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Essay psychology and policing
Essay psychology and policing
Psychology of modern policing
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In this essay, law enforcement has a spotlight again, but for a positive standing this time. Police officers are typically displayed in the news because someone’s always criticizing them. Human beings have a stigma for patrolling officers; only the toughest are meant to serve and protect. Noone wants brains surgeons with post-traumatic stress disorder operating on them. When it comes to police officers and psychological health issues, it sounds unimaginable. One glimpse and officers appear to look fine, on the surface at least, but doesn't everyone? Everyone conceals something, especially when it comes to mental illnesses. When an officer comes out and voices a mental health problem, every force receives hate. Why was he/she even admitted
to the police force? Are the police even monitored for their mental health? This blows the officers small and simple disorder out of proportion, which can cause them to resign their position and any future jobs. If an officer loses the trust of the public, no one will help them if they have a problem; the initial reason law enforcement officers exist. Afraid of losing their jobs, officers with psychological illnesses do not speak up to receive the help they need. Police officers should be able to share their psychological disorders with the world, instead of restraining them under wraps. Mental health issues should not prolong an individual from the line of work of their dreams. Police officers are loaded with psychological and physical issues that follow the daily struggle to serve, protect, and guide our country.
Into the Kill Zone: A Cop’s Eye View of Deadly Force, by David Klinger, explores the effects that shooting a deadly weapon will have on law enforcement officers. The author interviews over eighty men and women from a number of police agencies spread across four states. He conducts these interviews to note the pre and post mental conceptions police officers have after shooting a gun in the line of duty. Klinger shares his interviewees’ stories in the novel to show readers how pulling the trigger of a gun can cause a variety of issues both within and outside of a police officer’s life.
It's up to the police to make a decision right on the street to act.
This era is where the shift from a centralized task force has gravitated to a decentralized task force, causing some friction from both the community and the officers that serve it. Police are told that they are needed to listen to the concerns for the community; however, law enforcement is still the primary goal. Police forces now have to defend the values for which the forces were built upon. The idea of problem solving has come into question with police discretion towards certain run-ins with the law. Williams and Murphy argue it is due to the lack of sensitivity from minorities and the concern on crime itself than the community. Kelling and Moore contradict Williams and Murphy, with Kelling/Moore suggesting the era is more about listening to concerns of the community and improving the citizen satisfaction. But both the article came to the conclusion of the silent underlying problems that are becoming more of a “quiet riot” with the police and the
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.
would just like to piggyback off what you said by saying that police subculture is a method used to set a standard of behavior that is considered to be appropriate for law enforcement personnel. A strong cultural value among police is considered to be inportant to act tough and demonstrate to fellow officers that they are capable of handling just about anything. Sometimes displays of emotion are not encouraged, because this may demonstrate an image that police officers are weak. Therefore, officers often keep problems to themselves. However, this same culture appreciates dry, sarcastic humor that may seem dark to outsiders, but it allows officers to mentally deal with disturbing situations.
Terror is rising day by day all over the world, and United States is no exception. There have been mass shootings at schools, shopping malls, music concerts and even at a movie theatre. So far, there have been 398 mass shootings recorded only in the past 50 years which resulted in 1996 deaths and 2488 people injured[1]. According to Van Dorn et al., a history of childhood abuse, binge drinking, and male gender are all predictive risk factors for serious violence[2]. The average number of genocides is 7 per year for last 50 years which took 39 lives and 48 person injuries per year[1]. These incidents affect the society on a high rate which in turn contributes for such situations again indirectly.
These changes have manifested both positive and negative reverberations in the way we perform our job. Police officials have contemplated for years over the key to maintaining a positive image for their organization. Unfortunately, several incidents in the past years have altered society's perception of police in some communities. Police in America are no longer strangers to innovation born of scandal.
Wouldn’t it be completely irrational to sentence every mentally ill individual to jail purely because they suffered from a mental illness? Often, mentally ill people behave in an eccentric manner and allure the attention of police officers who do not differentiate the mentally ill from mentally stable people and immediately charge them with misdemeanors. There are approximately 300,000 inmates, with the number increasing every year, which suffer from a mental illness and do not receive proper treatment. Jails are not adequately equipped to care for mentally ill inmates, which can lead to an escalation of an inmate’s illness. Society has failed to provide enough social resources for citizens suffering from psychiatric illnesses in its community, transferring mentally unstable individuals between mental institutions and jails, when in fact adequate aid such as providing proper medication, rehabilitation opportunities, and more psychiatric hospitals in communities is a necessity to reconstitute these individuals.
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
A study published by Smith, S. E. states that “Over 50 percent of fatal police shootings in many areas of the country involve mentally ill.’’ Still nobody seems to bring up the topic of mental health till a horrific act of mass violence. Even after the terrible act not a lot of talk is being done about what can be done to help the people who struggle with this everyday. Also what should be done to reduce to violence we see coming from this source of.
Bibliography Why Good Cops Go Bad. Newsweek, p.18. Carter, David L. (1986). Deviance & Police. Ohio: Anderson Publishing Co. Castaneda, Ruben (1993, Jan. 18). Bearing the Badge of Mistrust. The Washington Post, p.11. Dantzer, Mark L. (1995). Understanding Today's Police. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. James, George (1993, Mar. 29). Confessions of Corruption. The New York Times, P.8, James, George (1993, Nov. 17). Officials Say Police Corruption is Hard To Stop. The New York times, p.3. Sherman, Lawrence W(1978). Commission Findings. New York Post, P. 28 Walker, J.T. (1992). The police in America, p.243-263, chp. 10, Walker, Samuel (1999).
In spite of the fact that they have once in a while worked with each other, federal agencies, for example, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (NSA) are habitually matched up with local law enforcement officers to practice techniques in averting psychological oppression. In General, activities to counteract psychological oppression and operations managing country security are probably going to put federal agencies at the front of these techniques in preparing lower level police departments (Roberg et al., 2012, p. 8). In this manner, in spite of the fact that the attacks of September 11, 2001 produced modifications in our national resistance, it furthermore balanced law enforcement strategies monstrously (Brooks, B. E., 2010, p...
The New Zealand Police is the lead agency responsible for helping the community to decrease or reduce crime, corruption and improve the responsibility of safety and protection in New Zealand. There is a need to make changes to the police culture in order to improve the performance of their organisation. However there are three fundamental errors that need to be addressed which will be discussed in this essay. Firstly, there is a lack of an established sense of urgency which has the potential to jeopardize the future of the organization. Secondly is, not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition which means there is a lack of communication which resulted in an absence of leadership and teamwork from frontline staff to national headquarters. Finally, an undercommunicating the vision by a factor of ten that organisation leader needs to communicate visions and strategies. These three errors are relevant as they are pivotal in the implementation of a managing change programme. Recommendations are also provided to improve on how the New Zealand Police can be enhanced within a management perspective.
Police officers have a very reputable job, meaning they must be professional at all times. The job of a police officer is to protect and to serve the public. Since most of their time is spent in the public eye, they are expected to maintain professional behavior. The first step in projecting their professionalism is their dress. They should be dressed neatly,
Police corruption is a nationwide problem that has been going on for many years. Not only is corruption a problem on our own U.S. soil, but police practices of corruption go as far east as Europe and Asia. Many studies, polls and examinations were taken to find out how exactly what the general publics’ opinions of the police are. Officers receive a lot of scrutiny over this issue, but for good reason.