Ethnographic Study of the Television Show Cops

Ethnography is an expansion of field research in which the researcher studies a group of people (Neuman, 2003). Ethnography is a qualitative design that enables the researcher to note how a particular group behaves, thinks, talks, and is able to develop a portrayal of the group. A researcher, through ethnographic design, is capable of describing, analyzing, and interpreting a culture (Creswell, 2002). The purpose of this paper is to present an ethnographic study of a public communication. The public communication studied is the law enforcement program COPS, presented on the Fox cable channel (Langley & Waterman, 2006). The show was recorded to allow ample time to perform the ethnographic study. The research question for this study, along with procedures pertaining to the observations, results, and analysis of the study will be discussed.

Research Question
The law enforcement program COPS takes place within local community cultures across the country. The specific COPS program used in this study was in San Diego County, California (Langley & Waterman, 2006).

Do law enforcement personnel use different levels of force when dealing with suspected criminals?

This observational study addresses this research question by observing segments of the COPS television program and observing the level of force used by law enforcement personnel on individuals suspected of felony crimes against persons or property (Langley & Waterman, 2006).

Methods

The observations made for this ethnographic study were conducted by watching the recorded program and hand writing notes based upon these observations. According to Junker, (as cited in Neuman, 2003) the role of the researcher in this study was that of a complete observer, taking on an unseen role. In this role, there was no need for acceptance into the culture, and the researcher's identity was protected (Neuman, 2003). The data was recorded through written notes by the researcher; a matrix was set up in Excel to identify observed behaviors, which include law enforcement personnel, crimes committed, alleged criminals, and levels of force used from deadly force to force. This data-coding sheet is illustrated in the Appendix.

The participant sample for this study included law enforcement personnel of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department in San Diego, California and alleged criminals. There were nine white male and two white female law enforcement personnel, and all appeared to be middle aged. The alleged criminals were from the same county and included three white males and one white female. All the alleged criminals appeared to be between the ages of 28-35, and the law enforcement personnel appeared to be between the ages of 35-45. The local culture is the community in which all these individuals reside, the event culture would be those individuals protecting and upholding the laws of the community versus those who do not follow the laws set up by the community.

Results

The situation in which the observations were made for this study include law enforcement personnel, patrol cars, suspected criminals, homes, apartments, and outdoors. All scenarios within this program were during the day; the weather appeared to be pleasant. The communication between law enforcement personnel included, face-to-face, radio communication, and hand signals. Law enforcement officers took control of the scene by separating alleged criminals with other individuals and proceeded with verbal questioning. The law enforcement officers were forceful, on two occasions, with their voice commands and used deadly force by drawing their guns and pointing them directly at the alleged criminal during the arrest phase. In a firm voice, law enforcement personnel told the alleged criminals to put their hands in the air while guns were pointed at them. When working with fellow officers, law enforcement personnel would communicate by radio or if in close range, they would point his or her finger towards a particular spot, then another officer would assume a tactical position, or an officer would nod his or her head to cause officers to look in a specific direction. As an officer entered a room and found no suspects in that particular area he or she would yell clear to let fellow officers know that all was satisfactory in that area. Once the scene was secured, law enforcement personnel would radio dispatch. Patrol cars did not use sirens on the mentioned inquiries in this study; however, flashing lights were used. The alleged criminals were made to either place their hands in the air or lay on the ground with hands and legs spread out. Law enforcement personnel then restrained the alleged criminals by placing handcuffs on them.

In this study, there were nine male law enforcement personnel and two female law enforcement personnel that were observed. Three of the scenarios in this study constituted possible serious and life threatening crimes against people, the other scenario was a crime against property which was non-life threatening. In the four scenarios presented, the alleged criminals were made up of four white males and one white female.

The drawing of guns by law enforcement personnel constitutes deadly force. Law enforcement personnel grabbing alleged criminals or placing handcuffs on alleged criminals constitute regular force and no physical touch or not placing of handcuffs on an alleged criminal constitutes no force. The mean for the use of deadly force in this study is 1.75, the median is 1.5, the mode 1, and the standard deviation .96. Deadly force was used in two of the four scenarios (50%), regular force was used once (25%), and no force was used once in this study (25%).

An alleged criminal is placed under arrest when a law enforcement officer deems that an alleged crime has taken place and that the individual in custody is the alleged criminal. In two of the four scenarios, arrests were made in this study (50%). The mean for if an alleged criminal was arrested is 1.5, the median is1.5, the mode 1, and the standard deviation .58. There are also two types of crimes, those committed against a person and those committed against property. In this study, three of the scenarios involved crimes committed against people (75%); only one involved a crime committed against property (25%). The mean for type of crime committed is 1.25, the median 1, the mode 1, and the standard deviation is .5. The descriptive statistics for the frequently observed behaviors in this study is illustrated in Figure 1 below.

Analysis

In this study, one can surmise that felony crimes against people are dealt with differently from crimes against property and the use of deadly force is justified. The observations from this study provide a sense of law enforcement personnel and who they are, individuals who take pride in protecting life and property of people in the community and who uphold the laws of their particular county, city, and state. One can also surmise from this study, that criminals conjure upon the life and property of their victims, and had no respect for the laws of the county, city, or state where they reside. The alleged criminals did pose a definite risk for other members of society. The program COPS used in this study does give an advantageous image of the culture that it represents and the symbol of good versus evil although this program is portrayed through the eyes of law enforcement and not through that of the alleged criminal (Langley & Waterman, 2006).

Conclusion

From this study, one can presume that law enforcement personnel do use different levels of force when dealing with suspected criminals. Law enforcement personnel communicate more through verbal communication than through non-verbal communication. The alleged criminals did not show any verbal communication when law enforcement personnel were using deadly force. In addition, when deadly force was not being used, alleged criminals exhibited limited verbal communication with law enforcement personnel. Through this ethnographic study, this researcher was able to watch, and listen carefully to the culture presented in the COPS program. Extensive notes were also taken to record observable behavior. One can conclude that law enforcement personnel do use different levels of force when managing different crimes and when dealing with suspected criminals (Langley & Waterman, 2006).

In an Ethnographic study, there are several difficulties or challenges, the validity of interviews, the reliability of self-reports, the awareness and sensitivity of the observer to events, and the potential failure of impartiality if the researcher is a participant (Jablonski, 2006). The exhibition of behavior does not give significance; to be more precise, significance is implied, or other individuals deduce the significance of the behaviors. The focal point of ethnography is advancing from what is heard or observed to what is essentially intended (Neuman, 2003).

References

Creswell, J. W. (2002). Educational research: Planning, conducting, evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Publishing.

Jablonski, E. (2006, August 14). Lecture 7. Message posted to newsgroups: EDD.07-
04.EDD03-05B-RES722

Langley, J & Waterman, D. (2006). COPS. Langley Productions. California: Fox Broadcasting Company.

Neuman, W. L. (2003) Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches(5th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.