Foundations of the Development and Functions of Police, Draft

Foundations of the Development and Functions of Police, Draft

CRJ310

Foundations of the Development and Functions of Police, Draft

As we all know many events in the world today changes daily. For the first half of my paper I’m going to talk about comparing and contrasting the major characteristics of our political and reform era of policing. As some of us know the political era was from the 1840s to 1930s. Many of the officers selecting steps were very different back then. Back then before our time each state city mayor had a chance to choose certain selecting officers from a list of names submitted by the alderman and tax assessors. Once that was all complete the mayor turned in his picks from that list to the states city council for approval (Peak, 2014.) Back in that time police serving the interests of politicians characterized the political era of American policing. Politics as some of us are so interested in were played to such an extent that even people that weren’t really important patrol officers used political backers to obtain promotions, desired assignments and transfers. In different communities interests for improving their quality of life pushed them, political influence was one of the reasons they are so involved in their community, which some of us know that is called curbside justice. Their were certain downfalls and, and some of them were, closeness to politicians, intimacy with the community, and the police discriminated against strangers, ethnicity and racial minorities. The reform era was from 1930’ s-1980 (Peak, 2014.). The reform era of policing America was heavily influenced by the Progressive political movement, which emphasized government reform and regulation of society to improve the living conditions of citizens (Peak, 2014). At some point in time, the reform era reformers sought to reject political involvement by the police and civil service systems were created to eliminate patronage and ward influences in hiring and firing police officers. August Vollmer was one of the most contributing people of the reform period. Vollmer developed the professionalism of police officers. Professionalism comes to meaning a combination of managerial efficiency and technological sophistication and an emphasis on crime fighting (Peak, 2014.) Different police academy training is different from state to state and agency to agency. There is actually no standard national curriculum, which the state may guide agencies in developing training programs. Each state has a some different Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training another name for it is also called POST; it establishes minimum selection standards for law enforcement officers, training standards, and sets minimum education, and also serves as the certification or licensing authority for sworn personnel. The agencies may be helpful in getting an idea of the state approach to law enforcement training.

Certain knowledge, and skills that’s developed during academy training can very well change depending on the particular police agency. Each jurisdiction has their different requirements and such, which some may be difficult and some may not. It is up to each jurisdiction in each state for their recruits to attend a standard a community college, while another jurisdictions may have it set for their recruits to attend an in home training program. From what I have learned there’s no national standard for police training; actually each state has its own set of rules which is set by some of the governing entity. The entities set basic standards regarding education and training. They are also responsible for licensing or certifying the authorities in that state (Glennon, 2010). There are a lot of skills imparted on trainees some are skills that they already have. The goal of the academy is to help improve the skills to be more effective while on patrol, which we all know is needed the way America, is today. Some of the skills that the officer needs are the ability to use good judgment and problem solve. The officers must have good judgment and be able to problem solve on the spot because situations happen fast. Not having good judgments and problem solving can bring up the police department to possible civil litigation and the officer up to possible criminal action. You must have the ability to multi-task it’s a vital skill the officer has to be able to be aware of their surrounding and enforce the law at the same time. If the officer is not good at multi-taking they may let their guard down and become a victim. As many of us know here in the world today we have some police officers that aim to do undercover work and that is because one day in life they want to become a detective. And in order to become a detective you have to have the ability to remain calm in high stress situations. Often time’s detectives and undercover officers are dealing with violent suspects and they have to know how to maintain their composure during these times. Being a detective you also have to be knowledgeable in crime and crime prevention techniques. You should know what your job requires and what is expected of all while doing your job. Good interview skills should come into play so you can be able to obtain facts and properly interrogate a suspect. Recollected memory also should be required to remember where something happened, or, they need to know where hiding places or stashes are located when investigating.

My definition of community policing is officers out here doing right for the community and serving for what’s right and not wrong. Community policing is no matter what opposite color that individual is from you serve for the right doing. The difference between community policing and traditional policing is that community policing involves officers partnering with their communities to help solve problems and to attack the core problems that lead to crime in the first place. It’s thought to foster better relations between police and the communities they serve. Traditional policing involves officers answering calls and patrolling their communities, looking for crimes that have occurred or that are occurring. It’s reactive: Officers actually respond to a variety of situations when they are develop. There’s a huge difference between the two. There’s a difference from the traditional to community policing in the annihilation of the police hierarchy and coordinated services of the force. Without this hierarchy, both public and private agencies are being developed to provide safety in every community. Somehow, there several ways in which traditional policing is related to community policing. While traditional policing responds to crime after it has occurred, the community-policing model is structured in a way that it can respond to crimes before they occur. This is because Community policing is really a incorporation of strategic reasoning in preventing crime. As a second part, the routine police patrols that once made up a portion of traditional policing now has a place in community policing; community policing uses these patrols at certain times or places to deter crime but also to be available at lively community hours. We all live in a community and we know community policing has a strong background in communication between officers and people in the community. A while ago, it was difficult to collect information about the criminal activities given the technology was not advanced enough to master the task. Today, however, various agencies are able to pass critical laws and forms of communication to battle serious crime in the community. In traditional policing, it is so much difficult to find someone as an eye witness to a crime. In today’s time, policing is full of other technologies such as GIS mapping, forensic evidence kits, and projection analysis kits, also with they way IPhones are today they are tracking everything and everyone location. The current trends in policing functions unfortunately are trends of mistrust and irresponsibility. There are expansive examples of violations of human rights as the police engage in extra-judicial killing of innocent members of the society (Peak, 2014).

I have come across that there are five top qualities undercover officers and detectives must posses, yes just five. The first one is to posses and most important is communication. Communication is vital to ones success. Communication is much more than verbal information transferred between individuals. It is the complete package: body language, proxemics, paralinguistic, and even what is missing in the immediacy of the situation at hand. A detective is always writing reports and they must be able to explain the situation in detail and understandable language. The second quality is that one must posses is to be able to work under pressure. Working undercover there is always going to be someone that questions your commitment to the group. One must be able to maintain undercover and not crack under pressure. They must be able to answer any necessary question under any type of tension. Thirdly, the next quality that an undercover must have is that he must possess and demonstrate integrity. This is important because as an undercover one will always be put in tough situations where there can be money or drugs involved. It is important for one to have the ability to bring all the information found to light and not keep anything from them. It is important to be honest with yourself as well as the team you are working with. These officers face constant temptation inside of the job and outside of the job. Fourth quality he must have is the ability to control their emotions. These officers are put in situations where they have to maintain their covers. Some of them even have to be away from their family for a period of time. They have to be able to know how to subtract their emotions from whatever decision they have to make. The less involve someone is emotional the easier it is to do the job. The last quality for an undercover or detective to have is knowledge of the law. Most of these officers get passes on what laws they can break due to their assignment. It is always important for officers not to lose themselves and break laws just because they are undercover. It should be so important for them that they inform their higher command of what is going on so that they will not be punished later on for their careless mistakes.

References

Field Operations Division Chandler Police Department. (n.d.). Retrieved September 1, 2018,from https://chandlerpd.com/about/organization/office-of-the-chief/field-operationsdivision/

Glennon, J. Communication skills and your survival. Retrieved September 1, 2018, from http://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/2008039-Communicationskills-and-your-survival/

Peak, K. (n.d.). Policing America: Challenges and best practices (Eighth ed.).

The Role of Traditional Policing in Community Policing. (n.d.). Retrieved September 1, 2018,from http://cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/march_2008/nugget.html