Rough Draft What do people see in a police officer? When a police officer walks into a public area he or she is judged immediately due to recent news and stereotypes. The stereotypical officer with his or her gun strapped to their pants and sunglasses on their head stand out to the average eye. Society deems these individuals as too powerful and potentially harmful to the public for many reasons. Young people mainly think that most cops are unjust and abuse their power, sadly this is not the case. The wrongful stereotyping of police being intimidating is enhanced by the media and causes people to change their views on law enforcement. The stereotype of cops acting in a wrong manner is greatly expressed through the media and causes people …show more content…
Despite the stereotype, police officers are people first and cops second. They generally act the way they are supposed to in their work environment. In Aiken I have the pleasure of knowing many cops. Personally I have seen nothing but good things come from them. Many in the Aiken area spend their extra time helping with youth sports. A retired police chief, in fact, helped coach a travel baseball team in Aiken recently. Aiken is definitely not the only place that generally has good cops. For instance, in Norfolk, Virginia officers make an effort to break stereotypes by being involved with the community. They play cards and other games with kids and many other things (Ciara). Cops throughout America are trying to break these stereotypes and show who they really are as a person to save lives and for the community to feel safe around law enforcement. Police officers act as individuals while off duty, but while on duty they react to certain situations in certain ways. Police officers react on duty the way they are trained. Law enforcement follows strict rules and regulations in general. They also follow rules on the way they react to certain situations. In most circumstances police officers react to situations and act in a better way than most average people. According to Police Chief Magazine: “Police officers are held to a higher standard of behavior by society, because they are stewards of the public (Gleason T).” Police officers in training are usually taught ethics to help them judge how to act on the job. This helps them not only solve problems right, but know consequences when they are done
"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.
They are influenced by the same things that we are, and they see things the same as we do. How these law enforcement officials are raised is how they are going to carry out their duties. If they are raised without morals or with racial influence they will most likely use that influence and bad judgment during work. Additionally, terrorism and hate crimes instills great fear in today 's society. With all the recent violence against law enforcement, I can understand why they profile or may come off defensive to the general public. At the same time, I can also understand why the public may fear police officials. Also I can see why they may not trust the police with all the recent police involved shootings that have
...es have found that often police misconduct is learned behavior from in his organization. Police culture is defined and broken down by artifacts. Artifacts like learning police jargon, how to talk on their radio, how to write a report. I think a counter act to this problem is more community policing. Officers should volunteer a little time reach back out to the community, getting to know the people of the community will help how people view police culture and actually help the culture also. I don’t want to be a cop so I feel this information is not relevant to my field of chose.
news and internet makes it look as if police are the bad guys which in some situations they are,
Weitzer, R. and Tuch, S. (2004) Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct. Society for the Study of Social Problems, Inc. SOCIAL PROBLEMS, Vol. 51, No. 3, pages 305–325. ISSN: 0037-7791; online ISSN: 1533-8533 Web. 4 Sept. 2015.
Police investigations of shooting that involve officers are based on facts not opinions. Detectives with years of experience investigate the case and the information is then turned over to a prosecutor. The problem with news coverage and the media is they let emotions get a hold of them for views. Whether a video depicting the shooting was shown or not it is not their job to decide who was in the wrong. Attitudes about the prevalence of racial profiling are susceptible to the way the media construct incidents of police misconduct (Graziano, Schuck & Martin
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.
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
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.
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.
The officers were acquitted of use of excessive force and abuse. This started riots in Los Angeles that rocked our country. This was the beginning of a stigma and stereotype that would be placed on all police officers. The stigma was that Rodney King was brutally beaten because he was black. The media portrayal of incidences across the nation since 1991 only heightened the stereotype. There was a very similar incident in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 with the shooting of Michael Brown by a white officer. The coverage for Ferguson lasted for weeks and put the police in a very negative light. The Portland Press Herald states that “many police think they’re being stereotyped as racist and brutal” (Wise). There also seems to be a stereotype within a stereotype. Besides the stereotype of police officers profiling young black men, is the stereotype that all young black men are thugs, especially if they’re in neighborhoods known for gang and drug activity. “Our country 's history, culture and social divide feed a subconscious attachment to stereotypes, even in the minds of people with no measurable racial bias.”
The first step is to weed out the ones who just are not right to be a officer. The next step is to find the ones who fit the needs of the department. Medical and psychiatric testing, personal interview, and background information is used when identifying if a person is a good fit. There is research that has identified five personality characteristics that allows a police officer to excel in his or her job: extrovert, emotional stability, agreeable, conscientious, and open to experience. People also need to be aware of working in a high crime area. Even if the person has all five traits, but can’t handle the stress they may need to find another profession. There may be times new hires come from another department, but before hiring they need to talk to the previous employer. There may be certain reasons that the officer for hire is wanting to move to a different department. They could have been disciplined or terminated if they had not agreed to resign. This is not okay for the officers are not taking the consequences for their behavior.
In life there are a lot of issues that involve social psychology. Being a police officer is a profession that encounters a lot of social psychology issues. One issue that all police officers have to encounter is prejudice. Police officers have to not be prejudiced against the citizens that they are trying to protect and serve the criminals that they must apprehend and also against each other. Two case studies that will be discussed are prejudice against female police officers by their male counterparts and racial prejudice against potential criminals.
A police officer performs all duties impartially, without favor, affection or ill will and without regard to status, sex, race, religion, political belief or aspiration. All citizens are treated equally with courtesy, consideration and dignity. Officers never allow personal feelings, animosities or friendships to influence official conduct. Laws are enforced appropriately and courteously and, in carrying out their responsibilities, officers strive to obtain maximum cooperation from the public. They conduct themselves, in appearance and deportment, in a way that inspires confidence and respect for the position of public trust they
Being a police officer requires high level of ethics and standards. Corruption within an agency can affect a community, state, and even a nation. Corruption may seem inevitable but using proper screening, extensive and continuous training and holding officers responsible can deter officers from becoming corrupt.