The New Zealand Police and the Mistakes They Have Made in the Past Few Years

Broderick, J. J. (1977). Police in a time of change. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.

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.

This essay will introduce two competing perspectives of policing, they are the orthodox and revisionist perspectives. This essay will then relate the orthodox and revisionist perspectives to the themes of lack of structure, industrialisation and finally hostility. It will then discuss whether the creation of the Metropolitan Police by Sir Robert Peel in 1829 was an effective solution to the changes within society as well as the challenges brought about through crime and disorder. The orthodox view is that the Metropolitan Police were, in fact, a rational decision made to adapt to the needs of the society. They argue that the establishment of the ‘new’ police was inevitable. The revisionist view would state that the ‘new’ police were not a rational decision. They believed that crime and disorder were not increasing, it was just that the ways of counting crime were largely different to previously. The revisionists also believe that the new system was in part beneficial for which to tackle issues that may have occasioned due to the new ‘dangerous class’ (Monkkonen, 1981, p147). In this essay, there will be reference made to the Brixton Riots in 1981 with a clear explanation as to how the orthodox and revisionist perspectives relate to modern policing activities.

I spent my third and fourth session of my practicum with Constable Dwayne Harrison and Constable Paul Davis. Both members of the Lethbridge Regional Police Service (LRPS) are in the patrol unit; responding to calls and investigating. Patrol work is broad, responding to calls that mostly consist of theft, mischief, and domestic. It defines the police as a public service and making the public happy to have someone to solve their problems.

Few doubted the endemic corruption of Cairns police in the early years of the 20th century, with the local cops so notoriously crooked even newspapers in far off Brisbane reported on their transgressions.

Copland is a crime movie about the corruption of police in New York city. It all started with one incident with a officer who shot two African American teens because he felt threatened. This resulted in other officers bad decisions and ultimately ended some people's lives. The way they resolved these problems was by one sheriffs good intentions and investigation skills. It brought to justice the wrong doings of these police. When he did want to do something about it he decided to go to Internal Affairs investigator, but was pushed away because he didn't say anything when he was first asked about it.

The impression of public in the U.S of the police using excessive forces, such as brutality, in today's modern policing continues to be a sensitive issue across the country. Many police agencies around the nation are under the pressure for alleged abuse of force from the view of the media perspective. Justified or not, the image of the police use of force continues to strike a nerve with the American public. However, an attempt to use force is often misunderstood by the community because of the media frenzy using false declarations and propaganda techniques. These techniques weaken the power of the police and reduce the trust that the community has in the police force.

Typically, people are under the impression that the police are bad tempered and use their weapons to overcome people. Instead of having police officers that fit this description, Australia and Germany both want to change the public’s opinion and for them to see the police as a positive role within society. The motto for the police in Germany is ‘die polizei dein freund und helfer’ which translates to ‘the police your friend and helper’, and is similar to the values of the Australian police system, which includes integrity, fairness, trust and respect. In 2011, the number of people killed by police officers in Australia and Germany was only 6 per country, compared to over 400 people in the US. This data should still be linked to the overall population, as Germany had a total of 80.2million inhabitants whereas Australia only had 22.3million in 2011. This statistic reinforces the overall message that both the Australian and German police systems want to convey to the public, and that is that they use their weapons as an absolute maximum and instead rely on their specialised training to deal with situations. It also allows Australia and Germany to separate themselves from other countries around the world, for example the US and Brazil who have bad reputations for their police system. This comparison between Australia and Germany shows

The movement from the former systems of policing to community policing system calls for major changes. These changes may be in terms of goals, aims, policies and activities of police units, as well as the general image portrayed by police force. Consequently, this movement bears an eminent amount of disagreements as well as resistance within the police force. The police officers and their managers are the major parties involved in the matter of resistance. The managers fear loss of power and authority to control their officers when they become community police, on the other hand the police officer do not welcome the new role of solving community problems (Rohe, Adams and Arcury, 2001). This is because they are used to the normal role of enforcing laws. The implementation process therefore demands training of police officers on their new roles.

While the Reform Era worked to professionalize police, as society became more complex, so did the role of the police officer. The Community Policing Era was developed as a result of the need to develop cooperation and positive relationships between the police and public. What developed out of this era was an essential element of community policing – public accountability. Police officers became accountable to their supervisors who in turn became accountable to the community. Accountability can be seen as an honest evaluation of achievement based on clearly defined objectives. Many of these objectives are defined by complex community and social problems; as such police officers require the capacity and flexibility to work on them in a variety of styles and employing a variety of strategies.

The dictionary definition of the police is “the organized civil force of a state, concerned with maintenance of law and order, the detection and prevention of crime, etc,” (Collins English Dictionary, 2002). This definition states the minimum of what the police actually do. Providing support for families, protecting society from criminals and responding to calls 24 hours a day 7 days a week are just some of the other roles that police have to deal with. In this essay the evolution of the police will be discussed as well as how the police are facing challenges.

Over the last several years, most police departments have been facing numerous financial challenges. The main reason is law enforcement agencies are expected to do more with less and the stagnant economy. The combination of these factors has been placing pressure on many departments to begin imposing budget cuts. Evidence of this can be seen with a survey that was conducted by the University of North Carolina. They found that 67% of police departments made some kind of budget cuts for 2011. The most severe reductions were occurring in large police departments such as Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. (Delfem, 2011, pp. 199 - 205) This is illustrating one of the most pressing issues affecting a wide variety of police departments across the country. To fully understand what is happening requires: examining the situation, how they are able to interact with other agencies (i.e. state / federal) and recommending the way this relationship can be improved. Together, these elements will offer specific insights about how police departments can effectively address this problem.

“Lack of leadership competency is often the most critical obstacle to successful police projects” (Yang, 2012, p. 535).

The style of police leadership has gradually changed over the last several years. The traditional belief that the solitary leader who possessed the wisdom, integrity, and courage to manage a police department, or a shift of officers has been replaced with the concept of teamwork (Wuestewald, 2013). The idea of using a team to manage an organization is nothing new in the private sector, however, replacing the old idea of a solitary leader has taken time and is slow to take hold in some organizations.

UK police are one of the professional police around the world and for their professionalism, commitment, motivation and commitment of supply for their activities and the country as a whole known. Like any other force, they take the motivation to continue their level of commitment. Depending upon the level of organization, there are a number of motivational factors and theories that maintain this level of motivation at the top of the world, but there is another factor, which provides a roadmap for organizations in terms of professional obligations. This is leadership.