Police in A Democracy Research Essay
Order ID:89JHGSJE83839 Style: APA/MLA/Harvard/Chicago Pages:5-10 Instructions:
Police in A Democracy Research Essay
POLICE IN A DEMOCRACY CHAPTER ONE
1
Police in a Democracy • Democracy = consensus, freedom, participation, equality • Policing = regulation, restriction, and imposition of authority
- “Democracy is always hard on the police” (Berkeley, 1969, 1). • However, it can also be said that police are hard on democracy
- What is meant by the above statements?
2
Policing in a Free Society • Federalism: a nationalized government along with state and
local units of government • Separation of powers: the administration of justice is a
product of all three branches of government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. • Executive branch = the enforcement of laws • Legislative branch = law creation; appropriating funding • Judicial branch = processing of offenders; interpretation of laws
3
Policing in a Free Society • Political decision-making includes both pluralistic and elitist
perspectives • Pluralistic perspective: police are a benign institution that helps
implement laws that result from political contests • Elitist perspective: police exist to protect the powerful and repress
everyone else • The exercise of power, however, is based on the rule of law
- What is the rule of law?
4
Police and the Rule of Law • Laws come in a variety of forms, including the following:
- Constitutions: establish the nature and character of government by identifying the basic principles underlying that government
- Civil laws: Concerned with relationships between individuals • Criminal laws: Concerned with the relationship between the
individual and government
5
Police and the Rule of Law • Substantive law
- identify behavior, either required or prohibited • Procedural law
- govern how the police enforce the substantive laws • Case law
- written rulings of appellate courts • How does discretion factor into the enforcement of laws?
6
Policing, Terrorism, & Homeland Security • The impact of September 11th, 2001 • Priorities = counterterrorism and homeland security
- USA Patriot Act • Why has the Patriot Act proved so controversial?
- Increased collaboration between agencies across different levels • Federal agencies pushed to the forefront of law enforcement
7
Police Systems • The policing system is made up of a range of actors across a
variety of entities: • Citizen-police officers • Public police • Private police • Public police who work in private capacity
- Unitary vs. fragmented system • In unitary system, there is one police force for the nation • U.S. system is most fragmented in the world
- Connection to the military • Modern trend is toward a clear separation of the police and the military
8
The US Police System • There are almost 18,000 public police agencies in the US
- An average of 360 agencies per state • 60+ federal agencies w/enforcement or investigative powers • The most common type of county law enforcement is the
sheriff • Importantly, American policing is highly decentralized
- What do we mean by decentralized?
9
Other Law Enforcement Agencies • A wide variety of law enforcement agencies exist:
- Tribal police • Public safety agencies • Consolidated agencies • Regional police • Special-jurisdiction police • Contract law enforcement • Task forces
10
Similarities & Differences • Local police have most employees, cost the most money, deal
with most reported crime, tend to have a closer relationship with citizens
- State police are spread farther apart, not as closely connected to local community, have focus on traffic safety
- Federal agencies are mainly investigative
11
Police Role and Purpose • The police role and purpose is influenced by 4 expectations:
- Legal expectations • Organizational expectations • Community expectations • Individual expectations
- How does each of these expectations affect policing?
12
Law Enforcement or Politics? • The integration of police into a democracy
- Legalistic approach • rule-oriented; assumes that justice is a product of consistent
application of laws • Political approach
- 1st view = law and police serve the interest of the powerful • 2nd view = focus on responsiveness and individualization
- takes into consideration the uniqueness of problems/issues
13
Law Enforcement of Politics? • Political model
- Preferential treatment, discrimination • Legalistic or reform/professional model
- Relationship must be structured or bureaucratic • Community-policing model
- Responsive without preferential treatment
14
Crime Fighting or Social Service? • Debate surrounding the question of whether police should
fight crime or provide social services • Answer to this impacts policing in a variety of important ways
- How do the views of officers with a crime fighter mentality differ from those who embrace a social service mindset?
- Importantly, officers do not always fall into one category
15
Proactive or Reactive? • Proactive policing emphasizes police-initiated activities • Reactive policing emphasizes responses to calls for assistance
- Which of these is more compatible with democracy?
16
Police Activities and Workload • The workload of police can be classified in 4 categories:
- Crime control, traffic regulation and enforcement, order maintenance, and service
- Findings of the Police Services Study (1982) provided a set of important findings about the nature of police work • The importance of communication skills • Emphasis on traffic and vehicle stops • The role of discretion
17
Police Goals and Strategies • Reduce crime and victimization • Call offenders to account • Reduce fear and enhance personal security • Ensure civility in public spaces • Use force and authority fairly, efficiently, and effectively • Use financial resource fairly, efficiently, and effectively • Quality services/customer satisfaction
18
Summary • Definition of the police
- Nonmilitary individuals or organizations that are given general right by government use force to maintain the law, and their primary purpose to respond to problems of individual and group conflict that involve illegal behavior
- Role is influenced by legal, organizational, and community expectations
- Important challenge is the multidimensional “bottom line” • Many competing expectations of police officers