Many agencies have decided to structure themselves as a paramilitary format. Having served in the United States Army in combat, and being currently employed as a Detention Deputy for my local Sheriff’s department, I don’t believe that agencies should structure themselves as military. For one, in the military a service member is taught to train for the enemy and basically trust no one. On the other hand, this mentally should be different for local law enforcement agency personnel. This is because law enforcement officers are tasked with protecting the citizens in their community, which is different from serving in a combat territory where basically everyone who is not in uniform is to be considered dangerous and the enemy. When agencies
In the United States, there are city, county, state, and national police forces. They have very difficult and dangerous responsibilities. These public servants are required to perform many different jobs. They enforce laws and maintain order. They teach people how to help prevent crime and to protect themselves ( Mittleman, 2000). They offer assistance and take charge of many different situations such as car accidents, flooding, and hurricanes. Police
The different career types of law enforcement career options may have similarities or be quite different depending on whether the work involves federal, state, or local agency. The differences at local state and federal levels includes: benefits, jurisdictions, pay structure, job responsibilities, travel requirements, and career advancement opportunities among others. The similarities include power to make arrests without warrant for some crimes; they all carry firearms and are trained in similar law enforcement skills. Most of them have the same form of military structure. They also all risk their lives to ensure the law is enforced. According to Scheb&Scheb (2011), “there are different roles played by legislatures, courts, and federal enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local levels of government”.
The police must be stable, efficient, and organized along military lines (Bohm & Haley, 2012). Officers must be professional in everything that they do. The police department must be able to withstand departmental changes. The military is always uniform, clean, knowledgeable, trained and always prepared for the next mission and most police departments follow a military chain of command
In the article, “Police Academy Socialization: Understanding the Lessons Learned in a Paramilitary Bureaucratic Organization”, Chappell and Lanza-Kaduce discuss the positive and negative effects that occur with type of recruit training, as well as, the outcomes of transitioning towards community policing training. The paramilitary structure entails hard physical training, performing under stress, defense tactics, the use of force, and mastering weapons skills. This paramilitary form of training focuses on being “able to mold them to accept the organizational culture”, drilling recruits on the basics, while preparing them for the demandingness of the job (Chappell, 189). There are numerous pros, which include a prominent chain of command, understanding
Most new recruits come into the law profession as idealistic young men and women with the goal of changing the world. These views soon begin to change as the job becomes more and more consuming and they accommodate the job parameters that are placed upon them. As discussed in the book, more and more situations begin to be viewed as bullshit and the more people they encounter are viewed as assholes. The average person is not exposed to the situations and people that law enforcement must deal with daily, and have a difficult time understanding the stress that is placed on officers. The perception the officers have of the world begin to changes due to the everyday encounters they experience. This leads officers to begin to withdrawal from society and loved ones, ending with a cycle of depression and isolation. They begin to place more of their attention on the job and forget about anything and everyone outside of that. This, to most agencies, is overlooked due to the fact that the
New officers need to know that no profession demands a higher ethical standard than law enforcement. Whether or not there are other careers that require a similar dedication to doing the right thing, it is undeniable that there is a tremendous degree of expectations placed upon police officers. Every officer knows, or at least should know by now, that they live in a fishbowl. Friends, relatives, neighbors and strangers watch every move law enforcement officers make, both on and off duty. The fact is that the public scrutinizes police officers more than most other professions, either because they are cynical or hope to catch them screwing up or because they are hopeful
As a police officer, the major objectives are to maintain order, enforce the law, protect one’s property, and to save lives. In addition, police are divided into two roles based on how they perform their duties. The two roles of a police officer are a public servant and a crime fighter. A police officer whose role as a public servant is to serve all types of people, as well as criminals. Public servants regularly provide advice and make judgments as to the degree of risk they should take with the public. Many decisions involving risk are relatively easy to make, but others are complex and significant consequences (Kernaghan and Langford, 2016). These risks may involve using force and the consequences could be media backlash or a potential termination. Public servants abide by the oath and uphold the integrity and honor of the organization as an officer. Also, public servant officers like to play it safe because they like to be known as ordinary citizens who like to go home to their
The topic of police in general, and the brutal beatings, shootings, and arrests that have occurred over the past couple of years in the United States has hit the media full force, leaving many wondering what actions should be taken to keep the peace. Many question the system as a whole, and the training police officers receive, as well as their mental health. Across the borders, police are trained differently and follow various policies that may seem ridiculous or foreign, however, when comparing and contrasting two police systems, the similarities may be alarming, and the differences may be great, but knowing the strengths and weakness of each different system, can help towards progressing to have a better system and better training for police officers.
Law enforcement officers need to be aware of the characteristics and the personalities of the terrorist(s) in order to combat terrorism in the U.S. (Fagin, 2005). Therefore the Law Enforcement officer’s role in combating terrorists is to be involved within the community and have the ability to recognize when something is out of place or does not belong in the community (Fagin, 2005).
I would agree with your assessment for the most part, but I do feel that law enforcement officers are held to a higher standard. Because of this, I believe the command does have an interest in knowing what their officers are doing on their own time. One reason is they simply have to be accountable as an officer of the law all the time regardless of whether or not on duty. The other reason is that many new officers, especially young officers, may not realize they are causing a conflict of interest without departmental guidance. For these reasons, the agency has a vested interest to some degree (such as secondary employment) what their officers are doing on their off time.
I do not think that there should be a specific duty which should be assigned to any agency. They should maintain cooperation with each other in order to maintain balance and order with their respective duties in law enforcement.
The law enforcement community operates and has similarities like the military. They both have some type of basic training. They wear uniforms, have a rank structure, policy and procedures govern their actions, and in most cases have a politician as their commander or chief. Military members make up the largest candidate pool for law enforcement
The military has branches which includes, Air Force, Navy, and Army, as with law enforcement, the options are FBI, DEA, USMS and Federal police. The difference is that the military is overseas and protect the nation, whereas law enforcement
The Military and a police agency are very different in many ways, although the rank structure and how workers are managed in each system are very alike. You have the rank structure which is really similar, and you also have the checks and balances of how things are handle when it comes down to pay and management. Last you have your leaders of each organization certain representatives that are the face of the organization and what the organization represent.
Law Enforcement is a challenging job and it is definitely not your normal nine to five one. Signing up to be in law enforcement, whether it is federal, state, local, or tribal, takes a special person. It changes who you are and how people you know view and interact with you. Even within other agencies, you can be viewed different, depending on what level you are. You can be on the inside, but feel like you’re on the outside. Information is a precious commodity and some are not as willing to share as others. Sometimes it feels like they have a secret and don’t want to tell you. It’s probably something you need to help, but they just want to feel important and be the keeper of the info. This has been a big problem in the intelligence community and one that has been discussed repeatedly.