Procedural Justice: Policies and Practices

Voiceover

00:00

This is The Beat—a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics 

facing our nation.

Kimberly Brummett

00:08

Hello and welcome. My name is Kimberly Brummett, and on behalf of the COPS Office, I’d like to 

introduce you to Mark Neufeld, Superintendent of the Criminal Investigations Division, Edmonton 

(Canada) Police Service, who is here today to discuss procedural justice. Superintendent, welcome.

Superintendent Mark Neufeld

00:26

Thank you.

Brummett

00:27 

What do you think are the most important issues regarding procedural justice?

Neufeld

00:32

Well that’s a good question, Kimberly. To me I would say the most important issue is actually practicing 

it. Sometimes in policing, we talk a lot about how certain values or issues are important to our 

profession. But then we don’t walk that talk. So don’t get me wrong. I’m not devaluing the discourse or 

conversation about procedural justice. I know that’s important. But I think magic happens when 

discussions lead to decisions and then decisions ultimately lead to actions that end up having a positive 

impact on both the community and the police. So in my humble opinion, it’s critical that police agencies 

execute on the concept of procedural justice by implementing practices and processes and even some 

policies that support it. And this needs to permeate every business line within our agency. So that 

necessarily includes areas, I think, such as a recruitment and selection; our training, both at the recruit 

level and our in-service training; leadership and supervision and how that all gets done; promotions and 

transfers; and, I think, even things like the behaviors we recognize and reward, the behaviors that we 

discourage and maybe at times punish—speaking really of our discipline system—what things we 

celebrate as an organization. Generally, practices that promote procedural justice—and again really 

we’re talking just about just respect, fairness, and dignity,—have to be present in our moment-bymoment interactions with one another as well as the moment-by-moment interactions we have with 

members of our community. I think every interaction is an opportunity to make things either a little bit 

better or a little bit worse. And ultimately, it comes down to a choice for every individual employee of 

the police service—and those are both sworn and nonsworn—about which way they want to move that 

needle. The results of those moments of truth really do matter, and each one impacts the way that the 
community experiences their police and the extent to which they do or do not support us and the 

valuable services that we strive to provide them.

Brummett

02:16

So how do you begin to implement procedural justice internally?

Neufeld

02:20

Well, it’s interesting because I think behaving in ways that promote procedural justice can be done by 

every person in the organization at any level. And unfortunately I think sometimes people don’t 

appreciate the impact they can have as individuals starting right now and right where they are. So we 

shouldn’t never underestimate the power of our sort of individual humanity and the ability we have to 

improve our organizations and the trust that the community places in us. But that said, implementing 

procedural justice, I think, has to be a priority at the top.

Over and over, I know—in Canada, we see in our employee engagement survey and the like—we hear 

from the boots, or the members on the streets who are interacting with the public, that the suits, or the 

members of our executive, don’t practice procedural justice. And sometimes I think they’re right. Front 

line officers understand the notion of legitimacy of police in the context of their senior leaders. And they 

feel that the authority of some senior leaders—and I’m talking typically of leaders who perhaps aren’t 

perceived to treat others as well—that the authority of those leaders is positional only and therefore it’s 

not legitimate. So what they also need to recognize is that this is precisely how the public views us as 

police generally. If we don’t treat them well and with respect, then they don’t view us as legitimate 

either. As a result, they won’t support us in the work that we do. So really this happens, this view of 

policing and legitimacy happens both internally and externally. So the suits then have to be committed 

to this and they have to be prepared to make the first move. So to do that I think the executive has to do 

some work together really to develop a shared understanding of what procedural justice is and maybe 

even what it isn’t, and what they’re committing to; because without this, we won’t know how to 

breathe life into the commitment that we make. And you know, frankly, there may even be some people 

on the team who either can’t or won’t commit themselves [to] fully implementing practices around 

procedural justice and some of those people may have to go.

The way in which all staff can contribute to implementing procedural justice must be made clear to 

them. And on-task behavior then has to be reinforced through our rewards and recognition. And off-task 

behavior has to be addressed through education and even, where necessary, the informal and formal 

discipline system. We have to develop systems where we have good progress and when we have 

progress we have to celebrate and profile the wins. And again, just going back to systems, I think 

systems and processes have to be built that reinforce and encourage procedural justice and those have 

to be institutionalized to ensure that it actually sticks. So I think, you know, a challenge for us is that the 

inclination may be to pull away from this because in police agencies, you know, we all have too much to 

do and not enough time to do it. So it really isn’t necessarily expedient. If in your organization you’re not 

currently taking the time to listen and build relationships and consult and explain, it’s not going to be 
expedient to take extra time to do that. So I think there will be a pull for many agencies to sort of move 

away from this. In the longer term, I think it is far more efficient and far more effective to do it. It’s not 

going to be easy. It requires a determined long-term commitment. But I think if we stick with it, it’s well 

worth it in the end.

Brummett

05:22

So kind of leading off of that, what is the benefit of institutionalizing procedural justice within an 

organization for the communities that law enforcement serves?

Neufeld

05:31

Well, I think the potential benefits to both the community and the police are enormous. But as the 

question suggests, I think procedural justice has to be firmly established within an organization if the 

members of that organization are ever going to practice it effectively during their interactions with the 

community. What I’m getting at is there’s really no room for a double standard. If we in policing expect 

our front line officers to treat the public with courtesy and fairness and respect, then certainly we have 

to ensure that our folks are being treated in that same way internally. I guess it’s kind of the old adage 

from the private sector: If you look after your employees, your employees will look after your 

customers. And that’s really important.

So whether it’s treating someone with respect and fairness internally around an HR process or a 

disciplinary matter or promotions or transfers or whether it’s a front line officer demonstrating patience 

and transparency towards a citizen, you know, by taking time to explain the reasons behind an action or 

decision, human nature is such that we all know and we all recognize when we’re treated justly. We 

interact far more positively with those who treat us with respect. And the whole principle of reciprocity 

suggests that we get what we give. If we create that virtuous sort of culture, and we give compassion 

and respect both internally and externally, I think we’ll receive it back from the community in spades.

Brummett

06:44

How does procedural justice help build trust and confidence in law enforcement?

Neufeld

06:49

Well, to build on what we’ve talked about, I think when we treat each other well, we develop 

relationships of trust and we can collaborate more effectively with our communities. When we take the 

time to listen and ensure that we understand the perspectives of and the challenges faced by our 

partners, I think we find typically that we make better collective decisions that better address the issues 

that we face. And we all know that in 2014, a lot of those issues are very complex.

You know I often think of the irony of some processes like mediation. I’ve heard lately a number of 

presentations where mediation and restorative justice and these types of processes are touted as great 
systems for informally resolving conflicts and concerns that come up in policing. And make no mistake, 

they are. But what would it look like if we practiced giving respect and active listening and the giving of 

empathy and the showing of compassion before we made decisions or took actions. The very same skills 

and processes—all of which, frankly, are rooted in procedural justice—that we use after the conflict 

exists could be used proactively to avoid those types of situations in the first place. It’s often we talk 

here in Edmonton about the fact that most of what we really need to do and know we probably learned 

in grade three. It’s really quite simple but somewhere along the way, we’re in a very busy, very complex 

business, in our quest to become more efficient and effective, we may have forgotten some of them. It’s 

really about getting back to basics once again and I think it will do exactly that. It will build trust and 

confidence in law enforcement. It will increase our legitimacy and the quality of our interactions with 

our customers, and I think at the end of the day, both the police and the community will enjoy and 

benefit from the results.

Brummett

08:23

Thank you so much, Superintendent, for your time and expertise today.

Neufeld

08:27

You’re very welcome.

Voiceover: The Beat Exit

08:29

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Voiceover: Disclaimer

08:45

The opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official 

position or polices of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, 

products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. Department 

of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.