Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Police organisational culture
Historical development of policing
The effect of technology in a policing environment
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Police organisational culture
Throughout the course of human history, people have advanced technology and educated minds in ways that once would not have seemed impossible. From caves drawings to televisions and from the bow and arrow to the machine gun, humans have continually improved their standard of living over the years. Although we now have all sorts of things people could only dream of a thousand years ago, we still live like cavemen in many ways. One of these ways is our contempt refusal to tolerate severe injustice at many levels of society. Just like most problems, injustice starts at the top, and often starts with the people that are supposed to be preventing it.
Corrupt police officers and law agencies have been sifting through the sieve of true justice for years, and continue to do so today. From Hitler’s horrifying Gestapo police of the 1940’s to the more recent beating of Rodney King, police officers have abused their powers like a broken record. Police have engaged in unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and unnecessarily rough treatment of citizens in rural and urban areas from New York to Los Angeles. Just as the founders of our great nation stood to face the British in the 18th century, and just as our forefathers fought to free us from the shackles of slavery, we must now fight to ensure that our democracy is not tainted by the practice of unjust or discriminatory law.
“Drunk Ohio Cop Found Passed Out (Drunk) In Burger King Drive-Thru.” This was a headline on CNN.com on February 21, 2005. This kind of story serves as an example that not all of our police officers are as moral as they claim to be. The most disturbing part of this story wasn’t that this police veteran was found intoxicated in his dispatch car, it’s that this man had the power of our law behind him for years before this happened. Many of the thousands of laws that help police officers do things like pull you over for no legitimate reason, or come into your house without probable cause, were constructed for just these purposes. This fact goes hand in hand with a quote from Tacitus, a famous Roman historian and philosopher, “the more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”
Police officers sometimes lack a crucial prerequisite for their job, common sense. Instead of getting drug dealers and other dangerous criminals off the streets, they are often seen in packs of three to five “investigating” events like fireworks in the dorms, or streakers.
The job of a law enforcement officer sometimes can be tough. Officer are sometimes plagued with situation that test their ability to enforce the law and maintain order. Police officers today face a constant battle to maintain higher ethical standards. This mission becomes tougher each day when one considers the importance of fighting terrorism, drugs, human trafficking,
For many individuals, police brutality is a non-existent matter because it does not directly affect them or the community in which they live. Yet for others, this is an everyday occurrence and few limitations have been set as to what is unjust and malicious behavior of an officer towards the public, therefore, several officers are rarel...
In the investigation of the Ferguson Police Department (FPD), the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice reported that the recent series of event regarding race has been provoked by the continuous police mistreatment and violations of the constitution towards African Americans. Due to the demand to maximize revenues, the Ferguson Police Department along with its municipal court encouraged unconstitutional practices such as stopping without probable cause, using unreasonable force with weapons and dogs and patterns of first, fourth and fourteenth amendments. FPD’s approach to law enforcement is a reflection of racial bias including stereotyping. The tragedy in which teen Michael Brown was shot and killed by an officer in Ferguson has created a separation and lack of trust between the police department
Following events like Ferguson, America’s police force has received heavy criticism recently regarding police brutality. The public is questioning whether police are using their position of power to better society or to benefit their own agendas of racism. Karl Vick’s article, “What It’s Like Being a Cop Now,” fails in his usage of anecdotes and statistics to argue that the public is wrongly retaliating against police.
In America, police brutality affects and victimizes people of color mentally and socially. Social injustice has become a major issue, which involved the principle of white supremacy vs minorities. The current police brutality that has been occurring is culturally disconnecting ethnicities from one another. According to Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell, “…the cultural disconnect is very real; you have the weight of generations of abuse on African Americans,” (Flatow, 2016). For example, over the past four years, there have been countless acts of police brutality. The three key deaths of Eric Garner, Philando Castile, and Alton Sterling have become the face of police brutality in the year 2016. People knew that it was unequal treatment of black people by police in the United States and they made it known by creating #BlackLivesMatter.
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.
Injustice is something that has been around for a long time and at the rate, things are going it is not going away anytime soon. Espada states, "This is the year that police revolvers, stove-hot, blister the fingers of raging cops, and night sticks splinter in their palms;" referring to police receiving punishments for their actions as soon as they act in unjust ways (Espada 3). In many situations of injustice, the victim wishes they could release an equal or more intense wrath on their oppressor, Espada shows that happening in an immediate punishment. Much like the underpaid tomato farmers who work hard to get paid next to nothing will one day reap the
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
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
Background and Audience Relevance: According to the Human Rights Watch 2012 report on Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States; police brutality has become one the most serious human rights violation. As citizens of the United States it is our duty to make sure that those with authority don 't take advantage of their power.
Police brutality is an injustice that has been unraveling in America for quite some time now. The case of Michael Brown and Officer Darren Wilson seemed to have spikes the hype of this issue on November 24, 2014 when the Ferguson’s Grand Jury announced the verdict of “not guilty” for Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting turned murder against 18 year old Michael Brown. When concerning legal issues this case sparks two questions, according to Huffington Post “reporting on the events in Ferguson, Missouri tends to conflate two legal issues. First is the question of whether the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer was justified under police procedure and law, the second legal issue is one where there is room to ease community outrage: a lawsuit for federal civil rights violations brought by Brown's family or the US Justice Department” (Chertoff, 2014).
I participated in a police ride-along with the Fairfax County Police Department on October 30th. I chose the Fair Oaks District Station for the ride since my home falls within that particular district’s boundaries. At 8 p.m., I was introduced to Officer Crutchman; the police officer I would be accompanying for the night. We headed out after a brief overview of some safety rules and expectations. Over the course of the shift I was able to observe many of the routine duties of a FCPO such as responding to calls, setting speed traps, performing traffic stops, assisting fellow officers, and patrolling neighborhoods and public parks. Officer Crutchman provided valuable insight into police work, beyond the procedural knowledge that Mason classes
The movement BlackLivesMatter have outed hundreds unlawful officers and victims that never got the justice needed. The same characteristics (color and style) that emulates strong, noble people can backfire. Black people in this country who actively resist dehumanization makes a call to action and a response to anti-Black racism in our current society. (Cullors, 2015) The growth of the movement has moved country-wide, first starting in the south; the south had always had history of racism and anti-black impulses. This movement is continuing to carry up north and west, and is projected that any officer can be the next one to unlawfully kill another black individual. These immoral police officers are no different from the rest of the police force, their uniforms are no different color or style they do not have different titles, there is no distinction between the these two types of officers. African Americans are persuaded to be more cautious and angry towards police officers; anyone with a cop uniform can be considered a threat to their life. Innocent cops were murdered in retaliation to the unfair judicial systems that are not punishing these cops. Once a police-like uniform is worn it not only once symbolizes honor and power, but t too many communities
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.
Reaching for justice throughout human history has been one of the primordial dreams chased by most humans while at the same time, hunted as a mere fugitive by others in order to satisfy their appalling thirst for injustice. “Injustice anywhere is at threat to justice everywhere” as stated by Martin lather King, if one doesn’t fight for justice he/she might end up having to face the sad reality of injustice taking over everywhere. In order to not let such a thing take place we need to fight against injustice as one. Two literature works which embrace this idea are Common Sense by Thomas Pain and Letter to Any Would-be Terrorists by Naomi Shihab Nye. These two literature works as example of protest literature were very important in illustrating how crucial it was to fight against injustice because both works were effective in encouraging and helping the authors and their audiences share their ideas about a preoccupying topic while hoping at the same time to someday bring about an important social or political change.