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13 Am. J. Police 37 (1994)
Police Perceptions of Street-Level Narcotics Activity: Evaluating Drug Buys as a Research Tool

handle is hein.journals/ajpol13 and id is 357 raw text is: American Journal of Police Vol. XIII, No. 3 1994 37 POLICE PERCEPTIONS OF STREET-LEVEL NARCOTICS ACTIVITY: EVALUATING DRUG BUYS AS A RESEARCH TOOL Anthony A. Braga Rutgers University Lorraine A. Green Northeastern University and Rutgers University David L. Weisburd Hebrew University and Rutgers University Frank Gajewski Jersey City Police Department Like professionals in other occupations, police officers de- velop particular ways of perceiving their work environment. As Bittner (1970) suggests, some officers know the shops, stores, warehouses, restaurants, hotels, schools, playgrounds, and other public places in such a way that they can recognize at a glance whether what is going on within them is within the range of normalcy (1970: 90). In many cases, a police officer's view of the world derives from a distinct per- spective developed from the danger and authority inherent in their role (Brown, 1981). Working in hostile environments, some scholars argue that police officers are especially attentive to signs of potential crime and that a relationship exists between the occupational environment of police officers and the manner in which they interpret situations and events (see Bittner, 1970; Krause, Reiss, 1971; Skolnick, 1966). Con- versely, other scholars argue that practitioners' perceptions are subjec- tive (see for example, Fagan, 1990; Monahan, 1981) and are thus unre- liable measures of criminal activity. This paper examines police perceptions of drug activity at street-level drug markets in Jersey City, New Jersey. In particular, the paper explores whether police perceptions of drug market activity are a reliable and valid method for measuring levels of drug activity in street

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