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Journal Article Link 5.1: Donnelly, R. C. (1962). Police Authority and Practices. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 339(1): 90-110.

Law enforcement requires a sensitive and wise discretion in police decisions whether or not to invoke the criminal process when law violators are uncovered. As an administrative and moral necessity, the policeman informally judges and settles more cases than he takes to court. There are many rules of law limiting the power of arrest and imposing duties on police officers after arrests are made. Arrests with and without warrant raise constitutional questions as to probable cause and reasonable cause respectively. After arrest, appearance before a magistrate must follow without un necessary or unreasonable delay, requirements variously de fined by the different jurisdictions. Police practices sometimes depart from prevailing rules of arrest, and the courts must exercise particular vigilance, especially in such matters involving individual liberties as search and seizure, wiretapping and eavesdropping, use of informers, interrogation of suspects, and the like. Generally, the federal courts tend to be stricter than the state courts about the admissibility of evidence, giving rise to wide divergences and ambiguities. Technological sophistication has increased in scope and reliability the means of obtaining evidence. In the use of these techniques, controls must be exercised to protect individual and other democratic guarantees at the same time that civil order is maintained.—Ed.

1. Summarize the author’s main point(s) in just a few sentences.
2. What potential problems does the author not address with his/her own work?
3. How would you address potential problems and/or future research recommendations that are addressed by the author?
4. Do you see any evidence of bias in the authors work or writing? If so, what is it and why do you think it is there?
5. How has this article expanded your knowledge on the subject and/or challenged your preconceptions of the subject?

Journal Article Link 5.2: Decker, L. K. (1999).  The Search and Seizure of Electronic Pagers: A Federal Case Law Review. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 10(3): 343-362.

Today, advances in technology outstrip the ability of the law to address technology related issues. Such is the case in the area of electronic pagers or "beepers." The use of pagers by drug dealers has been a standard for many years yet there are relatively few cases dealing with the issue of the search and seizure of pagers. This article reviews the federal cases, and a few state court cases, which have decided issues relating to the search and seizure of electronic pagers. Issues addressed in this article include the application of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the reasonable expectation of privacy in a pager, the warrantless search of a pager based on the exigent circumstance of destruction of evidence, the search of a pager incident to a lawful arrest, the search of a pager pursuant to a general search warrant and the search of a pager based on consent.

1. Summarize the author’s main point(s) in just a few sentences.
2. What potential problems does the author not address with his/her own work?
3. How would you address potential problems and/or future research recommendations that are addressed by the author?
4. Do you see any evidence of bias in the authors work or writing? If so, what is it and why do you think it is there?
5. How has this article expanded your knowledge on the subject and/or challenged your preconceptions of the subject?

Journal Article Link 5.3: White, M. D. (2003). Examining The Impact Of External Influences On Police Use Of Deadly Force Over Time. Evaluation Review, 27(1): 50-78.

Prior deadly force research has sought to identify appropriate mechanisms that can effectively control police officers’ decisions to use deadly force. However, the relative impact of external discretion control policies on police shooting behavior remains largely unknown. Using data from Philadelphia for a period of more than two decades, this article employs interrupted time-series analysis (ARIMA) to examine the impact of legislation and judicial intervention on use of deadly force by Philadelphia police officers. The article also considers the impact of larger, community-level characteristics on levels of deadly force. Findings produced modest support for the potential effect of external discretion control policies and community-level factors on police shooting behavior but generally suggest that dynamic changes in the internal working environment can outweigh the influence of the external mechanisms.

1. Summarize the author’s main point(s) in just a few sentences.
2. What potential problems does the author not address with his/her own work?
3. How would you address potential problems and/or future research recommendations that are addressed by the author?
4. Do you see any evidence of bias in the authors work or writing? If so, what is it and why do you think it is there?
5. How has this article expanded your knowledge on the subject and/or challenged your preconceptions of the subject?