Decision Rhetoric

Somik Raha

November 29, 2007

Decisions and Ethics Center Seminar

Research Problem

How can we improve policing?

Research Question

• What constructs do police organizations use to explicate their decisions?

• How do these constructs interact with their decision basis?

Research Methods

• Ethnography of the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS)

ASKING

READING

DESIGN STUDY

COLLECT DATAORGANIZE

DATA

ANALYSISReading, rereading, memoing, coding, memoing, proposition making

ANSWER FORMING

ASKING

How do the police value their work? How do they see themselves?

READING

Criminology Sociology

Private Policing: Shearing and StenningEmergence of private policing due to shift in “mass property” from government to private owners.

History of Police: Okada

The Asshole: Van MaanenPolice define their existence based on the “asshole” on the street – people who intentionally break the law.

The New Parapolice: John RigakosFirst ethnographic study of private police in North America (Intelligarde, Canada)

Policing History

FrankpledgeEvery male above the age of twelve would join a group of neighbors to form a tithing. The tithing had law enforcement responsibilities and ten such tithings would be supervised by a constable appointed by a local nobleman

11th century

Statute of WinchesterPassed by Edward I. Makes communities responsible for robberies and damages arising from their failure to produce the offenders

1285Evolution of Parish constable system, largely privatized over time.

Jonathan WildSelf-styled thief-taker general

Most famous criminal of 18th century England

18th century

Negotiate with original owner of the goods, making “compromise” agreements to return all, or more usually, part of the stolen goods in exchange for the withdrawal of prosecution, amnesty, and any share in a reward.

Jonathan Wild

A gallows ticket to view the hanging of Jonathan Wild

Policing History

FrankpledgeEvery male above the age of twelve would join a group of neighbors to form a tithing. The tithing had law enforcement responsibilities and ten such tithing would be supervised by a constable appointed by a local nobleman

11th century

Statute of WinchesterPassed by Edward I. Makes communities responsible for robberies and damages arising from their failure to produce the offenders

1285

Evolution of Parish constable system, largely privatized over time.

Jonathan WildSelf-styled thief-taker general

Most famous criminal of 18th century England

18th century

19th century

Robert Peel

Father of the modern public police

He was appointed to his post by the Prime Minister for the explicit task of creating public police in London in response to a perceived absence of any means of securing observance of laws. Initially, he had to face a “severe rebuff” in parliament after which he carefully navigated his way through political waters to create the first centralized, public police force [Reith 1956: 121-123]. He did this through the London Metropolitan Act, passed in the early 19th century, after which a full-time, uniformed police force was established with the purpose of patrolling the city. Peel hired “even-tempered and reserved” men. He chose navy blue as the color of the uniform instead of a military red.

Sir Robert Peel

Policing History

FrankpledgeEvery male above the age of twelve would join a group of neighbors to form a tithing. The tithing had law enforcement responsibilities and ten such tithing would be supervised by a constable appointed by a local nobleman

11th century

Statue of WinchesterPassed by Edward I. Makes communities responsible for robberies and damages arising from their failure to produce the offenders

1285

Evolution of Parish constable system, largely privatized over time.

Jonathan WildSelf-styled thief-taker general

Most famous criminal of 18th century England

18th century

19th century

Robert Peel

Pinkerton Massacre (US)

1960s

Private police makes a quiet comeback

Choice of Police Department

• Privately managed

• Public police-powers through deputization

• Unique example of a private organization that cares about more than just profit

• Avoid government organizations – not clear who the ultimate decision maker is

Design Study

Field Observation

2006-07

4 ride-alongs, 2 in the day and 2 in the night (12-16 hours)

Planning and conduction of “Back from the Dead” Halloween Party (3000 attendees) (5 hours)

Two formal briefings (2 hours)

One informal briefing (1 hour)

2 Lieutenants, 1 Sergeant (5 hours)

Chief of Police (1 hour)

Interviews

Stanford Daily reports about police

Chief’s talk about history of police department

Document Analysis

Continuing Ethnography

Retired Chief Marvin Herrington (2 hours)Founder of the present police department

Larry Horton – Director, Government and Community RelationsAsst. Dean of Student Affairs in 1970 when the “disruptions occurred”

Interviews

Stanford Daily archives of the police from the 40’s to the 70’s

Document Analysis

To Do

• Writing up the history of the police department– Interview John Schwartz (Asst Prof in Physics

department, advised President during disruptions)

– Interview Dan Dion (Acting Police Chief during disruptions, interfaced with Sheriff of Santa Clara County)

Gap in Police Literature

Shearing and Stenning: Public police make “good pinches” while private police drop “snowflakes”

Rigakos: This promotes a binary understanding (which is bad). “Private security must be understood in the context of its existence, as a profit-making enterprise under the capitalist mode of production.”

My Critique: This is a Marxian filter and Rigakos’ subjects don’t use Marxian language to describe their work. We must understand policing not only in the context in which it occurs but also from the perspective of those who do it.

Rhetoric of Education @ SUDPS

• Frame: Public Safety, Not Police Department

• A Strategic Decision: High-Visibility Patrolling“… lets say you’re in a gang area, you’re stopping everyone and everything for anything you can. Because you want to show a presence”

• Commitment to Action: An Educational Bike Stop“I can tell you that most of my guys really don’t like writing bike cite tickets. They would like to be doing something different. They would like to be catching the burglar or whatever, but bikes are a problem on this campus.”

• Decision making on the spot: Soft Pinches– Done through triage decisions– Let minor offenders off with an educational warning (scare them a bit at

first)

Decision Rhetoric

The language used to justify a decisione.g. “Yeah, we have community outreach and then we do enforcement and education. We don't necessarily stop and cite everyone. We talk to people and educate them.”

Merriam-Webster

Rhetoric: a type or mode of language or speech

Decision Rhetoric and Decision Frame

POLICY

TACTICS

STRATEGY

Decision R

hetoric

Decision Frame centers around a decision being made at this time.

Decision Rhetoric permeates the frame of several decisions.

Inform

ation

Preferences

Frame

Alt

erna

tive

sLogic

DecisionBasis

Commitmentto action

Decision Rhetoric adds emotion/value judgment to our decision basis, especially the frame

Inform

ation

Preferences

Frame

Alt

erna

tive

sLogic

DecisionBasis

Commitmentto action

We see ourselves as educators of public safety and enforcement is one of the ways in which we educate

Decision Rhetoric gives us clues about

POLICY

TACTICS

STRATEGY

Policy in the Frame

Inform

ation

Preferences

Frame

Alt

erna

tive

sLogic

DecisionBasis

Commitmentto action

We’d rather educate than enforce if the offence is minor

Decision Rhetoric gives us clues about

Preferences

Inform

ation

Preferences

Frame

Alt

erna

tive

sLogic

DecisionBasis

Commitmentto action

Since we want to educate, we’d rather be proactive than reactive and create alternatives like high-visibility patrolling, community outreach, etc..

Decision Rhetoric gives us clues about

Alternative Creation

Inform

ation

Preferences

Frame

Alt

erna

tive

sLogic

DecisionBasis

Commitmentto action

How can we change the behavior of our population to improve public

safety?

Who should we be talking to in order to improve public safety education

levels in our community?

Decision Rhetoric can direct

Information Gathering

Inform

ation

Preferences

Frame

Alt

erna

tive

sLogic

DecisionBasis

Commitmentto action

Doing an activity we don’t like – bike-stops, because it helps with education

Decision Rhetoric can influence

Commitment to Action

Why is the Decision Rhetoric important?

• You can assess and change it

• Marv Herrington changed the rhetoric from enforcement to education

• Decision Rhetoric affects research frame (apart from decision frame of police departments)

The rhetoric of enforcement

Enforcement

Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police Patrol vs Fire Alarms

“More generally, we model the choice by policy makers of an optimal enforcement strategy, given opportunity costs, available technology, and human cognitive limits.”

Broken Windows Theory: The theory thus makes two major claims: that further petty crime and low-level anti-social behavior will be deterred, and that major crime will, as a result, be prevented. Suggested Zero Tolerance policy on enforcement, adopted by Mayor Rudy Guiliani

POLICE often referred to as LAW-ENFORCEMENT AGENCY

The rhetoric of enforcement is deeply embedded in police research

The rhetoric of educationEducation

Question asked by Stanford Police Dept: What strategies do we adopt to spread public safety education in the communities we serve?

Value-driven decision making

The “optimal solution” may not be the desirable solution:

e.g. We may have missed arresting several stop-sign violators, but we prevented a major mishap at a large party.

Community Policing

• Based on rhetoric of enforcement

• Partner with communities to clamp down on crime

• Public Safety education includes community policing

Research Question

• What constructs do police organizations use to explicate their decisions?

• How do these constructs interact with their decision basis?

Broader Applicability of Decision Rhetoric

Regular For-Profit

Rhetoric of Real-Estate"We are not basically in the food business. We are in the real estate business.”

“The only reason we sell hamburgers is because

they are the greatest producer of revenue from which our tenants can pay

us rent."

This rhetoric can be reduced to the final rhetoric of profit. A real-estate

approach provides more profits than a food-business approach.

Broader Applicability of Decision Rhetoric

Social Venture

Rhetoric of Elimination of Needless Blindness

Strategy: Partner with other hospitals and share their secrets of success

Profits are a means to being sustainable – profit is not the final irreducible rhetoric. It is the means, not the end.

The Final Irreducible

• Stanford Police Dept: Public Safety Education

• Aravind Eye Hospitals: Elimination of blindness

• Grameen Bank: Bringing credit to the landless

• McDonald’s: Profit

Final Thoughts

• Social Ventures can derive a sense of identity from the decision rhetoric

• The decision rhetoric can guide our thought on valuation

Where are we going with this?• RESEARCH PROBLEM: How can we improve policing?• MORE RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

– What are the norms of policing in SUDPS? • Education is the goal. Enforcement is the means, and not the only one.

– How do we identify them? • Through Ethnography, identify decision rhetoric and use it to find norms

– Who determines these norms? • Researcher? Police Chief? What is so around us? Community? Stanford

Trustees? Is this a useful question? How can I ask this in a more meaningful way?– Are these norms valid across all police departments?

• Ethnographies of small police departments seem to show this similarity• “Small town” effect vs “large centralized force” effect

– How does an understanding of the norms help the police make better decisions?

• Existing decision systems have mostly been about treating policing as an OR problem

• Sociological studies try to explicate, not to normatively reengineer• What would a good decision system informed by the decision rhetoric look like?

Your ideas?

Brainstorm

• Individual Ideation: 5 minutes– Please write your ideas on a sheet

• Collection, Discussion: 15 minutes

Brainstorm Topic

What is a decision system you can think of based on the rhetoric of education in policing?

Decision System

• What is the most a student would be willing to pay to prevent bike theft? By modeling a decision system, maybe a market would emerge around theft prevention systems (e.g. bike shop installing RFID tags)

• What is the most the police/administration is willing to spend on bike safety? Can they invest that amount into entrepreneurship?