The sworn title of police officer is viewed as a position of authority; therefore society expects officers to adhere to a higher level of moral character. Police have the responsibility to protect and serve the community in a fair and impartial manner. However, historically that has not always been the case. In today’s society, police are often depicted in a negative image in many parts of the nation. This image stems from issues regarding police misconduct, excessive force, racial bias, and corruption among the ranks. African Americans in the United States have a higher level of distrust for police vs. White Americans.
Howell, Perry and Vile (2004) conducted a quantitative study about the evaluation of police. Howell et al. (2004) collected survey data from four cities in the United States, which were New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago, and Charlotte. New Orleans and Detroit were chosen because of the high population of African Americans, whereas Chicago and Charlotte have a higher population of White Americans.
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The overall mission of the taskforce was enact police reform across the nation, however some felt as though the president was just adding fuel to the fire. Goodwin (2015) stated “The change he and his allies are achieving is like throwing gasoline on a raging fire”. Goodwin (2015) challenged the president’s support of the anti-police groups and their overall mission. Goodwin (2015) also made the statement that “yes, there are bad cops, and they come in all races. But for the president to emphasize that there are brutal and racist cops, presumably white, without citing the staggering rate of black-on-black crime distorts both problems”. One could see how the involvement of government politics could affect this issue, whether in a positive or negative way, especially when the involvement is coming from the Command and Chief of the United
However, after reading the article the author noted that police are mandated to enforce civilian law and order, investigate crimes, and strictly follow legal procedures even when in pursuit of chronic and dangerous criminals (Kagoro, 2014). Ideally, it has been argued, there should be strict dividing lines between the police and the military; the former for domestic purposes with the latter protecting citizens from external threats (Kagoro, 2014). In his article on the anti-militarization of the police in the United States, Kurt Andrew Schlichter aptly put it that the military is designed, organized, and equipped to execute rapid, violent and efficient obliteration of the “enemy”-whoever the enemy may be ( Kagoro, 2014). However, the law enforcement is usually modeled after the military and in fact there a large number of police officers who are former military personnel. This was a new criticism of police that was unfamiliar to me in the study of criminal justice but, I found it to be a valid point. The idea of changing the focus of policing to be less of a battlefield and more of a community may be a compelling approach to make interaction with citizens less
When police officers are perceived as being racially motivated, where certain groups of people are being targeted, it undermines the social goals of policing, weakens residents’ cooperation with police and raises questions about the legitimacy of law (Fagan & Davies, 2000). Supporters also back up this claim with statistics that show an association between racial/ethnic groups and crime (Harris, 2003). The arg...
As our modern-day society is becoming increasingly complex with many things changing so to must the education and training requirements for police officers in Canada. What all must police officers in Canada change to become efficient in our modern society? Canada has recently seen a surge in immigration to our country which has only added to the diversity of this nation. This means that the police must make sure they are properly trained and aware of our diverse cultures to properly handle all of the people in our society. Frequently police officers have come under scrutiny for the way they handle people with mental health issues. This just goes to show that police in Canada must increase their training on how to handle this group
According to Dr. Carl S. Taylor, the relationship between minority groups and police in the United States has historically been strained. Some cities have a deep and bitter history of bias and prejudice interwoven in their past relationships. The feeling in many communities today is that the system pits law enforcement as an occupying army versus the neighborhood. Dr. Taylor wrote about easing tensions between police and minorities, but stated “If there is any good news in the current situation, it is that the history of this strain has found the 1990’s ripe for change.
This semester, we talked about how important it is to keep a positive relationship present between the police officers and the community. This theme really starts to emerge in the book in the chapter called, Across the Racial Divide. “There are cities where “clearing corners” is an accepted administratively supported practice: Officers routinely roll up on groups of blacks in public and order everybody to leave” (Kennedy 2011:143). This contradicts the focused deterrence approach they were implementing in cities, and knowing who were committing crimes, and instead officers racially profiling citizens. Also, this correlates to investigatory traffic stops in Pulled Over. “People are especially likely to look beyond respectfulness when, as is true of African Americans, they are a stigmatized group that is commonly and repeatedly subjected to a process that disproportionately disadvantages members of the stigmatized group, and the members of this group have developed a share knowledge of these disparities and of the process that generates them” (Epp, Maynard-Moody, & Haider-Markey 2014:117). This shows that when one race group is always being questioned, or stopped by the police, then there will never be a good relationship between the community and the police. Also, when you had the focused deterrence approach in the cities that implemented in, and police was decreasing crime so that families and business owners can live in a safe place, the relationship will be
Simmons, K. C. (2008). The Politics of Policing: Ensuring Stakeholder Collaboration in the Federal Reform of Local Law Enforcement Agencies. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973- ), 98(2), 489-246.
The negative views of everyday people often make work hard for officers, adding more stress to their careers. The general public regularly criticizes officers for using excessive force and brutality, especially when a police officer ends up killing a suspect or criminal. Oftentimes, especially when a white police officer shoots a citizen of a minority race, the general public is quick to find faults in the officer, blaming the officer for being racist. However, cold, hard statistics show that the majority of police officers are, in fact, white, and the neighborhoods in which these officers are placed in tend to be high-crime areas with many minority citizens living there (Miller “When Cops Kill”). In addition, people might say that a citizen who was shot was not armed; however, almost anything close to the shot individual could have been turned into a deadly weapon that he or she could have used to wound or kill the officer involved. Whenever officers are in this position, the natural reaction is to defend themselves. Everyday, police officers confront the most aggressive, immoral, and sick-minded individuals of society. Officers jeopardize their own lives every time they report for work. Officers witness things that no person should ever have to encounter. They see the most horrific and gruesome scenes that the general public turns away from and
Police corruption, misconduct, and brutality in the United States have been issues since the creation of watch system in the United States (Grant& Terry, 2012). New policy and training is now in place and the corruption, misconduct, and brutality has gone down since the beginning of policing. This is a huge issue that impacts all police organizations in the United States. The extent of police corruption, misconduct, and brutality is hard to track in the United States. A lot of these crimes go unreported, tossed aside, or the officer responsible gets little or no punishment. This is huge issue in the United States criminal justice system.
Undoubtedly race and ethnicity plays a key role in whether perceptions of law enforcement is positive or negative. Most of the research presented finds that police contact with white’s vs blacks shapes their attitudes. Although contact with police plays a role, it is not the only component. Perceptions of police not only come from contact with police officers but from hearsay and media portrayal. As stated by (Callanan & Rosenberger, 2011) “most citizens are probably not likely to establish their opinions of law enforcement solely based on an occasional encounter, but also from other sources of information about the police, which for most members of the public is chiefly derived from the media.” Also, minorities are more likely than whites to believe that minorities are treated worse by police, and minority communities receive inferior police services (Graziano, Schuck & Martin 2010).
In the Ferguson article (2015), there was an example given about an African American man claimed that he was standing outside of of Wal-Mart, an officer called him a “stupid motherf****r” and a “bastard.” According to the man, a lieutenant was on the scene and did nothing to reproach the officer, instead threatening to arrest the man (p. 80). This demonstrates that the police in Ferguson had no respect for the civilian and even though the lieutenant was present, they did nothing. The officer was not suspended nor held responsible for this incident. By failing to hold officers accountable, it sends a message that officers can behave as they like, “regardless of law or policy, and even if caught, that punishment will be light.” (Ferguson, 86). This message serves to excuse officer wrongdoing and heighten community distrust. This is also to say that police can possibly get away with murder because they are higher officials and work for the
Ultimately, the problems of police brutality and racial profiling may be alleviated by race-sensitive police training, requiring officers to be from the neighborhoods they police, and most importantly, decentralizing the police department. This would include holding police officers accountable to an effective community-elected review board that would take the place of ...
Police misconduct is as rampant as ever in America, and it has become a fixture of the news cycle. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. The media is inevitably drawn toward tales of conflict, hence why there are so many crime and police stories on the news. Despite the increasing frequency of misbehaving cops, many Americans still maintain a high respect for the man in uniform. Still, police misconduct is a systemic problem, not just an anecdotal one. Here are some reasons why it is a problem. First, many departments don’t provide adequate training in nonviolent solutions. With this, police are unfamiliar with what to do in a non-violent situation, often resorting
Young people and the police have, for many years, experienced a tense and confrontational relationship (Borgquist & Johnson et al., 1995). This has led to a great wealth of literature based upon the notion of police-youth interaction. Much of this literature has tended to focus upon juvenile criminality and the reasons why young people commit such seemingly high levels of crime. Whilst the relationship between young people and the police force has been widely theorised and explained, there is very little literature on juvenile attiudes towards the police. Research that concerns societies attitudes towards the police force tends to focus upon the views and opinions of adults (Hurst and Frank, 2000). In this first section of my literature review I am going to focus upon work that allows us to gain a deeper understanding of why young people are so important when looking at crime. This section will allow us to comprehend the ways in which, literature suggests, young people view the police. This knowledge will provide a basis for my research in which I look more specifically at youth attitudes towards PCSO’s.
From this Community Police Consortium, the BJA put together a report titled Understanding Community Policing, A Framework for Action, which focused on developing a conceptual framework for community policing and assisting agencies in implementing community policing. The basis for this consortium was much more direct than the previous efforts set forth by Presidential Commissions during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and led to what became known as the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS, Title 1 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994). The core components outlined in the BJA report listed the two complementary core components to community policing: community partnership and problem solving. The report further stated that effective community policing depends on positive contact between patrol officers and community members, establishing and maintaining mutual trust as the primary goal of a community partnership, and police and community must join together to encourage and preserve peace and prosperity. While these are just a few of the recommendations listed in the report, there were many more that set forth the framework for community policing, but these were the core components.
The challenge for law enforcement and cultural awareness, is more unique than in any other profession because of the power held by police. This creates a special need for understanding a multicultural world. The success of the many sides of community policing is dependent on this awareness. In previous courses that I have taken, the instructors taught that times were changing and had been changing due to the influx of immigrants living in America, and that police agencies have to be able to understand what is acceptable in their cultures when they are interacting with them. Understanding the importance of culture and the role that police play is not new to police agencies. Law enforcement throughout the world are becoming more concerned of