Preventing Police Misconduct: The Value of Background Checks
Through NACOLE, civilian oversight has long focused on addressing instances of police misconduct, and on reshaping policies to better guide police interactions with the public.
Long overlooked in this mission is the question of how applicants for police officer and sheriff’s deputy positions are screened and understanding the importance of background investigations. Hiring the right people up front has the potential of positively impacting the police profession, furthering community policing efforts and building police legitimacy. Individuals who are not properly subjected to a thorough background investigation often lead to major problems that tarnish the profession and damage trust. Is the agency you oversee doing thorough, comprehensive background checks on its applicants?
Drs. Mark Iris and Sandy Jo MacArthur address this important question from two directions: first, by presenting examples of how not to do a background check (and the very predictable negative consequences), and then by presenting the key components of a well-done, comprehensive background investigation.
Mark Iris
Mark Iris received his B.A. from Brooklyn College, his M.A. from the University of Vermont, and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
He was Executive Director of the Chicago Police Board, 1984-2004. During that time, he oversaw hearings of hundreds of cases involving police misconduct. He was also involved with Chicago’s activities under the First Amendment Consent Decree and Judgment Order, which addressed interference with citizens engaged in First Amendment protected conduct. He also took part in four searches for Chicago’s Police Superintendent.
Dr. Iris's publications on arbitration of police disciplinary cases, crime hot spots, and police litigation have appeared in Police Chief, Police Quarterly, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Virginia Journal of Criminal Law, and St. Louis University Public Law Review.
Dr. Iris has taught undergraduate, graduate and law school classes for Northwestern University since 1985. He is now a Lecturer Emeritus in Northwestern’s Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences Program. In that role, he supervised students who worked on dozens of data-driven research with major city police departments, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia, and Long Beach. He is also a faculty associate of Northwestern’s Center for Public Safety, teaching police managers in its Executive Management Program.
In addition to teaching and research, Dr. Iris has served as an expert witness in police-related litigation, and was a member of a consulting team with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), working on a project for the Nassau County NY Police Department. Since 2022, Dr. Iris has served as a member of the Chicago Police Department’s Community Policing Advisory Panel.
Sandy Jo MacArthur
Dr. Sandy Jo MacArthur has a career in policing spanning over 44 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, of which 35 years was full-time and the remaining years as a reserve officer. She attained the rank of Assistant Chief before her retirement in 2015 and continues to work with their training and education division in a reserve status. Her experience includes recruitment and hiring, field operations, budget, technology, 911 center, personnel promotions, police training and education, employee wellness, handling cases involving persons with mental illness, crisis intervention tactics, use of force, human relations/human resources, diversity & discrimination, and conflict management.
Dr. MacArthur teaches at the Pepperdine University Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution teaching conflict resolution to law enforcement supervisors and command staff and in the Law School teaching The Psychology of Conflict Communications. She also consults with law enforcement agencies across the Nation on subjects such as use of force, conflict management, leadership, and officer wellness. Presently Dr. MacArthur is working with the University of Chicago Crime Lab assisting with several research projects pertaining to police employee wellness, early intervention programs, and training for in-service personnel. She recently co-created the curriculum for the UChicago Policing Leadership Academy and currently teaches in the program.
Dr. MacArthur received her Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Arizona State University in 1979, her Master of Arts in Behavioral Science, specializing in Negotiations and Conflict Management, from California State University, Dominquez Hills in 1997, and her Doctorate in Psychology from California Southern University in 2022.