The Pros And Cons Of The British Police Service

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.

Sir Robert Peel’s London Metropolitan Police Act and his principles of policing have helped modern day policing in many ways. By gaining the public’s trust, enabling them to call local law enforcement when help is needed,

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

The militarization of the police force would mean supplying them with military grade equipment and having them use military tactics ("Police Militarization"). The United States should not militarize the police force because it is not a necessary expense for a country with a lot of debt, it increases the chance of police violence, a topic that has been in the media a lot recently, and it would lessen citizen's trust in the police.

The United States Police model traces back to the British Model of Policing. Originating in the 1200s, British law enforcement started as organized posses. At the time if a man heard a victim cry out he joined the posse and helped track the criminal. Typically, leaders called shire reeve (county leaders) or comes stabuli (mounted officers) led the efforts. The world sheriff traces back to shire reeve and constable back to comes stabuli. Small numbers of mounted officers were employed which meant that there were not numerous enough to handle everything handled by today’s law enforcement. This system created many feuds among competing posses. Public executions, often including torture, were common, but trials were rare.

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

On a Wednesday evening at 9:05pm in Minnesota, an African American couple was driving in their car with a four-year-old daughter in the back seat. After being pulled aside by Joronimo Yanez, a police officer, for a broken tail light, Philando Castile, the driver, stopped his car. Officer Yanez asked Castile for his license and registration. Castile handed the officer his car license and registration, but also told him he has a weapon in his car, for which he was licensed to carry. Officer Yanez immediate words were “Don’t move!” As Castile put his hands up where the officer could clearly see them, officer Yanez shot him repeatedly four times in the arm to the horror of Castile, his girlfriend, and their four-year-old daughter. Completely stupefied by the event, Castile’s girlfriend, Reynolds, took out her phone and began streaming an online video directly to Facebook showing the immediate aftermath of the incident. In the video, Reynolds narrates the accident’s story and exclaimed, “You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir. Please don’t tell me he’s dead.” While recording, her four-years-old asked “Mammy, I’m scarred!” Reynolds answered, “It’s okay, I’m right here with you.” Officer Yanez returned and ordered Reynolds on her knees out of the car. Still being recorded, the other officers on the scene asked officer Yanez of his mindset, checking if he’s ok, completing ignoring the true victim, Castile. Castile was left bleeding

The way police manage critical incidents is of upmost importance. An incident that is manged well, will raise public confidence in the police, however if the incident is managed poorly it can have devastating effects on the victim and the general public will subsequently lose confidence in the police. ACPO’s definition of a critical incident is as follows “Any incident where the effectiveness of the police response is likely to have a significant impact on the confidence of the victim, their family and/or the community” (Constabulary, December 2007) Any police officer can notify an incident as possibly critical, therefore, police officers must always be aware of the potential for any incident to escalate and become critical. A critical incident can include; Suspicious, unexplained deaths, Homicides, Incidents requiring a police firearms response, Vulnerable persons missing from home, Domestic Violence, Crimes involving particularly vulnerable or young victims and hate crimes, which will be our focus. For our essay, we will be critically analysing Leicestershire’s police force’s ‘critical incident’ management of the case of Fiona Pilkington which is a case of anti-social behaviour that deeply affected public confidence. Whenever a critical incident is identified, it must be addressed sharp and efficiently. Reassuring, rebuilding and maintaining the confidence of the victim, their family and community should be fundamental to critical incident management (Thames Valley Police,

It is one that everyone is familiar with due to its high profile coverage. Although this incident occurred in St. Louis, Missouri, it is very relevant to police shootings all over the country. As a short recap, police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed unarmed teen Michael Brown. Ultimately, Darren Wilson was not charged with any crime. Wilson, like many officers before him, argued that he was afraid for his life and therefore used his weapon in self-defense. Unfortunately, this argument has been heard many times after Michael Brown’s death as well. When Laquan McDonald was shot and killed in Chicago in 2014, Jason Van Dyke “feared for his life”; dash-camera footage, though, showed otherwise. Police personnel and city officials even went so far in this cover-up as to pay Laquan’s mother millions of dollars not to speak to the media about what happened. Although video of the shooting was available in 2014, the video itself was not released to the public until late 2015, after Rahm was re-elected to mayoral office. As more details surfaced, it then became clear to the public that not only did the officers and top law enforcement attempt to hide this incident, but the Cook County State’s Attorney was also involved. I argue that had there been more diversity on the force, or in the very least sensitivity training, maybe these officers would have seen a person and been more compassionate, instead of seeing a threat and

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.

Which has encouraged the representation of a police subculture which glorifies crime fighting (Dick, 2005). There is a belief that individuals who are considered to be more authoritarian are more likely to apply for a career in policing, and these individuals are more prone to violence (Belur, 2009). Police routinely over-use coercive authority when they are encouraged to maintain a purpose of fighting the war against crime (Skolnick and Fyfe, 1993). This can further encourage other officers to believe that using force against criminals is a desirable method of controlling crime (Belur, 2009). However the United Kingdom is a country that does not condone any killing of its members, therefore the issue of police killing being deemed as legal creates friction between the public and police (McCulloch, 1989).

The police are continuously developing and have been ever since the beginning of informal policing which saw that everyone who lived in a society had to be responsible for

The history of a professional police service in England dates back to the creation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829 by the then Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel (Joyce, 2012), the City of Glasgow Police was the first professional force to be created in Britain in 1800 (Newburn, 2013). The Metropolitan Police force replaced the volunteers who had until then served in an unpaid capacity to perform police duties. The professional police service then served as a template on which to model other local police forces throughout England and Wales (Joyce, 2012). There are 41 provincial police forces outside London and two within London, the Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police, at its peak the total number of officers in England and Wales was over 143,000 in 2006 (Hale et

According to estimates there are about 52 police in the UK on the responsibilities and size varies. Most British police comes under the administration of the Home Ministry,