Los Angeles Police Department: Article Analysis

Albarano, R. F. (2015). College Education and Officer Performance: Do College Educated Police Officers Perform Better Than Those Without a College Education?. International Journal of Education and Social Science, 2(7), 41-48.

The Associations of Chiefs of Police created this website as a police informational site. It is an educational site that explains the hiring process, basic requirements, training and academy life, and skills candidates should process. The site also offer a virtual ride along. I can use this site to explain the training and academy life of a cadet.

The Los Angeles Police Commission, also known as the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners was originally created in the 1920s. The Board serves as the public’s voice and has their best interest in mind when creating and setting policies. The creation of the Office of the Inspector General was recommended by the Christopher Commission in 1991. It was created in 1995 by the Los Angeles City Charter as an independent unit from the Los Angeles Police Department. The 1998 Rampart scandal initiated an effort for LAPD reform and strengthened the OIG significantly (oig.lacity.org). The Board of Police Commissioners and many police reform advocates strongly supported the creation of the OIG since it was to be independent

In the 1800s, America became extremely industrialized. Due to all of the new upbringings there was a need for organized policing. Policing in America went through many different stages beginning with organized American law enforcement, to formal policing. Michael Moore and George Kelling inferred that there were three eras of policing; political era, professional era, and community era. The political era came first along, as that era began to go downhill, the professional era arose. As the professional era began to take drawbacks, the community era started up and is still going on in present day. There are many positives and some negatives in today’s society living in the community era.

Having had the opportunity to see both sides of the argument play out in the City of Memphis and as a member of the Memphis Police Department. I have become an advocate for requiring entry-level police officers to have at the very minimum an associate degree or the equivalent college credits. The college requirement can only be avoided with military experience. However, my position is not that more education makes you a better police officer or less education makes you a lousy officer. I believe that there should be a “happy medium” when it comes to police work. A good officer will be empathic, fair and in tune with the needs of the community and its members. Requiring a level of education for your entry-level officers speaks volumes about your agency and their dedication to professionalism. The benefits of having a college educated officer have shown to make a difference in the way they do their jobs. An educated police officer is less likely to utilize force when interacting with his co-workers or civilians. A department with educated officers also has shown to see a reduction in misconduct and disciplinary issues(Gómez-Mejía et al., 2016). Some years back the Memphis Police Department had relaxed their

The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this

Leading up to the establishment of the Chicago Police Department, the first rank of “constable” was created in 1830. Authorization of Chicago’s very own police force occurred on January 31, 1835. On August 15, 1835, the Chicago Police Department was born. The department’s mission reads, “The Chicago Police Department, as part of, and empowered by, the community, is committed to protect the lives, property, and rights of all people, to maintain order, and to enforce the law impartially. We will provide quality police service in partnership with other members of the community. To fulfill our mission, we will strive to attain the highest degree of ethical behavior and professional conduct at all times.” Orsemus Morrison was elected Chicago’s first constable; he was assisted by Constables Luther Nichols and John Shrigley. The three men served and protected a population of about 3,200. In the year 1837, the Municipal Court of Chicago was created. It had co-jurisdiction with the Cook County Court within corporate limits of the city of Chicago. Between the years 1838 and 1854, the Chicago P.D consisted of very few collection of officers, constables, and part-time night watchers to maintain the quickly-expanding city.

I decided to do my research on the community policy in California LAPD, which stands for (The Los Angeles Police Department). Before I get into explaining their beliefs, efforts, and determination I want to explain what community policing stands for. The community policy is based on the partnership between police and the people. This means that the police and the people works together to create a better environment. The responsibility the police and people share is they try to prevent problems and make sure the community is safe and in order.

It is an early Saturday morning. It’s the first day of the academy and an officer already yelling at you saying “ Who told you you could be a cop?”. Heart beats fast from being nervous and not knowing to expect next. These people have chosen to put their life at risk; but say it’s a worthy cost because they say “we protect, we serve”.

Why is it that America, a country of freedom and opportunity, is the country that is stripping its people of their freedom the most often? It is unfortunate that everyday, police officers break their vows to “remain composed and respectful” and avoid behaving in an “abusive, oppressive, harassing, bullying, victimising or offensive” way (Swinford). This nation that boasts to the world about its benevolent treatment to its citizens has a sinister way of treating people differently depending on their various traits. It becomes more and more obvious with each succeeding case that America’s law enforcement teams are not as colorblind as they should be and claim to be; people, especially those of color, are being incarcerated at an alarming rate. The United State’s incarcerated population increased by over 500% over the last 40 years, rising to about 2.3 million people (SentencingProject). While it is not practical to expect our police officers to be able to apprehend every single criminal, it should not be too much to ask that they do it in a fair and unbiased manner. Protests such as Black Lives Matter still happen today because there is still inequality happening on a large scale everyday, especially in our law enforcement system. Minorities are the primary victims of the whole issue. It is ironic that America, a nation built on freedom, has a critical problem of mass incarceration. Although the United States pledges to be a nation of equality and opportunity, the surplus

Cronkhite discussed the King incident in depth and how the failures of the Loa Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and its leaders to institutionalize some of the contextual themes led to the beating of Rodney King (Cronkhite, 2013). This incident led to an independent investigation by what was known as the Christopher Commission (Cronkhite, 2013). Cronkhite (2013) discussed some of the issues found by the commission and how the failure to use some of the concepts contributed to the incident.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s crime map shows that there are a lot of crime activities happened in downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, and West Hollywood. Most of the crimes happened are larceny, motor vehicle theft, and vehicle break-in. The homicide report map on L.A. Times website indicates that most of the victims in downtown areas are Latinos and African-Americans, suspiciously due to gang violence. One thing really surprised me after viewing the crime map was that there is no crime activities happened in Monterey Park and Alhambra, where most of the Chinese live. I checked out the homicide report map and compared the numbers of death in downtown areas and in Pasadena areas. I was shocked by the number differences of death in these

The general argument made in the article is that over the years there have been so many accounts of police brutality against students that haven’t been acknowledged. More specifically it argues that police officers that don’t know how to handle large crowds or protests in a nonviolent way then they should have to go back to school to learn better ways. It states "Tear-gassing students while they sought refuge in their rooms was an act of terror by the police. Someone has to explain and justify why they needed to chase the students from the hostels. Chase them to where?" In this passage it is suggesting that police brutality needs to be ended and those officers who have commited these acts should be held accountable. In conclusion, its belief

A growing number of entry-level criminal justice practitioners have college degrees. This paper will explore whether or not law enforcement agencies should require applicants to have a post secondary degree as a condition of employment and will college-educated police officers will be resistant to organizational change.

The main conclusion from this article is that the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is unconstitutional in its policing. The cases utilized are incidences in the City of Baltimore and the Baltimore City Police Department. The methodology consisted of interviewing various actors within the City of Baltimore and the BPD. The researchers also participated in ride-alongs and heard from people in the wider Baltimore community. Many documents were also reviewed. This source contributes to the debate in that it is like the Macpherson report in its critique of the police and their practices. This source helps me refine my question by making me look at the police department culture of whichever cases I will eventually investigate.