Critical Issues in Policing

By the late 1800s, police officers were issued firearms to counteract the better equipped criminal. In recent years, there have been resurgences in the importance of non-lethal and less-than-lethal weapons for law enforcement use. However, the devices in use today are worlds away from in terms of technology compared to what their police forefathers used. Generally, the use of force by law enforcement officers is permitted and often necessary under certain circumstances, such as in self-defense or in the defense of another individual or group.

Gaines, L. K., & Kappeler, V. E. (2014). Policing in america (8th ed.). (S. Decker-Lucke, Ed.) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America: Anderson Publishing. Retrieved January 2017

Many people know of the police officers of today’s world and that it is their job to enforce the laws set by their government, but not many people know the history of your typical everyday United States police officer or how they came about. The idea for neither your everyday police officer nor his or her department they work for or how a police department operates, originated in the United States. Over the years though America has made changes and adapted its system over the years to make it more suitable for its countries beliefs and practices.

In the last three decades, several concepts have been advanced to organize efforts to improve policing. Among them have been team policing, neighborhood policing, community policing, zero-tolerance policing and problem-oriented policing. Herman Goldstein was the first to propose problem-oriented policing in 1979. Problem-oriented policing is a policing strategy that involves the identification and analysis of specific crime and disorder problems, in order to develop effective response strategies in conjunction with ongoing assessment. The emphasis in problem-oriented policing is on directing attention to the broad range of problems the community expects the police to handle–the problems that constitute the business of the police and on

Sometimes, it really depends on the officer’s mood and mentality toward his or her job. Some officers may never have to use deadly force, while others use it daily.

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

A critical issue that law enforcement faces from the time it was created to present day, is a lack of police training. The most recent data research done by the Bureau of Justice Statistics about police training across the United States was done in 2009. It reported that in the year 2009 basic training programs averaged 761 hours of classroom training (about 19 weeks). A third of academies also had additional mandatory field training with an average length of 453 hours. The topics with the average most instruction time in these training programs consisted of firearm training (60 hours), self-defense (51 hours), health and fitness (46 hours), patrol procedures (40 hours), investigations (40 hours), emergency vehicle operations (40 hours), criminal law (36 hours), and basic first aid (24 hours). In Texas, only 618 hours of basic training are required by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education.

Have you ever thought about what happens if a person breaks a law? What if this individual breaks a minor law and creates a larger problem? A strong topic is upon our society when it comes to law enforcement and the tough physical and verbal oppression that they have the potential to put on people when it comes to breaking the law. Police officers are supposed to be society 's saviors, guardians, and our friends. However, when things do not go quite right, and when someone breaks the law, there will always be that chance that things could escalate. These officers are supposed to deescalate situations and solve problems. That is what society relies on them at any given moment. Sometimes it takes an escalation of force to deescalate a criminal situation. This is why society sees the men and women in uniform with weapons capable of hindering life to the fullest. However, when this force is used and abused, it creates problems. The public eye becomes weary of the police in many different ways for using excessive force to deescalate a situation. Excessive force and police brutality are often caused by depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, as well as other mental disorders; due to the way they are portrayed by the media, excessive force and police brutality have a direct effect on the American society as well as fellow officers in all branches of law enforcement.

Many factors can contribute to this problem the police force is having with police officers abuse of power, one of them being the psychological health of police officers where they aren’t fit to serve and protect the people they sworn to protect. After the shooting of an unarmed woman at Capitol Hill, The National Allegiance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) started what is to be the most Comprehensive Police Officer mental health program in the country, this 40 hours crisis intervention program is available in 45 states as well as the district of Columbia, excluded are the state of Delaware, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas and Rhode Island. Needless to say a few departments are working hard to improve the quality and integrity of their officers to eliminate the raising percentage of officers committing abuse to those who they sworn to protect.

The Frontline documentary, Policing the police, makes the argument that there are many problems with police departments across the United States and uses his correspondence with the Newark, New Jersey Police Department to make that point.

Police Agencies in modern society are a part of the American fabric to serve and protect the American public. The United States currently have more than 15,000 police agencies, (Walker & Katz, 2011). Police Departments across the United States face similar critical issues policing. All police officers face dangers in the job of policing the dangers can emanate from internal and external origins. Police officers have continued to evolve to serve communities by finding better less than lethal alternatives to weapons used. In addition, police departments have continued to keep up with

Since the founding of this country, to the wild west, and up to the present, the agenda of the policing bodies have been clear: to uphold and enforce the laws of our society. Of course the way they do this today had undergone changes from the first police forces of early America, law enforcement has seen trends come and go.

There are four styles of policing; crime fighter, social agent, law enforcer, and watchman. The crime fighter is focused on the victim instead of the perpetrator. While individuals that fit this category are willing to do the day-to-day operations of a police officer, they feel as if misdemeanors and social service is beneath them and should be handled by a lesser government agency. The social agent can be categorized as an everyday problem solver for the community. These individuals are willing to assist with the homeless, school-age kids, and those who need emergency service which is a great attribute for community police units.

Weapons such as, Tasers, batons, pepper sprays and so forth are classified as less lethal or non-lethal weapons. The purpose of these weapons is to prevent serious injuries or death. However, according to Macdonald et al. (2009), less lethal weapons cause unnecessary injury while using police force. Recently, police force has been the number one topic in media. Many argues that law enforcement officers are abusing their powers and unjustly shooting the suspects. Less lethal weapons may stop suspects without fatally injure them. However, many argues that less lethal weapons aren’t exactly the best way to deal with certain situations as suspects may get seriously injured if not killed. The use of Tasers may seem non-lethal, but, excessive use

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.