Police Power Abuse

Michael Villar

Mrs. Ricobaldi

English 12CP

02 May 2016

Police Power Abuse

Abuse of power and discrimination are bound to happen when people are given the position of authority over others. This happens in businesses, households, and in the police force. The corruption and abuse of policing is a serious problem facing many people living in the world today. But in countries that are less developed there is an abundance of power abuse and corruption especially over the poor and marginalized who fall within the lowest quintile of income (Agbiboa). Seeing that this happens in other countries looks horrible but that is because the corruption is easier to see in the underdeveloped countries, but the fact that it happens in other places means that

it is just as possible to happen here in the United States.
To be able to understand the conflict you need to know that the municipal police are the only segment of the government that normally has the authority to use coercive force. As such, they represent the coercive power of government. They have many responsibilities but because it is they who decide whom to arrest and take into custody, they are looked at and considered the gatekeepers of the criminal justice system (Sims). This is the reason they are brought to question when people feel they have been unlawfully arrested or detained by an officer. Unfortunately the trust has been broken over the years between the people and the police this is most likely caused by the media and the influence that it has on people. With most people having a phone on there person with a camera able to videotape and expose cops when they feel that they are being discriminated against or having their rights violated, the cops get shown abusing their power over the media it spreads the idea that not all cops are there for the good of society, which goes against what there job is because the police are “officers of municipal law-enforcement agencies whose primary mission is to protect their communities from crime and other threats to public safety and well-being” (Sims). But in some cases they do not seem to be following their own rules and may need somebody to make sure that they stay within the laws.
To fully understand the debate surrounding police actions, a person needs to understand their training.

Police are trained to demand control of all situations some officers even have problems separating their career life from their personal life. They "eat, live, die" police work. Their identity is defined by the uniform that they wear and any conflicts in their life are seen as challenges to their dominance (“The Misuse”). This training shows that the police are given the idea that they have authority over other citizens. The officers of the law are also trained to use force continuum which means to only use the amount of force necessary to control the situation and the person. It begins with officer presence, vocal direction and soft empty-hand techniques. If the person continues resistance, the officer may escalate to hard empty-hand techniques, chemical agents and upward toward lethal force the idea is to bring the person into compliance and under control without causing injury” (“The Misuse”). This system gives the police the idea of needing superiority and full control over the suspect in all cases also this gives the officers the permission to use the amount of power that they feel is necessary in order to gain the control of the situation. So when they stop somebody that has the predetermined negative connotation and fear of police will be scared of what is going to happen so they will be more likely to try to run or resist the officers commands and direction even if

they have done nothing wrong to begin with because in reality if they did nothing the police have no control over where they go or what they say, which will then lead to the officer in the situation having to use more force to gain control of the person.
Although officers have clear expectations more and more people are beginning to question whether the police can be trusted or not this could be caused by the constant sense of contradiction that the youth see first that the police are here to protect us, and we honor that, but then there is the media that shows the police as power hungry and abusive, because for so many of our young people, there’s a fear (de Blasio).

, they are abusive of this power and cause many unnecessary problems. For example a twenty year old black man was stopped for dancing in a residential street. The officer was able to get the man's identification and continued to run his name for warrants, found nothing then told the man he was free to go. The man then responded with profanities. The officer then told him that he needed to watch his language then let him know again that he was not being arrested, the man continued to use profanity and ended up getting arrested for manner of walking in roadway (“Ferguson”). This shows that the police do sometimes cause problems because although there was no reason for the man to get stopped in the first place so he ended up getting in trouble for his reaction to getting stopped for doing nothing meaning he never should have got arrested because citizens have freedom of speech and the cop did not have initiate their confrontation in the first

place.
Body language is a big part of being a police officer the police are sign that the police demand control and power over situations officers learn to project a command presence. They practice and observe eye contact, stance, and non-verbal body language and are schooled, "If you look good, you feel good. If you look confident, people will perceive you to be confident." Men and women change once they do not have the uniform and equipment of an officer” (“The Misuse”). The confidence changes with the uniform which shows that the police have a false sense of superiority because of the badge that they wear. This could be seen as intimidating to people that have a fear of police that is pushed onto the people through the media so without having that same sense of demanding control will be more likely to conform to what the officer says even if it were to infringe on their rights because most people are unaware of their own rights that they are given. Also considering that the police are suppose to enforce the laws they should be trusted to follow them themselves because if a cop is seen breaking a law then that means that they do not fully understand the rules that they are meant to enforce. For example the police are often seen turning their sirens on just to get around traffic. Even supervisors throughout the chain of command endorse questionable and sometimes unlawful conduct by officers (Smith).
One way that the police seem to abuse their power most often is when they stop people and searching them “In recent years barely 10 percent of searches have resulted in an arrest, suggesting that officers have been far too willing to invoke their powers” (“Can”). The people who do get searched are often made to feel suspect because there should not be any reason for a cop to be stopping them, then if the cop were to search the person and find nothing you have to question why they were stopped in the first place? When the situation involves a caucasian police officer that searches a person of another race, racism is the first conclusion people come to. “A recent poll reveals that 52 percent of white Americans believe that police officers are treating black people fairly. Only 12 percent of black Americans think that” (Starr). But the history of racial tension in america between the government and african american community that creates the fear of one another and addresses how people need to stop judging people on their looks.
On the other hand there are also police officers who do there job correctly and do seem to follow the set of rules that they are given as a police officer. This is where the conflict happens because the police that do their job wrong give the the cops that do follow the laws a bad reputation. Because they do follow the rules the officers themselves have to make sure not to trust somebody who does have the intentions of hurting them or anybody else. For this reason the “police feel it is necessary to treat each suspect as a threat because they can never be too sure about what the person may do when they approach the person” (de Blasio). Also the citizens have to understand that not all of the police are abusing their power and are following the order of a crime report and are trying to keep the general public safe. This means that if there is somebody that is reported to have done something and the police officer sees a person that fits the description given they are supposed to question that person as part of their duty.
To fix the problem of power abuse and broken trust there are a few things that could be done. To fix the problem of racism in the police system there needs to be transparency “having cops record the age, ethnicity, and result of the search so that it will be clearer to see which cops are stopping people because of race” (Tsin). This system would expose the cops that tend to be stopping people because of race and the good cops would be shown as well. Another thing that could help both protect good cops and the citizens that are unlawfully stopped and detained or physically harmed would be for all police officers to have body cameras recording all situations with suspects so it eliminated the ability to lie about what has happened in the situation. But the people have to work together in order to get the body cameras in use but “The people believed that stop and frisk had to stop and it ended. The people believed there were too many people arrested and then having a record for something as simple as possession of a small amount of marijuana and that policy has changed” (de Blasio). People need to start working together if they want change to happen without using violence and vandalism to get their message across because if the people work together for something peacefully it is more likely to get noticed as a positive movement instead of having a destructive riot.
To make a change in our society there needs to be an understanding of both sides the police officers and the people because they do not fully trust each other and that is the biggest problem. To help fix the trust problems body cameras should be worn by all police. Then what needs to be done is the police that do get found abusing their power as a police officer need to be removed from their position and have it publicly noted when done so. Also on the other hand cops that are doing their job correctly should be publicly praised as they do the right things in the community. Having the police officer's actions open to the public is a good way for the police to gain the trust of the people back and at the same time the body cameras will prevent the police from abusing their powers.
Abuse of power may never stop as it is human nature to want power and to take advantage of it. That is why it is important to have checks and balances to monitor the heads of police departments, and other officials in charge. In this day and age of cell phones and dash cam cameras everyone is or should be more aware that abuse, when it does happen, is not just “he said she said” when there may be video proof. People in charge can use and abuse power, and “victims” may not really be providing the full story. Police officers know that they have to be more aware and cautious when dealing with a person who is not cooperating with an arrest or questioning. They are aware that cameras are everywhere this hopefully this will change the way people in charge use their power over people. All people should be treated with respect and should be assumed innocent until proved guilty. Police put their lives at risk every day, most of which are honest, dedicated and hardworking people. It only takes a couple of prejudiced, power hungry people to corrupt any system. This is why check and balances are so important. Police and the people they protect must all be held accountable for their actions. In this age of readily available technology is it wise to provide all responding police with body cameras?