With all the negative media attention police departments and law enforcement agencies are receiving, it is not surprising factor that the police would be less inclined to work with the community to fight crime. It seems as if the citizens are against the police and that is only going to cause more issues and problems. Police have to live in constant fear that they are being criticized and their every move is being analyzed for wrong-doing. They have to second-guess every movement and action they make, which can quickly become highly dangerous. Police are expected to be perfect robots and the public seemingly forgets that they are also human. What has caused our police officers to work in constant fear? What is making our police …show more content…
It has to a point where any time a police officer has an incident with a person of a different race, it will be considered racially motivated. The Ferguson Effect is a theory that police officers have “slowed down” enforcement due to public scrutiny. The Ferguson Effect theory suggests that because of police officers “slowing down”, crime rates have increased dramatically. The Ferguson Effect theory also believes that because of the negative public publicity in the last year, police officers are less inclined to work with the community to fight crime, in fear of being considered the next story of police brutality or accused of racial profiling or excessive force. Is the Ferguson Effect to blame for police officers being less inclined to work with the community to fight crime? Have crime rates truly increased because of the Ferguson incident?
Whether the Ferguson Effect is the cause of the supposed increase in crime, especially violent crimes, such as homicide, is a matter of opinion. Some would say that the Ferguson Effect is the reason crime rates have increased dramatically in major cities, such as Chicago, St. Louis, and New York. Many criminologist would disagree and have stated that the numbers do not prove that the Ferguson Effect is behind the apparent increase in crime rates. President Obama has even exclaimed that there is not a nation-wide crime increase because of the
During his second term of Presidency, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order creating the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The Force was created to note which practices worked and which ones did not. They also made recommendations to help develop trust and reduce the scale of crime. President Obama created this Task Force when it became clear that a distrust had formed between the People and Police Officers and the crime rate had spiked. This distrust has always been a problem for Law Enforcement Agencies. However, the distrust and crime against Police Officers grew dramatically following the Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown. Some believe that the Ferguson Effect is a myth though it is clear that this is one of the causes of Officers De-policing certain areas because they fear for the worst. President Obama hoped that by creating the Task Force on 21st Century Policing it would help rebuild the trust that was lost and establish a good relationship between the community and Police Officers. Throughout The Final Report many recommendations were suggested to help Law Enforcement. After reading over the recommendations it has become obvious that some of the suggestions will not work and possibly could
Many of the issues facing police today can be traced back to the 1960s. We talk about the '60s being a time of peace and love, but that's not really what was going on. Now, at the time, the theory was that the police should be morally impartial. Police were supposed to simply uphold the law without getting personally attached to victims or suspects (Muscato 2003).
As of today police officers are under constant scrutiny because of the way some officers might handle a situation under a moment of distress. Furthermore, because of one officer the public assumes that every officer acts this way when in fact they do not. To sum it all up a police officer once told me that people do not hate you the individual they hate the badge. This hate can grow from a simple ticket and individual gets for speeding. Nonetheless, officers must remain calm, respectful, and willing to put their lives on the life in the face of those who hate them. They do this every day and they take pride in the fact they get to save lives.
In modern day society, the police force is meant to safeguard the lives of those they serve, to eliminate crime, to ensure public safety, and to do so in an honorable fashion. They are meant to be respected and trusted by those they potentially "protect." Children often looked at them as modern day superheroes. At some point however, something changed and the neighborhood hero transformed into the villain. What happens when the ones people reach out to in a time of distress become the ones causing the chaos? Who are people to turn to when those they thought would protect them are becoming the antagonist? Over the years, police officers have committed crimes against those for several reasons, but the main one that will be analyzed is
Many people are losing faith in the police and government because of police brutality and unjustified murders of young people in the society. Police inhumaneness in America is getting worse, not better. In 2014, 1,106 people were killed by American constabularies. As of today at least 865 Americans have been corruptly killed by police so far in 2015. At this pace, 2015 is like-ly to be the deadliest year ever measured at the hands of American police. We are currently on pace to break 1,200 for this year. The problem is intricate, nationwide, nuanced, and deeply en-trenched in the new American way of policing. No single policy will curb this trend and it is very possible these numbers may get worse for many years
Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like to become a police officer. Becoming a police officer isn’t an easy take because they have to risk their life everyday to protect and serve the community. They have to go through the dangers of arresting criminals when there is a chance that they could die. However, in today’s society only a small amount of the police officers actually serves their community and protect citizens from danger. Right now, most police officers abuse their power to the point where they don’t seem to care for the safety of the community. They would usually arrest innocent people, make accusations, and even use their power as a source to show their dominance. If you think about, whenever you are stuck in traffic
The Michale Brown shooting has forever changed policing in the United States much like the Rodney King beating by the LAPD in 1991. History will show that the death of Michael Brown will prove to have longer and more dramatic influence on how law enforcement officers do their job than the Rodney King incident. The reasons for this are many, to mention a few, society has become more sensitive and less tolerant of police misconduct weather the misconduct is real or perceived. The public is also better informed because of the speed that the modern news media, and social media, are able to disseminate pictures, video and other information. Facebook has probably had a greater affect on the way law enforcement agencies operate that any high profile
As crime statistics rise in cities across the United States, people are left with the question: Why? While there are numerous theories, one of the most debated ideas has coined its name from the city of Ferguson, Missouri. The death of an unarmed black eighteen-year-old man named Michael Brown outraged the citizens of Ferguson; which is a predominantly black society on the north side of St. Louis. Other blacks involved in altercations with the police (that subsequently ended in their deaths) sparked even more unrest, generating rifts between local law enforcement agencies and citizens around the country. As a result of these rifts, violent protestors have bombarded Ferguson, attacking the city with an un-relentless
However, some criminologist state that these statistics reveal very little about the cause of the increase in violent crime. On the other hand there are some people such as Heather MacDonald author of “Are Cops Racist?”, in the Wall Street Journal who believe that “the most plausible explanation of the current surge in lawlessness is the intense agitation against American police departments over the past nine months” (Jonsson, 2015). There is a lot of back and forth debate of whether or not The Ferguson Effect is “thing”. Of course by accepting the “Ferguson effect” as a new theory of policing on would have to admit that police officers are no longer doing their jobs out of fear of public scrutiny. What is certain is that there has been a
In Steve Chapman’s article “Are Blacks to Blame for Cops Actions?” the author addresses the most important controversial problem we had for centuries. Does racial profiling exists? If so, what is the problem with it? Many say that law enforcement are only targeting the minority, to be specific mainly African Americans. This is because they are the only ones to blame and that if they were not committing so much crime, they wouldn 't get so much attention from police(502). The author points out that blaming the black community for violent crime by blacks we fail to notice the truth of today’s real crime. I strongly believe with the author, we fail to notice the real crimes that are society has. Are we so distracted by what the media
Ferguson’s black population are having trouble with access to food stamps, higher incarceration rate of black people, racial profiling and such. ...
There are a number of repercussions that need to be feared if the current witch hunt mentality continues to vilify this countries law enforcement agencies. It is time for rational minded individuals to stand up and be the voice of reason against politicians who would exploit this issue, the media that is happy to distort this issue, and so called activists who want to scream at the world because they are angry with the world. We must be careful that the police don’t lose their ability to police, or become fearful of doing their jobs because of the highly publicized slander. A possibility that FBI director James Comey has name the “Ferguson Effect A notion that he and many in law enforcement think is valid. However, President Obama has
Since a very young age we have been taught to put our trust into police officers. If we are in distress, they are always there to help since it is their job to protect and serve the common citizen. So what happens when the individuals we are supposed to trust to bring justice are the ones causing the injustice we see in the news? Recently, several police officers have been under fire for their excessive use of force. The number of casualties caused by police officers in the recent years have citizens demanding a reform in the system that officers work under.
Understand the Ferguson situation while employed as a law enforcement agent one can say I have a bias opinion regarding the facts around the case. This is not so I was raised in one of the toughest cities, Newark, NJ. As a Hispanic male I can say I have come in contact with law enforcement personal throughout my childhood and early adolescences. The opinion of good and bad law enforcement personnel I have lived through. Getting back to the Ferguson case I do whole heartedly believe the media aggravates the situation and makes it more volatile. The media can manipulate and portray their own image of what’s going on in Ferguson to the public. The Dune affect is a term that was coined after the movie Dune--which explains that those who control and have access to media have access to and potential control of public opinion. It’s all about how to persuade using propaganda to change people’s minds and perception of what’s really going on.
The police have lost trust among the people they serve. This is because of the controversial use of excessive force when handling people. In some