The Police Tapes Analysis

The Police Tapes is a documentary that portrayed the life at work of police officers at the 44th precinct in South Bronx during the 1970s. The law enforcement is being changing dramatically over the years, but police officers have been always seen to protect and serve the community not matter what the circumstances are. During the 1970s New York City experienced one of the most tumultuous years in history and police officers had to deal with it. Police officers are agents of social control and doing this many times creates controversy between them and the communities that they serve. The simple idea that the work of police officers is controlling crime and human behavior creates a sense of tension in society. “Controlling crime is the most …show more content…
In the documentary The police Tapes I saw different scenarios where police officer had to intervene to control peoples’ behavior. For example in one scene a cop had an abrupt display of force when he yanks a hysterical women out a car, pins her down and screams “shut up” in her face. This reaction from the police officer can cause different points of view in society regarding officer using force to control a situation. Some people may said that what he did was right but on the other hand other people may argue and say that it was police brutality. The role of the police officers in society is very complicated because many times what they do can be seen from different points of view. According to burns police officers sometimes deal with the public under the worst conditions and the unpredictability associated with police work often leaves officer confronting a large compilation of emotions, thoughts and challenges. “The primary concern for police confronting troubling situations is obtaining control of a situation and ensuring their own personal safety and the safety of everyone else” (Burns 2013). It is imperative to understand that by doing this sometimes police officers have to include the use of force. It is necessary that society knows that police officers are granted particular powers to use force under certain conditions, but at the same time it is the vital importance …show more content…
The broken window hypothesis is a theory that connected directly to control and reducing crime. According to Burns the broken window theory is the belief that order maintenance problems are perceived by offenders as opportunities to commit additional crime. In the documentary The Police Tapes it showed how police officers were implementing this theory in their work. For instance when some people on the street were playing dice they saw this behavior as something that will bring additional crimes to the community so they focused on removing this kinds of low crimes in order to deter other form of criminal behaviors. It seems that the broken window theory instead of controlling crime during the 1970s, it created even more problems in the way that the police officers and the citizen of South Bronx interacted. I believe that it is much better when police departments work in conjunction with communities creating partnerships that would help the law enforcement to control crime in a much better way. When the community gets involved controlling crime, the results are more satisfactory and at the end are going to be beneficial for the police department and as well for the community. “In the 1970s crime control model was viewed as too abrasive contributing to high level of disaffection with local police” (Reisig 2010). According to Reisig various police and social control researcher