American law enforcement organizations is hierarchal and it is a bureaucratic structure adopting ways of the military. The quasi-military structure found in police departments will emphasize the importance of specializations in task, duties, objectives, and responsibilities. Each level in the chain of command has specific authority and tasks to carry out. Historically speaking, Peel’s principles of a professional police organization can be seen in today’s philosophy of community-oriented policing (COP). Peel’s principles emphasized the following guidelines for a professional police organization: (1) a police mission statement and core values; (2) crime prevention; (3) respect or citizenry; (4) respect for the law; (5) minimizing the use of…
Local law enforcement enforces traffic and criminal laws within their jurisdiction. These men and women of law risk their lives every day; they know the dangers of their job. Depending where in the city they patrol by foot, patrol car, and a motorcycle. Their job may be simple because they also answer to dispatch involving accidents, robberies, or any misdemeanor or felony crimes. As part of their job when they are called in for crime scenes they do conduct investigations that include gathering evidence, making arrests, and speaking with potential witnesses. The police officers do have their chief in command who they vote for which is called the “Chief of Police”, their job is to make sure his or her officers are committing to their job, and are given their specific rules each day by the chief to keep safe on patrol. The local police officers also like to become more involved with the community to make sure that their community feel safe, and are providing accurate service to…
A Chief of Police is an official who is appointed by an elected official usually a Mayor. A study conducted in California showed that the average tenure of a police chief in that state was less than 3 years before the chief was fired or resigned. (Swanson pg.144) Police chiefs can be removed by the mayors or city managers who appoint them. There is no protection or security for a police chief when it comes down to securing a job. However, Illinois and New Hampshire prohibits the chief from being removed without cause and an explanation. This leaves the chief to look for protection with a civil agency. A select number of states allow chiefs who are removed from their positions to return to the ranks they were within their departments before their promotion.…
The job of a police officer involves stressful situations and entails interactions with many individuals in the community. It also requires quick decision making and good judgment. Police duties vary from writing reports to maintaining order to responding to criminal situations, all of which require critical thinking skills (Grant & Terry, 2009). Because of the range of duties, officers should possess certain traits: physically agility, the ability to cope with difficult situations, well-developed writing skills, good communication skills,…
Our society has become corrupt at each level, and the police force is no exception. While most officers are committed to maintaining honor and integrity in their service to the public, there will be crime or misconduct among both female and male officers (Gottschalk, 2011). Police officers should be upholding the image of sacrifice, dignity, and overall competency (Gottschalk, 2011). Unfortunately, corruption can happen and add distrust amongst the public toward the public service of police officers. These actions of misconduct can include oppression, racial profiling, physical or emotional abuse of power, overall mistreatment of citizens or prisoners in their care, extortion, misuse of information or perjury, and overall manipulation (Gottschalk, 2011).…
As public expectations of police change from crime fighters to public safety problem solvers, police administrators must modify their organizational structure in order to meet broader mission statements…
The Police Chief assumes management responsibility for all police department services and activities. Also, a Chief coordinates police department programs and administrative matters…
In modern society there are many challenges to police work. They can be very overwhelming but many grant satisfaction. It takes a special individual to be a police officer and perform the duties that are required by law for them to do. This paper will look at the satisfactions and challenges of police work on a day to day basis.…
The role of the police is to protect the community. Policing is depicted as a way of crime control,Policing refers to organized forms of order maintenance, peace keeping, rule or law enforcement, crime investigation, and other forms of investigations and information brokering? Other meaning is it the governmental department charged with the regulation and control of the affairs of a community, now chiefly the department established to maintain order, enforce the law, and prevent and detect crime. Various changes within the police organization are considered necessary to achieve a new style of policing at the neighborhood level. Among these are: (1) changes in organizational structure, decentralizing, flattening, creating teams, and civilianizing, (2) changes in management, a mission statement that reflects new policing values, strategic planning, supervisory coaching and mentoring, and empowering of officers, (3) changes in information management to establish new systems for evaluating personnel, units, and programs, and new systems for crime analysis, mapping, and resource deployment.…
“The profession of policing and public safety continues to confront new challenges that also present a wealth of opportunities for initiating substantive change” (Batts, Smoot, & Scrivner, 2012, p. 18). Some have noted leaders in the criminal justice police organization face a crossroad when striking a balance between judicial and governmental expectations, the agency itself, stakeholders, and the public. According to Bisschop and Kimpe (2009), “The Diversity of these sometimes conflicting demands –representing the complexity inherent to the police organization –offers a number of distinct challenges for police leadership”…
Some leadership skills that they should obtain is (1) Quick thinking. This means that those working in criminal justice must be of sharp and sound mind, able to adapt to situations quickly and make snap decisions with good judgment. (2) Strong ethical sensibility. You should be ethical, act fairly and always in the best interest of the people. (3) People skills. You need to be able to communicate with others. Communication and people skills are critical in everything from directing traffic to conducting an interview to testifying in court. (4) Knowledgeable of laws. If you work in the criminal field you should be familiar and know the laws of the state and national. Especially officers, they should always be familiar with laws and how to enforce them. (5) Ability to handle stress. Most criminal justice jobs, even office jobs, can be emotionally and/or physically demanding. They should maintain these because it’s what can help them and others.…
"Policing is a psychologically stressful work environment filled with danger, high demands, ambiguity in work encounters, human misery and exposure to death" ("Science Daily", 2008). With that being said, there are numerous issues facing law enforcement today. A career in law enforcement is not only physical but also a demanding psychological job. Officers are faced with terrorist threats, danger on the job and the decision on what type of force to use dependent on the situation they are faced with. They are often blamed for racial profiling and experience law suits. Officers face death every time they report for duty, they are giving their life. Law enforcement for years has been faced with corruption in the departments. The stress and late night hours of the job becomes an issue on a daily basis, affecting family life and at times mentally ruining the officer. Safety is always an issue along with the multicultural world we live in. Different cultural backgrounds and language barriers they deal with along with budget cuts, also makes their job extremely challenging.…
Officers can be required to take more training then they are now. Going through trials to see how they deal in stressful situations that will make them think irrationally can be a good start. “Bad” officers must be fired, they could be toxic and dangerous. Officers can be required to earn 4-year degrees. Statistics have shown that people with longer school degrees have a clearer mindset and can think better in different situations using problem solving skills.…
I have dealt with both role conflict an role strain throughout my life and never knew the distinction between the two until recently. A role strain is when one or more expectations from a single status becomes too much for that person to handle and they are not capable to complete them. A role strain I've experienced is with my status as a employee as a File Clerk; it requires me to pick up case files for cases that are settled and no longer active, the files are entered into a data storage system and placed on a work order to be picked up and shipped off for long term storage. It takes any where from 20 minutes to 3 hours to put one case into the data system, the case files are placed in a bankers box and an average case is about six boxes.…
By being visual to the community, the fourth responsibility of preserving the peace is achieved. This responsibility goes hand-in-hand with the third responsibility of being visual to the community. “All enforcement activities improve the peace of a community” (CJi Interactive, 2011). Police officers can cultivate a positive image and positive attitudes just by being visible to the public.…