What Can Reform Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Unwarranted Discretionary Behaviors? Principles? Principals? Or Both?

Abstract

In this paper, we ask whether principles—relevant institutions, including administrative reform, legal and judicial support, and information and communication technology (ICT)—and principals—ordinary people that are capable, knowledgeable, and willing—can help enhance accountability of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) by mitigating unwarranted discretionary behaviors. We examined the New York City Police Department by constructing and analyzing a unique dataset drawn from multiple sources and by using the SLB literature to inform our empirical model specification. Fixed effects regression analysis revealed the potential of principles and principals in motivating or reducing police officers’ use of force resulting in substantiated civilian complaints. Specifically, proactive policing strategies, exonerated civilian complaint dispositions, court summons following arrests, and ICT are the principles, and a low-poverty population served by police are the principals we found to influence discretionary police behavior.

Keywords

street-Level bureaucrats accountability discretionary behavior New York City police department policing

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Albrecht

(2011). The NYPD success story: Crime reduction and narcotics enforcement. Pakistan Journal of Criminology, 3(2), 83–94.

Asgarkhani

. (2014). The reality of social inclusion through digital government. In HUSITA7-The 7th International Conference of Human Services Information Technology Applications (pp. 127–146). Routledge.

Auel

(2007). Democratic accountability and national parliaments: Redefining the impact of parliamentary scrutiny in EU affairs. European Law Journal, 13(4), 487–504. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0386.2007.00380.x

Bogason

Musso

J. A.

(2006). The democratic prospects of network governance. The American Review of Public Administration, 36(1), 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074005282581

Bovens

Schillemans

Goodin

R. E.

(2014). Public accountability. In Bovens

Goodin

R. E.

Schillemans

(Eds.), The Oxford handbook of public accountability (pp. 1–22). Oxford University Press.

Braga

A. A.

Macdonald

(2019). Improving police effectiveness in ensuring justice. Criminology & Public Policy, 18, 511.

Brignall

Modell

(2000). An institutional perspective on performance measurement and management in the new public sector. Management Accounting Research, 11(1), 281–306. https://doi.org/10.1006/mare.2000.0136

Campbell

D. E.

(2009). Civic engagement and education: An empirical test of the sorting model. American Journal of Political Science, 53(4), 771–786. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2009.00400.x

Carr

Lewis

(2010). Combating corruption through employment law and whistleblower protection. Industrial Law Journal, 39(1), 52–81. https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwp027

10.

Carroll

D. A.

(2022). Mirrored windows theory and the NYPD: Does heavy surveillance policing translate into greater use of force. Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, 29(1), 181–203. https://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/jpmsp/vol29/iss1/10

11.

Carroll

D. A.

H. H.

(2022). Perception or reality: An examination of police misconduct, organizational justice, and promotion opportunities in the NYPD. The American Review of Public Administration, 52(5), 351–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/02750740221094468

12.

Chadwick

May

(2003). Interaction between states and citizens in the age of the internet: “E-government” in the United States, Britain, and the European Union. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, 16(2), 271–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0491.00216

13.

Cooper

T. L.

(2012). The responsible administrator: An approach to ethics for the administrative role. John Wiley & Sons.

14.

Destler

K. N.

(2017). A matter of trust: Street level bureaucrats, organizational climate and performance management reform. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 27(3), 517–534. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muw055

15.

Durkin

(2020). NYCLU publishes more than 300,000 NYPD misconduct complaints after judge's ruling. Politico. Retrieved December 11, 2020, from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/26/nyclu-publishes-more-than-300-000-nypd-misconduct-complaints-after-judges-ruling-402885

16.

Eterno

J. A.

Barrow

C. S.

Silverman

E. B.

(2016). Forcible stops: Police and citizens speak out. Public Administration Review, 77(2), 181–192. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12684

17.

Fassin

(2019). The police are the punishment. Public Culture, 31(3), 539–561. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-7532691

18.

Favero

Meier

K. J.

O’Toole

L. J.

Jr. (2016). Goals, trust, participation, and feedback: Linking internal management with performance outcomes. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 26(2), 327–343. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muu044

19.

Finer

(1941). Administrative responsibility in democratic government. Public Administration Review, 1(4), 335–340. https://doi.org/10.2307/972907

20.

Friedersdorf

(2020). Apply broken-windows theory to the police. The Atlantic. Retrieved December 11, 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/apply-broken-windows-theory-police/613186/

21.

Friedrich

C. J.

(1935). Responsible government service under the American Constitution. In Friedrich

C. J.

Beyer

W. C.

Spero

S. D.

Miller

J. F.

, & Graham

G. A.

(Eds.), Problems of the American public service. McGraw-Hill.

22.

Gregory

(2003). Accountability in modern government. Ch44. In Peters

B. G.

Pierre

(Eds.), Handbook of Public Administration (pp. 557–568). Sage.

23.

Harcourt

B. E.

Ludwig

(2007). Reefer madness: Broken windows policing and misdemeanor marijuana arrests in New York City, 1989-2000. Criminology & Public Policy, 6(1), 165–181.

24.

Hart

D. K.

(1984). The virtuous citizen, the honorable bureaucrat, and “public” administration. Public Administration Review, 44(s1), 111–120. https://doi.org/10.2307/975550

25.

Hill

(2003). Understanding implementation: SLBs’ resources for reform. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 13(3), 265–282. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mug024

26.

Honig

M. I.

(2006). Street-level bureaucracy revisited: Frontline district central office administrators as boundary spanners in education policy implementation. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 28(4), 357–383. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737028004357

27.

Hupe

Hill

(2007). Street-level bureaucracy and public accountability. Public Administration, 85(2), 279–299. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2007.00650.x

28.

Jefferson

B. J.

(2016). Broken windows policing and constructions of space and crime: Flatbush, Brooklyn. Antipode, 48(5), 1270–1291. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12240

29.

Kelling

G. L.

Wilson

J. Q.

(1982). Broken windows: The police and neighborhood safety. Atlantic Monthly, 249(3), 29–38. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/304465/

30.

Kelly

(1994). Theories of justice and street-level discretion. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 4(2), 119–140. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1181774

31.

Kettl

D. F.

(2015). Politics of the administrative process (6th ed.). CQ Press.

32.

Knox

Lowe

Mummolo

(2020). Administrative records mask racially biased policing. American Political Science Review, 114(3), 619–637. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000039

33.

Lenehan

(2017). What “stop-and-frisk” really means: Discrimination & use of force. Prison Policy Initiative. Retrieved December 11, 2020, from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/stopandfrisk.html

34.

Lettinga

Moulijn

(2004). Frontline professionals in the age of institutional rearrangement: The case of needs assessment for public services. Paper presented at the Annual Work Conference 2004 of the Netherlands Institute for Government, Rotterdam.

35.

Lipsky

(2004). Street-level bureaucracy: The critical role of Street-Level Bureaucrats. In Shafritz

Hyde

(Eds.), The classics of public administration (pp. 402–409). Wadsworth Publishing.

36.

Lipsky

(2010). Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public service (30th anniversary expanded edition). The Russell Sage Foundation.

37.

Long

J. S.

(1997). Regression models for categorical and limited dependent variables. Sage Publications, Inc.

38.

Loyens

Maesschalck

(2010). Toward a theoretical framework for ethical decision making of street-level bureaucracy: Existing models reconsidered. Administration & Society, 42(1), 66–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399710362524

39.

Maynard-Moody

Musheno

(2012). Social equities and inequities in practice: Street-level workers as agents and pragmatists. Public Administration Review, 72(s1), S16–S23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02633.x

40.

McBride

A. M.

Sherraden

M. S.

Pritzker

(2006). Civic engagement among low-income and low-wealth families: In their words. Family Relations, 55(2), 152–162. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2006.00366.x

41.

McIlrath

Lyons

(Eds.). (2012). Higher education and civic engagement: Comparative perspectives. Springer.

42.

Morse

J. M.

(2004). Constructing qualitatively derived theory: Concept construction and concept typologies. Qualitative Health Research, 14(10), 1387–1395. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732304269676

43.

Moynihan

D. P.

Fernandes

Kim

LeRoux

H. M.

Piotrowski

S. J.

Wright

B. E.

Yang

(2011). Performance regimes amidst governance complexity. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 21(1), 141–155. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muq059

44.

Pettit

(2016). Why citizens don’t engage–Power, poverty and civic habitus. IDS Bulletin, 47(5), 89–102. https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2016.169

45.

Prottas

J. M.

(1978). The power of the SLB in public service bureaucracies. Urban Affairs Review, 13(3), 285–312. https://doi.org/10.1177/107808747801300302

46.

Ristroph

(2017). The constitution of police violence. UCLA Law Review, 64, 1182–1245.

47.

Rohr

J. A.

(1989). Ethics for bureaucrats: An essay on law and values (2nd ed.). Marcel Dekker.

48.

Schultz

Harutyunyan

(2015). Combating corruption: The development of whistleblowing laws in the United States, Europe, and Armenia. International Comparative Jurisprudence, 1(2), 87–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icj.2015.12.005

49.

Shirazi

(2010). The emancipatory role of information and communication technology: A case study of internet content filtering within Iran. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 8(1), 57–84.

50.

Solvang

B. K.

(2009). Political participation and democracy in the information age: Effects of ICT-based communication forms between the authorities and the citizens on traditional channels of participation and democracy. In 2009 Third international conference on digital society (pp. 46–51). IEEE.

51.

Sørensen

Torfing

(2016). Introduction: Governance network research: Towards a second generation. In Sørensen

Torfing

(Eds.), Theories of democratic network governance (pp. 1–21). Springer.

52.

Stoker

(2006). Public value management: A new narrative for networked governance? The American Review of Public Administration, 36(1), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074005282583

53.

Stork

(2007). Sustainable development and ICT indicators. International Institute for Sustainable Development.

54.

Stoudt

B. G.

Torre

M. E.

Bartley

Bissell

Bracy

Caldwell

Dewey

Downs

Greene

Haldipur

Lizama

Hassan

Manoff

Sheppard

Yates

(2019). Researching at the community-university borderlands: Using public science to study policing in the South Bronx. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27(56), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.27.2623

55.

Thompson

D. F.

(2005). Restoring responsibility: Ethics in government, business and healthcare (pp. 50–70). Cambridge University Press.

56.

Torfing

Peters

B. G.

Pierre

Sørensen

(2012). Interactive governance: Advancing the paradigm. Oxford University Press.

57.

Tummers

Bekkers

(2014). Policy implementation, street-level bureaucracy, and the importance of discretion. Public Management Review, 16(4), 527–547. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2013.841978

58.

Yeo

Jeon

S. H.

(2021). Principles and principals: Mechanism to enhance street-level accountability. Public Administration Quarterly, 45(2), 143–165. https://doi.org/10.37808/paq45.2.2

59.

Zacka

(2017). When the state meets the street: Public service and moral agency. Harvard University Press.

60.

Zhang

Lallana

E. C.

(2013). Youth, ICTs, and civic engagement in Asia. International Communication Gazette, 75(3), 249–252. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048512472852