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Why is police accountability important
Explain the police brutality
Police brutality eassay
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Having police officers in the neighborhood should give citizens a sense of protection. Officers are put through countless hours of mental and physical training to endure any possible situation that may occur. Once a officer receives their badge, it gives them a sense of not only authority but a sense of power. Many officers around the country have been caught abusing their authority by performing reckless actions against citizens. This leads to the phrase “Police Brutality”, which Police brutality has been and continues to be a major concern in society. “Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. Excessive use of force means a force beyond necessary procedures in …show more content…
Strict laws need to not only be enforced for criminals but need to be enforced for officers as well. As stated earlier, many officers continue to abuse their authority by showing a behavior that is unconstitutional. As of lately, many of these police brutality situations have turned into fatal shootings. “During the first week of September, police killed more civilians than the total number of police officers killed so far this year. By the end of the month, 99 people were killed, according to the Killed By Police database. At least 77 of them were shot and killed, The Guardian reports that 873 people have been killed by police in 2015, and the number is growing” (Think Progress). The worse part of these fatal police shootings is the fact that many of these officers are let off the hook. Many officers have stated that the actions they performed was due to self defense, but the majority of them are caught on video doing quite the opposite. “While responding to a call about McDole shooting himself, several Delaware police officers wound up fatally shooting the wheelchair-bound man. Wilmington Police said that he was “armed with
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,
Although accountability has always been an issue, the injustices that are currently occurring make it priority. Police officers are getting “special treatment” and are not facing charges for crimes they have committed. Police officers are not held accountable for their a...
Mckay, Dan, and Jeff Proctor. “APD Shootings: No Easy Answers - Data Show Assaults on Officers, Incidents Don’t Always Track.” Albuquerque Journal (NM) 19 Apr. 2011 : A1. Print.
Jet,”NAACP’S Wade Henderson Testifies On Capitol Hill About Police Over reaction”: v.80 May 20,1991 p.32
1) Law enforcement officers are seen as authority figures. People deal with them differently and treat them differently, even when they are not working. When a problem occurs, everyone looks to the officer to "take charge," to "solve the problem." Some say the cop is never off duty. Even when the officer is not working there is a tendency to attack problems and take charge. Sometimes taking charge is not preferable, and can cause particular strains in our world where many people like to linger with problems, never really solving anything. Recognizing the difference between a "problem solving" situation, where action is desirable, and a more passive situation, where action may alienate others, is difficult for the cop.
The authors also explain that there are no real statistics to help explain how many times an officer has used a firearm. The text explains that there is no significant data to help explain police shootings and how many occur each year (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Most of the data that can be found does not clearly state the numbers of times a firearm was used. Majority of data is found through data bases such as Vital Statistics (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Even data bases such as Vital Statistics do not provide clear information on police
Police Officers are punished by their colleagues and bosses who have cover for them. There are police officers who were fired for egregious misbehavior. “Color of law” means the person doing the act is using power given to him/her by a governmental agency. A law enforcement officer acts “under color of law” even if he or she is exceeding his or her rightful power. (www.justice.gov)
Officers abusing their power can range from taking bribes, choosing who they decide to let go and who to prosecute, and even abusing their power by molestation. In July of 2009 two Phoenix police officers lost their jobs after they stopped a bikini clad woman who had run from a rear end collision. The officers handcuffed her, drove her back to the accident scene to complete the paper work, and then drove her to elementary school where they knew that they would be alone. When they reached the school one of them fondled her breasts, abdomen, and buttocks while the other one watched and did nothing to help he...
Police shootings occur all over the world but are a huge problem within the United States. We continue to hear more and more about them. These shootings are making headlines. Front page news it seems almost weekly. All the shootings go one of two ways.
833), as well as polygraph examinations (p. 835). However, when individuals slip through these tests and into the police force other safeguards are needed to stop individuals from taking advantage. According to Rudy many officers do not like working with misconduct so they will report it if there are major problems (personal communications, November 11, 2015). Misconduct makes other officers look bad as well as the precinct so if there are rotten apples in an otherwise good group they would get reported. However, if an individual does something stupid/ minor police may not necessarily report that officer, because it is like if you see someone cheating on a quiz, you don’t always tell on them, how would that make you look (Rudy, personal communications, November 11, 2015)? With officer reporting they also have warning systems set in place to detect possible misconduct, which might help more in terms of the organized misconduct. These systems keep track of each officer in terms of statistics such as citizen complaints or overtime hours logged. To many citizen complaints can raise suspicion because if they are doing their job correctly, an officer should be making the general public happy. While with overtime, too much of it can mean that the officer is worn out, or having personal troubles such as needing more money (Rudy, personal communications, November 11, 2015). Both of these may influence an officer, making him much more likely to commit misconduct. So monitoring this can alert higher authorities to
Holmes, Malcolm D. "Minority threat and police brutality: Determinants of civil rights criminal complaints in US municipalities." Criminology 38.2 (2000): 343-368.
What happens when officers forget their role and responsibilities? They abuse their power and go beyond their duties crossing lines that should not be crossed for instance in Saratoga New York a police officer tries to conduct and illegal vehicle search, when the civilian refuses, the officer slaps him and takes the keys. This type of conduct should not be tolerated and officers should constantly be reminded of the consequences of such actions. One thing in particular that can be observed is that in most videos the officers are not alone yet the other officers knowing their partner are wrong do not intervene, this pattern shows that the officers are not being trained properly. Proper training can easily avoid such conflicts for example in the case of Saratoga New York another officer could have deescalated the situation by letting his partner know that what he is doing is illegal, this simple action could had avoided a lot of problems. The majority of police officers do an excellent job but is the few that do not do a good job the ones ruining the image and reputation of the force, reminding officers of their duties and paying attention to their actions can make a difference in job performance while helping keep good community
Police officers are constantly interacting with the general public so it is inevitable that they will acquire firm emotions and assumptions of a person based on their race and ethnicity (Semple, 2013). Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions and beliefs, but those same opinions and beliefs lead to discriminatory treatment of certain individuals (Semple, 2013). Many law enforcement agencies exhaust funds and assets to teach their employees and future employees to be blind to race and religion and protect and serve the people equally (Semple, 2013). Police misconduct such as brutality and racial profiling can be reduced by strict survallince and sensitivity training (Osterndorf, 2015). Police have to stop letting their emotions get involved when handling the law with a citizen. Officers are often annoyed when they have to go through sustainment training or new training because of the assumption that their on the job experience and knowledge is enough to do their job (Semple, 2013). The situation with that type of comportment is that at some point their cognizance becomes pass because they were reluctant to go through training and take in incipient erudition. Officers who are paid a competitive salary are less liable to be corrupt because they do not have the desideratum to glom to compensate for a low income. Finally, another proposal to limit the brutality
In the article “Michelle Malkin’” states “ The National Law Enforcement officer Memorial Fund, reports that a total of 1501 law enforcement officer died in the line of duty during the past ten years. An average of one death every 58 hours or 150 per year.
Police brutality is becoming more of a serious case in the United States as the year’s progress. The Rodney King riots of 1992 was a starting point for people starting to notice the brutality the police force was using against the public. This opened the eyes of many people and showing them that something needs to be done to solve this problem. As the crimes still continue to happen, the officers involved need to be punished more severely for their actions. A police officer should not be able to get around the laws and not get punished for things a normal civilian would do to get arrested. From 1992 Rodney King riots in LA to this current day, police corruption and brutality has increased greatly and needs to be resolved.