Police Legitimacy and Procedural Justice

Police Legitimacy and Procedural Justice

Police Legitimacy and Procedural Justice

The history of policing dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, in those days communication with the public was mainly done through radio dispatches and single channeled radio system which later developed into a two channeled system. The tube radios were also replaced by more efficient transistor radios. In the 1970s, other channels were added with the development of communications between cars and remote receivers. Later in the 1980s, there was the development of the 911 emergency system to ease communication from the public and the community to the police and to hasten response of the police in emergency cases. The automated call distributor was also incorporated into the system together with the computer aided dispatch. In the recent years there has been the development of inter-linkage between different emergency responders such as firefighters, hospitals systems, public works and other departments all having the same system to facilitate faster response to the public’s needs and exchange of crucial information.

Police legitimacy is a principle based on the fact that the police are supposed to be allowed to execute their authority in order to maintain law and order within the society, solve conflicts and manage any kind of problem that may arise from within the society. The theory is based on three main pillars which include, to begin with, public trust and confidence in the police by the community. This is whereby the public view the police as being straight forward individuals who do the work whole heartedly and who can be trusted by the lives of the public. This is also built when the public are able to see that the police respond to crime and violence efficiently and in good time. The second pillar is the willingness of the public to respond to police authority and the final pillar is based on the public’s perception that any action of the police is morally correct at the time that it takes place.

Procedural Justice is mainly concerned with fairness that surround the procedures of dispute resolution and justice administration. Theories on procedural justice mainly focus on fairness and equity even in the basic level of conflict resolution. Procedural justice can be viewed as a means to attaining legitimacy and can be defined in terms of four issues. First, people want to have an opportunity to explain their situation or tell their side of the story to a police officer. This opportunity to make arguments and present evidence should occur before the police make decisions about what to do. People are interested in having an opportunity to tell their story or state their case; that is, they want to have a voice.

Second, people react to evidence that the authorities with whom they are dealing are neutral. This involves officers making decisions based upon consistently applied legal principles and the facts of an incident, not an officer’s personal opinions and biases. Transparency and openness about what the rules and procedures are and how decisions are being made facilitates the belief that decision-making procedures are neutral. This helps the police to be seen to be acting neutrally. Therefore when police legitimacy and procedural justice are incorporated in the decision making system within the police force, the public will most definitely feel extremely secure and will want to work hand in hand with them.

Police legitimacy and procedural just play several roles in reassuring the population of their own safety. This is because they help in making the public know that the police are often working in their own interest. When set in place as necessary, it portrays the police as honest individuals who are dedicated to their work and by so doing encourages the public’s belief in the system. This will then foster unity and collaboration between the public and the police. This has several benefits in the long run such as the public surrendering dangerous criminals and supplying crucial information that would be useful to the police. All these then aid in security within the society and ease the work of the police.

Third, people are sensitive to whether they are treated with dignity and politeness, and to whether their rights are respected. The issue of interpersonal treatment consistently emerges as a key factor in reactions to dealings with legal authorities. People believe that they are entitled to treatment with respect and react very negatively to dismissive or demeaning interpersonal treatment. Finally, people focus on cues that communicate information about the intentions and character of the legal authorities with whom they are dealing. People react favorably when they believe that the authorities with whom they are interacting are benevolent and caring, and are sincerely trying to do what is best for the people with whom they are dealing.

Police managers are the officials at the top of the leadership ladder within the police force. They facilitate communication between different agencies within the country to ensure collaboration within the judicial and the police department. They facilitate exchange of crucial information involving both the community and those in question. Inter-agency collaboration also help the officers to learn different idea from one another which then helps in the general safety and wellbeing of the entire community. They also foster good relationship between the police and the community. Leaders that execute procedural justice within their judicial system help to increase the public’s belief and trust in them. By giving the public a listening ear and acting in honest and respectable manner, they make the public believe in the system and make then want to work more with the police.

The current structure and design of the police department faces several potential challenges and problems. To begin with, occasionally there is lack of trust within a unit of the department with the other in the same department. This means that in most cases, the police do not trust themselves and believe in their own honesty. This hinders collaboration with the public to foster trust and belief with the community at large. Also there are four different generations within the workforce system. Different generations all have a different perception of things and differ in their beliefs. They also have varying attitudes and preferences.

In a unit that doesn’t have a strategy in place to address the multigenerational issues, there are bound to be several instances of arguments and tension within the workforce. Therefore this is a potential problem that every system has to make a strategy and a workable plan to execute when this arises, because if a system cannot work by itself and within its own organization, there is no way that they can reach out to the public and the community. Another potential problem is that very few individuals within the system actually follow through the entire process of procedural justice, because of this the public in several cases feel oppressed and judged unfairly and thus there can’t be any trust between the public and the police force.

Intelligence led policing is a policing model whose framework was developed following the 9/11 terrorist attack. Its main function is to anticipate crime and set up preventive mechanisms to counter the occurrence. By so doing, it limits the amount of crime experienced in the country at large .It incorporates several other policing models such as community policing, problem solving policing, and aspects of command and control and data analysis. Its main aim was to sensitive the community and build some aspect of trust within the community and the police agencies which will then enable the public to surrender any crucial information to the police should any arise. The difference between the intelligence led policing and other policing models is that, unlike the rest, it is anticipatory and acts way before the crime has been committed. This ensure that proactive strategies are put in place should the crime occur. The model also in contrast to the other models incorporates several other models within it to facilitate better outcomes.

My local public safety can be improved in several ways which include providing crucial information to the police of crime and criminal related activities noted within the society, reporting any crime issues as they occur which can assist in improving the safety of the community at large. This includes submission of suspect’s names and identity to the police department. Not only will this ensure that justice is served but it will also ensure that innocent individuals are not held accountable for the crimes they did not commit. Finally, public safety can be improved by merely respecting the police authority and abiding by whatever they set in place given the assumption that the actions of the police are often morally upright at the time that they are undertaken.