TYLER, Tom R. <br/><br/>
Enhancing police legitimancy 

 - Thousand Oaks  :  SAGE,  May 2004 
<br/><br/> This article makes three points. First, the police need public support and cooperation to be effective in their order-maintenance role, and they particularly benefit when they have the voluntary support and cooperation of most members of the public, most of the time. Second, such voluntary support and cooperation is linked to judments about the legitimacy of the police is that they view them as legitimate legal authorities, entitled to be obeyed. Third, a key antecedent of public judgments about the legitimacy of the police and of policing activities involves public assessments of the manner in which the police exercise their authority. Such procedural-justice judgements are central to public evaluations of the police and influence such evaluations separately from assessmens of police effetiveness in fighting crime. These findings suggest the importance of enhancing public views about the legitimacy of the police and suggest process-based strategies for achieving that objective