New research finds leadership-backed training key to better policing
2025-05-06
(Press-News.org) BALTIMORE, MD, May 6, 2025 – As communities across the U.S. continue grappling with public safety and police reform, a new study published in the INFORMS journal Management Science offers compelling evidence for a path forward: procedural justice training for police officers, backed by leadership support, can significantly improve officer behavior and strengthen community trust.
“At a time when communities are calling for both safer streets and meaningful police reform, our findings offer an important starting point,” says Rodrigo Canales, lead author of the study and professor at Boston University. “When backed by leadership, procedural justice training – focused on respect, transparency, impartiality and giving a voice to citizens voice – can fundamentally reshape how officers engage with the public and rebuild trust where it’s been lost.”
The study, “Shaping Police Officer Mindsets and Behaviors: Experimental Evidence of Procedural Justice Training,” was conducted in partnership with the Mexico City Police Department between 2017 and 2018. Despite its international setting, the research holds powerful implications for U.S. cities striving to improve police-community relations.
Using an innovative “mystery shopper” method – trained actors posed as civilians in real-life police encounters – researchers evaluated the impact of procedural justice training on officer behavior. The results were clear:
Trained officers demonstrated more respectful, fair and transparent interactions with citizens. Critically, trained officers were much less likely to engage in the types of negative behaviors that leave citizens feeling disrespected or can trigger escalations.
Leadership matters: When supervisors also received training, behavioral improvements were more pronounced for their subordinates.
Culture change requires incentives: Lasting impact occurred when organizational incentives reinforced procedural justice principles.
“This study shows that training alone isn’t enough. Sustainable change requires leadership buy-in and systems that integrate procedural justice into how a department operates,” adds Canales. “Communities won’t trust the police until the police demonstrate trustworthy behavior. And police officers have a harder time exercising procedural justice externally when they don’t experience it from their superiors and their organization.”
As cities, from New York to Los Angeles, debate new models of policing, this study provides timely, evidence-based insight into what actually works – and what’s needed to restore public trust.
Link to full study.
About INFORMS and Management Science
INFORMS is the world’s largest association for professionals and students in operations research, AI, analytics, data science and related disciplines, serving as a global authority in advancing cutting-edge practices and fostering an interdisciplinary community of innovation. Management Science, a leading journal published by INFORMS, publishes quantitative research on management practices across organizations. INFORMS empowers its community to improve organizational performance and drive data-driven decision-making through its journals, conferences and resources. Learn more at www.informs.org or @informs.
###
Contact:
Ashley Smith
443-757-3578
asmith@informs.org
Subscribe and stay up to date on the latest from INFORMS.
Sign Up For Email Update
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2025-05-06
LOGAN, UTAH, USA -- About 240 miles long, Utah’s Wasatch Fault stretches along the western edge of the Wasatch Mountains from southern Idaho to central Utah, running through Salt Lake City and the state’s other population centers. It’s a seismically active normal fault, which means it is a fracture in the Earth’s crust that has moved many times in the past.
“Normal faults are observed along different tectonic systems, where the tectonic plates are moving apart,” says Utah ...
2025-05-06
„Looking Through Objects. Women in Contemporary Polish Design” – exhibition at Design Museum Brussels
The traveling exhibition spotlighting Polish women designers is making its way to Belgium. Opening on May 8 at Design Museum Brussels, Looking Through Objects brings together works of 16 creatives who have been shaping the evolving landscape of Polish design. The curatorial team behind the show includes Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka, dean of Faculty Design at SWPS University in Warsaw, along with Gian Luca Amadei and Dario Lombardi.
A story of women shaping Polish ...
2025-05-06
WASHINGTON, D.C. [May 6, 2025] — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) hosted an Oncology Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., today, focused on improving care coordination between primary care and oncology providers. The program featured a diverse group of patients, advocates, practitioners, and policy makers weighing in on how to improve cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and long-term survival.
Elizabeth Fowler, PhD, JD, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, former Deputy Administrator and Director of the Innovation ...
2025-05-06
WASHINGTON, D.C.—An online physician-led plant-based nutrition intervention program for patients with type 2 diabetes is practical, cost-effective, and successful at improving patient health, finds a new study by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. The program led to reductions in diabetes medications, body weight, A1C, and total and LDL cholesterol levels.
“An abundance of research already shows that a plant-based diet is optimal for helping patients ...
2025-05-06
Patients suffering from long COVID may exhibit persistent inflammation in the heart and lungs for up to a year following SARS-CoV-2 infection—even when standard medical tests return normal results—potentially placing them at elevated risk for future cardiac and pulmonary conditions. These findings come from a new study conducted by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published April 30, in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
The study, the largest of its kind using advanced PET/MRI imaging, discovered significant abnormalities in cardiovascular and pulmonary tissues, as well as altered levels of circulating immune-regulating proteins, ...
2025-05-06
May 6, 2025 - Albert Einstein College of Medicine has announced the launch of a new Data Science Institute, a dynamic, state-of-the-art resource that will strengthen researchers’ ability to harness vast amounts of data to drive biomedical breakthroughs and innovations in scientific discovery and patient care. Mimi Kim, Sc.D., professor and head of the division of biostatistics in the department of epidemiology & population health and associate director of the Harold and Muriel Block Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Einstein and Montefiore, has been named the institute’s inaugural director.
With seed funding from a $7 million anonymous philanthropic gift, ...
2025-05-06
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Half of U.S. adults say they know eating a plant-based diet can improve their health and help prevent chronic diseases, according to a new Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine/Morning Consult survey. However, the survey also showed that just 1 in 5 primary care practitioners discuss this lifesaving message with patients.
The poll included 2,203 U.S. adults surveyed April 15 to April 16, 2025.
Xavier Toledo, a registered dietitian with the Physicians Committee, a health advocacy group with 17,000 physician members, lauded the findings, which show most people recognize the health benefits of plant-based eating.
“What’s missing,” ...
2025-05-06
The modern Western-style diet—high in processed foods, red meat, dairy products, and sugar—alters the composition of the gut microbiome in ways that can have a huge impact on health. This dietary pattern, which is also low in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, reduces the variety of microbes in the digestive system and the metabolites they produce. This, in turn, increases risk for several immune system-related conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.
In new research published in Nature, ...
2025-05-06
LOGAN, UTAH, USA -- Exactly 100 years ago, famed Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger (yes, the cat guy) postulated his eponymous equation that explains how particles in quantum physics behave. A key component of quantum mechanics, Schrödinger's Equation provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time.
“Quantum mechanics, along with Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity are the two pillars of modern physics,” says Utah State University ...
2025-05-06
Silver nanoparticles produced by the fungus Trichoderma reesei could become important allies in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Tests carried out on hamsters showed that they not only inhibited the infection but also reduced the viral load in the lungs, easing inflammation in the rodents.
The study, supported by FAPESP, paves the way for the development of nasal sprays and other products to combat several viral diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, shingles and influenza.
Silver nanoparticles ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] New research finds leadership-backed training key to better policing