Criminal

Justice

Review

Volimic 34

Number

I

March 2009

29-43

©

2009

Georgia

State

University

Research

Foundation,

Inc.

Cam

pus

Law

Enforcem

ent

10.117/0734016808324233

htpll(p/c.1r.sa,gepub).com

Use-of-Force

and

Conducted

hostedat

http://oniline.sagepub.com

Energy

Devices

A

National-Level

Exploratory

Study

of

Perceptions

and

Practices

Ross

Wolf

University

of

Central

Florida,

Orlando

Tina

Pressler

University

of

Florida,

Gainesville

Mark

Winton

University

of

Central

Florida,

Orlando

Although

many

police

departments

throughout

the

nation

have

been

quick

to

incorporate

the

use

of

conducted

energy devices

(CEDs) within their use-of-force policies,

the

use

of

these

devices

on

college campuses

has

been

relatively

unexamined

in

the

literature.

This

article

addresses campus

police agency

decisions regarding CEDs

as

a

less-than-lethal

force

alterna-

tive.

This

study

utilized

a

stratified random

sample

of

public

4-year

universities

and

colleges

throughout

the

United

States.

Respondents answered questions pertaining

to

multiple

vari-

ables,

such

as

political pressure,

public

opinion,

officer

safety,

liability,

and

funding,

as

factors

considered

when

deciding

whether

to

acquire

CEDs.

The

results suggest that

a

majority

of

the

public

institutions

surveyed

have

not

acquired CEDs

due

to

public

opinion.

Furthermore,

the

results

reveal

that for institutions

that

have

issued

CEDs

their

acquisition

can

be

attributed

to

the

campus

law

enforcement

agency's

concern for

officer

safety.

Suggestions for future

research

are

discussed.

Keywords:

use

of

force; police;

Taser;

conducted

energy

devices;

university;

campus

A

lthough

college

campuses

have

historically

been

thought

of

as

refuges

from

the

prob-

lems

of

larger

society,

today,

college

campuses

throughout

the

United States

are

viewed more

as

microcosms

of

the

larger

communities that surround

them (Bromley,

2003;

Bromley

&

Reaves,

1998a;

Friedman,

2007).

As

such,

college

administrations

have devel-

oped police departments

that

mirror

closely

the

responsibilities

and

authority

of

their

coun-

terparts

in

municipal

agencies,

including

the

power

to

make

arrests and

use

force

when

Authors'

Note:

A

recent

version

of

this article

was

presented

at

the

2005

Annual Meeting

of

the

Southern

Criminal

Justice Association

in

Jacksonville, Florida,

September

28-30.

A

special

note

of

thanks

to

all

of

the

police

and

public

safety

departments

across

the

United States

that

participated

in

this survey.

Additional thanks

to

Eugene

A.

Paoline

III

and

Jessica

Maykrantz for

their comments

on the

content

of

this

article.

29