News and Announcements
Finn Institute Publishes Syracuse Racial Profiling Analysis
September 1, 2011 – The Finn Institute’s analysis of stops by Syracuse police was accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Police Quarterly. It is scheduled to appear in the March or June 2012 issue of the journal. The study’s lead author, Rob Worden, said, “We were glad to be of service to the City of Syracuse in performing this analysis, and we are pleased to disseminate its results to the broader academic and professional community, adding to existing knowledge about police practices. We also take this outcome of the peer review process as confirmation of the scientific validity of our analysis, and it adds to the credibility of our report to Syracuse.”
Finn Institute Completes Racial Profiling Analysis for Syracuse Police
November 15, 2010 – Finn Institute researchers appeared today at a meeting of the Syracuse Common Council’s Public Safety Committee to present the results of their analysis of stops by Syracuse police, an inquiry into whether the stops exhibit a pattern of racial profiling. A 2001 Syracuse ordinance mandates the collection of data on stops, and the Common Council has twice commissioned analyses of the data, first in 2006 and again this year – studies that relied on an approach known as the “outcome test.” Skeptical about the utility of the outcome test in analyzing the Syracuse data, the Institute proposed to Syracuse’s Chief Frank Fowler to conduct an analysis using the “veil-of-darkness” method, an approach devised by researchers at the RAND Corporation. Institute Director Robert Worden pointed out that “the study commissioned by the Common Council suffers from several shortcomings, but it has two fatal flaws that render its results uninterpretable. The limitations of the outcome test and of the available data make the veil-of-darkness method the most appropriate approach.” Analyzing vehicle stops in the “inter-twilight” period – the times of day when it might be light or dark, depending on the time of year – the Institute tested to see whether African-Americans were more likely to be stopped during daylight, when drivers’ race can be more readily determined by officers, than in darkness. Finding no consistent differences between stops in daylight and stops in darkness, the Institute’s analysis detected no persuasive evidence of racial bias in stops. (See the report here.)
Media coverage:
Syracuse Post Standard
November 15, 2010
John Finn Institute to Examine Police Performance and Accountability
Albany, NY, October 12, 2010 – Today the John F. Finn Institute for Public Safety, Inc., announced that it has received an award from the National Institute of Justice to examine how measures of procedural fairness can be incorporated into police accountability systems. Police departments routinely assess officers’ performance, especially their productivity, but the ‘procedural fairness’ with which officers treat citizens is seldom measured, except insofar as citizens file complaints, and it is rarely an outcome for which police managers are held accountable.
Dr. Sarah McLean, the Finn Institute’s Associate Director, explained that “procedural fairness is a matter of treating people with dignity and respect, listening to what they have to say, and explaining what is being done. Officers’ conformity with principles of procedural fairness is of fundamental importance to the police mission, as it affects people’s trust in legal institutions, their cooperation with law enforcement, and even their compliance with the law. Measuring police performance in these terms, and making it susceptible to police management, promises to improve all of these outcomes.”
With NIJ support, Finn Institute researchers will provide for measures of police performance based principally on surveys of citizens who have contacts with the Schenectady and Syracuse Police, which will be incorporated into the departments’ management accountability systems (i.e., Compstat) and regularly reviewed as an outcome for which managers are responsible. In Schenectady, where in-car video is used, the survey-based measures will be complemented with performance measures drawn from sampled video and audio recordings.
Finn Institute Director Robert Worden said that “we anticipate that when police departments measure these elements of police performance, and hold managers accountable for it, police performance will improve over time, and so too will levels of citizen satisfaction with and trust in the police, and public cooperation with law enforcement.” He added that “we knew that Schenectady’s Chief Chaires and Syracuse’s Chief Fowler were committed to making the quality of police-citizen interaction a high priority, and so their agencies were naturals for this undertaking. We are very pleased to be working with them and their departments, and we expect that the field will learn much from their experience with this progressive approach to improving police service to the community.”
Finn Institute Analysts Receive Professional Recognition
October 8, 2010 – Today the International Association of Crime Analysts (IACA) announced the winners of the 2010 IACA Bulletin contest. In the category of Statistical Reports, the work of the Finn Institute’s Paula Cutrone was recognized in this peer review process; Ms. Cutrone is a senior crime analyst working in the Onondaga Crime Analysis Center (OCAC).
And in the category of Intelligence Products, the OCAC’s submission was a winner; in addition to Ms. Cutrone, the Institute’s Kara Nyamuomba, Kyleen Luy, Akousa Bempong, and Sarah Pierce – all of whom work in the OCAC – share this distinction with other OCAC staff. Institute Director Rob Worden said “We’re very proud of the work that our crime analysts do, and happy to see it earn this praise from the professional association of crime analysts.”
Finn Institute Publishes Study of Operation Safe Corridor
September 15, 2010 – The Finn Institute’s evaluation of Operation Safe Corridor appears in the current issue of the peer-reviewed journal Criminal Justice Policy Review (volume 21, issue 3), pages 363-380 (http://cjp.sagepub.com/content/current). The study’s lead author, Sarah McLean, said, “The study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding crime and place research through its examination of the extent to which strategically focusing enforcement efforts on the places, people, and conditions associated with crime will result in reductions in crime.”
Finn Institute to Continue as Research Partner
July 21, 2010 – With Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) funding through the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Rosamond Gifford Foundation, the Finn Institute will continue to serve as the research partner to Onondaga County’s PSN/Operation IMPACT task force.
Project Safe Neighborhoods is a federal initiative to reduce gun violence. Local task forces in each federal district, including federal, state, and local agencies under the leadership of the United States Attorney, develop data-driven approaches to the gun crime problems in each locality. Each task force includes a research partner, who analyzes gun violence patterns and draws on extant research to help inform the development of violence-reduction strategies, and also monitors implementation and outcomes. Finn Institute researchers have served as the research partner in the Northern District of New York since 2002.
Operation IMPACT (Integrated Municipal Police Anti-Crime Teams) is a New York State initiative that provides funding for strategic crime-reduction interventions by multi-agency task forces in each of seventeen jurisdictions across New York State; in Onondaga County, the PSN task force is also the IMPACT task force.
Institute Director Rob Worden said, “We are pleased to continue working with the task force in Onondaga County. No group is more committed than they are to making their city safer, and they appreciate the value of analysis and research.”
