The Future of Policing
Christina Johnson
CJS/210
September 14, 2014
Ronald Rucker
University of Phoenix
Policing in the United States has changed dramatically since it was first brought to the thirteen colonies from England. However, some of the issues faced then are being faced in policing today. There are also new trends that are prevalent, and these trends will continue to have lasting effects on the future of policing. Even though new trends improve policing overall, they can also cause more serious issues. It is crucial to continue making changes topolicing because it allows law enforcement officers to keep up with the rest of society, including the knowledge of new crime trends. This paper will
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Stress can cause officers to develop depression, and it can cause them to have problems at home and work. As a result, officers are two times more likely to commit suicide than civilians are (Grant & Terry, 2008). With that being said, there needs to be more avenues for help out there for officers to be more successful in managing their stress. Help could come in the form of better training for new recruits regarding stress and better counseling services for current police officers. Stress will continue to be an issue within law enforcement, and it will only get worse in the future of policing. That is why it is important to develop measures now to help officers manage their stress levels instead of waiting. It is a known problem now, so why not develop a plan to combat it? Moving along, one of the biggest issues and trends facing law enforcement today and in the future is the use of technology. Today, police organizations have access to a wide range of technological tools, and they are continually advancing and improving. Some of these include records management systems, computer-aided dispatch, GPS technology, license plate readers, biometrics (facial recognition software, for example), crime mapping via geographical information systems, and less-than-lethal weapons (Tasers, beanbag rounds, tear gas,
Policing dates back thousands of years to even before the Roman times. The origins of American policing are closely related the Anglo-Saxon model which gave a more communal responsibility. The four Eras’ of American policing that will be focused on are The Political, Professional, Community Policing, and Homeland Security.
As crime coexists with humanity, the presence of the police force ensures the suppression of crime and the safety for our society. Every occupation has its own work stress. What is unique is all the different stress found in one job. Aside from the heroic services police officers perform in their duty, they experience overwhelming stress in their daily duty. Police stress refers to the negative pressures related to police work (Police Stress, n.d.). In order to maintain peace and order, there must be an effective police force up and running. For that to happen, departments need to be aware and deal with the negative effects caused by police stress. Whereas, police officers must conquer their stress in order to work at their
The biggest issue that effects policing is technology. Technology is at a rise and growing at an incredible rate. Technology advancement gives criminals a whole new way or an easier way to commit crimes. Eventually technology is going to take away jobs from our police officers and other individuals working in law enforcement. We are no longer going to need police officers out on patrol monitoring traffic, we have high speed cameras to detect incident detection, and vehicle counting, traffic flow monitoring and even people who violate traffic laws like speeding, running red lights and stop signs.
Policing is not just keeping the peace in today’s society. Police officers have several responsibilities and also new technology to learn. New technology helps law enforcement preform a better job in communication, crime solving, decreasing crime and making communities a better place to live for citizens and their families. Biometrics and GPS tracking are two useful technologies’ that have made the police able to catch criminals, and solve crimes quicker and more sufficient. Biometrics modalities used by law enforcement is fingerprints, DNA (Blood), and patterns of the voice and faces of victims. Then GPS Tracking
Policing today consists of three eras. These three eras have adapted and built off one another through history (Parr, 2014). The first era started around 1840 to 1930, and is known as the Political Era. The second Era is known as the Reform Era and lasted from 1930 to 1970. The last era is called the Community-Problem Solving Era and is still being adapted and used today. The Political Era emphasizes on meeting the needs of politicians. The police were given power through the local government and the community had very little say in what happened. The police and politicians worked together to control the city and neighborhoods (Palmiotto, 2000). This was often referred to as a ward. The ward politician controlled all the police in their neighborhood. The police officers tasks included not only crime prevention and order but a lot of social service activities that involved their neighborhoods. The officers resembled the ethnic backgrounds of the neighborhoods they lived and worked in and performed their patrols gaining trust from their community (Palmiotto, 2000). This allowed positive integration of police officers leading to more public service, and the trust of the officers to stop crime when is starts.
The Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing states, “In order to achieve external legitimacy, law enforcement agencies should involve the community in the process of developing and evaluating policies and procedures.” To that end, a vital link to the community can be achieved through the formation of a citizen advisory board. The board should be a cross section of the community with representatives from the general citizenry, business owners, faith community, educational professionals and other stakeholders who represent the interest of the public. With the formation and input of a citizen advisory committee, law enforcement executives do not relieve themselves of their legal operational control of the agency but
In this week reading, I learned about all the different future society changes in policing. There is numerous influence of changes like aging population, cultural diversity, shifting economics, immigration and migration. There has been a huge increase life span since the twentieth century. People who were 65 older only made up 4 percent of the population, now they make up 14 percent of the population. When the economy goes bad it affects the demand of police officers and crime. As people become more diverse and older they start to migrate to find a better life in other states.
“Because the concept of "off duty" does not exist for most law enforcement officers, they experience a higher rate of divorce, alcoholism, and suicide. Stress is simply defined as an elevation in a person's state of arousal or readiness, caused by a stimulus or demand. As stress arousal increases, health and performance actually improve. Within manageable levels, stress can help sharpen our attention and mobilize our bodies to cope with threatening
Law enforcement has three major eras throughout history. The eras of policing that will be discussed in this paper are as follows; the political era which was from 1840 – 1930, the reform era which was from 1930 -1980, and last but not least the community problem solving era which is from 1980- 1995. Each one of these era’s had an impact on today’s policing and we are going to discuss each one and ultimately decide which one had the most effect on today’s policing.
When you think of American Policing the first thing that comes to mind is men in the black and blue uniforms and the people who protect us every day and maintain order among society. But from what you see now, behind it is a long history of troublesome problems and bright spots. When it comes to the history of American policing you have to go farther back then you think. The definition of policing is: having the duty of maintaining law and order in or for an area ("Police definition,”). The reason I like to look so far back is because I strongly believe if you want to understand where you are going you first have to see where you have come from. You must do this in order to see how to move forward, improve, and
The role of police departments in the US kept on changing, depending on the prevailing circumstances and conditions. In the post-Civil War era, for instance, the attention was shifted to breaking strikes. More than ever before, the 19th century saw an increase in industrial actions against employers. In particular, labor unrest was very common. In New York, for instance, there were recorded 5090 strikes, most of which involved up to a million workers (Paoline, Gau, & Terrill, 2016). What caught the eye is the fact that most of these strikes were actions that were called against individual companies. Such businesses that were targeted often found it difficult to prevent the rioters from destroying property.
Since the beginning of police work in America, the system has changed from disorganized chaos into a well structured and rather complex network of communication, response efforts, and detection of lawless behavior. From the creation of the town watch to the transformation of the first police force in the colonies to the lawlessness of the old west and the efforts to revive efficient police work, America has been ever advancing its protection of those who live in the White House, the suburbs, the slums, and even those struggling on the streets. The History of Policing in America is not derived from one origin of time but rather taking the highest qualities of protection from within itself and countries of both friend and foe.
Policing is a very difficult, complex and dynamic field of endeavor that is always evolves as hard lessons teach us what we need to know about what works and what don’t work. There are three different Era’s in America’s policing: The Political Era, The Reform Era, and The Community Problem Solving Era. A lot has changed in the way that policing works over the years in the United States.
Gaines, L. K., & Kappeler, V. E. (2014). Policing in america (8th ed.). (S. Decker-Lucke, Ed.) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America: Anderson Publishing. Retrieved January 2017
Police Departments are continuing to evolve to try to stay ahead if the criminal. Police technology is most influential changes relative to modern policing. Police agencies are using modern technology such as internet to convey information to the public, smart phones with the capacity to communicate with others from the field, and mobile computers to retrieve information, (Grant & Terry, 2012). Because police officers have mobile computers while in the field,