The Problem Of Police Enforcement

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.

Police use of deadly force in the United States has been growing at a rapid pace due to several incidents that have taken place over the last few years. The biggest question today remains why has this been such a relevant topic across the U.S. lately? The use of deadly force is specifically important because it directly affects the publics’ attitudes and behaviors towards the police and government. Some will blame police policies, some will blame abuse of power, and some even claim the use of deadly force is necessary to in order to properly defend themselves. The use of deadly force continues to increase due to lack of what the true definition of “use of force” and what actually means. This lack of definition creates

Officers are just protecting themselves. Tamir Rice a twelve-year-old black boy was shot and killed. Tamir rice of ohio was carrying a toy gun and aimed it at police. He was then shot by the officer(Ochs p3). If a person no matter what age is going to raise a gun at a cop the the cop is going to react by drawing his weapon.John Crawford of ohio was also shot by police. John walked into walmart carrying an air rifle police arrived and told him to put it down he did not so he was shot (Ochs ). If a person is carrying around a gun the police are not going to mess around they are going to take care of the threat. 38-year-old Richard Ramirez was gunned down by police. He was sitting in his car and reached down at his waistband the officer then

There is a significant health issue facing the public as well as law enforcement every day, suicide. The numbers surrounding suicide are shocking effects people of all backgrounds. In the year 2010 more than 38,000 adults committed suicide. Then in 2011 around 1 million adults admitted to attempting suicide, while 8 million had serious suicidal thoughts. Law Enforcement officers are at an even higher risk then most due to experiencing such a large number of risk factors. These factors include but are not limited to poor physical health, access to fire arms, domestic abuse, substance abuse, exposure to violence and suicide; depression, anxiety and other mental diseases. These factors lead to an above average number of officer suicides every

Now one way to prevent things like this from happening again is to train the young and inexperienced police officers the correct and effective way to judge the use of force. An officer must reasonably believe it is necessary to shoot to kill to defend him or herself or someone else from imminent death. It’s a call made in the blink of an eye, in tense and uncertain circumstances, sometimes limited by distance, distractions or darkness. And it brings to bear all of the officer’s experience, awareness and, perhaps most important, training. The question is how do we do this? How do we prepare our officers for the real world? Half a second. According to experts, that’s how much time an officer has to pull a weapon when confronted with someone perceived as dangerous and about to inflict harm. Studies show that it takes a quarter of a second for an officer to recognize a threat, such as when a person is reaching for a gun, and another quarter-second for that officer to draw his gun. It takes another .06 seconds to pull the trigger. One place that is trying to make a difference and make those

Police officers are often viewed as oppressors and unjust by the community, when in reality they are just doing their jobs. The job of a police officer is to apprehend criminals and detect crime, and the maintenance of public order and to the extend and complication of this duty police officers often need to make split second decision that is not often view by the public as what we call “self-defense” which is a right we all have as human beings and stated in the Universal Declaration of

Police departments undergo an immense amount of scrutiny. Many members of society question their motives, if they are performing their jobs adequately, and if they are using police discretion appropriately. Over the years there have been many cases that have involved members of law enforcement or the entire police department, that have placed law enforcement in a negative light. This negative light is attention that neither society nor the police departments will benefit from. One major case that has been in the media is the case of Kelly Thomas. Kelly Thomas was beaten and eventually died from injuries he had sustained from local law enforcement. This case is a major case because it brings awareness to society about police overstepping their boundaries, the lack of training police officers receive with dealing with the mentally ill, and how the mentally ill are treated in the criminal justice system.

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

“Overall, reported homicides were up 16% in 2015, but a majority of cities (44 of 60) have not seen a statistically significant increase in homicides” (Congressional Research Service). Some believe the rate of violent crimes in the United States is increasing due to the Ferguson incident. The Ferguson incident is the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager who was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. The shooting aroused protests around the United States pertaining to reforming on how police use force. Experts have been pegging the general increase in violent crimes in the United States due to the Ferguson incident the “Ferguson effect.” The Ferguson effect tells that in wake of the incident, police have become more reluctant to engage in proactive policing.

The Frontline documentary, Policing the police, makes the argument that there are many problems with police departments across the United States and uses his correspondence with the Newark, New Jersey Police Department to make that point.

In my opinion I think that there is a problem with the policing in America. Due to the fact that the police would rather implement force then to talk through the situation. I think that if more police were like Chief of Police Chris Magnus that crime would go down and that the use of force would not be necessary. I also think that police officers should not have guns on them. One reason being that if they get knocked out in a violent situation someone could take their gun. Another reason is that by having a gun they are already making the problem worse because the majority of people feel threatened by guns.

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.

The movie ‘Policing the Police” is a documentary with INTERVIEWS done of citizens and the Newark Police Department. The first word I thought of when I began watching this movie was DYSFUCTION. From both the police and citizens stand point. The Newark Police Department seems to lack organization and communication. The city is a mess with gangs and gun violence. I believe this movie can have both the CONFLICT and FUNCTIONALIST theories applied. Looking at it from a conflict perspective the police and community are having somewhat of a power struggle. The community feels it’s being targeted and its members are being STEROTYPED just for being young African American men. For example, the citizens feel as though they are being profiled and unconstitutionally

The psychologist serves a great purpose in the law enforcement as well. The police psychologists provide services that are used to counter police use of excessive force. The psychologists are there to characterize the types of officers who are known to abuse force and to recommend psychology-based intervention that could help police managers reduce cases of excessive force. Some think that the police departments should rely mostly on pre employment screening to identify violence-prone candidates.

The earlier development of the law enforcement was developed by a man named Sir Robert Peel also known as the “Father of Modern Policing” (Bennett & Hess, 2007). He was born February 5, 1788 in Chamber Hall near Bury in Lancashire (Bloy, n.d.). He was the one who greatly influenced and set forth the fundamental principles of the police force. He developed an organized force called the London Metropolitan Police in 1829 that protected the people who were victimized due to high unemployment, poverty, and crime. An organization is “an artificial structure created to coordinate either people or groups and resources to achieve a mission or goal” (Bennett & Hess, 2007). The police’s goal is to protect and serve their community. Although the term of a police officer is mixed up with a peace officer “all police officers are peace officers, but all peace officers are not police officers” (Walker & Katz, 2011). The principles that Sir Robert Peel set for the police include: