An Interview With Police Enforcement

Every day, law enforcement officers encounter danger while carrying out their duties. The foremost duty of law enforcement officers are to serve and protect citizens. Most law enforcement agencies do this successfully. However, many people view law enforcement officers as the enemy. People need to be better informed about law enforcement and why officers take specific actions in certain circumstances. In our society, police are in a very dangerous position when it comes to the amount of force they can use when dealing with an individual. Officers use discretion when deciding the best course of action for the situation, whether it be physical force, persuasion, or coercion. They must take the correct course of action, because if they are too lenient or to forceful, even when dealing with petty things, they can be reprimanded by superiors and the public. Should police use force? Which circumstances warrant use force and what are the limits of force they can use? These questions are often asked when police are compelled to use force.

There is a significant health issue facing the public as well as law enforcement every day, suicide. The numbers surrounding suicide are shocking effects people of all backgrounds. In the year 2010 more than 38,000 adults committed suicide. Then in 2011 around 1 million adults admitted to attempting suicide, while 8 million had serious suicidal thoughts. Law Enforcement officers are at an even higher risk then most due to experiencing such a large number of risk factors. These factors include but are not limited to poor physical health, access to fire arms, domestic abuse, substance abuse, exposure to violence and suicide; depression, anxiety and other mental diseases. These factors lead to an above average number of officer suicides every

I chose to interview Officer Michael Alway of the Rocklin Police Department. I selected him because of the rapport I had with him from him being a former instructor at the community college I went to. This rapport made it more comfortable to ask more complicated questions. I originally made contact with him through my csus.edu email account. In a few days, he was able to get back to me and we set an appointment date via email. I initially send him the interview questions, so he would know what I was going to ask and have an answer or idea on how to answer it. The first impression was good, and I noticed that he was wearing a body camera. Since, my paper was on the use of force that is where the topic began with the questions.

United States Law Enforcement officers are constantly under pressure. Their job requires them to serve and protect mankind, under any circumstances, at all times. Because of this, officers run the risk of putting themselves in harmful situation. This may include apprehending a violent assailant, or entering harmful locations. In this study, I used books and articles such as, Criminal Justice Today, to get an understanding of the dangers Law Enforcement Officer face in the line of duty. When performing task outside the prescient, office4rs are put into dangerous situations because of their surroundings, offender’s actions, and officer mistakes. Due to the high stress of this job, it not only affects their performance, but their health as well.

Each year citizens die in encounters with law enforcement officers. It is reported that “Americans are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist” (Rucke, 2013). Although there is no official data base tracking these occurrences it is estimated that between 500 and a 1,000 people are killed by police officers each year. To put this in greater perspective this number equals approximately 5,000 since the 9/11 terror attack which is roughly the same number as U.S. soldiers who have been killed in the line of duty in Iraq (Rucke, 2013). This statistic is justifiably concerning. The cause of police related killings are multifold and cannot be attributed to only one factor. Many deaths may be unavoidable and perhaps, dependent on the situation, necessary. I contend, however, that many of these deaths may very well be preventable.

For this assignment I was asked to interview someone within the criminal justice field. For my interview I decided to interview officer Lewis. I decided to make a couple of important questions that I was curious about. I will list these questions throughout my paper. Each one of the questions I created are very important to understand before you want to go into the criminal justice field.

While driving to the elementary school, I tried to ask as many of my questions as I could, letting Deputy Montgomery know about the basic requirements about this project. After opening my notebook with some questions prepared, I began asking some basic questions such as what had inspired Montgomery to become a sheriff deputy in the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department, to describe the training required to become a sheriff’s deputy, and if a college degree was necessary in both enrolling as a sheriff’s deputy, and when trying to earn a promotion in the department. He began by stating that when he was seventeen years old, he had went on some ride a long’s after a friend had encouraged him to give it a try. After a few ride a long’s he was intrigued about law enforcement, and had

I interviewed Doug Brassington who worked for the San Diego Sheriff’s department for 23 years. He worked his way up to the rank of detective and also worked as a school resource officer. He enjoyed working as a school resource officer the most because he was helping students. He also told me his insights about the criminal justice system.

Police departments undergo an immense amount of scrutiny. Many members of society question their motives, if they are performing their jobs adequately, and if they are using police discretion appropriately. Over the years there have been many cases that have involved members of law enforcement or the entire police department, that have placed law enforcement in a negative light. This negative light is attention that neither society nor the police departments will benefit from. One major case that has been in the media is the case of Kelly Thomas. Kelly Thomas was beaten and eventually died from injuries he had sustained from local law enforcement. This case is a major case because it brings awareness to society about police overstepping their boundaries, the lack of training police officers receive with dealing with the mentally ill, and how the mentally ill are treated in the criminal justice system.

The female officer that took me on the ride along was very friendly so I had the chance to ask multiple questions. Her experience level was small as she had only been a police officer for six months. She received her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Colorado State University. The

On Thursday, January 5, 2017, I, Officer McDaniel #147, of Mansfield ISD Police Department, located at 1522 N Walnut Creek Dr, Mansfield, TX, was contacted by dispatch for a public service call, to a parent, in reference to an incident that occurred on November 28, 2016, at James Coble Middle School, located at 1200 Ballweg, Arlington, TX.

Before we begin, I would like to take the time out to express how happy I am about the person I interviewed. Coming into the interview, my tour guide expressed to me "that he is a pervert, and he can be a little mean/rude." After her telling me that, I immediately became a little nervous. Why? Because I came into this situation with the perception of trying to avoid someone of this nature. Turns out that my tour guide didn't do such a good job of explaining this guy. Him and I connected extremely well! And I was overwhelmed with joy, and so happy that we did. So, let's begin!

We both sat down and I conducted my interview by asking a few basic questions in order for me to discover what type of man Omar was. I

Over the last several years, most police departments have been facing numerous financial challenges. The main reason is law enforcement agencies are expected to do more with less and the stagnant economy. The combination of these factors has been placing pressure on many departments to begin imposing budget cuts. Evidence of this can be seen with a survey that was conducted by the University of North Carolina. They found that 67% of police departments made some kind of budget cuts for 2011. The most severe reductions were occurring in large police departments such as Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. (Delfem, 2011, pp. 199 - 205) This is illustrating one of the most pressing issues affecting a wide variety of police departments across the country. To fully understand what is happening requires: examining the situation, how they are able to interact with other agencies (i.e. state / federal) and recommending the way this relationship can be improved. Together, these elements will offer specific insights about how police departments can effectively address this problem.

The definition of human relations is everything done with each other as human beings in all kinds of relationships. An example of this is would be treating others with respect and dignity and following the Golden Rule; acting toward others as you would want others to act toward you. Public relations are activities performed by police agencies designed to create a favorable image of themselves. An example of police public relations is a law enforcement agency seeking developing a program to help strengthen the opinion that their community has on them. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that police are operating a pilot program that seeks to more easily resolve complaints such as whether an officer was rude, displayed a bad attitude or was speeding unnecessarily. Police-community relations is the relationships involved in both human relations and public relations between the police and the community. Programs such as National Night Out are a great example of police-community relations. They target specific efforts needed to make connections to underrepresented communities and ethnic communities. Building relationships within all populations is critical for achieving the goals of community outreach.