The Role Of Police Officers

791 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Causes of stress in police work

Given the nature of the job being a police officer is tedious and dangerous work. Officers have to be on edge all the time because being careless can mean someone losing their life. In the work of policing there is no such thing as a routine patrol; one day they could get called up for civil service and the other day it could be chasing a criminal whose selling drugs to young teenagers. The job of police officers is not easy because a small error can weigh not only on one individual but the whole police department. In the recent years policing have taken great criticism and it usually overshadows the hard service they do for communities around the country. Social media has a great influence in the depiction of police officers. The fact is police officers don’t go out shooting their guns around and those that do, do it with deep discretion. What many fail to acknowledge is that police officers are constantly under extreme stress, experience dangerous situations, and have to make split second decisions. There are many factors which affect the level of stress …show more content…

Let say an officer goes on a routine patrol and spot a suspicious person walking in the streets and the suspect gets pulled over but at that split second he reaches into his pocket. At this moment police officers are responsible to make the decision whether to pull their gun out and shoot. The decision could spark an outrage or save their life. With so much at stake the margin of error is big. There have been tests in where citizens have the chance to playout the role of a police officer. This test proved that an everyday citizen took could not handle the decision to shoot or not to shoot. The results were that many citizens ended up killing many unarmed suspects. This clearly proves that police officers decision whether to shoot or not to shoot are carried out at the most professional

Show More
Related

  • The Core Function of Police in Reference to Wilson and Keeling's Broken Windows Thesis

    1989 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Core Function of Police in Reference to Wilson and Keeling's Broken Windows Thesis In considering whether the core function of the Police should be to maintain order, there are a number of issues, both historic and current, which need to be taken into consideration. For example, the maintenance of what constitutes “order” can be interpreted differently by different communities i.e. urban and rural. The expectations of police performance and in how they deploy their resources to meet conflicting demands need to satisfy both nationally set targets and meet locally driven priorities.

    Read More

  • Police Authority vs Individual Rights

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is easy for police to get caught up in the idea that it is them against the rest of society (Barkan, 2012). Many citizens in today’s democratic society have a negative or fearful view of our law enforcement. Think back to grade school, who was that one kid in class that everyone was annoyed by or despised? Most people would answer the teacher’s pet or the tattletale. We have grown up from a young age to have a negative view towards those that get us into trouble when we think we can get away with something we know is wrong. In the adult world, the police force can equate to those tattletales.

    Read More

  • Police Brutality Hypocrisy

    1515 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Police Brutality - Racism, Racial Profiling, Prejudice

    1514 Words  | 4 Pages

    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 when to use force or when to use lethal force.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Tennessee V Garner

    1628 Words  | 4 Pages

    When we think of the police, we normally think of the brave men and women out on the street, enforcing the law, catching criminals, helping out the public in cases of emergency and making us feel safe in general. Most of the Police in most of the world is like that which is a good thing, However in the United States of America the police here are a bit more ruthless. Most of the police officers are very nice people and they really do want to help out in their community, but unfortunately there are some bad and corrupt cops in the system that will break the law and do some bad things. In the Modern world most bad cops are seen as racist and trigger happy. They don’t kill for fun of course but whenever they feel threatened they are trained to

    Read More

  • The Law Enforcement Profession

    1709 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Police Myths Of The Police

    1066 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is a myth to believe that an officers job is spend fighting dangerous crimes, in reality officers spend more time handing smaller cases. For example, police officers spend a lot of time doing daily tasks such as giving speeding tickets and being mediators in disputes (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Handing out speeding tickers and handling minor disputes are far from fighting crime. Police officers spend more time doing preventive measures (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Preventive measures involve officers intervening to prevent further altercations. Victor Kappeler and Gary Potter discussed the myth of crime fighting as invalid and misleading notions of an officer’s employment.

    Read More

  • The Causes And Effects Of Stress In Police Officers

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Should Police Officers Protect Our Society

    1655 Words  | 4 Pages

    Furthermore, many individuals believe that the police officers are misusing their power by taking extreme measures when situations arise. In shootings for example, we see that many police officers claim that their lives were in danger and the individual displayed threatening behavior that required them to fire. Many people contend this as they think that the police officers did not have sufficient discretion in firing their weapon and used their deep rooted, or even subtle, racism in handling the situation. In other words, had the individual been White the situation would have ended differently, and not with a dead African American person. The fact that in each of these cases of police brutality the individual ends up dead and unable to tell their side of the story is extremely alarming to

    Read More

  • Police Officer And The Police Department

    1218 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recently in the United States there has been in increase in deaths that have come from police officers using deadly force. The use of force is inevitable as a police officer, many times their own lives or the life’s civilians are at risk when it comes to determine what type of force a officer should use. There are many incidents where police officer have to react in a matter of seconds and has to choose between his own life or that of the individual causing the disturbance. When a Police Officer uses deadly force has caused outraged with the public, stirring up protests and creating a scandal for the police officer and the Police Department. Many do not know when it is right for an officer to use deadly force and what constitutes it, or what happens when the officer does not use the appropriate amount of force that is required to control the situation. There has been many changes in Police Departments around the country to try to reduce the use of deadly force in response to the issues that have occurred because of it.

    Read More

  • Essay On Police Shootings

    1605 Words  | 4 Pages

    Police shootings occur all over the world but are a huge problem within the United States. We continue to hear more and more about them. These shootings are making headlines. Front page news it seems almost weekly. All the shootings go one of two ways. Either a Police Officer has been shot or a Police Officer has shot a citizen, but either way the final result is death. Whether an Officer has been shot or an Officer has shot someone these cases seem to be related to one thing, fear. People in today’s society feel as though they can’t trust Police Officers as they are there to hurt and kill them. And Police Officers feel as though they are in danger of doing their everyday duties because people see them as the “bad guys” and want to hurt or kill them. Yes, police brutality and racism still exist, but not all cops are bad. Yes there are still bad citizens in this world that want to kill and harm others, but not all citizens are bad. People seem to react to these shootings by rioting quickly after a police officer has shot and killed someone without

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Law Enforcement

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    People in their communities are having a tougher and tougher time putting faith into their law enforcement agencies. The cause of this largely due to the recent negative media portrayal of policemen. However, it is true that officers are not required to be trained in public relations to be qualified for the job. An example of this issue is the stereotype that police officers are racist and will write up anyone that is not from their ethnic background. And while this may be true for a few bad apples, the large majority of policemen are good, hardworking people. Philip Swarts writes about a meeting for the presidential task force in Washington where the concept of a better relationship between police officers and their community was highlighted. The mayor of Baltimore says in this meeting “Police ‘“need to learn more than logistics of policing but also the broader significance of their role in society,”’ (Swarts). Their role includes being more approachable and friendly in their environment. And this behavior is need now more than ever as the nation has become less trusting of our law enforcement in the recent years. “Police need better training to improve community relations and defuse the sorts of deadly, racially charged confrontations that have divided the nation for months.” (Swarts). The issue is not completely the officers fault either. Civic engagement in America has been in decline for several years now, so even with more training in public relations, officers might still run into a brick wall due to negative media. However, it does not matter how the media degrades our law enforcement as it is still their highest priority to protect and serve the people of this

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Police Officers: The Supermen Of The Streets

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    When political anarchy, social injustices, and crime end up leading to civil depravities that go against the foundation of democracy, society depends on the police to come in and keep the peace, while attempting to restore the order. These officers are asked to pursue criminals in vehicles, and on foot, repeatedly expose themselves to the dangers of the crimes, and remain calm while being under pressure at all moments on the job, and even off duty. Being an officer of the law takes a special person

    Read More

  • Police Officer´s Responsibilities

    564 Words  | 2 Pages

    When you think of police what does it mean to you? The responsibility of a police officer is to protect the public and to serve the community. Also, they detect and to prevent crime, police officers strive to maintain the law. New police officers work with the general duty as patrol divisions, that provides a range of experiences and assignments. The General duty of policing involves patrolling in assigned areas to enforce laws, protect public safety, and arrest criminal suspects either by car, foot, bicycle, or in some cases, horse. Police officers can also do some of the following: they Investigate accidents and crime scenes; to secure evidence and interview any witnesses; they collect notes and reports; they can provide emergency assistance to victims an disaster, crime, and accidents;

    Read More

  • Police Officers: Their Work and Actions: Structure Agency Debate

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    In order to understand the attitudes towards police work and the actions of police officers one can make use of the Structure-agency debate which has three distinct perspectives; structure, agency and structuration. This essay shall argue which position is best to apply by drawing on sociological theories and concepts.

    Read More

More about The Role Of Police Officers

Open Document