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The Importance Of Police Legitimacy

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One of the main issues concerning police legitimacy is the racial disproportionate of stop and searches being conducted and how this effects the relationship between the public and the police. ‘The legitimacy of police is linked to public judgments about the fairness of the processes and operations through which the police make decisions and exercise authority’. If the police use fairness and equality in their dealings with citizens, then people will view the police as being more legitimate and will be more supportive of police as a result. However, if police use an unfair approach when they exercise their authority then this can lead to alienation, dissatisfaction, defiance and the public becoming non-compliant. (Sunshine & Tyler, 2003). Examples of this can be illustrated from the various riots, which occurred in England during the 1980’s due dissatisfaction from policing towards ethnic minorities.
One of the most common legal powers used by police officers is under Section 1 of the PACE Act 1984. It allows police officers to stop and search a person or vehicle for stolen or prohibited items as long as there are …show more content…
Leaving a lasting negative impression and experience with the police which may be difficult to change. Due to this police officers may be hesitant to use their authority (even if reasonable grounds are present) against ethnic minorities in the fear of being targeted and labelled as being racist or discriminative. Furthermore, it is important to take into account that the definition of 'reasonable grounds' is not clearly clarified, which raises concerns with individual differences and subjectivity as all police officers would perceive suspicion incongruously. This possibly could be interpreted by the public as or proactive policing

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