Baltimore Police Department Case Study

The extra 100 officer hiring Mayor Pugh wants to do is just not viable. First of all, there aren’t enough applicants in order to fill those open spots. “According to the academy’s head of legal instruction, these recruits “lack a basic understanding of the laws governing constitutional policing and are being pushed through by the department nonetheless” (Rector & Fenton, 2018). Sgt. Josh Rosenblatt went on to say that in the last class of recruits (2017), “17 of the 50 recruits failed to pass scenario-based practical tests on legal standards related to basic police work, such as the need for probable cause before making arrests” (Rector & Fenton, 2018). After these recruits failed to pass the test, the new police captain changed the test to

Racial tensions are at an all-time high. Mr. Gray died in custody when being arrested for possession of an allegedly illegal knife because he was not properly secured in the van he was being transported in. There were also eyewitness accounts of unnecessary use of force (Moskos, 2018). There were trials for the 6 of the officers responsible, none of whom were convicted of anything. The only thing the officers faced were suspensions. Protests and race riots across Baltimore and the nation ensued, which caused the police to declare a state of emergency. As a result, hundreds of people arrested, and many injuries were inflicted among both citizens and police officers, therefore, furthering the mistrust between the community and officers (about racial profiling, excessive use of force, etc.). Another way that the police in Baltimore get mistrust from the community is that the Baltimore police are the focus of a federal corruption investigation. The unit at the center of the investigation is the Gun Trace Task Force, which was “a unit that once racked up praise for racking up arrests and recovering hundreds of illegal guns. As it turned out, members of the unit were committing crimes of their own even as they policed Baltimore's streets. Eight officers have been charged. Six pleaded guilty” (Kelly, 2018). One of the officers on

But there are a few things the Baltimore police department can do. We can focus on community oriented policing. We need to get the community to trust us again and that won’t happen if they think we are racially profiling and using excessive use of force. According to Rev. Kinji Scott, a prominent pastor in Baltimore, "We want the police there. We want them engaged in the community. We don’t want them beating the hell out of us, we don’t want that” (Frayer, 2017). The community wants the police there, and the data shows that community policing is relatively effective. “Overall, community-policing strategies have a positive effect on citizen satisfaction and trust in the police, as well as in the reduction of individuals’ perception of disorderly conduct” (Maximino, 2017). It also showed in “27 of the 65 comparisons where official crime outcomes were analyzed, community-oriented policing was associated with 5% to 10% greater odds of reduced crime, and community-oriented programs were found to be effective in almost 80% of the cases, and citizens were almost 40% more likely to be satisfied with the work of the police” (Maximino, 2017). The murder rate was also dropped by about 4 percentage points (Maximino, 2017). This may not seem like a lot, but after a while, it could really help conclude the murder crisis. It would not make sense to keep the policies of specific deterrence,