Chapter 6 Policing: Issues and Challenges

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Chapter 6Policing Issues and Challenges
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Learning Objectives

• Describe the police working personality
• List and describe the different types of police
  corruption
• Explain the dangers of police work
• Describe terrorisms impact on police agencies
• Describe civil liability issues associated with
  policing

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Learning Objectives

• Describe efforts to enhance police
  professionalism
• Discuss ethnic and gender diversity in policing
• Describe the nature and extent of private
  protective services
• Explain the relationship between private security
  and public policing

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Issues in Policing

• A number of issues hold special interest for
  todays police administrators and officers.
• On-the-job dangers
• Officer stress
• Use of deadly force
• Hear author discuss the chapter.

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Police Personality and Culture

• Police working personality refers to
• Characteristics of the police personality often
  extend to the personal lives of law enforcement
  personnel.

All aspects of the traditional values and
patterns of behavior evidenced by police officers
who have been effectively socialized into the
police culture.
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The Police Personality

• Web Extra 6-1

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Multiculturalism and Diversity

• Cultural awareness training helps to identify
  prejudices.
• Four stages
• Clarifying the relationship between cultural
  awareness and police professionalism
• Recognizing personal prejudices
• Acquiring sensitivity to policecommunity
  relations
• Developing interpersonal relations skills

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Corruption

• Police corruption refers to
• Knapp Commission
• A committee that investigated police corruption
  in New York City in the early 1970s.
• Web Extra 6-2

The abuse of police authority for personal or
organizational gain.
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Corruption

• Grass eaters
• The most common form of police corruption.
• Illegitimate activity that occurs from time to
  time in the normal course of police work.
• Small bribes or receiving minor services
• Meat eaters
• A much more serious form of corruption involving
  the active seeking of illicit money-making
  opportunities by officers.
• Solicit bribes through threats or intimidation

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Corruption
Violent crimes
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Money The Root of Police Evil?

• The police personality provides fertile ground
  for the growth of corrupt practices.
• Police cynicism develops out of continued
  association with criminals and problem-laden
  people.
• Low pay may be a critical ingredient of the
  corruption mix.
• Working hand in hand with monetary pressures
  toward corruption are the moral dilemmas.

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Building Police Integrity

• Ethics training is part of a reframing strategy
  that emphasizes integrity.
• Ethics training
• Research
• Internal affairs refers to
• Library Extra 6-1

The branch of a police organization tasked with
investigating charges of wrongdoing involving
members of the department.
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Drug Testing of Police Employees

• Potential for police corruption created by
  illicit drugs has become a focus.
• Testing all applicants and recruits for drug use
• Testing current employees
• With performance difficulties
• Who use excessive force or suffer injury
• Assigned to special high risk areas
• Web Extra 6-3
• Library Extras 6-2 and 6-3

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The Dangers of Police Work

• Violence in the line of duty
• Web Extra 6-4
• Risk of disease and infected evidence
• Library Extra 6-4
• Stress and fatigue
• Library Extra 6-5

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U.S. Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line
of Duty, 2003
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Terrorisms Impact on American Policing

• Strengthening liaisons with federal, state, and
  local agencies
• Refining training, emergency, and
  counterterrorism response plans
• Increasing patrols and shoring up barriers,
  landmarks, and so on
• Employing new technologies
• Library Extra 6-6

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Police Civil Liability

• Failure to protect property in police custody
• Negligence in the care of suspects in police
  custody
• Failure to render proper emergency medical
  assistance
• Failure to prevent a foreseeable crime
• Failure to aid private citizens
• Lack of due regard for the safety of others

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Police Civil Liability

• False arrest
• False imprisonment
• Inappropriate use of deadly force
• Unnecessary assault or battery
• Malicious prosecution
• Violations of constitutional rights
• Patterns of unfair and inequitable treatment
• Racial profiling

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Federal Lawsuits

• 1983 lawsuit refers to
• Bivens action refers to

A civil suit brought under Title 42, Section
1983, of the U.S. Code against anyone who denies
others their constitutional right to life,
liberty, or property without due process of law.
A civil suit, based on the case of Bivens v. Six
Unknown Federal Agents, brought against federal
government officials for denying the
constitutional rights of others.
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Racial Profiling and Biased Policing

• Civil liability refers to
• Racial profiling refers to
• Library Extras 6-7 and 6-8

Potential responsibility for payment of damages
or other court-ordered enforcement as a result of
a ruling in a lawsuit.
Any police-initiated action that relies on the
race, ethnicity, or national origin
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Racial Biased Policing

• Most police officers share an intolerance for
  racially biased policing.
• In learning and practicing the job, officers
  quickly develop a sense for what is normal and
  expected, and for what is not.
• Yet, young, black males are more likely than
  whites to be stopped.
• Recommendation
• Supervisors should monitor activity reports for
  evidence of improper practices and patterns.
• Library Extra 6-9

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Police Use of Force

• Police use of force refers to
• Excessive force refers to

The use of physical restraint by a police officer
when dealing with a member of the public.
The application of an amount or frequency of
force greater than that required to compel
compliance from a willing or unwilling subject.
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Police Use of Force

• Problem police officer refers to
• Library Extras 6-10a, 6-10b, and 6-11

A law enforcement officer who exhibits problem
behavior, as indicated by high rates of citizen
complaints and use-of-force incidents and by
other evidence.
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Citizens Reports of Type of Force Used by Police
Officers During Adult Custodial Arrests
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Deadly Force

• Deadly force refers to
• Elements of federal deadly force policy

Force likely to cause death or great bodily harm.
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Less-Lethal Weapons

• Less-lethal weapons refers to

A weapon that is designed to disable, capture, or
immobilize but not kill a suspect.
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Professionalism and Ethics

• Police professionalism refers to
• Police ethics refers to
• Web Extra 6-5

The increasing formalization of police work and
the accompanying rise in public acceptance of the
police.
The special responsibility to adhere to moral
duty and obligation that is inherent in police
work.
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Education and Training

• Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST)
  program refers to
• All states set such standards, although not all
  use the term POST.
• Web Extra 6-6
• Library Extra 6-12

The official program of a state or legislative
jurisdiction that sets standards for the training
of law enforcement officers.
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Education and Training

• Police Executive Research Forum stressed the need
  for educated police officers.

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Multiculturalism and Diversity

• Investigating crime in a multicultural setting
• Be patient when speaking with someone with a
  language barrier.
• Be careful with your choice of words.
• Allow extra time for investigation.
• Be sure that any interpreter is fully qualified
  and experienced.
• Be candid about your ability to speak or
  understand a language.
• Never assume that someone is less intelligent
  because of a language barrier.
• Web Extra 6-7

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Ethnic and Gender Diversity in Policing

• Women currently represent 13 of all sworn
  officers.
• 4.9 are women of color
• Between 1990-2000, womens ranks increased from
  9 to 13
• Women hold 7.3 of sworn top command law
  enforcement positions
• Women will not achieve equal representation
  within 70 years
• Consent decrees mandating the hiring and
  promotion of women and minorities are the
  significant factor in womens gains.

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Full-Time Sworn Law Enforcement Officers by
Gender, 1972-2000
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Women as Effective Police Officers

• Research on female police officers
• Extremely devoted to their work
• See themselves as women first and then police
  officers
• Are more satisfied when working in nonuniformed
  categories
• Two groups of female officers
• Those who feel themselves to be well integrated
  and confident.
• Those who experience strain and on-the-job
  isolation.
• Library Extra 6-13

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Increasing the Number of Minorities and Women in
Police Work

• Police Foundation recommendations
• Involve underrepresented groups in affirmative
  action and long-term planning programs
• Encourage the development of an open system of
  promotions for women and racial and ethnic
  minorities
• Use periodic audits to ensure that female
  officers are not being underutilized

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Private Protective Services

• Private protective services refers to
• In most countries, private police outnumber
  public police.
• People spend more time in places where private
  police govern.
• Reconstruction of policing is occurring
  worldwide.
• Library Extra 6-14

Independent or proprietary commercial
organizations that provide protective services to
employers on a contractual basis.
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Private Protective Services

• Major reasons for the quick growth of the
  American proprietary security sector are
• An increase in crimes in the workplace.
• An increase in fear of crime and terrorism.
• The fiscal crises of the states, which have
  limited public protection.
• An increased public and business awareness and
  use of more cost-effective private security
  products and services.

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Integrating Public and Private Security

• To maximize the crime-fighting potential
• Resources should be brought to bear in
  cooperative, community-based crime prevention and
  awareness programs.
• Assessment should be made of
• The basic police services the public is willing
  to support financially.
• The types of police services most acceptable to
  transfer to the private sector.
• Which services might be performed for a lower
  unit cost by the private sector.

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Integrating Public and Private Security

• To maximize the crime-fighting potential
• With special police powers, security personnel
  could resolve many or most criminal incidents
  prior to police involvement.
• Law enforcement agencies should be included in
  the crisis-management planning of private
  organizations.
• States should allow private security firms access
  to criminal history records.
• Research needs to be conducted.
• A federal tax credit for security expenditures
  can reduce police expenditures.