Only a small percentage of civil suits force police departments to accept responsibility. Prosecution against the police are fairly uncommon, possibly due to local prosecutors strong relationship with their department, who often work together to prosecute alleged criminals. Prosecutors rarely pursue cases against the police due to the high-threshold of legal evidence and a lack of resources. Citizen review agencies are typically unhelpful in attempting to prosecute an officer, they rarely have contact with local prosecutors, despite the overwhelming number of complaints these agencies receive. Even if an accusation of police misconduct makes it to criminal court, the odds are stacked against the prosecution. It’s a difficult task to convince
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The police’s job by its very nature is dangerous, and they often find themselves in violent and high-intensity situations that could leave them dead if they don’t act quickly. In life or death situations, human survival instinct takes over, and we can’t expect officers to be an exception to this. No matter what we do, our law enforcement will still be comprised of humans. Humans will panic, humans will make mistakes, and humans will act in their own self-interest when their life is at stake. Countless times officers have put their lives on the line for others, but this is the exception not the rule. Can we truly justify demanding that over 1.1 million men and women be willing to die in the line of duty (Brian. A. Reaves)? Mistakes by officers are inevitable, but still we must search for …show more content…
Liqun Cao brings to attention two models for controlling police misconduct created by James Q. Wilson, the Professional and the Bureaucratic Model. The Professional Model advocates for the hiring of only the most highly qualified candidates as officers, and ensuring that they are well trained and prepared. The Bureaucratic Model relies on heavy supervision and observation of police activities, and issuing and enforcing rules and regulations based on those observations. In addition, Cao proposes four hypotheses about possible solutions in his paper “Curbing Police Brutality: What Works?” Hypothesis 1: “Psychological exams taken before admitting to police academy, field training officer programs, and the length of probationary period tend to reduce citizen complaint rate against police use of physical force and abuse of power.” This hypothesis relies on the idea of having well-trained, highly qualified officers, which embodies the ideas of the Professional Model. Hypothesis 2: “Increasing the number of in-service training programs on the use of force within a police department, regular reviews of the use of force, written policy on the use of less lethal weapons, and the reporting requirement for the use of force are negatively related to the citizen complaint rate.” Hypothesis 3: “The establishment of civilian review boards reduces the
The police’s job by its very nature is dangerous, and they often find themselves in violent and high-intensity situations that could leave them dead if they don’t act quickly. In life or death situations, human survival instinct takes over, and we can’t expect officers to be an exception to this. No matter what we do, our law enforcement will still be comprised of humans. Humans will panic, humans will make mistakes, and humans will act in their own self-interest when their life is at stake. Countless times officers have put their lives on the line for others, but this is the exception not the rule. Can we truly justify demanding that over 1.1 million men and women be willing to die in the line of duty (Brian. A. Reaves)? Mistakes by officers are inevitable, but still we must search for …show more content…
Liqun Cao brings to attention two models for controlling police misconduct created by James Q. Wilson, the Professional and the Bureaucratic Model. The Professional Model advocates for the hiring of only the most highly qualified candidates as officers, and ensuring that they are well trained and prepared. The Bureaucratic Model relies on heavy supervision and observation of police activities, and issuing and enforcing rules and regulations based on those observations. In addition, Cao proposes four hypotheses about possible solutions in his paper “Curbing Police Brutality: What Works?” Hypothesis 1: “Psychological exams taken before admitting to police academy, field training officer programs, and the length of probationary period tend to reduce citizen complaint rate against police use of physical force and abuse of power.” This hypothesis relies on the idea of having well-trained, highly qualified officers, which embodies the ideas of the Professional Model. Hypothesis 2: “Increasing the number of in-service training programs on the use of force within a police department, regular reviews of the use of force, written policy on the use of less lethal weapons, and the reporting requirement for the use of force are negatively related to the citizen complaint rate.” Hypothesis 3: “The establishment of civilian review boards reduces the