Research Articles by Ross E Hendy
Policing
In this study, we compare the rates of New Zealand (NZ) and England and Wales (EW) police shootin... more In this study, we compare the rates of New Zealand (NZ) and England and Wales (EW) police shootings from 1970 to 2020. Taking this long view lessens the stochastic effect of shootings over shorter time periods and reveals that the frequency of police shootings has increased in both jurisdictions over this period, despite police not being routinely armed with firearms. In EW, police shootings have increased from an average of 1.4 persons shot per annum for the decade ending 1980 to 4.3 per annum for the decade ending 2020. Similarly, NZ has seen an increase of 0.3 persons shot per annum (decade ending 1980) to 3.7 per annum (decade ending 2020). When comparing the rate of persons shot per million population in the past two decades, NZ has doubled the rate of shootings from 0.360 per million (2001-10) to 0.783 per million (2011-20). Such an increase has not occurred in EW as the number of persons shot has decreased from 0.080 per million (2001-10) to 0.074 per million (2011-20). We highlight the time-series trajectories with trend breakpoints at points of known policy implementations.
Journal of Organizational Ethnography
Purpose This article explores officer use of suspicion before informal police-citizen encounters ... more Purpose This article explores officer use of suspicion before informal police-citizen encounters as a method to further understand police officer decision-making. There is a body of research focused on officer decision-making before formal “stop and search” encounters, yet, while the more informal “stop and chat” encounters are ubiquitous, they are a comparatively under-researched part of policework. Design/methodology/approach The research takes an ethnographic approach to explore police decision-making. It used participant observation (800 h over 93 patrol shifts) of front-line first response officers from New Zealand (n = 45) and South Australia (n = 48). Field observations were complemented with informal discussion in the field and 27 semi-structured interviews. Findings It reveals that officers applied three situational “tests” to assess the circumstances or actions observed before initiating an informal encounter. Officers then weighed up whether the circumstances were harmful...
Policing and Society
ABSTRACT Officers from the Norwegian police were routinely armed with firearms from July 2014 to ... more ABSTRACT Officers from the Norwegian police were routinely armed with firearms from July 2014 to February 2016 in response to a terror threat. This paper explores the experiences of a sample of officers (N = 16) who were routinely armed during this period. The research took a mixed-methods approach using semi-structured interviews one month before the policy was rescinded. Two key themes emerged. First, officers believed that being routinely armed was advantageous for routine police activities. Officers described that tactical planning had improved as it was no longer necessary to wait for permission to respond with a firearm. The associated tactical freedom triggered an increase in self-belief in their effectiveness and efficiency. Second, officers believed that although officers had observed some behavioural changes when interacting with citizens, over time, citizens became acclimatised to the presence of firearms. These findings provide new empirical evidence relevant to the debate surrounding the implications of permanently arming a routinely unarmed police force.
Policing, 2014
ABSTRACT This article introduces the author’s recent study on the ‘strategic impact’ of routinely... more ABSTRACT This article introduces the author’s recent study on the ‘strategic impact’ of routinely arming the New Zealand Police and discusses how two significant research findings are consistent with published theory. First, the utility of taking a binary, black and white approach when analysing the ‘routinely armed versus routinely unarmed’ debate, is limited in terms of considering police officer behaviour. This is because police departmental policies shape police officer risk-taking and behaviour to a considerable degree. Second, despite departmental policies, the routine armament of a routinely unarmed police force, say for health and safety reasons, may be counterproductive; such a change exposes police officers to increased risks. Both findings come from an analysis of Scandinavian police forces. The author’s study was primarily concerned with the police forces of Norway and Sweden; however, comparisons were made, at times, within a wider Scandinavian context.
This article introduces the author’s recent study on the ‘strategic impact ’ of routinely arming ... more This article introduces the author’s recent study on the ‘strategic impact ’ of routinely arming the New Zealand Police and discusses how two significant research findings are consistent with published theory. First, the utility of taking a binary, black, and white approach when analysing the ‘routinely armed versus routinely unarmed’ debate, is limited in terms of considering police officer behaviour. This is because police departmental policies shape police officer risk-taking and behaviour to a considerable degree. Second, despite departmental policies, the routine armament of a routinely unarmed police force, say for health and safety reasons, may be counterproductive; such a change exposes police officers to increased risks. Both findings come from an analysis of Scandinavian police forces. The author’s study was primarily concerned with the police forces of Norway and Sweden; however, comparisons were made, at times, within a wider Scandinavian context.
Policing and Society
Between 2009 and 2016, New Zealand Police experienced a disproportionate increase in lower-priori... more Between 2009 and 2016, New Zealand Police experienced a disproportionate increase in lower-priority mental health-related calls. This exploratory study uses content analysis to identify characteristics of these calls, including reasons for calling police, advice and actions undertaken by communications centres staff, and actions undertaken by frontline officers. Four important findings emerge. First, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of mental health-related calls that did not involve reporting of an offence or emergency (increased from 48% in 2010 to 57% in 2016). Second, there was a significant increase in calls that were initiated by the person who appeared to be experiencing mental illness and distress during the time of the call (increased from 53% to 62%). Third, the way communication centres staff and frontline officers responded to mental health-related calls also changed over time. There was an increased tendency of communications centre staff advising the callers to call back if the situation escalates or if they require further assistance (which increased from 14% to 24%). Fourth, among the events attended by a police unit, there was an increase in the proportion of events where a frontline officer contacted a mental health agency (which increased from 6% of attended events to 10%). Moreover, transportation to a police station decreased (21.7% to 11%) while there were increases in the transportation of a person’s home (2.7% to 6%). Transportation to a mental health facility averaged at 24.9% over the period.
Policing and Society
Internationally police agencies reported steady increases in mental health-related demand for ser... more Internationally police agencies reported steady increases in mental health-related demand for service. This increase in demand has significant implications on the resourcing and training needs of both frontline and call centre staff. Mental disorders comprise a broad range of psychological conditions and therefore are difficult to define concisely. In police's operational environment, frontline and contact centre staff are often required to make decisions quickly based on the limited information they have; this practice is not unique to mental health-related events. The process of coding an event could be based on perception, prior contact with police, and/or other information available at the time. Due to the ambiguous definition of 'mental health' in the police context, it is important to understand the characteristics of events categorised as 'mental health' to enable adequate deployment and practice of police. To do this, this analysis examines the characteristics of mental health-related calls received by New Zealand Police between 2009 and 2016; these calls were assigned the code 'mental health' at event closure. The results indicated a 9% increase in this call type per year on average. The urgency of these calls for police attendance was approximated using two measures: (1) priority of calls at closure and (2) result code (i.e. follow-up actions). Both measures indicated a disproportional increase in lower-priority calls. This finding may suggest a general change in service demand and expectation of police's role in mental health, and have implications on police's service model and cross-agency collaboration to support people with mental disorder.
Policing and Society, 2021
Between 2009 and 2016, New Zealand Police experienced a disproportionate increase in lower-priori... more Between 2009 and 2016, New Zealand Police experienced a disproportionate increase in lower-priority mental health-related calls. This exploratory study uses content analysis to identify characteristics of these calls, including reasons for calling police, advice and actions undertaken by communications centres staff, and actions undertaken by frontline officers. Four important findings emerge. First, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of mental health-related calls that did not involve reporting of an offence or emergency (increased from 48% in 2010 to 57% in 2016). Second, there was a significant increase in calls that were initiated by the person who appeared to be experiencing mental illness and distress during the time of the call (increased from 53% to 62%). Third, the way communication centres staff and frontline officers responded to mental health-related calls also changed over time. There was an increased tendency of communications centre staff advising the callers to call back if the situation escalates or if they require further assistance (which increased from 14% to 24%). Fourth, among the events attended by a police unit, there was an increase in the proportion of events where a frontline officer contacted a mental health agency (which increased from 6% of attended events to 10%). Moreover, transportation to a police station decreased (21.7% to 11%) while there were increases in the transportation of a person’s home (2.7% to 6%). Transportation to a mental health facility averaged at 24.9% over the period.
Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 2021
Purpose
This article explores officer use of suspicion before informal police-citizen encounters ... more Purpose
This article explores officer use of suspicion before informal police-citizen encounters as a method to further understand police officer decision-making. There is a body of research focused on officer decision-making before formal “stop and search” encounters, yet, while the more informal “stop and chat” encounters are ubiquitous, they are a comparatively under-researched part of policework.
Design/methodology/approach
The research takes an ethnographic approach to explore police decision-making. It used participant observation (800 h over 93 patrol shifts) of front-line first response officers from New Zealand (n = 45) and South Australia (n = 48). Field observations were complemented with informal discussion in the field and 27 semi-structured interviews.
Findings
It reveals that officers applied three situational “tests” to assess the circumstances or actions observed before initiating an informal encounter. Officers then weighed up whether the circumstances were harmful, contrary to law, or socially acceptable to determine the necessity of initiating a police-citizen encounter. This process is conceived as suspicioning: deciding whether circumstances appear prima facie suspicious, how an officer goes about collecting more information to corroborate suspicion to ultimately inform a course of action.
Originality/value
The findings present a new perspective to understanding how and why police officers decide to initiate encounters with members of the public. Moreover, as the first ethnographic cross-national research of officers from New Zealand and South Australia, it provides a rare comparative glimpse of Antipodean policing.
Police Practice and Research
In recent times, the interest in evidence-based policing research at practitioner management leve... more In recent times, the interest in evidence-based policing research at practitioner management level has increased. A number of academic programmes have been established in higher education to train police managers in applied criminology. However, there is a lack of literature for police officer practitioner researchers (POPR) who might undertake qualitative research, especially research projects that examine police behaviour. In this paper, it is suggested that police officers undertaking qualitative research need to learn to ‘switch off their police role’ and ‘switch on their researcher role’. The author’s insights are drawn from his own experience of qualitative fieldwork working with police officers from New Zealand Police and South Australian Police.
Policing and Society, 2020
Officers from the Norwegian police were routinely armed with firearms from July 2014 to February ... more Officers from the Norwegian police were routinely armed with firearms from July 2014 to February 2016 in response to a terror threat. This paper explores the experiences of a sample of officers (N = 16) who were routinely armed during this period. The research took a mixed-methods approach using semi-structured interviews one month before the policy was rescinded. Two key themes emerged. First, officers believed that being routinely armed was advantageous for routine police activities. Officers described that tactical planning had improved as it was no longer necessary to wait for permission to respond with a firearm. The associated tactical freedom triggered an increase in self-belief in their effectiveness and efficiency. Second, officers believed that although officers had observed some behavioural changes when interacting with citizens, over time, citizens became acclimatised to the presence of firearms. These findings provide new empirical evidence relevant to the debate surrounding the implications of permanently arming a routinely unarmed police force. ARTICLE HISTORY
Policing and Society, 2018
Internationally police agencies reported steady increases in mental health-related demand for ser... more Internationally police agencies reported steady increases in mental health-related demand for service. This increase in demand has significant implications on the resourcing and training needs of both frontline and call centre staff. Mental disorders comprise a broad range of psychological conditions and therefore are difficult to define concisely. In police's operational environment, frontline and contact centre staff are often required to make decisions quickly based on the limited information they have; this practice is not unique to mental health-related events. The process of coding an event could be based on perception, prior contact with police, and/or other information available at the time. Due to the ambiguous definition of 'mental health' in the police context, it is important to understand the characteristics of events categorised as 'mental health' to enable adequate deployment and practice of police. To do this, this analysis examines the characteristics of mental health-related calls received by New Zealand Police between 2009 and 2016; these calls were assigned the code 'mental health' at event closure. The results indicated a 9% increase in this call type per year on average. The urgency of these calls for police attendance was approximated using two measures: (1) priority of calls at closure and (2) result code (i.e. follow-up actions). Both measures indicated a disproportional increase in lower-priority calls. This finding may suggest a general change in service demand and expectation of police's role in mental health, and have implications on police's service model and cross-agency collaboration to support people with mental disorder.
Police Practice and Research, 2018
Evidence-based policing is rapidly becoming adopted by policing agencies among policing jurisdict... more Evidence-based policing is rapidly becoming adopted by policing agencies among policing jurisdictions. Many academic programmes have been established in higher education to train police managers in applied criminology. However, there is a lack of literature for police officer practitioner researchers (POPR) who might undertake qualitative research, especially research projects that examine police behaviour. This paper reflects on the changing role of the practitioner-researcher and suggests that police officers undertaking qualitative research need to learn to ‘switch off their police role’ and ‘switch on their researcher role’. The author’s insights are drawn from his own experience of qualitative fieldwork working with police officers from New Zealand Police and South Australian Police.
Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, Jun 2014
This article introduces the author’s recent study on the ‘strategic impact’ of routinely arming t... more This article introduces the author’s recent study on the ‘strategic impact’ of routinely arming the New Zealand Police and discusses how two significant research findings are consistent with published theory. First, the utility of taking a binary, black and white approach when analysing the ‘routinely armed versus routinely unarmed’ debate, is limited in terms of considering police officer behaviour. This is because police departmental policies shape police officer risk-taking and behaviour to a considerable degree. Second, despite departmental policies, the routine armament of a routinely unarmed police force, say for health and safety reasons, may be counterproductive; such a change exposes police officers to increased risks. Both findings come from an analysis of Scandinavian police forces. The author’s study was primarily concerned with the police forces of Norway and Sweden; however, comparisons were made, at times, within a wider Scandinavian context.
Book Chapters by Ross E Hendy
Violence in Families, Advances in Preventing and Treating Violence and Aggression, 2023
This chapter provides a critical review of research supporting what works in the policing of fami... more This chapter provides a critical review of research supporting what works in the policing of family violence. A problem occurs when researchers limit the concept of family harm, or equivalently, the actual range of interactions when policing family violence, they also diminish the applicability of their findings. The history of key research starting with Sherman and Berk (1984) is offered to illustrate the problem. An alternative approach uses a new Big Data paradigm, and this is presented with several evaluations undertaken in New Zealand. These evaluations use all the available data, consider large populations and are augmented with a Crime Harm Index. New Zealand’s leading-edge approach to policing family harm is deconstructed into its components and reviewed to reveal that successful practice runs ahead of strong research evidence. The 16 parts of New Zealand’s approach are placed on an array to illustrate that the impacts of interventions are multi-dimensional with impacts for both offenders and victims. When a multi-dimensional approach is considered, successful practices are those that enhance victim agency and avoid formal, structured decision-making. The array is offered to practitioners to assess their own interventions. The Big Data approach is recommended as a wayfinder to determine successful practice.
Springer International Publishing eBooks, Nov 1, 2022
Many extol the virtue of 'routinely unarmed' policing. Indeed, the ability to pra... more Many extol the virtue of 'routinely unarmed' policing. Indeed, the ability to practise without reliance on a demonstrable police power epitomises the romance of the 'policing by consent' model-where police officers are effective operators who can convince the hardiest person to acquiesce without recourse to the explicit threat of firearms. Yet New Zealand and Norway are two jurisdictions that while appearing to be 'routinely unarmed', are, in fact, more armed than officers in other routinely armed jurisdictions. This chapter sets out how the response model for these jurisdictions does indeed rely on armed officers on continuous patrol. It looks at recent comparative research of routinely armed and unarmed officer practice. And, in doing so the chapter sets out to challenge the logic and rhetoric of 'routinely unarmed' policing in modern democratic states. This myth sits in stark contrast to the practical realities of frontline policing.
Many extol the virtue of 'routinely unarmed' policing. Indeed, the ability to practise without re... more Many extol the virtue of 'routinely unarmed' policing. Indeed, the ability to practise without reliance on a demonstrable police power epitomises the romance of the 'policing by consent' model-where police officers are effective operators who can convince the hardiest person to acquiesce without recourse to the explicit threat of firearms. Yet New Zealand and Norway are two jurisdictions that while appearing to be 'routinely unarmed', are, in fact, more armed than officers in other routinely armed jurisdictions. This chapter sets out how the response model for these jurisdictions does indeed rely on armed officers on continuous patrol. It looks at recent comparative research of routinely armed and unarmed officer practice. And, in doing so the chapter sets out to challenge the logic and rhetoric of 'routinely unarmed' policing in modern democratic states. This myth sits in stark contrast to the practical realities of frontline policing.
Thesis Chapters by Ross E Hendy
Recently there have been calls to change the New Zealand Police firearm policy so that police off... more Recently there have been calls to change the New Zealand Police firearm policy so that police officers are routinely armed at all times. It is believed that an armed police force interacts in society differently from an unarmed police force and little is known about how the change to an armed force will affect the relationship between the police and the public. The purpose of this study is to identify these issues by studying comparable jurisdictions and to predict how they might alter the strategic relationship between New Zealand society and police. The police of England and Wales, Norway and Sweden were compared. Prominent themes emerged from the study. For the police-public relationship to remain functional, the police must maintain a high level of police legitimacy. Legitimacy can be affected by the manner in which the police use firearms. The use of firearms by police officers is influenced by departmental policy and their independent perception of the degree of risk they face. The main conclusions drawn from this research were that it was not likely that a barrier would emerge between the police and public nor was there likely to be a significant impact on the police’s ability to police by consent if the police become routinely armed. However routinely arming the New Zealand police might lead to a reduction in police safety as officers may be more inclined to engage in dangerous situations."
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Research Articles by Ross E Hendy
This article explores officer use of suspicion before informal police-citizen encounters as a method to further understand police officer decision-making. There is a body of research focused on officer decision-making before formal “stop and search” encounters, yet, while the more informal “stop and chat” encounters are ubiquitous, they are a comparatively under-researched part of policework.
Design/methodology/approach
The research takes an ethnographic approach to explore police decision-making. It used participant observation (800 h over 93 patrol shifts) of front-line first response officers from New Zealand (n = 45) and South Australia (n = 48). Field observations were complemented with informal discussion in the field and 27 semi-structured interviews.
Findings
It reveals that officers applied three situational “tests” to assess the circumstances or actions observed before initiating an informal encounter. Officers then weighed up whether the circumstances were harmful, contrary to law, or socially acceptable to determine the necessity of initiating a police-citizen encounter. This process is conceived as suspicioning: deciding whether circumstances appear prima facie suspicious, how an officer goes about collecting more information to corroborate suspicion to ultimately inform a course of action.
Originality/value
The findings present a new perspective to understanding how and why police officers decide to initiate encounters with members of the public. Moreover, as the first ethnographic cross-national research of officers from New Zealand and South Australia, it provides a rare comparative glimpse of Antipodean policing.
Book Chapters by Ross E Hendy
Thesis Chapters by Ross E Hendy
This article explores officer use of suspicion before informal police-citizen encounters as a method to further understand police officer decision-making. There is a body of research focused on officer decision-making before formal “stop and search” encounters, yet, while the more informal “stop and chat” encounters are ubiquitous, they are a comparatively under-researched part of policework.
Design/methodology/approach
The research takes an ethnographic approach to explore police decision-making. It used participant observation (800 h over 93 patrol shifts) of front-line first response officers from New Zealand (n = 45) and South Australia (n = 48). Field observations were complemented with informal discussion in the field and 27 semi-structured interviews.
Findings
It reveals that officers applied three situational “tests” to assess the circumstances or actions observed before initiating an informal encounter. Officers then weighed up whether the circumstances were harmful, contrary to law, or socially acceptable to determine the necessity of initiating a police-citizen encounter. This process is conceived as suspicioning: deciding whether circumstances appear prima facie suspicious, how an officer goes about collecting more information to corroborate suspicion to ultimately inform a course of action.
Originality/value
The findings present a new perspective to understanding how and why police officers decide to initiate encounters with members of the public. Moreover, as the first ethnographic cross-national research of officers from New Zealand and South Australia, it provides a rare comparative glimpse of Antipodean policing.
The research took a grounded theory approach and employed a mixed methods design. Quantitative data revealed that officers from South Australia used verbal and physical control behaviours more frequently and for a higher proportion of time during encounters than during the encounters observed in New Zealand. There were no clear explanations for the differences, although there were variations in law and the profile of event-types between the research sites. The qualitative enquiry found that officers from both jurisdictions followed a similar diagnostic and treatment procedure during police-citizen encounters. Moreover, officers in both jurisdictions experienced conflict from procedural frustrations or goal blockages arising from interaction with citizens.
Findings provided the context for the construction of a substantive ‘procedural conflict’ theory. This theory (1) illustrates how procedural conflict can cause a strain for officers, (2) posits that officers take corrective actions to overcome the conflict using control behaviour, and (3) explains that while officers may use force to regulate police-citizen encounters, other behaviour for resolving conflict during encounters is more common. Accordingly, procedural conflict theory provides a new framework for the explanation of the police use of force. Further theoretical propositions about police-citizen interaction are set out in the final chapter and further research to test the validity of the theory is proposed.
• Understanding the transactional nature of police-citizen encounters and associated theories
• Discussing empirical research of police tactics utilised when resolving conflict
• Exploring the difference between conflict resolution and use of force
• Exploring methodological and ethical issues in the study of police-citizen encounters
For example, two empirical studies of police conflict tactics include a scenario-based questionnaire to English and Australian police officers (Wilson & Gross, 1994), and a study of Norwegian police officers (Abrahamsen & Strype, 2010). While both studies yield interesting results, their utility is questionable. The questionnaire method only allows for the examination of a singular police tactic; one chosen by officers on the basis of their interpretation of the likely behaviour of the subject. This approach does not allow for variation or unpredictability of citizen behaviour; the test relies on the officer’s perception of citizen behaviour. As a result the unpredictability and dynamics prevalent in police-citizen encounters, remains unaccounted.