1. Excessive Force Research Proposal
Lisa McCants
Troy University
Research Methods PA 6601
March 4th 2015 1

2. Introduction
Scenario: Excessive force has come to the forefront in recent years
Who is impacted:
Researchers
Law enforcement officials
Policymakers
Local communities
Need: Identify ways to impact change in citizen-police encounters 2

3. Research Problem What do I want to discover?
Whether training citizens on police procedures during an encounter will lead to fewer excessive force complaints. 3

4. Research Question What will my research tell me?
How does citizens’ training impact the amount of excessive force complaints against police officers? 4

5. Hypothesis What do I think will happen? Alternative: Null:
Citizen training has a positive impact on excessive force by decreasing the number of excessive force complaints filed by citizens.
Null:
Citizen training does not have impact on the amount of excessive force complaints filed by citizens. 5

6. Literature Review What did other research tell me? Dependent variable:
Use of Excessive Force is influenced by various factors
Independent variable:
Citizens’ Police Academy Training 6

7. Research Methods and Design
How will I design my research?
Exploratory 5 year study
Focus on Birmingham, Alabama
CPA group versus the non-CPA Group
A Citizens Outcome Survey was used to collect the data from both groups. 7

8. Research Limitations What are the limitations in this research?
Voluntary
Self-selection bias
External events
Control contamination
Generalizability 8

9. Anticipated Conclusions
CPA has minor positive impact
Gap in perception of excessive force
Better awareness of police procedures 9

10. Recommendations Develop unified definition of excessive force
Enhance the structure of CPAs
Further research impacts of CPA training 10

11. Resources
References provided to the Class Excessive Force Website created by Shaquna Couch. 11