Coercion And Force Essay

In “A Sketch of the Policeman’s Working Personality,” Jerome Skolnick discusses and analyzes how a police officer’s personal outlook is affected by his or her involvement in police work, creating an “us versus them” mind-set, as well as the frequent inability to “turn off” the police mentality outside of a work environment. While he states that a person’s work has an impact on his or her outlook of the world according to a recurring theme in the sociology of occupations, police work has a particularly strong impact on those cognitive lenses (Skolnick, 1966, p. 2). Because of the nature of their job, police have a tendency to look at the world in a way that makes it

There are several different types of force. These types of force include verbal commands or persuasion, physical force (unarmed), force using weapons that are non lethal, force that involves using weapons such as the bean bag gun or taser, and lastly, deadly force. All officers have to give way to each force option before last resorting to the use of deadly force, unless of course if the officer is in a life or death situation. This may be the only way to use deadly force in the first and last resort. They have a couple of weapons that they carry in case the need to use them arises. They carry a baton, tasers, handcuffs, guns and they also have police dogs. Some police do follow the guidelines for using force. Others may abuse their authority and not use force properly. It is really only up to the officers to do the right thing. Some cops are great and live to protect our communities while others abuse their authority.

Over the years, the nature of policing has changed and developed drastically. Their role not only entails crime fighting and emergency response, but also social enforcement and social peacekeeping. Bound by a code of ethics, this highly demanding role asks police to remain professional in their dealings with society, and ensure they uphold the law impartially and fairly. When it comes to enforcing the law, it is important to look at the methods and approaches taken by police in order to combat crime, and whether or not they meet current ethical standards. Although this may be the case, it is also important to acknowledge that aspects of police culture such as loyalty, deception and protection of colleagues will ultimately shape the nature of approach to resolving crime, gaining helpful information and protecting fellow officers. Police officers are granted large amounts of discretion within their roles, however, when officers deliberately abuse this amount of discretion and become display misconduct, it becomes challenging to limit discretionary authority of police officers because of the frequent circumstances they encounter where deception may provide highly constructive outcomes. Throughout this essay, methods used by police officers including entrapment, wiretapping and planting of evidence will be assessed for their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the ethical standards of these methods and approaches will be assessed as to whether or not they prove as ethically

Police behavior plays a gigantic role in whether or not an officer will be willing to use excessive force against a suspect such as their background, training, morals, and composer in stressful situations. In Worden’s article he explains three theories about police behavior that comprise of existing research on police behavior and they’re training. These are sociological, psychological, and organizational theory. He explains sociological theory as the premise that police behavior is

“Somebody didn’t sleep through ethics training” (Ayer and Fuqua, 2001). This statement made by an officer in the movie Training Day, best exemplifies a major theme of the movie. Training Day should be shown to rookie officers as an example of how a police subculture can allow officers to abuse power. The movie is an over exaggeration, but provides depth and detail into certain situations officers may find themselves in. This paper will look at the specific concepts of a police subculture that officers may encounter.

Police brutatlity infleucnes its victims, as well as can undermine the group 's trust in it 's police force. Cops are given a extended range of scope in playing out their obligations. Since they are required to ensure society general safety and face conceivably brutal people, they can legitmatley utilize physical, and even fatal constrain in specific situations (Pierce, 1986, p. 52). Notwithstanding, and officer who utilizes extreme force when it is not called for, or important to play out his or her employment, may go too far into police

The use of force is without a doubt an important aspect in policing. The decision to utilize any type of force comes from a multitude of recourses; department policies, training, situational variables and ethical systems. There are three major categories in which an officers use of force is categorized under; justifiable, excessive and deadly; with a thin line between justifiable and excessive. Cases where excessive force has been used, has lead to injuries, deaths, civil damages, officers convicted and sentenced to jail and police chiefs and elected officials being removed from office (Fyfe, 1988). It is an officer`s discretion in determining when the use of force is justifiable.

The use of deadly force by police officers is a very important subject in today’s society. Many consider the use of deadly force excessive in most cases. However, there are many aspects to look at when considering this topic, such as: Why was deadly force required? When did the officer feel it necessary to apply deadly force? What will be the implications for the officer after the fact? How does the use of deadly force affect society as a whole?

As law enforcement officers develop “working personality” as an occupational exercise, over time it becomes a habit displayed equally during work and off duty, which leads to becoming continuously suspicious of their surroundings, violating civilians constitutional rights, using excessive force, and acts of mayhem. The following are examples of when law enforcement officers “working personality” progresses into to their personal lives as illustrated in the articles below:

Police have the responsibilities that help to regulate duty and, “there are five core roles for police agencies in that province: crime prevention, law enforcement, assistance to victim of crime, public order maintenance, and emergency response”(Ruddell, 134). However, if the police do not attempt to follow theses five core principles then discretion can arise and becomes problematic. Discretion an officer may exert is based on their own interest that may play greater role in decision making. Although, there is a positive aspect that goes for the use of force in scenario’s where the offender might cause harm to another. For instance, if one individual is on a killing spree, then force may be necessary to stop him or her.

Whenever a law enforcement officer places an individual under arrest or is involved in a deadly force scenario the officer has used some degree of force. The incidents where an office has to make a split second decision and use physical force to control a situation is known as “Use of Force.” The use of force varies as situations present themselves to the officer and they must decide what level of force is necessary to control the situation. Often the use of force is subject to much debate and not a year goes by without some media coverage of some law enforcement officer accused of using excessive force. In dozens of studies of police use of force there is no single,

Throughout history laws and regulations have formed for society to abide by to avoid a world full of absolute chaos. Ultimately leading to the creation of police officers who would enforce these laws and regulations. However, this is one of the world’s most dangerous and stressful professions. Mainly because police officers are expected to put their lives on the line every single day to protect and serve society. Even though this is the case, becoming a police officer has always been a goal of mine. Edward Conlon book called, “Blue Blood” provides amazing insight on what it’s like to be a police officer. This is because Edward Conlon was previously a police officer and based this book around his personal experiences while he was on the job. Since this book is based around first-hand experience and written as they were happening it made me enjoy the book even more. Mainly because these events weren 't over exaggerated. However, since the book is based around stories within stories, I sometimes found it difficult to follow. This book presented many examples of issues that the police face daily and showed that sometimes these issues aren’t easy to handle. Three specific issues that Edward Conlon faced as a police officer that relates to my issues in policing class is dealing with the mentally ill, using discretion, and police training.

The dependent variable in this study will be the use of force used by officers. Measuring this will come with complications. The use of force will be measured by the amount of times a police officer has to subdue a physically resisting suspect in the entire city. Data Analysis Hypothesis Implementation Ethical Considerations

Police executives have always had different issues within the police department. Most police executives try to find a quick fix in order to solve the issue of police misconduct. Police misconduct is defined as inappropriate action taken by police officers in relation with their official duties (Police Misconduct Law & Legal Definition, n.d.). In order to solve this issue, one must acknowledge their different challenges, overcome the “code of silence”, and find out the role of organizational culture.

Police “officers work and live in a constantly changing environment in which they are exposed to a myriad of ethical conflicts. When either unprepared or unaware, police officers are more likely to “go with the flow” than they would be if they were adequately prepared to face potentially ethical risks.” (Gilmartin & Harris, 1998) Most ethical violations are committed because the officer is exposed to a situation in which he was inadequately prepared. The lack of time to think about the situation before committing an ethical violation has detrimental life changing consequences. Police work can be very exciting and very rewarding but if not properly prepared and trained an officer can easily find himself involved in an ethical violation. Understanding the issues and being mentally prepared will help police officers become more responsible and make better