Police Alcohol-Related Services Study (PASS)

Research > Police Alcohol-Related Services Study (PASS)

Principal investigator(s):	Robert H. Langworthy Brad. A. Myrstol
Project dates:	Oct 2003 - June 2004
JC#:	0417
Agency:	Anchorage Police Department
Project amount:	$16,300
Project status:	Completed

See also:
> Drug-Related Crime and the Workload of Anchorage Police Officers [project] > Alaska local law enforcement > Alcohol & alcohol abuse

Many in Alaska view alcohol as the root cause of a wide range of social ills, many of which necessitate the involvement of the criminal justice system. Alcohol is at least implicated in a wide variety of criminal and other undesirable conduct. Less clear is the impact of alcohol use on criminal justice agencies responsible for handling the problems associated with it. The direct influence of alcohol use alone, excluding other factors, is nearly impossible to estimate—especially for the court and correctional systems, where alcohol involvement is so ubiquitous across cases as to be nearly constant. For police agencies, the task of measuring organizational impact is made difficult by the broad scope of their institutional mandate, which goes far beyond mere law enforcement.
The objective of the Police Alcohol-related Services Study (PASS) is to study the impact of alcohol involvement on police work by examining the nature, consequences, and causes of alcohol- related encounters and incidents experienced by the patrol division of the Anchorage Police Department (APD). Data will be collected through direct field observations of routine patrol operations of Anchorage police officers by professionally trained and certified interviewers.

Products

Myrstol, Brad A. and Langworthy, Robert H. (2004). The Police Alcohol-Related Services Study (PASS): A Study of the Intersection of Public Alcohol Use and Routine Police Patrol. Preliminary report prepared for the Anchorage Police Department. Anchorage, AK: Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage.

Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage. (2004). Police Alcohol-Related Services Study Data Description: Codebook. Anchorage, AK: Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage.

———. (2004). Police Alcohol-Related Services Study Data Description: Codesheets. Anchorage, AK: Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage.

———. (2004). Police Alcohol-Related Services Study Data Description: Instruments. Anchorage, AK: Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage.

Myrstol, Brad A. and Langworthy, Robert H. (2005). Police Alcohol-Related Services Study (PASS), Phase II: A Description of the Beliefs, Perceptions and Attitudes of Anchorage Police Department Employees. Report prepared for the Anchorage Police Department. Anchorage, AK: Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage.

Articles

Myrstol, Brad A. (Spring 2004). "Police Patrol and Public Alcohol Use in Anchorage." Alaska Justice Forum 21(1): 1, 9-12.

Press releases

Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage (6 Jul 2004). "Impact of Public Alcohol Use on Police Work" (press release).

———. (2 Jun 2005). "The Impact of Alcohol: A Police Perspective" (press release).

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Last updated 14-Jul-2005 by ayjust@uaa.alaska.edu