Gathering Research Data Paper

Becoming a police officer takes a lot of heart and determination. To become a police officer you must obtain a high school diploma or GED, pass the law enforcement entrance exam, graduate from the police academy and work towards promotion. In order to graduate from the police academy recruits must undergo 21 weeks of intense training. At the police academy recruits will learn all the following: state laws, criminal investigations, patrol procedures, firearms training, traffic control, defense driving, self-defense, first aid and computer skills (“An Overview of Police Academy Training”). The final step before graduating from the police academy recruits will take the Oath of Honor. “On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character, or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always uphold the constitution, my community and the agency I serve” (“What Is The Law Enforcement Oath of

I will start with fifteen officers from the Tupelo Police Department. The list consists of five street officers, three administrators, and seven training officers. These officers range from a mixture of statuses to get an idea as to who hires, what training is implemented, and the affects of that training on the streets. The area selected is a rural area in Lee County. I will get an official informed consent signed by the mayor of Tupelo to conduct the study and I will get an official copy signed by the chief of Tupelo Police Department, and the officers involved.

Police officers are faced each day with a vast array of situations with which they must deal. No two situations they encounter are ever the same, even when examines a large number of situations over an extended period of time. The officers are usually in the position of having to make decisions on how to handle a specific matter alone, or with little additional advice and without immediate supervision. This is the heart of police discretion. As we shall find, the exercise of discretion by police has benefits and problems associated with such exercise. The unfettered use of discretion can

It is important that police officers be ethical especially while on the job. An officer’s

To show that policy has been influenced by criminological research, Wellford (2010) offered the assessments of others, since it is extremely apparent to him. A well-known criminologist, Joan Petersilia, felt to truly measure this impact, it need to be done over the years, decades. After twenty years, research found that

I selected an article about police body cameras. The article cited several studies, as well as the authors’ ideas and thoughts. The article, titled Police Body Cameras, is part of the CATO Institute’s National Police Misconduct Reporting Project, and prepared by Matthew Feeney in 2015. The theme throughout the article is that the use of body cameras will reduce police misconduct. Although we all hope this is the case, we must also look at the other issues involved with the wearing of body cameras. In an effort to gain citizen buy-in and obtain their opinions, they conducted surveys. Interestingly enough, most people did not want the officers to record them, unless it was during an enforcement encounter, such as a traffic stop or arrest situation.

New officers need to know that no profession demands a higher ethical standard than law enforcement. Whether or not there are other careers that require a similar dedication to doing the right thing, it is undeniable that there is a tremendous degree of expectations placed upon police officers. Every officer knows, or at least should know by now, that they live in a fishbowl. Friends, relatives, neighbors and strangers watch every move law enforcement officers make, both on and off duty. The fact is that the public scrutinizes police officers more than most other professions, either because they are cynical or hope to catch them screwing up or because they are hopeful

Over the years, police have been portrayed in the media, television shows, and the local newspaper as crime fighting heroes. This portrayal would make one think a police officer is always out doing a dangerous job, which may require shooting, beating up, or arrested the bad guy. The truth is, most officers will not make a felony arrest in a given year, and there are also many officers who have never fired their weapon. There are various perspectives of the policing functions. I will examine these perspectives from the local, state, and federal organizational levels. I will identify and address possible future changes in laws and the overall

There are also insufficiencies when researching response methods in law enforcement. It can be challenging to retrieve data on every response methods that police departments utilize. Whereas other demographics, such as agency size, population, crime rates, budgets, recruitment, criminal acts or technology may be obtainable, it can be vexing to find those demographics to include how they affect, are used in response methods or implemented. Further research should be investigated concerning the aspects of response methods in law enforcement.

Although it may sound simple I was surprised to find that the subject itself is more intricate than what I originally expected it to be. I decided to write my research essay on police discretion and behavior since officers often have to alter their power in order to make decisions. Discretion allows the officer the freedom to respond to a situation given by the law procedure. Thus it is vital that the police officer to know how to deal with certain situation when dealing with criminals since they have a substantial decision-making power. When discretion is implemented as a part of the police-public interaction then it must then it must be followed with clear rules and policies. Thus, police discretion and behavior heavily depends on how the suspects reacts, evidence of the offence and characteristics of the victim.

The table in chapter 5 figure 5.1 on pages 115 and 116, gives a brief contrast of how cops are portrayed in the media as opposed to what they are in reality. For instance, tv shows, movies or any other source of entertainment, often portray cops as having an easygoing job, but in reality, police officers rarely have it that simple. The media fabricates the reality of time as well as effort of what it means to save lives and deter crime. Moreover, the table points out that when it comes to solving crimes on television, the time duration are between thirty minutes to an hour; actually, cases are not solved quickly. The time consumption usually takes days, weeks, months or even years to solve cases in which they eventually become cold cases.

When thinking about Criminal Justice it’s obvious that research is involved in solving crime. But it goes much further than that. Research is actually conducted in Criminal Justice itself. Research is done in Criminal Justice for a number of reasons. Research can be conducted in Criminal Justice for three main reasons; social problems, policy and academics. Then a number of other additional reasons are exploration, description, explanation, application, predictive and finally intervening. Within why research is conducted is another important aspect of Criminal Justice is Methodology; which is how the research is being conducted. Each of these topics will further be explained in depth.

This paper will describe police power and police authority. I will also talk about police discretion as for as whom gets locked up and who is allowed to go free. This paper will discuss the different use of police force. In this paper I will also talk about police attitude, police misconduct, and physical abuse among police officers.

This personal case study will be giving a brief summary on the key aspects of research that I believe will have the greatest influence on my future career as a Law Enforcement Officer, wishing to study the minds of juveniles and how to reduce the recidivism rate before they become an adult. The key components that I learned about research which I will be discussing are, formulating a research question, generating hypothesis, and threats to internal validity.

After having analysed what the 50 women had to say in the Pilot study, the following Methodology was adopted for the final study. Quantitative Methodology with the Survey was considered the most feasible method for the present study. It is less oriented towards representatives and more towards finding associations and explanations, less towards description and more towards prediction, less lightly to ask ‘how many’, than ‘why’ and what goes with ‘what’.