Police Mission Statement Analysis

Every day, law enforcement officers encounter danger while carrying out their duties. The foremost duty of law enforcement officers are to serve and protect citizens. Most law enforcement agencies do this successfully. However, many people view law enforcement officers as the enemy. People need to be better informed about law enforcement and why officers take specific actions in certain circumstances. In our society, police are in a very dangerous position when it comes to the amount of force they can use when dealing with an individual. Officers use discretion when deciding the best course of action for the situation, whether it be physical force, persuasion, or coercion. They must take the correct course of action, because if they are too lenient or to forceful, even when dealing with petty things, they can be reprimanded by superiors and the public. Should police use force? Which circumstances warrant use force and what are the limits of force they can use? These questions are often asked when police are compelled to use force.

The first principal establishes the mission of any police department: to prevent crime and disorder. However, the police are not the military, or any other type of occupying force. Sadly, many departments forget this fact and adopt a corrosive mentality which believes that “it is the police vs society.” The repercussions of this idea are severe. Police will treat citizens as threats rather than people. Police will be quick to respond with excessive force. Police will purchase military vehicles to protect themselves from these threats. Police will respond to protests with violence, brandishing military grade

(1) The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.

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 (Chicago Police Department’s website: http://home.chicagopolice.org/inside-the-cpd/our-mission/).

Most organization have develop an element called a mission statement. A mission statement describes and helps focus the attention of organizational members and external constituents on the organization's core purpose. This is use in the criminal justice and security agency use mission statement for the success of the organization and better serve the community or businesses that they have agree to serve and protect.

I chose to explore the Abington, Hatboro and Whitpain townships police departments’ websites for this assignment. Each department included on their website where they were located and how they could be contacted. They also included some frequently asked questions and general information about the department and how to go about reporting crime or paying tickets. Abington and Whitpain both included a “mission statement” while I was unable to find one for Hatboro. The one feature I liked about the Hatboro website is that although there wasn’t very much information, it did give the exact number of working officers and how they broke down into specific roles.

Police brutality in the U.S. has been a phenomenon that has caught international attention in the last few years. As defined in thelawdictionary.org, police brutality is “the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians.” In many cases, civilians that were law-abiding and even unarmed were victims of police using unjustifiable force upon them. While independent organizations and activists have tried to eradicate this unacceptable behavior and phenomenon through protests and demonstrations, their efforts have not been enough. If law enforcement agencies, such as local police departments, educate their employees on the right and wrong ways to behave on the streets with civilians, the root cause of the problem will be addressed.

After thoughtful analysis of the mission statement for USF, I realized that the same values were instilled in me from my time in the military. As stated in the USF mission statement, I see myself as a person that wants to help the community as a nurse, and partner to make the world we live in more humane. I am applying to USF because I feel that I embody all the characteristics a future nursing should have in order to become a healthcare professional.

The mission and values that are of importance will be taken from Portland, Oregon, Houston, Texas, Madison, Wisconsin because all of their attributes is beneficial to the community. For instance, it is vital that police officers work with the community, whether than against them regardless of their geographical location. A law enforcement officer cannot become effective to the community unless there are some trust and respect(Cordner, G.W., 2016). I believe that The Constitutional Rights need to be exercised and protect when it dehumanizes people. Therefore, peace and providing a safe environment is needed in our society now, due to terrorism and other malicious crime. Spokane Washington value statement states that it is service oriented,

It is the organization's operation through the values that will be the superior alternative management tool (Wasserman & Moore,1988). A police department that supplies a mission statement that is encouraged by its goals that are made up of intentions that contain the processes are on the right track no matter the time of origination. It is critical that execution of the objectives is the consequence of effective and efficient management of the processes which transpire within the department. It is the work of operations that are important to the sequence of steps that will direct the attainment of the Memphis Police Department's presented ambitions (Nassar, 2007). The mission of the department depends on the workforce that implementing the standards on the citizens within the community. It is not unusual for the influence concerning a department's mission to come from and change by way of city officials, politicians, interest groups, and stakeholders. However, as an officer sworn to be a public servant has a commitment to the citizens and upholding the

For this assignment, I wanted to look at Police Departments from various parts of the country to see if there was much differences in their various core values and/or mission statements. So, I picked the Asheville Police Department in North Carolina, the Santa Fe Police Department in New Mexico, and the Hartford Police Department in Connecticut. The guiding principles statement of the Asheville Police Department really caught my eye. It states, “The Asheville Police Department will achieve its mission by committing to excellence through:

The current Mission Statement of the Jackson Police Department is to improve the quality of life for its citizens and to reduce the problems associated with crime. They want to educate the officers and public and develop a co-active partnership with the community. They endeavor to be honest, fair, impartial, courteous, and respectful. I must admit I was shocked to see this as their mission. (JPD, unknown). After reading the mission for Madison, Wisconsin I can say that I was proud of their police department and could see myself living in a city where the police strive to give its citizen high-quality police services. They also stated that giving all of its citizens respect and dignity and for me, that sounds like key elements that all police

Portland, Houston and Madison mission statements are very structured in “police or legal jargon”. They read as if there is no personal feeling in their statements, but rather more like an organization/legal statement. Spokane’s has a feel or tone of commitment, and they use the word in their statement. Spokane’s also addresses a vision. It gives a specific year in which they will do or become what they outlined. By doing so, they are committing themselves to address the vision/mission statement again and adjust as needed for the future. Spokane’s statement addresses being a diverse (reflection of the community, which they say), motivated, and professional agency. The other three make no mention of these traits. By addressing these traits,

In my opinion a police department’s disciplinary system should encourage for good conduct to be practiced by it’s police officers. Also, the process for investigating and resolving complaints concerning police misconduct should support with this objective. In recent years, there have been both external and internal concerns about how complaints of misconduct by members Law Enforcement are being investigated and how they are being disciplined. Allegations of a “code of silence” among police officers reveal the public’s concern with the current disciplinary system that is in place. And there are concerns within many police departments about the ambiguity that surrounds police discipline system, including the length of time it takes to resolve

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.