The Pros And Cons Of Law Enforcement Officers

Nowadays, police play a significant role in the society. They are important because they help us maintain order, ensure peace and tranquility, prevent crimes, and etc. However, a study from Pew Research Center suggested that there were only “about one-third (36%) of the public says they have a lot of confidence in their police department” in America (Morin, 2016). I think some of the reasons why people lack confidence on police is because they often heard and witnessed police officers abuse their power and receive unequal application of law. In my opinion, I do not trust the police because there was one occasion, which I met the police and their actions and words left a profound impression to me.

Having had the opportunity to see both sides of the argument play out in the City of Memphis and as a member of the Memphis Police Department. I have become an advocate for requiring entry-level police officers to have at the very minimum an associate degree or the equivalent college credits. The college requirement can only be avoided with military experience. However, my position is not that more education makes you a better police officer or less education makes you a lousy officer. I believe that there should be a “happy medium” when it comes to police work. A good officer will be empathic, fair and in tune with the needs of the community and its members. Requiring a level of education for your entry-level officers speaks volumes about your agency and their dedication to professionalism. The benefits of having a college educated officer have shown to make a difference in the way they do their jobs. An educated police officer is less likely to utilize force when interacting with his co-workers or civilians. A department with educated officers also has shown to see a reduction in misconduct and disciplinary issues(Gómez-Mejía et al., 2016). Some years back the Memphis Police Department had relaxed their

Police departments across the country and their actions of their employees have been scrutinized a lot lately in the media. Not only the way their employees behave but the way they recruit potential employees. Police officers take an oath to protect the communities that they serve in and uphold the constitution no matter what race, gender or ethnicity. With that being said, police officers should also be made up of people of different genders, races, and ethnicities.

When it comes to policing and the hot spot techniques used by law enforcement usually focus on smaller areas usually in urban areas where crime is to be higher. Researchers have found that most urban police departments use computers to map crime verses manpower of actually police monitoring. Alone with some critics, I agree that this approach is unethical resulting in discriminatory practices with law enforcement which simply targets black communities (Rosenfeld, n.d.). But we have to look at a different side to the method; some feel that it is very effective in terms of making a community safer, and also creating better education and recreational services with the neighborhood,. Some researchers believe that the hot spot method is a good

It breaks my heart watching the news or scrolling through social networks to see the lives of blacks being taken; especially young adults. Over the years major concerns have surfaced. One of my main concern is this issue getting worst. The issue has been stirring out of control and I cannot imagine it being worse than it is. What could possibly be worse than this? There are police officers taking actions without fully thinking about the situations at hand. Violent rallies and protesting has all been a result from this issue; which is added more fumes to the fire. Law enforcement were hardly trusted by the public before and this issue did not make things any better. The “us against mentality” mindset is even stronger and it’s eating away the

1) The police in this article seem to be conducting sort of preemptive stops, where they are not necessarily waiting for people to commit crimes, rather, they are stopping people, searching them, asking questions, and running a check to see if anything turns up. As seen in the article: “I watched the police stop pedestrians or people in cars, search them, run their names to see if any warrants came up, ask them to come in for questioning, or make an arrest at least once a day...” (Goffman, pg. 343). This is more similarly related to a stop and frisk method of policing, deeming “reasonable suspicion” as grounds to search someone.

First of all a big “Thank You” to the cops who work day and night for the safety of the people and the society. The work cop do for the people is highly praise- worthy. Today we can walk and do legal things without fear because of cops who make it possible for us. But there are some people who doesn’t see this and instead tell others about the danger of cops. Yes, there are some bad cops out there who had intentionally or unintentionally taken wrong decisions and had harmed the reputation of the police department. This doesn’t mean every cops are the same.

Police behavior has been a continuous controversy in the United States. Communities have begun to fear law enforcement and can potentially rebel against police forces because of the way these acts are surfacing the media. Police officers are sought out to be the people in charge of containing chaos in society, but most of the time, now, they are the root of the chaos. For the most part, I believe some police officers know how to properly hold their composure when it comes to dealing with difficult situations. I believe this is solely due to the levels of education and skills new recruitees are obtaining. There are other instances in which I believe that not all officers deserve to be police officers. I have often seen television shows about what police forces consist of, in

In this scenario as the Chief of Police this student would impose significant action as opposed to termination. The individual in question has a virtually clean record and on paper the individual in question is considered to be a good police officer. Good police officers are needed. Although the act that was committed is not something anyone should be looking at while in a work. It is against all companies’ policies that do not deal in the matter of pornography and is unacceptable. In the military when an individual does something distasteful he or she is not terminated for their actions, but they are held accountable and punished according to the rules and regulations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice also known as the UCMJ.

Being in law enforcement is something that has always been on my radar. We are all held accountable to the same laws and principles. Our justice system doesn't always make that happen for everyone, sometimes justice falls short, the wrong people are set free, while others are wrongfully imprisoned. I feel very strongly about locking those away who are detrimental to society and to defenseless kids.

When it comes to ethics this is a major part of any law enforcement job when interacting with citizens. Ethics is the moral principles that govern a person’s or groups behavior. In order to put ethics in a reality perspective, it is when a person is faced with a decision. When picking a decision, they can choose the right way of doing things based on how they were trained and their past experiences or go against their training and life experience. When doing something in an unethical way the after effect will not always sit right with that person because of their poor judgment especially with having a career in law enforcement. When that officer must explain their reason why they made that decision, sometimes it is hard for them to explain why they did it. Once a person makes an ethical decision they can later express how and why they made that decision. They can go on to say, “I made my decision based on my training and past experiences that I had in my careers. To the best on my knowledge, I solved the issue how the department has it outline in the Police Manual. By following my training this is how I came to my decision and I acted on it.” With that officer, would not be in as much trouble because they used an ethical decision to solve a problem. If that same officer solved an issue using an unethical decision they would not be able to articulate the reason behind their decision making which could land them out of a job or even in jail. So, when it

At some points in our life, we are sometimes faced with challenges in which we never really know how to deal with. When it comes to people with psychological ailments, painkiller or alcohol dependences, or disorders like autism can make a police officer’s job somewhat tougher. Therefore, there must be a way to diminish the numerous accounts of harsh threats that state that multiple officers have done some bad things to the person they reprimanded. Kind of like when a “threat” to the public could either be a person who is showing a gun to the public, however to the police it could be a real situation or a less dangerous one it just depends on the capacity of the person posing the threat.

The use of force has been around for almost forever it’s how we maintain balance. Without it people don’t tend to listen at all. For example, when a child disobeys his mother what is she going to do to get the child to listen? She is going to use a certain way of force. Im not saying that we need force but what I am saying is that it’s been around for almost forever. And once something has been around forever it’s a habit and it’s hard to change. The only problem I see with it is the fact is some people don’t know how to limit the amount of force that is being used.

Police are using excessive force on the public because, yes, they are doing their job, but they don't have to be so rough and manhandle the public. “The officer who shot and killed Michael Brown was unaware the unarmed black teenager was a suspect in a convenience store robbery earlier that day, and had stopped Brown and his friend because they were walking in the middle of the street blocking traffic” (“Missouri”). Michael Brown was walking the middle of the street when the police officer approached him to get on the side of the road because there were cars trying to drive by. Brown became defensive towards the police officer, so the officer took matters into his own hands and shot Brown, causing him to die. The police officer shouldn’t have shot him where he did, he could have just tased him, so Brown would calm down and be reasonable. The officer should have never taken it to the extent of killing Brown. Yes, earlier that day Brown did rob a convenience store, but at the time of the shooting the officer didn’t know that he had done that, so that had nothing to do with the shooting.

As with Ryan Nash, there is no such thing as a perfect officer, but the police departments in our cities, towns, and villages are here to serve and protect. The majority of officers do their best; and, in my mind, they are heroes. There are many officers that are single but there are also those that are married with children. When they put on their uniform and leave for work they know it is possible that they will not return home. It is unimaginable to think of the many emotions they would have to go through during the course of a single day. Depending on where the officer works, they might have to handle such horrible incidents as traffic crashes, murders, thefts, rape, or child abuse. To say nothing of the fact that there is always a possibility that some armed crazy person may want to attack an officer without reason. I am sure that it may