There is no doubt that there are countless honorable police officers throughout the country. There are a great deal of law enforcement officers who entered the field in order to help people and save lives, and many of them achieve these goals with no negative consequences. It is unquestionable that the majority of police officers are righteous, honest people; however, this fact does not in any way excuse the appalling actions of the officers that do not fit this definition.
Police officers may face dangers in their daily jobs; however, officers have been ineffectively trained and have no concrete laws to recall during high stress situations in the field, leading to their often using excessive force at incorrect times. The data that we have
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to rely on about police use of force is abysmal and does not allow for the determination of any trends or the coming to any justifiable conclusions*. This ineffective law enforcement system and the futile data collection of when officers use force needs to be reformed. If it is left as it is, the current practice will lead to even more needless and inexcusable deaths. Tamir Rice is one of these many horrifying exhibits of a law enforcement system that puts improperly trained officers on the street. When he awoke the morning of November 22, 2014 he could have never predicted what would happen next. According to Abby Ohlheiser of the Washington Post, police received a report of a “person pointing a gun” in a park and responded quickly. One of the officers exited the car and immediately shot at the suspect, killing him. The “person pointing a gun” turned out to be twelve year old Tamir Rice. The officer who shot Rice, Timothy Loehmann, had “struggled to complete his firearms qualification training” but was still issued a gun and allowed to continue work (Ohlheiser 21). If Loehmann had been required to continuing training until he was competent with his gun, Tamir Rice may have lived past the age of twelve. If his firearm training was not adequate, it is likely that he was undertrained in other aspects of policing as well. According to the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, conflict management and non-lethal weapon use are taught at medians of 8 and 12 hours of instruction required, respectively. These numbers are much lower than the median 60 hours of firearm skill training that are required. If Loehmann was struggling with firearm skills despite the large amount of time devoted to it in police academies, then he was likely struggling with the other skills as well and the outcome was the death of an innocent child. Like Tamir Rice, Walter Scott presents an example of an innocent and harmless person killed by police using excessive force. Scott was murdered after being pulled over for having a broken taillight on his car. When a third generation police officer who also owns a center for police training, Jim Glennon, says that “it is hard to find any justification for the shooting of Walter Scott” there is clearly something wrong (Glennon 1). The video of the incident provided by an anonymous bystander clearly shows a taser being placed next to the body after Scott fell as a result of being shot 8 times. The police officer was obviously trying to frame Scott for trying to take his taser and planted the evidence there to cover up for his murder. This is completely unacceptable behavior, and sadly this shameless murder of innocent people is not exclusive to just the examples of Tamir Rice and Walter Scott. There are countless more. The uncertainty that occurs in the field for a police officer can be reduced with more concrete mandates that spell out when force should be used and when it should not. If this stress can be reduced then there are likely to be fewer cases where police use too much force. The laws currently in place leave the definition of using force as “very broad” (Katz 23). According to the National Institute for Justice, an agency within the Department of Justice, the correct amount of force police should use is “the amount of force necessary to mitigate an incident, make an arrest, or protect themselves or others from harm.” These guidelines leave too much up to officer judgement which can be flawed, especially when decisions are made in split seconds in the field when officers are scared that they may be in danger. If there are few rules that determine when to use force, how can officers be expected to use it correctly? We need a new set of standards that clearly define when force should be used, in which specific situations, and how much should be used. Officers should also be held accountable when they break those rules. If we have no reform in the police regulatory system, then we will have no improvements in the number of cases where police use too much force. Another aspect of the system that should be improved in order to make sure police are using force correctly is the police training system.
Glennon, owner of a police training seminar says, “[police] don’t train nearly adequately enough - or sometimes even in the right ways” (Glennon 6). Although Glennon proceeds to claim that “officer use of force has been low for many years,” his statement about police training is not one to be shrugged off (Glennon 6). Even though Glennon may believe that despite officers not training enough they still know how to use force correctly in a variety of situations, common sense and mounting evidence says otherwise. According to Ronal Serpas, former New Orleans police chief, in an interview with Juleyka Lantigua-Williams of the Atlantic, “there are millions of encounters between police and civilians every year, and that, [...] is where training can make an enormous difference.” If police are trained to see their role as “guarding the community, not defeating enemies” as Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law and former city police officer and state investigator, says, then police would be less inclined to use force, lowering the rates of excessive use of force as well. If we improve the police training system then police will be more confident in their knowledge about when it is and is not appropriate to use force. They will also be more prepared to face challenges in the field and to resolve them in …show more content…
a more peaceful way. In order to monitor the success of the regulation and training reform, we need to have more accurate statistics about police use of force.
The Department of Justice “does not require the nation’s 17,000-plus local law enforcement agencies to all report to a central database” (Simmons 12). A central database is crucial for tracking incidents and determining trends. While the International Association of Chiefs of Police has a police use of force database, Project Coordinator of the database, Mark Henriquez, says, “essential to creating [it] was the belief that data contributions should be voluntary and anonymous” in the “Use of Force By Police” research report by the National Institute of Justice. If reporting to the database is voluntary, then stations that have high excessive force rates, high death percentages of suspects, or anything that paints police in a bad light will not report. Without data from all law enforcement agencies around the country, it is impossible to determine the extent of the police use of force problem, and it is also impossible to monitor for
improvement. The examples of twelve year old Tamir Rice who was just sitting on a park bench, and Walter Scott who was pulled over for a broken taillight, are just two out of the many dead victims of excessive police use of force, none of which are acceptable. It is clear that there are police officers who either feel uncertain with the guidelines or are inadequately trained, and they at times end up using too much force. If the law enforcement system is reformed, improving the rules regulating use of force, police training, and the data collection on when police use force, then there is a good chance that this problem can be solved.
Stetser, Merle (2001). The Use of Force in Police Control of Violence: Incidents Resulting in Assaults on Officers. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing L.L.C.
Serve and Protect are common words associated with police officers, however some law enforcement officers taint the honor and integrity of the job. Police Corruption is a serious problem affecting nearly every city across the country and world. Curbing police corruption is a tall order; however, improving the recruitment and training process and internal controls can bring this issue to an abrupt stop.
The author focuses on the U.S. Task Force on 21st Century Policing and Police Data Initiative or PDI to determine if it helps to restore trust and the broken relationship between and communities and police officers. The Task Force made by Barack Obama recommended the analysis of department policies, incidents of misconduct, recent stops and arrests, and demographics of the officers. The PDI has tasked 21 cities to comprehend the police behavior and find out what to do to change it. Also PDI was said to have data and information on vehicle stops and shootings by police officers. The use of statistics has a purpose to help rebuild trust and the relationship between and communities and police officers.
In areas with more poverty police become more aggressive and ruthless towards individuals, falling to respond to situations rationally. William Terrill, who studies police behavior at Michigan State University, says the "broken windows style of policing, in which officers crack down aggressively on minor infractions like fare-dodging and graffiti, may be partly to blame. Communities with high levels of poverty and high proportions of non-white residents are often the focus of broken-windows operations. This can cause a feeling among citizens that police are constantly harassing them” (Hudson). To me this is just a way for law enforcement to justify their actions. It would make more sense for officers to be trained to be more aware of how people in such circumstances work instead of being aggressive and cruel. It shows that officers are ignoring their training and relying more on how they feel towards certain groups of people. In an article by Dave Grossi, he mentions that “During a poll taken during this class which represented about a half dozen Florida law enforcement agencies, I asked how many train more than twice a year. No hands went up. When asked how many train or qualify with their duty guns only once a year” (Grossi). This not only shows how uneducated some offers may
Over the years, this country has witnessed many cases of police brutality. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have seen police brutality take place in front of their homes. Officers are faced with many threatening situations everyday forcing them to make split second decisions and to expect the worst and hope for the best. Police officers are given the power to take any citizens rights away and even their lives. With that kind of power comes responsibility, that’s one major concern with the amount of discretion officers have is when to use force or when to use lethal force. The use of excessive force may or not be a large predicament but should be viewed by both the police and the community.
By teaching police officers alternatives to shooting to kill, they experience higher risks with their lives. Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, said, “It would be "very difficult" to train officers to shoot to wound” (Jacobo, 2016). Police officers are viewed as “predators” and “an occupying army” rather than allies (Valey, 2016). This is a perception that needs to change because it counteracts the mission of police officers
Police brutality is a very real problem that many Americans face today. The police carry an enormous burden each day. Police work is very stressful and involves many violent and dangerous situations. In many confrontations the police are put in a position in which they may have to use force to control the situation. There are different levels of force and the situation dictates the level use most of the time. The police have very strict rules about police use force and the manner in which they use it. In this paper I will try to explain the many different reason the police cross the line, and the many different people that this type of behavior effects. There are thousands of reports each year of assaults and ill treatment against officers who use excessive force and violate the human rights of their victims. In some cases the police have injured and even killed people through the use of excessive force and brutal treatment. The use of excessive force is a criminal act and I will try and explore the many different factors involved in these situations.
The authors also explain that there are no real statistics to help explain how many times an officer has used a firearm. The text explains that there is no significant data to help explain police shootings and how many occur each year (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Most of the data that can be found does not clearly state the numbers of times a firearm was used. Majority of data is found through data bases such as Vital Statistics (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Even data bases such as Vital Statistics do not provide clear information on police
Everyday law enforcement personal have the possibility to face dangerous events in their daily duties. In performing such duties a police officer could come by a seemingly ordinary task, and in a blink of an eye the event can turn threatening and possible deadly. When or if this happens to an officer they won’t have
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 do not provide adequate training in nonviolent solutions. With this, police are unfamiliar with what to
I believe officers in law enforcement are here to serve and protect the citizens of this country. Although as I stated before I also believe that there are still a few that are bad. The majority of them are good. For any kind of change to begin a number of factors need to be involved. The citizens need to use fairness.
"A policeman’s first obligation is to be responsible to the needs of the community he serves…The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist in which an honest police officer can act without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers. We create an atmosphere in which the honest officer fears the dishonest officer, and not the other way around.", -Frank Serpico.
The lack of training police officers is causing unnecessary incidents, is it true? Does the lack of Critical thinking, values, Ethics and Understanding the role as a police officer contribute to hire number of incidents? There is a chance that answer to this questions might always be divided, why? Well because officers will tend to defend their side and how the view the problem and the public will also defend their side and how they view the problem, for example most officers would probably say that people do not comply with their orders or the public might outcry because of the use of excessive force, it is most certain that there will never be an agreement on who is wright or wrong. Regardless of the outcome of who is wright
Police brutality is an act that often goes unnoticed by the vast majority of white Americans. This is the intentional use of “excessive force by an authority figure, which oftentimes ends with bruises, broken bones, bloodshed, and sometimes even death” (Harmon). While law-abiding citizens worry about protecting themselves from criminals, it has now been revealed that they must also keep an eye on those who are supposed to protect and serve.
The majority of peace officers are committed to the profession they chose. They view the career as a calling, a dedication to perform a public service to their community. Being a police officer requires one to continually strive for perfection, but there is no such thing as a perfect cop. What makes a good cop turn bad? Many factors can attribute to police corruption, but the question that should be asked is if it can be stopped. Although police agencies have progressed greatly from its beginning, police corruption is the black mark that will forever leave a stain of embarrassment within an organization.