RAPID: The Impact of Being Policed Under Threat

Wayne State University, Detroit MI

Investigators

Abstract

This project advances scientific knowledge of how contextual stressors shape police behavior and, in turn, indirectly affect community members’ collective life and work outcomes. To do so, it investigates institutional, situational, and psychological factors that are associated with law enforcement in heavily policed communities. Moreover, this project provides racioethnic comparisons among members of urban area communities to better understand the differential impact of policing behaviors. A potential benefit of this project would be to help account for previously documented racial differences in community health and job performance. Results will draw attention to the spillover effects of police-community relations to public and private organizations embedded within these communities, potentially increasing the urgency of organizational leaders to take action to support more effective police-community partnerships for the good of the labor force and society. The primary aims are to: investigate (1) how job insecurity, media attention, reform efforts, and consciousness of the “racist” stereotype among law enforcement shape patterns of policing in Black communities; (2) how patterns of policing behavior, in turn, impact psychophysiological health, well-being, and experiences of discrimination within Black communities; and, (3) how adverse community outcomes spillover to the civilian work domain to affect Black employees’ workplace performance. Timely data collection will allow this project to produce: (1) a multi-level understanding of the impact of external stressors on policing and community outcomes, (2) a framework for understanding the joint officer-community experience, and (3) recommendations for policing and organizational policy that align the joint experiences of officers and community members. Using a mixed-method approach, the project will incorporate thematic interviews of public officials, self-report police and community data, secondary analysis of public data, and secondary accounts of policing behavior scraped from the internet. Findings will inform theories on stress, identity, the work-life interface, experiences of discrimination, and organizational support. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.