Police behavior has been the focus of much attention over the past few decades in academia and the media due to rising crime rates and growing public dissatisfaction. Researchers have focused on behaviors shaped by a number of individual, situational, and environmental factors. There are four particular types of police behavior often studied: discretion, use of force, arrest, and community policing. Organizational determinants include any characteristics of the police organization as a whole that could influence behavior including administration, different policies, department size, and levels of supervision. Individual determinants include both legal and extra-legal factors. Legal factors typically refer to strength or amount of evidence, …show more content…
Extra-legal factors can be situational such as characteristics of police-citizen encounters that may influence how an officer acts during a situation, or other situational factors that are much more controversial including suspect characteristics like race, age, sex, demeanor, socio-economic status, and the neighborhood context in which the offense has occurred. Other determinants that could also potentially influence officer behavior include public expectations, political expectations and preferences, and any other community factor that may influence officer decision-making.
Organizational determinants are important in explaining police officer behavior, and include administrative rules and regulations, policies, and styles of police behavior. James Q. Wilson (1978) identifies three styles of policing: watchmen style, legalistic style, and service style. These three
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Intra-organizational determinants include division or labor, nature of supervision, and strategies or police work. “Team policing” an example discussed by Sherman, gave officers complete responsibility for performing all police tasks in one geographic area. The implementation of team policing changed the supervision and patrol strategy for each police organization. Although he found team policing as a strategy increased police calls for service, his results were mixed about the effect the strategy had on arrest and clearance rates. Sherman also examined the Kansas City preventive patrol initiative, and found no measurable difference in crime rates either. Although police enforcement strategies appeared to influence level of violence, there was no discernible difference in arrest and clearance rates. The implementation of new innovations or strategies for improving performance, like that of Team Policing, represent big changes in police departments, and police behavior depends on the reception to these innovations and the changes they bring to each department. Other innovations include CompStat, or literally computer statistics of crime mapping, problem-oriented policing, or solving nuisances before they become a bigger issue, hot-spot policing, or heavy policing in spots known for crime, and community-policing, or that of building a better relationship
When Police Officers participate in stereotypical behavior a false since of being is then created (Kirby, 2016). Corrupt Police Officers coin a theory to search out suspects then evidence (Kirby, 2016). In America everyone is supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty (Thomson, 2016). The Criminal Justice Administration has already claimed the lives of many due to the lack of evidence and probable cause (Goldstein, 1994). Police Officers who are racially motivated also create a conflict in the reward system because they act quickly especially when a victim is Caucasian, distinguished, a child or a member of Law Enforcement (Kirby, 2016). Racism is often the motive of corruption within the Criminal Justice Administration (Kirby,
The word culture means a group of people sharing the same beliefs, values, knowledge and behavior. The culture of policemen evolved as with the development of policing. Policeman is individuals empowered by the state to enforce law, serve and protect. The word police have a history from a Greek word called politeia. The word politeia in Greek was used to refer to dealings that affected the stability and safety of the Greek State. In the 18 century the word “police” were taken from the French and brought into the English language. King Louis XlV organized the first central police force in 1667 to police Paris, because back then Paris was the largest city in Europe. August “Gus” Vollmer was known as the father of policing because he started the first school, where officers could learn the law of evidence. In 1905 August became the first chief in Berkeley, California. He also was the first chief to tell his department to use the lie detector. August Vollmer was the first American officer to incorporate the use of blood, fiber, and analysis in a criminal investigation. Technology in policing began to advance in the 1800’s. DNA was discovered 1868, and in 1882 Alphonse Bertillon used anthropometrics as a mean of identification. As years past they continue advancing in policing. How policing is run now and how it was ran in the early years are totally different. Strict laws and consequences are put into place, and by then there was any. All these things affect police culture, and that’s what makes culture of policing different then the culture of policing in the early years.
Crime is a part of society encompases the news and the public. A variety of studies of media content have estimated that as much as 25 percent of the daily news is devoted to crime (Surette 1992) and that crime is the largest major category of stories in the print and electronic media (Chermak 1994, 103). (Lawrence 18). With crime at an all time high, police are constantly having to deal with more and more issues. This can lead to stressed out and fed up officers, which can lead to poor decisions by an officer. The use of force by police is a highly controversial topic as it raises questions about a government’s ability to use force against its citizens (Lawrence 19). Today’s society is caught up on the ideals of civility and equality before the law, making police use of force a touchy
Compstat has improved policing ever since it was introduced in the 1990s. Compstat is a system that is used by police agencies to reduce crime as well as achieving other departmental goals. Some of department goals are developing good relationship with the community as well as empowering commanders together with their subordinates. It focuses on sharing information, responsibility, fostering accountability, as well as improving tactics used to solve crime. Although, it has also been criticized for been incompatible with the community, inflexible and undermining some goals of policing, it is still acknowledged as an important organizational development in policing during the latter half of the 20th century (BJA, police executive research forum, compstat, 2010).
Police misconduct has been in existence since the 1600’s, European Influence on American Policing. Ironically, Police Officers in modern day continue the legacy of the police “culture” (Barry, 1999). A culture of abuse of authority or discretion, code of silence amongst officers, discrimination, and a strong belief that “cops — and firefighters — stick together, in life and death situations” (Wetendorf, 2004). Regardless of the abuse of authority officers conduct, it is a clear sign of poor ethics and morals amongst officers.
Reformers wanted to stray away from political influences and believed that policing should be in the control of police executives (Peak, 2015). While the Political era’s goal was social services, the Reform Era began to shift policing to controlling crime. In addition, the police organizations were reorganized through the study of scientific theory of administration advocated by Fredrick Taylor, which led to the development of maximizing police efficiency (Peak, 2015). To improve professionalism within police departments, O.W. Wilson began emulating what J. Edgar Hoover did with the FBI. In 1924, the FBI director began to raise eligibility standards to develop an incorruptible force. As a result, it had a direct influence on local police agencies by placing emphasis on education, training, honesty and professionalism. Professionalism in police departments came about in the form of new Technological advances and a focus on crime fighting. During this period there were three major advances in technology: two-way radio, police cars and the telephone. Unlike the problems faced during the political era, the advent of these technologies changed everything. With two-way radios, supervisors now had the capability to notify patrol officers of calls and maintain accountability. Patrol cars allowed for greater mobility, which led to officers responding to calls more efficiently. Then telephones allowed for citizens to have a direct line to the police and were encouraged to call for any problem. However, while the advances in technology greatly increased police efficiency, it had unexpected consequences. In contrast, during the political era, officers patrolled on foot, which allowed them to engage citizens and develop a relationship within the community. With the use of police cars, officers no
A Critical Assessment In defining police ethics, ethical policing and police ethics are not synonymous or interchangeable connotations to or for one another. Aside from establishing a police role independently from establishing any definition of ethics or police ethics, the semantics tend to complicate the defining process. Some of these complications include, but are not limited to, sociological aspects, psychological conditions, or philosophical reasoning. Examples of sociological complications include historical, political, cultural, or economic aspects. Some psychological examples include one’s ability to discern sociological implications from other implications; namely, the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder, hydrophobia, or even weary dreams. Lastly,
American policing originated from early English law and is profoundly influenced by its history. Early law enforcement in England took on two forms of policing, one of which heavily influenced modern policing and it is known as the watch (Potter, 2013). The watch consisted, at first, of volunteers which had to patrol the streets for any kind of disorder including crime and fire. After men attempted to get out of volunteering by paying others, it became a paid professional position (Walker & Katz, 2012). The three eras of policing in America are shaped by these early ideas and practices of law enforcement. Throughout time, sufficient improvements and advancements have been made from the political era to the professional era and finally the community era which attempts to eliminate corruption, hire qualified officers and create an overall effective law enforcement system.
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.
Wilson, J. (1978). Varieties of Police Behavior: The Management of Law and Order in Eight American Communities. American Journal of Sociology, 75(1), 160-162
Community oriented policing has been around for over 30 years, and promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes, and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problem solving tactics. The way community policing works is it requires the police and citizens to work together to increase safety for the public. Each community policing program is different depending on the needs of the community. There have been five consistent key elements of an effective community oriented policing program: Adopting community service as the overarching philosophy of the organization, making an institutional commitment to community policing that is internalized throughout the command structure, emphasizing geographically decentralized models of policing that stress services tailored to the needs of individual communities rather than a one-size-fits-all approach for the entire jurisdiction, empowering citizens to act in partnership with the police on issues of crime and more broadly defined social problems, for example, quality-of-life issues, and using problem-oriented or problem-solving approaches involving police personnel working with community members. Community oriented policing has improved the public’s perception of the police in a huge way. Community policing builds more relationships with the
Within our police system in America, there are gaps and loopholes that give leeway to police officials who either abuse the authority given to them or do not represent the ethical standards that they are expected to live up to by society. Because of the nature of police work, there is a potential for deterioration of these ethical and moral standards through deviance, misconduct, corruption, and favoritism. Although these standards are set in place, many police officers are not held accountable for their actions and can easily get by with the mistreatment of others because of their career title. While not every police abuses his or her power, the increasingly large percentage that do present a problem that must be recognized by the public as well as those in charge of police departments throughout our country. Police officials are abusing their power and authority through three types of misconduct known as malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance and these types are being overlooked by management personnel who rarely intervene even though they know what is happening. Misconduct is wrong because it violates rights and causes people to be wrongly accused of crimes or be found not guilty and set free when they are still an endangerment to other people. The public needs to be educated on what is happening in the police system in hopes that someone will speak out to protect citizens from being violated by police officers.
Social media present images of police that misrepresent & twist the realities of every-day police officers work. Though more confidently presented than lawyers and judiciaries, police officers are more often than not presented as useless rule-breakers. Stating back to the year of 1993 police officers constantly rate among the top three institutions out of thirteen in public confidence. Police rates are much higher than the rest of the criminal justice system. Large majorities of adult citizens are fulfilled or very pleased with the police services in their various regions. Though there is difference in fulfilment levels across city powers, most fall within the 80-90 percentage range. The majority of school-age children trust their local police, but a big portion do not, and this disbelief is mainly strong among nonwhite students. These problems com on when researchers found that some of the social values were found to effect the police behaviors mainly when it came to race, gender and class. Differences in police behavior tend to display the deviations in the way the society view, deviations in police force comes more slowly than in society at large. During the revision, the work-related culture of police changed in a number of ways. Not enlightening on related police who engage in delinquency remained the main characteristic of this work-related culture. Nonetheless, the more
Williams, E. (2003). Structuring In Community Policing: Institutionalizing Innovative change. Police Practice and Research Vol. 4, No. 2 , 119-129.
Police decisions can affect life, liberty, and property, and as guardians of the interests of the public, police must maintain high standards of integrity. Police discretion concerning how to act in a given situation can often lead to ethical misconduct (Banks 29).