The Law Enforcement Job When Interacting With Citizens Essay

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.

Today’s justice professionals are in the public eye more than ever. There are a multitude of devices out there that allow civilians to capture every move a street officer makes. It is more crucial now than ever that these officers arm themselves with the knowledge of ethics along with the items on their utility belt. The wrong choice in any decision a justice professional makes will have the public ready and willing to lash out. These difficult ethical decisions are all part of the job that they have taken. Taking the time to learn about what is right and wrong is essential to their positions in society.

Throughout history, there has been very few careers that require such a high degree of an ethical standard such as the one required for law enforcement. There is, however, a multitude of careers that require the dedication and heart such as required for a police member. Where this dedication and heart differs relies solely on the difference in the job. Officers are required to be aware of their surroundings nearly all the time as if something were to happen they would be required to navigate through the situation successfully. Somebody such as a CEO for a multimillion dollar company would not require this same quality due to the fact it is not part of their job description and the only individual that he/she needs to be worried about is themselves. However, in today’s society, and with media being an ever growing aspect, some police officers have decided on their own personal way to handle justice. So unfortunately, this small percentage of police contract a huge amount of negative eyes to the profession. This small number of individuals bring a negative view to the police department as a whole and for this cause an issue in the public’s eye. Regardless of what many individuals believe, many of the police officers decide on the ethical side of the job and are hardworking professionals who seek out to just serve the public. However, being an African American male myself the main issue I have and want to combat is the punishment officers should face if

According to the textbook, Neal Trautman’s corruption continuum helps clarify the unscrupulous activities of cops. The corruption continuum includes four levels on how organizations can become corrupt. The principal level is as per the following: usage of approaches that guarantee that officers know the moral decides that they need to take after. On the off chance that the manager neglects to do this, then officers will trust that they can be degenerate and no will make a move to fix it. The following level is the procedure that includes police chiefs not doing anything when they know of exploitative acts are being dedicated by officers or when they attempt to cover for those officers who take part in defilement. The third level includes officers

United States Law Enforcement officers are constantly under pressure. Their job requires them to serve and protect mankind, under any circumstances, at all times. Because of this, officers run the risk of putting themselves in harmful situation. This may include apprehending a violent assailant, or entering harmful locations. In this study, I used books and articles such as, Criminal Justice Today, to get an understanding of the dangers Law Enforcement Officer face in the line of duty. When performing task outside the prescient, office4rs are put into dangerous situations because of their surroundings, offender’s actions, and officer mistakes. Due to the high stress of this job, it not only affects their performance, but their health as well.

Police officers take an oath to protect and serve the community. The community looks to police as a leader. I believe leaders set the standards, so police officers should be held to higher standards than the general public. Police officers are considered to be at the top of the organization chart. A wise saying states, “If the head (brain) is not working correctly the other parts of the body is lost.” The police are considered to be the head and the community is the other part. How could they enforce the laws that have been set by the government if they had no ethics and morals? There would be complete turmoil through the country.

Have you ever been pulled over by a police officer? It is a nerve-wracking incident where you question what you were doing. Why were you pulled over? Was it due to speeding, or failing to obey basic laws of the road? Or, is it something else, like your race, appearance, or other reasons that should not result in a traffic stop? On average, an individual of color is thirty-one percent more likely to be pulled over by a police officer compared to a white individual. Black individuals are also about twenty-three percent more likely to pulled over than a Hispanic individual (Ingraham). By these statistics from 2011, it is reasonable not only to conclude but also infer that police specifically target black individuals. Think about it, many police-related incidents broadcasted on a news channel involves a police officer pulling over a black individual for a traffic violation, and the incident escalating from there. Even though different people drive differently, police target black individuals when it comes to traffic violations. Police are more likely to pull over a black individual and search their vehicle than any other race. Racial profiling being performed by police is an easy subject to have a viewpoint on but is not discussed enough.

Corruption has always been a danger to law enforcement, just as it has been a danger to all of mankind since the beginning of time. Since the very first police agency was formed in the 1800s, corruption has been widespread. The 19th century was an era in which politics played a very large role in police forces. Various political parties essentially had some police departments in their pockets, and as long as officers served to further those political parties’ agendas, the officers’ continued employment was guaranteed. Since politicians have not always been known for being straight-laced, one can easily see how corruption within police departments became prevalent. Since officers were not serving the people, but rather the political elite, their motives were constantly in question. It was not long before politicians began employing police officers to overlook and even protect their illicit activities. Through this practice, officers began to see the potential monetary and political benefits of allowing and participating in certain illegal actions. Even after the establishment of countermeasures such as police commissions, civil service exams, and legislative changes, corruption remained rampant. This corruption was perhaps best exemplified by none other than the actions of many officers within the Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Studies from Perez and Moore (2012) indicates that “The police were considered to be governmental agents who regularly abused their power, who often operated against the very principle of justice for they ostensibly stood, and who were not intelligent enough to grasp these realities” (p. 3). Police ethics is an important aspect of today’s professional police force. In the early days of policing in the United States, the phrase police ethics were indistinct and to countless Americans it was rather a joke. Police officers had a long history of being unintelligent, uneducated and incompetent.

      Two major periods of immigration influxes since the turn of the century as well as the transformation of the nation due to both illegal and legal immigration have determined large Hispanic communities in many Western states. States like Texas, for example, have struggled to define increasingly complex Hispanic communities and create a response, both in the government and in law enforcement, for addressing the needs of these large Hispanic communities.          In recent years, an obvious dichotomous view has come to the forefront of national debates about the composition of Hispanic communities in border

Ethics, or moral conduct, are of major importance in the Criminal Justice field today. If the police force condoned unethical behavior, there would be very little, if any, justice being served. Official police misconduct is any “objectionable actions taken by police officers in connection with their official duties, which can lead to a miscarriage of justice”. (wikipedia.com). However, “police misconduct may include a broader range of misconduct, reflecting the high standards that we expect of police officers. Unlike official misconduct, police misconduct can apply to off-duty behavior as well as conduct on the job”. (clc.qld.gov.au).

An important objective of the police officers, is to protect and serve the community and the best way to do that is to enforce ethics. According to the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, there are four different dilemmas, “discretion (legality), duty (service), honesty, and loyalty” (Pollock). When an officer has been taught these different ethics and is able to use each one of them when deciding to pull their gun out and shoot or beat a suspect after they stopped resisting, this incorporates a better relationship between the officers and the community. In the police academy, the recruits are taught these different dilemmas as a foundation so that when they are put into a particular situation they can make the best decision on how to handle the

Police Ethics are always under constant scrutiny these days it seems. Police officers are held to a higher standard by the public and are expected to always act appropriately in the way they interact with the community or a suspect. Basically ethics is just doing the right thing. For example, a police officer is expected to stop and help a stranded person in a car, but sadly that sometimes doesn’t happen. Hopefully the police officer could not because they had a more serious call

Did you know that 42% of Americans find their local law enforcement untrustworthy?  This is due in large part to the number of police related incidents that have been in the news of late.  The negative publicity that law enforcement is getting has an adverse effect on all police departments, nationwide. In turn this is having an effect on police-community relations.  To better the relations between the Ringgold police department and the community there needs to be more outreach programs.

In today's society the police, play may roles. They are the peacekeepers, law enforcement and many other jobs. However, recently they have become the subject of a very heated and large debate. Many believe that the police should give up their brute type tactics for a more civilized and humanized approach, while others feel that the police should crack down on the most insignificant of offences to type and disparage crimes that are more serious. In this paper, we will be analyzing both sides of this issue, from the look of the police administration to the public's view of it. When we mention today's police force we will be using the New York City police force as are basis of comparison, because they seem to