On the night of March 3rd, 1991, Rodney Glen King was driving with two passengers when a California Highway Patrolmen detected he was speeding. After a high-speed chase, his two passengers complied with officers’ requests to exit the vehicle. King initially refused, and then after being shot twice with a Taser four officers proceeded to beat him mercilessly. A bystander from an apartment window caught all of this on tape. Even with the tape as evidence the officers were acquitted, which sparked the L.A. riots and raised questions about police brutality within the zero tolerance policing system. The topic of zero tolerance policing has raised many questions and brought upon much debate amongst communities. Is it effective in reducing crime or just effective in increasing arrests? Should it be employed by all police departments or just those whose surrounding community needs it? How does it effect relations with the public? In the following paragraphs four journal articles will be critically reviewed, including examining the research methods and findings to that article’s particular question. Then a new research question will be proposed, starting with what kind of study would be used and how the research would be conducted. It seems research that has been conducted on zero tolerance policing reveals few, if any, answers on its overall success. Maybe this is because each individual town or city is its own case and needs its own policing strategy rather than adhering to one strict policy. This raises one specific research question; what are the impacts of zero tolerance policing? It seems there is enough evidence to prove there would be more negative impacts than expected.
Greene (1999) wrote that the reformation of the policing style within the NYPD, installed by police commissioner William Bratton, was hailed by New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani as the epitome of zero tolerance policing (ZTP). She then writes that although there was unquestionably...