Does a rising tide lift all boats?: Evidence from a multicity randomized trial of procedural justice in hot spots policing

Abstract

A recent multicity procedural justice (PJ) training experiment at crime hot spots showed that police could be trained to behave in procedurally just ways, and that this behavioral change could lead to reductions in arrests, improved citizen evaluations of the police, and decreases in crime. In this paper, we extend analyses of the original study to identify whether improvements in PJ behavior in interactions with citizens were conditioned by race/ethnicity. Simply stated, do the improvements apply to all racial/ethnic groups, like a rising tide that lifts all boats, or do the benefits of the training program accrue inequitably across groups? Using systematic social observations of officer interactions with citizens, and mixed-effects regression models that controlled for possible selection biases by officers, we do not find evidence of significant differing impacts across the groups. In concluding, we argue that PJ training for hot spots policing officers is a promising approach to increasing PJ in interactions across racial/ethnic groups.