458095CJB XX X 10.1177/0093854812458095CRIM
INAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIORWorden et al. / INTERVENTION WITH PROBLEM OFFICERS
2012
INTERVENTION WITH PROBLEM OFFICERS
An Outcome Evaluation of an EIS Intervention
ROBERT E. WORDEN
The University at Albany, SUNY; and
John F. Finn Institute for Public Safety, Inc.
MOONSUN KIM
The College at Brockport, SUNY
CHRISTOPHER J. HARRIS
University of Massachusetts Lowell
MARY ANNE PRATTE
New York State Police
SHELAGH E. DORN
The University at Albany, SUNY
SHELLEY S. HYLAND
The University at Albany, SUNY
Police executives have increasingly assumed—or they have been compelled to accept—responsibility for managing the risk
of misconduct by their officers through the implementation of early intervention (EI) systems, even though social science has
provided very little evidence on their effectiveness, or on their unintended effects. We examine the effects of one police
agency’s EI system intervention, the Officer–Civilian Interaction (OCI) School, on indicators of risk-related outcomes—
personnel complaints, citizen complaints, use of force, and secondary arrests—and on productivity—arrests, and proactive
arrests—for 118 graduates and 118 matched controls. We found that the changes in risk-related outcomes were very similar
for both treatment and control groups, and that OCI trainees made fewer proactive arrests and fewer arrests overall than the
controls after the training. The implications for managing the risk of misconduct are discussed.
Keywords: police misconduct; early intervention; outcome evaluation; citizen complaints; use of force; arrests
P
olice executives have increasingly assumed—or they have been compelled to accept—
responsibility for managing the risk of misconduct by their officers through the imple-
mentation of early warning systems, also known as early intervention (EI) systems. By
monitoring indicators of potential misconduct, this thinking goes, police administrators
may be able to identify officers who display symptoms of problematic conduct and inter-
vene soon after such symptoms appear with counseling or retraining. EI systems are widely
regarded as very promising mechanisms to enhance police accountability and service, and
so they have proliferated across the United States. A national evaluation conducted by the
AUTHORS’ NOTE: We gratefully acknowledge the comments of Alissa Pollitz Worden on an earlier draft of
this article and absolve her of any responsibility for errors or omissions that remain. Correspondence concern-
ing this article should be addressed to Robert E. Worden, University at Albany, School of Criminal Justice, 135
Western Ave, Albany, NY, 12222; e-mail: rworden@albany.edu.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. 40, No. 4, April 2013, 409-437.
DOI: 10.1177/0093854812458095
© 2012 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology
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