One of the well-documented ideas presented in research today is that police have a very distinct culture. When looking at definitions of police culture we see a few particular phrases that are most commonly frequent, these are the abuse of power, absence of culpability, discrimination of particular minority groups and internal solidarity (Terpstra, 2013). Looking at the modern policing styles of Australia we can recognize two distinct types; this is Community policing and Zero tolerance policing.
Zero tolerance VS Community Policing and Police Culture
Zero tolerance policing was an idea that came well known in New York City in the late 1990s (AIC). In his article ‘Zero Tolerance Policing’, Grabosky (1999) discusses this policing style …show more content…
The idea that Grabosky (1999) discusses is that this means by removing petty “criminals” off of the streets they are preventing more serious crimes to take place. The amount of manpower, time and money Zero tolerance policing would involve would make this concept impossible for police. This style also reflects the unfair and biased methods that police are often responsible of partaking in. When we look at the reality of Zero tolerance policing we see that it is way to strict and would place too much pressure on police (Grabosky 1999). This is when discretion comes into play. Discretion is a police officers choice about ‘how and when to act’ (Daly, 2006, p.291). When the police are witness to a petty crime for example public loitering, they have the decision to issue a ‘move on’ request or they could also decide to penalize (Yang). The way the police sometimes abuse this power of discretion is one that is heavily researched. As White (2010) discusses, a group heavily affected by this differential policing are the young indigenous people and these cases generally take place in public areas such as shopping centers or public streets (White, 2010). It is not just a case of the wrong place at the wrong time, there is evidence showing that Indigenous Australians …show more content…
Over policing is when police more often target certain groups – such as young people and ethnic minorities – than someone who is not from a suspect minority (White, 2010, p 310). From this definition it can arguably be said that over policing is a large reason why the police are seen as unfair and discriminatory in their nature of work. The argument for over policing is that it is crime prevention; if the police are picking certain suspect groups to harass and over-surveillance then the idea is there that they can prevent more large scale crimes from happening (Daly, 2006). Obviously to the groups that are being targeted this is unfair and can be seen as an invasion of privacy to innocent
Zero tolerance VS Community Policing and Police Culture
Zero tolerance policing was an idea that came well known in New York City in the late 1990s (AIC). In his article ‘Zero Tolerance Policing’, Grabosky (1999) discusses this policing style …show more content…
The idea that Grabosky (1999) discusses is that this means by removing petty “criminals” off of the streets they are preventing more serious crimes to take place. The amount of manpower, time and money Zero tolerance policing would involve would make this concept impossible for police. This style also reflects the unfair and biased methods that police are often responsible of partaking in. When we look at the reality of Zero tolerance policing we see that it is way to strict and would place too much pressure on police (Grabosky 1999). This is when discretion comes into play. Discretion is a police officers choice about ‘how and when to act’ (Daly, 2006, p.291). When the police are witness to a petty crime for example public loitering, they have the decision to issue a ‘move on’ request or they could also decide to penalize (Yang). The way the police sometimes abuse this power of discretion is one that is heavily researched. As White (2010) discusses, a group heavily affected by this differential policing are the young indigenous people and these cases generally take place in public areas such as shopping centers or public streets (White, 2010). It is not just a case of the wrong place at the wrong time, there is evidence showing that Indigenous Australians …show more content…
Over policing is when police more often target certain groups – such as young people and ethnic minorities – than someone who is not from a suspect minority (White, 2010, p 310). From this definition it can arguably be said that over policing is a large reason why the police are seen as unfair and discriminatory in their nature of work. The argument for over policing is that it is crime prevention; if the police are picking certain suspect groups to harass and over-surveillance then the idea is there that they can prevent more large scale crimes from happening (Daly, 2006). Obviously to the groups that are being targeted this is unfair and can be seen as an invasion of privacy to innocent