police fragmentation

Gaines, L. K., & Kappeler, V. E. (2014). Policing in america (8th ed.). (S. Decker-Lucke, Ed.) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America: Anderson Publishing. Retrieved January 2017

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

Many of smaller police agencies do not have such units. Because of their massive wealth of information, technology and experience the LAPD often is the go-to agency for all other agencies including State and Federal for technical and investigated support. Many smaller police agencies do not have as many divisions and support units as the LAPD. Have. Because of the LAPD size, they are able to handle many of issues that address policing of the city as the size of the City of Los

Many people know of the police officers of today’s world and that it is their job to enforce the laws set by their government, but not many people know the history of your typical everyday United States police officer or how they came about. The idea for neither your everyday police officer nor his or her department they work for or how a police department operates, originated in the United States. Over the years though America has made changes and adapted its system over the years to make it more suitable for its countries beliefs and practices.

A variety of police agencies to enforce the law is created by local, state, and federal law enforcement. Federal law enforcement agency is “A U.S government agency or office whose primary functional responsibility is to enforce

In the United States, there are three levels of law enforcement; the lowest level is local law enforcement agencies that include local police as well as sheriff departments. The next echelon in the chain is the State agencies that include state or highway patrol, the top tier is the Federal Agencies that not only include the FBI, but also the Secret Service as well. Each one of these agencies consequently has a unique extensive past.

Police in America began as the night watch system that protected cities from crime, fire, and disorder. Of course early policing was influenced by the British, and so was American Law which derived from English common law. This would also form a correlation to American policing policies that diverged from the English’s Magna Carta and as well the French. The French established a centralized government that entailed men to take an oath of loyalty. The police in America started as night watch groups, then employment changed to police officers being political appointed which was very corrupted, but throughout the years things changed again to serve the public. Instead of a political selected police force that earns it’s pay through bribes and

For all the people of the US we can easily identify the justice system with our police force. Were currently facing a crisis of widespread police brutality and misconduct, leading us to question where the absence of proper policing practices and morality was lost. Over the course of history we have continually faced this whether it be driven by religion, race, or visual perception. But it leads me to say, in what way is this reflecting our hope of insuring domestic tranquility when we can’t trust the people that we are supposed to depend on for help. Now this doesn’t go to say that every police officer or sheriff is guilty of wrong doing, but it does clearly show a developing problem. With this dilemma becoming more evident in social media and how easily it is for someone to record something and report wrong doings, it forces our federal government to act on the inadequacies. The federal government should play a stronger role in the oversight of each state, while the states oversee the counties within it.

The history of policing dates back several thousand years ago when there was no order or peace and inhumane acts upon citizens was the norm with religious, political, or military police acting as the law. Policing was unstable and unorganized. Citizens took the law into their own hands and served as judge, jury, and executioner. There was not such a thing as being “innocent until proven guilty.” If the community believed an individual was guilty of a crime then the community would handle the offense themselves. American policing stems from the English heritage; crime prevention and control, preventive

The United States uses police officers on three different levels to deal with citizens that violate the laws. The local, state, and federal agencies operate on different levels. Maintaining order and service functions, purpose of policing is to do investigation of suspected criminal activity and refer criminals to the American court. Police is needed to help maintain peace and order within the United States. Many critics feel that the policing is unorganized and nonfunctional. The police are able to do their job and help other agencies control the public. The local, state, and federal are able to aid each one if

The goals and objectives of the federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies differ in what they can each handle. As a whole, they have the objective to protect and serve the public, but separately, each branch, federal, state, and local handles their own sections of the government services. For example, the federal law enforcement agencies have goals and objectives that involves the protecting of our border, making sure that we are enforcing customs regulations, as well as upholding immigration laws. The state law enforcement goals and objectives are lie with highway patrol, investigations, and emergencies that extend beyond the control and power of local law enforcement agencies (2008, Matrix Group). Whereas, the local law

Police Agencies in modern society are a part of the American fabric to serve and protect the American public. The United States currently have more than 15,000 police agencies, (Walker & Katz, 2011). Police Departments across the United States face similar critical issues policing. All police officers face dangers in the job of policing the dangers can emanate from internal and external origins. Police officers have continued to evolve to serve communities by finding better less than lethal alternatives to weapons used. In addition, police departments have continued to keep up with

The principle role of police organizations is to uphold and enforce the law. Police organizations achieve this by safeguarding life and property, maintaining public order, and through detecting and preventing crime. Policing at the state level is composed of separate police organizations. At the state level we have the City or Local Police, County Sheriff and State Police, also known as Highway Patrol or State Troopers. The U.S. government gives each state the authority to self-govern so each state has its own Penal Codes and every state policing organization follows its own Penal Code. Policing at the Federal level is composed of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Secret Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Federal policing agencies oversee all federal laws.

Specific characteristics that interlink these three agencies are discretion, resource dependence, sequential tasks, and filtering (Cole, 2008). All phases of the justice system reflect the freedom to make a decision according to the own judgment of the agent that is working with a case at the moment. The abuse of discretion leads to the most notable issue that affects the accuracy and effectiveness of the system, discrimination. Even thought discretion is one of the most important characteristic of the system because the American criminal justice does not have the tools to treat each individual case the same way, on the other hand the system can’t afford to have every single case leading to an investigation. American criminal justice to be effective needs accuracy due to the resource dependence of each agency has on another. Every decision made between all these agencies is sequential. To have a case seen in court, an arrest has to be made by a police officer, then and prosecutors and judges have the responsibility of adjudication, then correction implement the punishment according to the prior decisions makers. When discussing the process of implementing the law, the filtering process is very important; this is process in which cases are screened by law enforcement officials and the decision to handle it at the current level is made or the case is passed on to the next level. As you can see, all agencies are linked together and in theory should work

This English method also contributed three features: limited police authority, local control of the police agency, and a fragmented system of law enforcement (Walker, 1983). A fragmented system of law enforcement is very evident today. The United States currently has approximately 15,000 different police agencies. These individual police agencies are subject to little coordination with minimal national regulation (Walker, 1983).