To Guard or Fight … Warrior vs. Guardian police mentality, which is best for officers? Each video had some great points, we see a collection of officers who truly desire for policing to be a responsible institution. Instead of seeing police as a force of law each held a position that seemed to nurture the philosophy to “serve and protect.” Each speaker presented themselves as a vessel for change. Brian Willis presented the very real truth of how many citizens view the police – as a dishonest group.…
Fidelity to the law and specifically the constitution and the effectiveness of the measures taken to curb crime have for a long time been the yard sticks used to measure the accuracy of actions taken by police officers. The authors point out that police officers do not prevent the commission of crime and term this as one of the best kept modern secrets. The authors further explains what rightful policing is not by explaining that rightful policing is not restricted to policing aimed at curbing crime or just constitutional policing but describes it as trying attain both lawfulness and crime reduction in a way that makes the public trust the police force and one that promotes fairness (Neyroud, & Meares,…
The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment was done in October 1972 through 1973. This experiment was conducted to determine if changes in patrolling had an effect on reducing crime, changing the public perception on police, reducing fear on crime within the community and also to help address the public concerns with the police. The researchers had three types of experiment also known as “beats” the first beat was proactive patrols- where police patrols were visibly increased by two to three times. Some by vehicles. The second beat was Reactive where no routine patrol was available but officers responded to 911 calls.…
Many studies have been done on legitimacy surveys asking questions about confidence and trust of the police and the public's willingness to follow the police orders. Tyler and Muo(2002) conducted a study to access these types of questions to learn people's sense of accepting police decisions. they found that people who viewed the police as legitimate were more likely to accept their orders. When police act fairly and used procedural justice they were more accepting of the police actions.…
Policing in Canada has progressed since the Code of Hammurabi in 1200 BC. The first police force was founded, and organized by Sir Robert Peel, where he came up with nine principles that police officers should follow (Griffiths, 2015). One of these principles were that “police [should] maintain public favour by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service, not by catering to public opinion” (Griffiths, 2015, p. 29). As a result, police officers should not be affected by the opinions of the power groups or the government. However, this is not the case.…
For about 176 years, the police force has been recognized as the primary institution entrusted with the duty of enforcing the law (Fry and Burkes 1983). Yet, since their origination, law enforcement offices have received a significant amount of perlustration by the public over the issues of corruption, unfair policing practices, and excessive use of force (Lersch and Mieczkowski 2005). With communication technology on the rise, incidents of police officers abuse of power and police-public tensions have become more visible (Frank 2009). The excessive use of force by law enforcement officers has initiated violent pandemonium and anarchy (Lersch and Mieczkowski…
In the United States, police legitimacy has grown to become one of the most prevalent issues in the national dialogue. With the recent occurrences in the country, research has continuously indicated that minorities are increasingly questioning the legitimacy of the powers of the police against citizens. Indeed, police legitimacy stems from the constitution. In the creation of a Leviathan, the people, through the constitution gave up their individual powers to the government to administer their legitimacy for them. It is from this grand norm that the government deemed it proper to exercise its mandate for the protection of its people against the threat posed by the dangerous elements in the country.…
While a large population of Americans remain confident in the police and assume a positive image of the police, recent studies have shown a gradual decrease in our citizens’ confidence and…
Even in places that have authorized civilian oversight of these units, police commissioners often have a voice, not only in their appointment but also in the punishment of officers. This causes citizens to question credibility of the police departments, and even results in distrust for them, tarnishing the relationship between law enforcement and all Americans. People used to turn to policemen for safety, but in today 's time, people fear their safety when they come in contact in the…
Why has the police department learn anything from the Rodney King beating and the aftermath that took place after the verdict? Twenty-five years ago some of us seen the verdict that stunned the city of Los Angeles, where angry crowds gather on the street across the city to protest while others riot. Today we face similar problems with police officers from the situation that happen in Ferguson with the Michael Brown or in New York where Eric Gardner was in a choke hold by a police Officer which he could not breathe and later died. There have been other cases around the world about police officers using excessive force. Some police officers have neglected these issues and do not fully understand the impact it has on a…
The act of targeting a person of a certain race based on stereotype is called racial profiling. This is something that has become a big issue in these recent years. Creating a profile about the kind of people who commit certain types of crimes may lead officers to generalize about a particular group and an act according to the generalization rather than specific behavior. An example of this can be, when a police officer questions, searches, or arrests someone entirely on the person’s race. Whenever police officers regularly uses ethnicity as a factor and a build up of officers reacting a certain way towards a specific race can be the best way to find racial profiling taking place.…
Police Legitimacy Under the Spotlight “When you realize that incompetent police officers are harassing you, you need to call 911 and demand that a police supervisor be immediately dispatched to the scene. In the mean time you need to be video recording everything, as police officers are known for their blatant lies and fabrications.”- Steven Magee (G. (Ed.). 2008, January).…
Discuss the main ways in which police officers are personally held accountable for abuses of power. Are these measures effective? Police accountability has been a widely discussed issue from the very beginning of its official establishment under the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. Through the years public trust has been of great importance, as the public is one of the main groups, which the police is accountable to. In this essay, we will focus on accountability on an individual level rather than on an institutional level.…
The abuse of power happens when citizens aren’t given their rights. As we have all seen recently and since the 90s, police act on their own agenda. According to Bandes, “First of all, police brutality is unlikely to be inflicted on non-minority members of the middle class. One of the salient characteristics of police brutality is that it is largely practiced on poor and minority groups - in part as a way of devaluing them and demarcating them from us” (47). Yes, police have done unlawful things to Caucasian Americans, but a majority of their targets are Hispanic Americans and African Americans, “A growing body of evidence shows that minorities are disproportionately the targets of police brutality, but important theoretical questions about…
An important fact that needs to be addressed is, “the repercussions of police misconduct are many and include the fact that police criminal behavior undermines the legitimacy of policing and hampers public confidence in the police” (Burns…