The Law Enforcement Officers : An Excessive Amount Of Power During The American Citizens

Police can be credited for helping people during times of need and taking extra working hours in challenging situations. The streets may be scary to venture in due to criminals, but the police make it safe for us. Every day they will step out to deal with different types of violence in the society. However, that’s not an excuse to engage in appropriate behaviors (Perez, Douglas and Moore 119). Some of these misconducts include wrong arrests, police corruption, witness tampering, racial profiling, surveillance abuse, false evidence, intimidation, police brutality, and off-duty

The role of police officers is very significant to American history. Police work toward protecting citizens’ rights and helping America become the land of the free. The United States of America is built from the U.S. Constitution Bill of Rights and police play a major role in making sure American rights are met. Evolution has changed many of American history for the better; policing is part of those changes. As new issues in society arise, police must change and adapt to protect and serve the public.

Police in America began as the night watch system that protected cities from crime, fire, and disorder. Of course early policing was influenced by the British, and so was American Law which derived from English common law. This would also form a correlation to American policing policies that diverged from the English’s Magna Carta and as well the French. The French established a centralized government that entailed men to take an oath of loyalty. The police in America started as night watch groups, then employment changed to police officers being political appointed which was very corrupted, but throughout the years things changed again to serve the public. Instead of a political selected police force that earns it’s pay through bribes and

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)

Police officers are individuals who enforce the law upon their community to ensure that their citizens remain safe. In the past couple of years, officers of the law have been involved in acts of brutality that seem to go beyond the proper measurements of protection for their citizens. Policemen are supposed to protect their citizens from danger and from harm, not impose a threat on them. The fact that officers have a history of abusing their power indicates that their trust amongst the community has been corrupted. Those who have been affected of police brutality feel as though they have been deceived. They no longer feel that police officers will protect them, but rather abuse them, and that is a problem. We have began to live in a community in which an individual feels frightened when seeing a cop, rather than feeling protected. Some individuals may argue that police brutality is not a problem due to the fact that it is not consistent enough to catch the attention of needing a solution. However, that idea means little when the level of brutality has led to the death of several innocent victims in some cases. We must not wait for there to be a pattern of death at the hands of police officials to consider this a problem. One death indicates that preventive measures must be taken to ensure that these officers are no longer put in the position to abuse their power to begin with.

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 police officers actually serve 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 some

Police Officers worldwide are becoming way too powerful, to be “protecting” and “looking out” for we the peoples best interests. First, let 's start out with a word for word definition of Police Power and their responsibilities. “In United States constitutional law, police power is the capacity of the states to regulate behavior and enforce order within their territory for the betterment of the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of their inhabitants.” But yet the cops are the ones killing unarmed, or no imminent threat to them or others. Now, I’m not a genius but I know that isn 't, part of protecting our health, safety, and to be shot by the ones who are suppose to protect us. In 2015 a shocking number of 1140 people were shot and KILLED by our police force according to The Counted. The police are suppose to be looking after us, protecting us

As a society, we have come to fear the police officers who we have faithfully relied on to protect us as citizens. The men and women who are sworn under a police oath are far too often walk the line between good and evil. Within the United States we often hear of police brutality cases that are gone unpunished. Or when an officer acts without any ethical judgement and is held without responsibility. The police officers who have been hired to serve us have turned into a domestic military, with the arsenal of our army and without any rules to abide.

Police officers once were called peace keepers however now they seem to be nothing more than law enforcing officers. Most still do their jobs but they are more concerned about quotas and making arrests on Innocent people rather than keeping peace. Which as a following result has brought up a lot of apprehensiveness between the police and their citizens. With increasing violence in cities and states, police officers methods have slowly become more aggressive, bringing a rise in unnecessary police brutality. It is a big problem, and it just looks like the abuse of an officer’s power.

There have been many occurrences where policemen are seen or documented doing violent and inappropriate actions upon others. Citizens, in particular, are wrongfully being persecuted due to their misconduct. Not to mention, that officers would go as far as to brutally beat or even shoot others. When confronted to a situation, an officer can either use verbalization; which is recommended, or use force if necessary. However, some Officers use more force than that is needed and doing so may drive others to think who's really at fault. I believe that many innocent people are unlawfully getting mistreated due to the police’s thoughtless actions.

When looking at the interaction between local, state, and federal law enforcement officers, we have seen in our country that there can be extreme misusage of power and even abuse of power that has profoundly affected members of the minority races McNamara & Burns, 2009). One issue that I have personally encounter between myself and law enforcement officers in my community is them attempting to strong arm me into believing the lies that they were telling me when they were looking for my cousin. Law enforcement officers have the constitutional right to our right lie, deceive, and manipulate members of the community that they encounter during an investigation (White, 2001). But law enforcements ability to achieve their goals in an inquiry may

“I am the law” (Copping Out, 57). Just because one is given power, does not mean they are powerful. The badge and gun mean nothing but line or duty. The duty or officers is to serve and protect, right? The serving part is down, but he “protect” part could use a little work. The police corruption rate has risen in the past few years, due to carelessness and dishonesty. There have been reasons behind the problem, such as racism, immigration, and simply abuse of authority among officers. There have been many reports of this type of misconduct toward innocent people, for years. Power can only be taken so far, when it comes to balancing what is fair and what is not. Some take advantage of power, for their own benefit. Sometimes the people trusted

Police have a very difficult job to perform. Placing themselves in dangerous situations and having to deal with criminals every day is a very admirable position to hold. Their jobs may seem pretty straight forward to the general public but the job for law enforcement can be very difficult at times. Their jobs are just not to arrest the bad citizens, although this is true to a point but there is much more beyond their jobs that is accomplished on a daily basis and that the general public does not see. Law enforcement is faced to the tough moral decisions on a daily basis. They are the ones to decide if a law is broken and act upon it all while make sure that the freedoms of the US Constitution are not infringed upon. To protect them and prevent

Fairfax County police have spent over two million dollars on equipment for themselves with taxpayer dollars. Over the years many have begun to notice the misconduct of the police. Some say that their behavior is justified, but opponents argue that the amount of police wrongdoing is a small quantity compared to the majority of the force. This may be true, but the truth of the matter is that the number of police committing violent crime is comparable to the amount of regular people engaging in crime. This means that the people society is supposed to be getting help from could be hurting them instead. Both views should be considered in the debate. Many police abuse the power they’ve given through sexual harassment, police brutality, and spending copious amounts of taxpayer money.

What they do or fail to do can affect seriously the span of the damage to life, property, and community spirit. Police officers are required to take an oath when they first join their department. The police oath is a code of ethics. The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics establishes the basic responsibility of a police officer is and I quote: “As a Law Enforcement Officer, my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality and justice. I will constantly strive to achieve these objectives and ideals, dedicating myself before God to my chosen profession…law enforcement.” These are the expectations of the citizens, and when they are abused it threatens the faith of all. The most recent case raising unethical questions may be the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, an unarmed black male shot down by police officers. Another reason might be the rise in reports of suspicious deaths of inmates in custody making headlines across the country. These type of situations bring up difficult questions regarding the limits of police authority, are there some inequalities in the way that law enforcement officers treat certain racial, socioeconomic, or cultural groups? Are the factors, such as whether a citizen is ethnic or white, poor or Middle class, making a difference in the type of treatment one is likely to receive from the