Police Force Essay

The use of force by police officers is a problem and will be until the media focuses their effort on the training of police officers. What they mean by use of force Phillips (2015) defined “as using more force than required to gain compliance in an incident”. Gross (2016) pointed out “a series of shootings has started a national debate about the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers”. This is starting to get the conversation back going with the series of shooting being all over the media and discussed in the upcoming presidential election. The main aspect of this is the disproportionate use of force by police officers in regard to the race of the individuals in the incidents.

Chaney and Robertson (2015) pointed out “media characterizations of violent criminals as Black has been deeply etched in the psyche of many viewers”. The media is what shapes our society and how we get our information points us in the direction they want you to go. Every news station or website has their own bias and agenda because their job is to get views regardless of what they say. If the story bleeds it leads and the use of force by police officers has been covered more that lately for the

past few years. Furthermore, the psyche of the many viewers of this is police officers and others in law enforcement who are involved in media unless they leave under a rock. The psyche of a police officer is important especially in their training that prepares them to deal with the incidents on a day-to-day basis.
The training of police officers in the media is rarely talked about because the main focus of the root of the problem is on race.

A police officer should not have to shoot a suspect at least three times with their gun in the terms of deadly force in subduing a suspect. Chaney and Robertson (2015) emphasized “Black lives matter, the rallying cry of the new movement against racist police violence, which has been embraced by people of different races across America with the shooting of suspects”. This new movement has been starting chapter all across America to get people to hear about the movement and what ways to help minimize the incidents. This is a problem that will not go away soon and the mentality of a police officer has changed from being a guardian to being a warrior (Stoughton

2015).
The use of force by police officers is a problem and will be until the media focuses their effort on the training of police officers. Phillips (2015) research points out the following:
That is, police officers having less than one-year experience and those officers with at least 20 years of experience ‘were more likely to see the use of excessive force as a serious violation, while those with intermediate levels of experience were more likely to view such violence as less serious’. (p.53)
The training between the one-year experience and intermediate levels of experience have different view of the use of force. It could be that one is more susceptible to how they will be scrutinized by the media if something goes wrong. Also, the different training methods that they experienced before they go out on the streets. In conclusion, the media is what society uses and it shapes the way they view police officers which is in a negative limelight.