Broken Windows Theory Essay

An important value police need to uphold if they want to seem legitimate in the community is protecting individual 's constitutional rights. Community 's policing officers had violated more constitutional rights of people than the other officers (Gould & Mastrofski, 2004). Why do they commit more of these violations? One reason might be because they are highly committed to the community and will do anything to protect it from crime or they might have had less training and education on the rights of the people and more in community policing values. Community policing seems to mostly just influence perception of crime and disorder (Sherman, 1997) .

Both of these strategies want to fix the problem the community is having and not just wait for crimes to happen. This can use crime mapping and investigations in these areas which involved speaking with community member to get insight on what 's going on. Problem oriented policing still focuses on the crimes more than the community. The actual crime might not be the main concern of the community, this can make the community unsatisfied when the police believe they fixed the problem because they solved the crime but have not met the community 's

Despite numerous oppositions against this new act, it is a positive addition to the legal system, allowing fewer victims to be charged for self defense related offenses and giving those victims the rights to protect themselves and their property. It fills in many previous loopholes and perhaps may even act as a deterrent to further crime. As stated previously, many victims were charged for their actions unde... ... middle of paper ... ...e can focus efforts and time into dealing with more pressing matters. Crime rates may even begin to drop due to the increase in support to victims. Finally, since police forces cannot be everywhere protecting every citizen, the citizens themselves should be granted enough rights to protection, especially for crimes relating to property, since they tend to receive less police attention.

In both of these scenarios, justice was not done. The systems responsibility is to promote justice, equality, fairness, and protection. However, wrongful convictions have broken this trust and confidence between the system and the people. People look up to the criminal justice system but when that trust is broken; the system also crumbles. Wrongful convictions do not just harm the innocent alleged criminal.

of policing research has shown success in community policing leading to reduce fear of being a victim of crime and decrease the concern about crime in the neighborhood (Wycoff and Skogan 1986). Also when citizens are involved with cooperation and support of police they also see the police as more legitimate (Tyler 2004) which leads to great cooperation. This cooperation and support are mostly from white communities minority communities still struggle to have confidence in the police even with community policing ( Tyler 2004). With the innovation, technologically, modern science and research being put into policing it would seem that we would be able to have the best police. Many clearance rates have gone down from decades ago such as murder

Community policing has faced challenges in measuring the effectiveness of its strategies. Community policing has led to officers making fewer arrest (Mastrofski et al., 1995). Some people may see this as a positive thing, but critics of community policing may see this as a fault. Many officers are evaluated on how many criminals they get off the streets and the fact that less arrests are made by community policing officers can be a reason for skepticism. When it comes to serving the public with non-crime fighting services, community policing officers and regular officers seem not to have any difference in positive interaction of the people in the community, dealing with problems that citizens have, or doing order maintenance (Snipes, 2002).

The police therefore work with the community instead of working against the community, to curb the crime. This decentralization results in police officers handling social and physical problems in the community. As a result, the criminal activities in the area decline. This boosts an improvement in the quality of life to the members of the community. Also, it builds the image of police force in that the police end up being effective and reliable agents of fighting crime (Campbell police department, 2003).

The concept believes this ultimately leads to a reduction in crime as the community feels the law enforcement officers actually care about making a difference and few them as members of the community versus just law enforcement officers. On the opposite side of the street, problem-oriented policing believes the focus should be on the crime or problem. The concept believes combating the actual problem is what reduces the crime and enhances the quality of life. However, with this method the appearance is sometimes given that law enforcement does not care about the community because they aren’t engaging the community as much as the other concept. I have been in law enforcement for the last ten (10) years, with seven (7) of those

Racial profiling and unconstitutional searches has risen since war on drug started to become a serious issue but trust in the police has decreased (Franklin). Being able to trust the people who are supposed to protect and keep the community safe is extremely important. People shouldn’t have to worry that because of their race they will get stop or accused of something they may not have done. Body cameras can help restore people trust in the police departments by showing that. Some officers are falsely accused of abuse and some aren’t punished for abusing their power, but with body cameras it will be apparent

A policeman in the area was quick to express his opinion. “The cameras have a psychological effect of making people feel safer.” Many of the citizens in the town supported the idea of surveillance cameras, knowing it would decrease the crime in the areas. According to Jason Roche, “the feeling of being watched has a profound effect on human psychology.” Roche, a writer for the Manhattan Daily Collegian, argues that the sense of being watched can only improve human behavior. It proliferates a feeling of tension and nervousness, causing citizens to be on best behavior for fear of being caught doing something wrong. Gregory Suhr, a police officer in California, stated that the crime in San Francisco had decreased by thirty percent after cameras were installed.