AJ 50 – Introduction to Administration of Justice

1
AJ 50 Introduction to Administration of Justice

• Chapter 6 -
• Policing Issues and Challenges

2
Issues in Policing

• Certain issues hold special interest and concerns
  for todays police administrators and officers
• Inherent Dangers
• Stress
• Use-of-Force/Lethal Force
• Civil Liability
• Multiculturalism

3
Police Subculture Personality

• Subculture
• Informal values that characterize the police
  force as a distinct community with common goals
• Working Personality
• Traditional values and behaviors
• Socialized into police culture
• Often extends to officers personal lives

4
The Police Personality

• Optimistic/Helpful
• Hopeful
• Honorable/Loyal
• Conservative
• Efficient

• Frustrated
• Authoritarian
• Suspicious/Secretive
• Cynical/Pessimistic
• Prejudiced/Opinionated

5
Corruption

• Corruption
• The abuse of police authority for personal or
  organizational gain
• Historical existence of corruption?
• Knapp Commission
• A committee that investigated police corruption
  in New York City in the early 1970s
• Established two types of corrupt officers
• Grass Eaters
• Meat Eaters
• Is money at the root of corruption?

6
Building Integrity

• Law Enforcement Oath of Honor (page 199)
• How does LE create and maintain integrity within
  its profession?
• Hiring standards
• Academy continuing training
• Internal Affairs
• The branch of a police organization tasked with
  investigating charges of wrongdoing involving
  members of the department

7
Drug and Alcohol Use

• IACP Drug-Testing Recommendations
• All applicants/recruits
• Employees showing performance difficulties
  indicating possible drug/alcohol problems
• Employees involved with excessive force
• Employees involved with IOD
• Routine testing of special assignments such as
  Narcotics or Vice

8
Inherent Dangers of Police Work

• Violence
• 156 officers killed in line of duty (2005)
• Gunfire 52
• Automobile Accident 33
• Heart Attack 17
• Vehicular Assault 15
• Risk of disease and infection
• Biological agents, blood-borne pathogens, etc.
• Stress and Fatigue
• Shift-work, diet, OT, etc.

9
Police Civil Liability

• Liability
• Responsibility for damages caused by
  officer/department
• 1983 Lawsuits
• Based on 1983, Title 42, US Code
• Filed in Federal Court
• Bivens Action
• Liability action against federal officials

10
Major Sources of Civil Liability

• Failure to protect property in custody
• Negligent care of in-custody suspects
• Failure to render proper medical first-aid
• Lack of due regard for public safety

• False arrest or imprisonment
• Excessive force
• Violation of constitutional rights
• Racial Profiling

11
Racial Profiling and Biased Policing

• Racial Profiling
• Any police-initiated action that relies on the
  subjects race, ethnicity, or national origin
• Same as racism?
• Racial Profiling vs. Criminal Profiling?
• Civil rights violation vs. good police work
• POST training mandates
• 100,000 officers statewide
• 5 hours initial training
• Main goal individual-officer introspection

12
Cultural Awareness

• Training helps to identify individual prejudices
• Four stages
• Clarifying the relationship between cultural
  awareness and police professionalism
• Recognizing personal prejudices
• Acquiring sensitivity to police-community
  relations
• Developing interpersonal-relations skills

13
Use of Force

• Police Use-of-Force
• The use of physical restraint by a police officer
  when dealing with a member of the public
• Use-of-Force Continuum
• Department Policy, Training, etc.
• Ladder, Steps, Elevator, Wheel
• Excessive Force
• The application of an amount or frequency of
  force greater than that required to gain
  compliance from a willing or unwilling subject

14
Lethal Force

• Level of force likely to cause death or great
  bodily injury
• Tennessee vs. Garner (1985)
• Lethal force upon fleeing felon only if serious
  threat of injury or death to public or officer
  and deadly force necessary to affect arrest
• Graham vs. Connor (1989)
• Established objective reasonableness standard
• Appropriateness of force should be judged from
  perspective of reasonable officer in that
  situation

15
Lethal-Force Policy Elements

• Common elements of deadly-force policies
• Defense of Life
• Officers or anothers
• Fleeing Felony Suspect
• If escape likely to result in imminent danger of
  death/GBI
• Verbal Warnings
• Should be given if not jeopardizing safety
• Warning Shots
• Generally discouraged
• Moving Vehicles
• Not to disable vehicle, at driver/occupants only
  if imminent death/GBI and does not cause
  overriding danger

16
Less-Lethal Force

• Less-Lethal Weapons
• Weapons designed/intended to disable, capture, or
  immobilize but not kill a suspect
• Not Non-lethal!
• Could cause unintentional death or serious injury
• Examples
• Baton
• Pepper Spray/Pepperball
• Tasers/Stun Guns
• Beanbag Projectiles
• Rubber Bullets
• Snare Nets

17
Education and Training

• P.O.S.T.
• Peace Officer Standards and Training
• www.post.ca.gov
• Official state/legislative program that sets law
  enforcement training standards
• 832 PC
• Basic Academies
• Continuing Professional Training
• Perishable-Skills Program

18
Recruitment and Selection

• Benefits of hiring educated officers
• Report writing skills
• Communication skills
• Effective job performance
• Fewer citizen complaints
• Increased initiative
• Wise use of discretion
• Fewer discipline issues
• Heightened awareness of multiculturalism

19
Professionalism and Ethics

• Professionalism
• The increasing formalization of police work and
  the accompanying rise in public acceptance of the
  police
• Ethics
• The special responsibility to adhere to moral
  duty and obligation inherent in police work
• Law Enforcement Code of Ethics (p. 226)

20
Ethnic and Gender Diversity in Policing

• Women currently represent 13 of all sworn
  officers
• 4.8 are women of color
• Between 1990-2001, 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/promotion of
  women and minorities are the significant factor
  in womens gains

21
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 non-uniformed
  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

22
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 development of an open system of
  promotions for women and racial/ethnic minorities
• Use periodic audits to ensure that female
  officers are not being underutilized

23
Private Protective Services

• Private Protective Services
• Independent commercial organizations that provide
  protective services to employers on a contractual
  basis
• Major reasons for rapid growth of private
  policing
• Increase in workplace crimes
• Increase in fear-of-crime and terrorism
• Fiscal crises of the states
• Increased public and business awareness
• More cost-effective private-security services
• Impact on traditional Law Enforcement?