Police Selection Process: Weeding Out.
Advantages. Weeding Out/Screening in:
The advantages about the weeding out and the screening part of the selection phase are using both applications as well as testing in getting rid of applicants before they are hired and causing problems. Cursory background checks help to reveal an applicant’s driving history and arrests record. The advantages to this applicant are to determine one’s conduct, and how efficient one can operate a vehicle because most of an Officer’s job duty is vehicle operations. Applicants who had arrest records involving certain types of offenses, example, some misdemeanors, felonies, and moving violations would not be eligible to become a Police Officer. The written exam is another tool of determining rather or not an applicant is mentally fit in performing police work by exposing underlying psychological shortcomings or other mental conditions that can hinder an Officer from performing their job duties in an adequate manner, including their past employment record, which shows stability from one job to the next, including reasons for quitting including physical health reasons. This test is also to weed out applicants with
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They use this method as for what they consider to their own personal standards, which has nothing to do with legitimate qualifications of the applicant., but for unfair reasons. The screening method fails to make a difference between candidates that are mediocre and applicants that are great for the job. There are Police Departments that use the wrong reasons in their screenings such as race, religion, or gender. There are African Americans that are qualified to do Police work and still did not get hired for unknown reasons (New York Times,
The Thompson Valley Police Service is seeking to double the number of police recruits over the next three years. In an attempt to attract more applicants, the newly appointed Police Commissioner, Commissioner Jason DeVillain is proposing two key changes to the current selection process. Firstly, Commissioner DeVillain is proposing to eliminate the requirement for partial or completed tertiary education. Secondly, it is being proposed that psychological testing should be removed from the selection process. As a research and policy officer for the Thompson Valley Police Service, the validity and likely impact of the above two proposed changes will be investigated thoroughly, followed by recommendations to Commissioner DeVillain to ensure the selection process is as effective as possible in selecting the most suitable candidates for the new police recruits. The role of a general duties police officer is broad in nature and requires the officer to be efficient in many areas, ranging from administrative duties to conflict resolution and problem solving. In addition to the recording and logging of all jobs attended while on duty, the officer may be required to prepare documents for court hearings, where written communication skills will also be
Do the institution and also those officers serve it act discriminately to different race group? On the one hand, it has to be admitted that some actions taken by the police are leading to the greater involvement of young black people in the criminal justice system but they cannot be recognised as discriminative behaviours. For example, the police tend to give priority and more effort into certain crime categories and some deprived areas, depending on local and central first concern. As a consequence, some criminals of ethnic groups and ethnic minority residences living in certain areas are inevitably more likely to come into contact with the
While making any program in the criminal justice system “color-blind” is not an easy concept, many regulations can be enacted to help ensure equality when finding a precinct and performing a stop and frisk among NYC civilians. The new policy can include regulations that make it necessary to use a higher form of discretion when stoping a person. Such as attempting to overlook the persons race and focus more on where they are coming from, how they are acting, and/or who they are surrounding themselves with.
One discriminating practice used by police officers is racial profiling. This is the police practice of stopping, questioning, and searching potential criminal suspects in vehicles or on the street based solely on their racial appearance (Human Rights Watch, 2000). This type of profiling has contributed to racially disproportionate drug arrests, as well as, arrests for other crimes. It makes sense that the more individuals police stop, question and search, the more people they will find with reason for arrest. So, if the majority of these types of stop and frisk searches are done on a certain race then it makes sense that tha...
While an officer cannot tell from simply looking at a driver if the person is licensed, insured, a legal citizen, in possession of drugs or committing some other crime they can tell by looking at the driver or passenger the persons race. As statistics show here police use race to sort out who they want to investigate and who they do not. As a consequence, every member of specified groups become potential victims of racial profiling. In a country where civil rights have been disputed for well over 100 years it is a tragedy that we can still not find equal treatment for all men within the governing law of the land
Racial profiling in the dictionary is “the assumption of criminality among ethnic groups: the alleged policy of some police to attribute criminal intentions to members of some ethnic groups and to stop and question them in disproportionate numbers without probable cause (“Racial Profiling”).” In other words racial profiling is making assumptions that certain individuals are more likely to be involved in misconduct or criminal activity based on that individual’s race or ethnicity. Racial profiling propels a brutalizing message to citizens of the United States that they are pre-judged by the color of their skin rather than who they are and this then leads to assumptions of ruthlessness inside the American criminal justice system. With race-based assumptions in the law enforcement system a “lose-lose” situation is created due to America’s diverse democracy and destroys the ability to keep the criminal justice system just and fair. Although most police officers perform their duties with fairness, honor, and dedication, the few officers who portray to be biased then harm the whole justice system resulting in the general public stereotyping every law enforcement officer as a racial profiler (Fact Sheet Racial Profiling). When thinking about racial profiling many people automatically think it happens only to blacks but sadly this is mistaken for far more ethnic groups and races such as Jews, Muslims, Mexicans, Native Americans, and many more are racially profiled on a day to day basis. Many people believe racial profiling to be a myth because they see it as police officers merely taking precautions of preventing a crime before it happens, but in reality racial profiling has just become an approved term for discrimination and unjust actio...
It helps develop a picture or description of what the suspect looks or acts like (Winerman p. 1). This type of methodology can help police find criminals faster. By eliminating criminal profiling, it would make the police’s job harder because they wouldn’t be able to use their knowledge from the scene and apply it to their suspect. Eliminating racial profiling is a very good idea. It would make police’s jobs easier because they would be more respected, and people would probably be less violent and more willing to cooperate.
Men have testosterone that helps them to build more muscle and to grow bigger, where women are more petite in their body mass index. With this being said women struggle with the biased entry tests that departments have. Although over the years there have been laws and regulations set to outlaw some of the discrimination. They often put a big emphasis on upper body, and strength, sometimes even changing the scores that women get to make them look worse than they really are. Before the 1970’s they would use discriminatory height requirements to keep women out (Harrington). Strength is used a measurement of a women’s ability but women have been able to use their feminine side to actually change law enforcement models of
The influence of higher education on police officer habits would surprise many according to Matthew D. Bostrom, D.P.A of the Saint Paul Police Department in “Police Chief Magazine-The Professional Voice of Law Enforcement”. Although a degree is required for some agencies and considered ideal for any person looking to join the law enforcement field, surveys show otherwise says Bostrom. According to a study conducted in St. Paul, Minnesota there were more on-duty vehicle collisions by officers with formal education beyond high school than those who only obtained a high school diploma. The article also shows figures indicating more disciplinary actions towards officers with college degrees and a significant difference in those of officers with high school diplomas only. The measurements of work habits shown indicate that perhaps a college degree in general is not necessary to be an effective police officer. Traffic Officer James Dunn of the California Highway Patrol in an interview said, “a degree can be beneficial, but some people are very eloquent and knowledgeable even without attending college-a person can learn the specific duties of any job, but college does not teach you the responsibilities of being a police officer. You learn that by hands-on training”. Although a degree is helpful, Officer Dunn admits that he has been very successful in the law
He joined the department because he wanted something interesting and something new to do in his life. He was intrigued by the exciting job of a patrol officer. He decided to work as a policeman so he submitted an application to join the police department. He recalled that when he applied for the job he had to fill out a paper application, but nowadays the department only accepts online application. He passed the written test, background check as well as psychological and drug test which are required in order to be hired as a law enforcement officer. He believe...
Discrimination can lead to legal problems for an officer of the law. If discrimination due to an officer’s use of discretion results in a violation of due process it is a violation of the law (Young, 2010). Due process is the constitutionally mandated procedural steps designed to eliminate error in any governmental deprivation of liberty, life, or property (Pollock, 2010). One of the main concerns with using discretion is the possibility of it leading to a violation of due process by racial profiling.
This paper will show four different police departments that are currently hiring or recruiting for police officers. There will be a summary on the research found on the process used to recruit police officers. It will also show their current hiring trends and what hiring practices they have that are successful or not successful. The paper will also go over the different methods departments use to train their new officers and their values.
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.
Discrimination in the hiring process can include not hiring for reasons such as, the employee’s sex or possibly changing the physical ability test to create hard time for the female to complete the test, even creating a physical test with the tasks that are not normal to the fire service. Additionally, it may seem to some individuals that treating a woman like the examples given above can drastically hurt the reputation of the fire department and yourself, as well as causing legal
...at exactly is the process known as police recruitment and just how different it was in the 1960s from today’s day and age. In the 1960s police departments were worried about not having enough minorities and now police departments worry about not having enough qualified officers in general. If police departments can better advertise how great it is to be a police officer and how bright the future could be for a hardworking officer I think that the retention issue among police departments will decrease dramatically and the amount of qualified applicants will sky rocket. All in all police recruitment is a huge part of law enforcement agencies and if it wasn’t for recruitment and the work that goes in to getting officers field ready who knows what kind of chaos could have come from having unfit officers patrolling the streets and keeping citizens safe on a daily basis.