Politics As A Vocation Max Weber

The Queensland Police Service (QPS) Incident Command System (ICS) was raised as a project in 2001 with the aim of establishing a Command system which could be used for any type of incident or event. Extensive research was conducted into ICS models throughout Australia and overseas. The QPS ICS was finally adapted from the North American ICS model which allows a flexible approach to incident response with effectiveness and efficiency. The QPS ICS was then adopted into Section 1.12 of the QPS Operational Procedures Manual (OPM 2014). The QPS ICS takes a formal approach by gathering intelligence, planning a response and deploying the available resources to achieve a specific result (QPS2013a).

Some people argue that police officers in our communities abuse their authority and power over citizens. Nowadays police officers seem to be more aggressive and end up being looked at as criminals. Some cops are even using their power to do bad things, and this has had a major effect on society that is making everyone afraid of cops. But, some people, too, argue the point if a cop did misuse his power was it justified. People in our communities are even beginning to feel as if cops aren't here to protect us anymore. Our laws have allowed criminals that good police officers arrest to slip through the system untouched, and this makes officers feel as if they have to bring matters of justice into their own hands. Police brutality has turned into somewhat of a myth because of our court system not punishing them as according.

Pollock (2015) explains how power and discretion is a vital characteristic when building positive relationships between the police agencies and the public. Furthermore, power is used to overcome resistance, or to gain a sense of domination over a person, or a situation. As police officers face many situations, where their power is necessary to subdue an individual, it is easy to abuse the power that is given to them. Even though there are policies, rules, and guidelines in place to aid in reducing the abuse of power, often police officers use discretion in addition to the power they receive. Discretion can be understood as deciding between choices which may impact ones’ behaviour (Pollock, 2014, p.86).

Lack of training and policing standards are closely linked to the myriad problems bedeviling police work, especially in small departments (Brodeur, 2010). All over the country, police departments report cases of officers being caught in uncompromising and unprofessional situations, resulting in disciplinary actions such as redeployment, suspension or sacking. These cases of unprofessionalism have led to questions being asked about policing, occasioned by recurring series of questionable and controversial encounters with police officers (Brodeur, 2010). The consequence of such encounters is increasing public distrust in law enforcement agencies.

Police officers are given a lot of power because it is needed to help protect citizens and the community. However, police often abuse their power by the over use of force, corruption, sexual misconduct, bias based policing, and failure to maintain police ethics. (Peak, 2011)

In order for a Police agency to prevent and deter Police misconduct, there must be a definition to what actions and behaviors that the term will encompass. The term ‘police corruption’ has been used to describe many activities: bribery; violence and brutality; fabrication and destruction of evidence; racism; favoritism or nepotism. Many different scholars differ in their own examples of the definition. Before attempting to the question of whether a precise definition is possible, it is worth examining the range of activities that might be included within a broad discussion of corruption. In (Bayley and Perito, 2011), it is defined as police corruption is a contested phrase with narrow and broad meanings. Narrowly

Recommendations were made following the shooting to implement a command center with personnel able to take command at the beginning of a crisis, control assembled personnel, and to communicate objectives clearly (Erickson, 2001). This came after the failure of law enforcement to set up a successful command center whereas Fire and EMS successfully instituted an incident command center based on

The myriad of issues surrounding police pursuits have been sensationalized to the point that the general public has been presented with an inaccurate and highly suspicious picture of pursuits (Barth, 1981). Police officers understand that their actions in many pursuits will be questioned and scrutinized by administrators as well as scholars researching the issues surrounding their decisions. Debate concerning the viability of a national pursuit policy has generated much controversy as speculation and pseudoscience have been used by the unscrupulous in efforts to portray pursuits as highly dangerous and in need of new administrative

Policing in America underwent a major paradigm shift in the way that law enforcement was carried out – this shift was known as a shift from the Political Era to the Professional (Reform) Era (Roberg, Novak, Cordner, & Smith, 2015). This switch in eras happened in the United States during a period branded as the Progressive Era, when many “types of problems … began to be addressed not only in the public sector but also in private enterprise” (Roberg et al., 2015, p. 41). This movement affected the United States and the American life since it functioned on the ideas that there should be “(1) honest and efficiency in government, (2) more authority for public officials (and less for politicians), and (3) the use of experts to respond to specific

Emergency services face vast difficulties in the operations field when handling emergency situations, whether it comes from handling a minor accident to a catastrophic catastrophy. Many of the difficulties do not come from the actual incident, but instead they arise from forming a rescue team containing different agencies and people. For the benefit off all individuals participating, it is imperative that there be a unified command structure in place to effectively coordinate and oversee the tasks that need to be accomplished. The need of a unified command was seen from the hardships faced in incidents, bringing forth the development of the Incident Command System that was designed to be used in an array of conditions, to bring all

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.

When debating the issue of police use of force, the issue of what actions constitute too much force must also be addressed. Another concern is the possibility of corruption amount officers. When given such great power, the probability of corruption is high. Officers generally do not start out as corrupt, but years of work on the force can create animosity between officers and suspects and lead them to decide to use force more quickly (McEwen, 1996). Many times, officers patrol the streets alone which creates the opportunity for potential abuse of power (McEwen, 1996). Although police officers need to be permitted to exercise some discretion, they also need limits and guidelines to follow when using their powers of discretion (Manning, 1997). The decision to use force should not be taken lightly in that citizen’s lives are at stake. Police should be allowed discretion in decisions to use force; however, this discretion should be limited. In several cases in Arizona, officers have used deadly means of force. In all cases, the officers

An integral component to the infrastructure of government is law enforcement. In recent years, police abuse has come to the attention of the general public. While citizens worry about protecting themselves from criminals, it has now been shown that they must also keep a watchful eye on those who have been given the responsibility to protect and serve. This paper will discuss the types of police abuse prevalent today, including the use of firearms and recovery of private information. I will also discuss what and how citizens’ rights are violated by the police. We will also explore the measures necessary to protect ourselves from police taking advantage of their positions as law enforcement officers with greater permissive rights than

Today, the Incident Command System (ICS) is a major component of NIMS and is widely used in emergency management response. However, this was not always the case. According to David A. McEntire and Gregg Dawson, authors of the article, “The intergovernmental Context,” ICS was originally developed by the fire service in 1970. Its purpose was to assist in the command of wildfire events. It was unique because it standardized operations, yet offered flexibility so that it could be used on any number of events, regardless of size or type (McEntire & Dawson, 2007, p. 63).

“He who seeks the salvation of the soul, of his own and of others, should not seek it along the avenue of politics, for the quite different tasks of politics can only be solved by violence”, stated Max Weber in his lecture “Politics as a Vocation” (Weber 4). In order to participate in politics, an individual will inevitably encounter times when they must break with traditional morality. An ethic of ultimate ends is not realistic or plausible for the field of politics, particularly when it is followed steadfastly. An ethic of responsibility is more compatible with politics, as it allows the response to a situation to be determined by the circumstances rather than inflexible rules, while still maintaining accountability for one’s own actions. This flexibility is most necessitated by the politicians use of violence. There is a fallacy that an “ethic of ultimate ends” and an “ethic of responsibility” are incompatible and cannot be reconciled. A politician can follow an ethic of responsibility, while still following certain ethical principles of ultimate ends, on which they will hold their ground. Weber states, “... an ethic of ultimate ends and an ethic of responsibility are not absolute contrasts but rather supplements, which only in unison constitute a genuine man- a man who can have the ‘calling for politics’”(Weber 4). True morality in politics is found in the compromise between the competing ethical codes, and the ability to discern when this compromise is necessary is