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Firearms and Community Corrections Personnel

Perceived and real threats of violence exist for those responsible for ensuring public safety in the community. To remedy these dangers, states have begun incorporating the use of both lethal and nonlethal measures for addressing safety concerns while on the job.

The Need for Protection

As of 2009, more than 5 million individuals were under some form of community-based sanction. The level and quality of offender supervision are paramount for those responsible for reducing recidivism and ensuring community safety. More specifically, public opinion polls conducted in Massachusetts during the latter half of the 1990s reveal that only 26 percent of respondents reported being confident that their probation system could adequately supervise offenders, and more than 50 percent reported that a probation sentence was too lenient.

At one point in history, the role of community correctional officers (CCOs) was to assist offenders in societal reintegration. CCOs had a more therapeutic role, similar to that of a social worker. After World War II, politicians found themselves more involved in the area of community corrections, creating legislation that would, over time, transform the therapeutic role of CCOs into that of a law-enforcement figure. Over the past 20 to 25 years, changes in philosophy have resulted in an increase in the workload allocation for the CCO. For example, increased responsibilities include making more frequent contacts both in the field and in the office, completing more detailed paperwork, meeting more stringent deadlines in shorter periods of time, and maintaining larger caseload sizes (the average caseload size for probation officers is 139). Officers have simultaneously been asked to perform the tasks of retribution (punishment), while ensuring the rehabilitation (treatment) of offenders.

In addition to increases in workload demands, courts have continued to place higher-risk offenders on community-based alternative sanctions. In 2009, for example, 51 percent of all persons on probation were convicted of felony offenses. These figures are particularly worrisome when research reveals that as many as 39 to 55 percent of all community-based officers report either being victims of or receiving threats of violence while on the job. Furthermore, between the years 2000 and 2009, more than one fifth of all homicides of law enforcement officers in the line of duty were committed by individuals who were on probation or parole at the time. The majority of homicides are committed between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., which are typically the times CCOs complete their field visits. Despite this high number of reported violent victimizations, to date no one mechanism for tracking the number of CCO assaults exists.

CCOs' Use of Weapons

As these statistics suggest, the threat to CCOs continues to increase, and therefore so does the need for officers to protect themselves and the public. As a result, more CCOs are carrying weapons, both lethal and nonlethal, and increasing their use of safety training. The increased use of firearms by CCOs accompanies their growing authority in the lives of offenders.

For example, numerous probation officers in New York City are now authorized to carry firearms as a response to their work with high-risk dangerous offenders. Similarly, many probation departments in the state of California permit the utilization of firearms by their officers. West Virginia allows probation officers to carry firearms without a permit, while New Jersey's Probation Officer Community Safety Unit Act requires that no fewer than five officers in each county carry a firearm and enforce warrants. Other states, such as Florida, have begun to use dart-firing stun guns as nonlethal alternatives to firearms.

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