Police Perception in Turkey: Model Design and Scale Formation

The formation of a theoretical model, as the first stage of the study, began with a literature review of worldwide studies on police perception. The following four hypotheses were developed as a result of the literature review:

H1: Public’s perception of police legitimacy significantly affects trust in police.

H2: In Turkey, police effectiveness is a dimension of police legitimacy.

H3: Public’s perception of police legitimacy is directly proportional to the tendency to cooperate with police and to obey police.

H4: Public perception of police legitimacy in Turkey is directly proportional to the tolerance citizens show toward police misconduct.

First, the values that were hypothesized to make up police perception in Turkey were determined by taking the developments in the field of police perception studies in the last ten years into consideration alongside the results of the studies conducted in different countries. It was expected that the perception of legitimacy in

55 Turkey would display at least three dimensions. These dimensions were described as procedural fairness,

outcome fairness and the lawfulness of the police force. In order to measure the perception of police legitimacy, three separate scales and one unified scale were formed. Second, an effectiveness scale was formed in order to measure the effectiveness of police. Third, the influence of the perception of police legitimacy and of trust in the police on cooperation with police and on tolerance to police misconduct. In order to perform this measurement, trust, cooperation and tolerance scales were formed.

The propositions in the scales known as “latent construct” were designed in line with the propositions widely accepted in this area. The reason for measuring the relationships for which results are expected is to minimize the influence of environmental and irrelevant factors on trust in police, cooperation with police and tolerance towards police misconduct (Reisig et.al, 2007). Similarly, statistical analysis was performed in four levels in order to minimize the influence of factors that can skew researchers’ inferences regarding results.

One of the studies from which the propositions used in this study were taken was the Mastrofski Model. This model is the base of the operational model outlined above and consists of question sets which present six characteristics of police. These are: police attentiveness, reliability, fairness, manners, responsiveness and competence. These questions aim to consider public’s perception of police from many perspectives. However, studies conducted in the U.S. have shown that the public did not consider effectiveness of police alone in these dimensional contexts. In other words, even if this model produces consistent results in the areas to which it was applied, it did not fulfill the six dimensions expected by the researchers.

Considering these constraints of the Mastrofski Model, the Sunshine and Tyler Legitimacy Model has also been applied to greater success in newer studies. Scholars who formulated this model argued that public’s perception of police could not be explained by constructs that measured customer satisfaction and claimed that there were many factors that constituted public’s perception of the police. As discussed above, the researchers argued that these factors were procedural fairness, outcome fairness and police lawfulness. Therefore questions that measure these aspects were developed. In this study the widely used questions of the Mastrofski Model were distributed according to the legitimacy model construct. In this respect, the following nine scales were developed: legitimacy of police (composite), procedural fairness, outcome fairness, police lawfulness, police effectiveness, trust in police expressed by the public (stated trust), cooperation with and obedience to the police and tolerance towards extralegal police practices/police misconduct.

Legitimacy of Police

Aiming to measure public’s perception of police legitimacy, this implicit construct was formulated by adding the questions in the Mastrofski Model to the questions developed in the Sunshine and Tyler Model. The questions were organized by modeling Tankebe’s study (Tankebe, 2013). The legitimacy scale (α=0.87) consists of 26 propositions in total. Fourteen of the questions examined procedural fairness, seven of them examined outcome fairness and five of them examined lawfulness (see 2.3 The Legitimacy of the Police). The five Likert scale was used in the propositions. This study aimed to test the four hypotheses regarding the implicit construct of police legitimacy.

Procedural Fairness

Procedural fairness (α=0.79) is a scale developed in order to understand the extent to which the decisions taken by police and attitudes and behaviors of police towards public were fair in the eyes of the public (see 3.5.2 Procedural Fairness). As mentioned above, independent from the results reached by the police, this is a

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perception regarding whether the police treat citizens equally while performing their duties and whether the procedures they follow are fair or not. However, in the present study, because such questions were relocated, this scale was renamed “attitudes of police”.

Outcome Fairness

Independent from the attitudes and behaviors of the police towards citizens, the scale of outcome fairness (α=0.72) represents public’s perception of whether the results obtained by police action are fair or not (see 3.5.3 Outcome Fairness). In this study, the scale of outcome fairness was made up of seven questions taken from the Sunshine and Tyler (2003), Mastrofski (1999) and Tankebe (2013) models. This scale was renamed as “distribution of services”.

Police Lawfulness

Police lawfulness (α=0.62) indicates whether police represent common values and laws in the eyes of society (see 3.5.1 Lawfulness of the Police Force). In this study, societal perception of police lawfulness was evaluated using a five-question scale. This scale was defined as “the application of law and rules”.

Effectiveness of Police

The operational approach to police perception includes factors like police politeness and sensitivity of police as a factor in the effectiveness of the police force. However, the procedural approach to police perception defines the effectiveness of police in terms of the ability to fight certain crimes (see 3.4 Factors Depending on Police Effectiveness). In this study, both types of questions were included in the scale of police effectiveness (α=0.81).

The results related to this scale, evaluated by 12 questions in total, will be taken into consideration in the

“findings” section.

Trust Expressed by Respondents (Stated Trust)

In the literature, studies of trust in the police commonly consist of the questions that ask directly about trust in police. In line with the literature (see 2.1. Trust in the Police) questions that would measure trust in police and a scale of confidence in police in society (α=0.66) were prepared for use as dependent variables in the study.

TABLE 1: SCALE OF TRUST IN THE POLICE EXPRESSED BY RESPONDENTS

I am (1) not at all confident … (5) very confident that I would call the police when I have a safety or security problem.

I (1) do not believe at all … (5) fully believe that the police will solve a problem I present to them.

I am (1) very cautious … (5) very comfortable when it comes to personally going to the police station to appeal to the police.

I would (1) not dare at all … (5) be very comfortable asking the police to show an official ID when necessary.

I (1) do not believe at all … (5) fully believe that the police provide equal services to me when necessary regardless of my ethnic identity.

I (1) do not believe at all … (5) fully believe that the police provide equal services to me when necessary regardless of my religious identity.

I (1) do not believe at all … (5) fully believe that the police provide equal services to me when necessary regardless of my political identity.

I (1) do not believe at all … (5) fully believe that the police provide equal services to me when necessary regardless of my marital status.

I (1) do not believe at all … (5) fully believe that the police provide equal services to me when necessary regardless of my gender.

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Obedience to Police and Cooperation with Police

The ways in which legitimacy of police motivated obedience to police and cooperation with police was discussed above. In the twenty-first century, if the public did obey police, no country’s police force could perform their duties and coercive and preventive responsibilities. This is why, in terms of the policies to be applied, it is very important to understand the belief in the legitimacy of police and more importantly which dimension of this belief has an influence on cooperation with police.

In current studies on police perception, the motivation for cooperation with police and obedience to police were considered as two different variables and these studies have shown these two concepts correlate with different dimensions of police legitimacy (see 3.7.1 Cooperation with Police and Obedience to Police). In this study, two implicit constructs have been organized around seven questions in total. As a result, scales of cooperation with police (α=0.76) and obedience to police (α=0.58) were obtained.

Tolerance to Police Misconduct

It is observed that tolerance to the violations of rules/laws by the police (i.e. police misconduct) is high in countries where confidence in police and the belief in police legitimacy is also high (see 3.7.2 Tolerance against Police Malpractice). In this study, the tolerance of society towards violations of rules by police was

operationalized by 12 questions and a tolerance scale was obtained (α=0.67).