Mass Media Impact On Police Officer Essay

Mass media often times portrays a negative impact on police officer. There are few individuals who gives negative impression towards cops but will call upon these officers once it suitable for their needs. The primary role of a police officer is to protect and serve. Before one should critique about a police officer, especially the way in which society view’s a officer, it is significant to understand the role, responsibilities, and different types of officers as well as Detective. (DA). In a simple definition police officers protect lives and property while a detective gather facts and collect evidence of possible crime. “Police Officer or Detectives”.

According to Neil Kokemuller, The role of an Officer he stated “ Police officers play a central role in the law enforcement system. They monitor criminal activity take part in community patrols, responds to emergency calls, issue tickets, make

arrests, investigate crimes and testify in court as needed.” Importantly he also explained how why the police academy is important.
There are about five areas that can be categories to explain the role of an officer. These areas are to Serve and Protect, Investigate Crime, Community Involvement and Call Response and Emergencies.
Neil Kokemuller, implies that “a police officer’s first order of business is to serve and protect. “The phrase “serve and protect” is common in the credo of many law enforcement agencies.” Police officers serve their communities by helping citizens in times of crisis and emergencies. One of the problem, people have with officers and this happen on day to day basis is that the police officer job is to protect citizens on the road, they issue tickets to dangerous and carless drivers. Also to protect them in their communities, they make arrest that deter illegal and dangerous behavior.
A police officer also Investigate Crimes as well a Detective. There are step in which police ought when investigating a crime. Kokemuller explains “ When someone call the police department after a crime was committed, officers in the area respond to the call. They take statements from parties involved in the incident as well as any witnesses to get additional information and statement. Officers also gather up any evidence immediately accessible and help section off areas where the crime occurred so forensic scientists can come and do more thorough evidence searches”. One specific example that can used to justify how a cop investigated their case, is the case with Feddie Gray. Certain news channel and propaganda and false testimony showed mis leading information of what actually had happened. After the case was investigated, we then get to realize what was fact verses opinion.
Another important role of a police officer is “ Community Involvement”. Kokemullar also explains “how the community involvement facet of a police officer’s duties often get overlooked.” However “Many officers are active in service and projects and activities.” He included their public service roles includes speaking at schools and businesses. This will allow officers to educate people help others on how to avoid dangerous situations and handle emergency situations. Kukemullar also went to explain further saying that “ Other forms of community involvement include drug prevention and education and driver safety programs.”
Performing these duties will help to create a better rapport between law enforcement and citizens. Even though not all police officer are aware of their community involvement, it is essential to have these roles in our society which will help to eliminate delinquency to a certain extend. For example: If you live in a disorganized society, like down town Paterson, this technique would be harder to apply, because the deviance that occurs becomes a norms, so an officer would be waisting his/her energy just to try to reach out, but that does not apply in all cases.
Additionally, call responses and emergencies, is another important role of an officer. “When on duty police officers are on alert for radio calls from precincts. While some calls involve minor incidents, such as noise complaints or traffic incidents. Police officers are trained in CPR and emergency response systems and show up aid injured people.” (Neil, Kikemuller).
On the other hand according to the article “ Police or Detective” it states precisely the roles of a detective is to “ investigate crime, collect and secure evidence from crime scenes, conduct interviews with suspects and witnesses, observe activities of suspects, write reports and fill out out forms, prepare cases and testify in court, obtain facts or statements from complainants, witnesses and accused persons and record interviews using recording device, provide information to lab personnel concerning the source of an item of evidence of tests to be performed.” These are the general role of a detective. Importantly it is important to understand the different types of detective. “Criminal Justice School Info” expanded on the types of detectives, General Detective, Cyber Crime Detectives, Homicide Detectives , Narcotics Detectives and also Cold Case Detective.
Andrine Redsteer “Type of Police Detective” elaborates on the idea of the different types of detective explaining their significant roles and responsibilities. “A general detective have experience working as patrol officers, or as law enforcement officers in some other capacity before being promoted as a detective.” In the article, surprisingly in explains hows the system works for example “if a police department has a larger number of unsolved missing persons cases, a detective may start out on cold case squad.” (Andrine Redsteer 1). The author also gave a detailed information of the roles of a Cold Case Detective. “Cold case detective may be new detective for former homicide detective who work cold cases on a volunteer or part-time basis.” Also Cold Case Detective may also work alone, or with several other detectives if the case is considered high- profile more so this will happen in a more disorganized society. For example Paterson while so many crimes have taken place . Another type of detective would be Narctics. Redsteer, stated that these type of detective work at the local, state and federal level. The primarily role these detective play is to “ conduct undercover operations and investigate the sale and purchases of illegal narcotics. They make also “ investigate cases involving drug- related offenses to check for connections to suspected drug dealers.” Homicide detective is another type that Redsteer mentioned, he stated that “ Homicide detectives conduct investigations on cases where someone has died and foul play is suspected. They also may work in paris or with several homicide detectives, but it’s common for one detective to be given ultimate responsibility for overseeing a particular investigation. Also their job responsibilities also include working local prosecutors and proffering court testimony. Lastly another type of Detective Redsteer mentioned would be Cyber Crime Detective. “Cyber crime detective investigate crimes committed via the internet, or computer-based crimes. It is possible that a Cyber Crime detective may monitor chat rooms to prevent crimes against children, or conduct investigations based on information obtained from Internent- based scams, identity theft, intellectual property infringement.
Furthermore, there are different types of police and detective who work in the state and local law enforcement and also in the federal law enforcement. For example in the article, the author emphasis on uniformed police officers. Uniform police officer, play the same role as officer, the only difference “they wear uniforms that allow the public to easily recognize them as police officers. They have regular patrols and also respond to emergency and non- emergency call. Also the article “Career Planning” explains that “ some police officers work only on specific type of crime, such as narcotics, officers especially those working in large departments may work in special units such as horseback, motorcycle, canine corps and special weapons and tactics (SWAT)teams.
From this information gathered, we can conclude that both the police officers and Detectives plays a significant role in today’s society.

These articles elaborated on the various aspect of what a police officer has to do on a day to day basis. The question is how would we be able to live day to day life without these officers ? Social media (Mass Media), the society on a whole gives negative feedback towards officers, which provides a negative energy. Often times these officers become scared to do their job correctly.

In the article “Michelle Malkin’” states “ The National Law Enforcement officer Memorial Fund, reports that a total of 1501 law enforcement officer died in the line of duty during the past ten years. An average of one death every 58 hours or 150 per year.

This leaves us to say, before one can judge an officer it is important to know the role, their responsibilities, the facts, not opinion of others or propaganda. This is just the prove how mass media portrays a negative role in today society and not helping this society to better than what it

is.