June 19, 2012 – Finn Institute researchers Rob Worden and Sarah McLean delivered a presentation about the Institute’s NIJ-funded research on police legitimacy and procedural justice at NIJ’s annual conference today. The NIJ conference brings together criminal justice scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners to share and discuss recent findings, with a view toward what works and what is promising. The Institute’s project, conducted in collaboration with the Schenectady and Syracuse Police Departments, entails the compilation of survey-based measures of the quality of police performance in contacts with the public, with feedback to police commanders in management accountability meetings. With performance measured in this way, performance – in the form of the procedural justice with which citizens are treated – can be expected to improve, and with it the legitimacy of the police. Worden and McLean appeared on a panel with representatives of their project partner agencies: Brian Kilcullen, Schenectady’s Assistant Chief of Police; and Joseph Cecile, Syracuse’s Deputy Chief of Police. Also appearing on the panel was Tom Tyler, a Yale psychologist whose research on this topic has laid the groundwork for further research and practice. Worden said, “We were very pleased to have the opportunity to describe this project for a national audience, and given NIJ’s interest in translating research into practice, the NIJ conference was the perfect setting for us to do so.”
The 2012 NIJ Conference program book:
http://www.nij.gov/nij/events/nij_conference/2012/nij-2012-program-book.pdf
Media coverage:
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Jury-s-decision-to-acquit-took-no-time-at-all-3645825.php
