The Ideal Police Officer In Cop Film

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In 1967 the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice was released and changed society’s outlook on police for the better and allowed for police to finally be the hero in many films. In the beginning of the cop film era all cop heroes or ideal cops were white masculine men and maintained the gender norms in society. The ideal and masculine cop was shown as detectives who could always get the girls and their suspect by being quick to pull their gun. Mills in the film Se7en would be an example of the ideal cop early in the cop film era, however, by 1995 an ideal police officer luckily have transformed into non-traditional heroes which allowed for women and people of colour to begin taking center stage. As Rafter …show more content…
Nonetheless how police are viewed has changed as in the 17th century police were viewed as incompetent and only violent men, therefore, no one turned to police. In the modern day, police are able to use different ways to find their suspect such as using new technology and as many citizens believe using corrupt tactics such as paying people off. Somerset, for example, pays a man to find out information from the library about what books involving the seven deadly sins have been checked out by the same person. Furthermore, since many people believe police are corrupt and they do not trust law enforcement it is constantly shown in film which reinforces the idea that many officers do not follow the rules. This portrayal of police throughout history not only affects how police act but changes the relationship between police and the public greatly (Emsley, 1999). Not only does the way film represents police affect the citizens but it also affects the officers themselves because they must adjust their actions and sometimes be more careful because people expect them to react a certain way which might not always be the case. For instances, the media is a growing problem for police and even in 1995 when Se7en was released they show a photographer enter the crime scene and Mills reacts by saying, “This is a closed crime scene so get the fuck out of here” and subsequently hits the man’s camera out of his hands but not until after he took a picture of Mills and Summerset. Incidents such as these happen in society and make the public more inclined use their media devices to film and photograph officers at

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