Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2026-4
Does Departmental Fairness Lead to Fairness on the Street? Testing the Relationship Between Perceptions of Organizational Justice and Procedurally Just Policing
Police officers have been encouraged to act with “procedural justice” for at least two decades. Previous research has identified organizational justice as an antecedent to procedurally just policing—sometimes referred to as internal procedural justice and external procedural justice, respectively. Be that as it may, the association between perceptions of organizational justice and procedurally just police behavior has not been analyzed. Using a combination of survey data and observational data collected by using Systematic Social Observation of body-worn camera footage, this study tests the proposition that police officer perceptions of organizational justice are associated with procedurally just and procedurally unjust police behavior. The findings of this study do not support the proposition that perceptions of organizational justice are associated with levels of procedurally just policing. Procedurally unjust policing, on the other hand, is influenced by internal procedural justice. Implications for research and for police practice are discussed.
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