The Police Reform Era

The reform era was prompt by reformers who wanted to “…[improve] efficiency, recruitment, level[s] of service[s], and [professionalism of] the police” (Gardiner, 2016). Police officers during the political era were profiled as “…incompetent, racist, dishonest, and brutal” (Gardiner, 2016). Therefore, the objective was to eliminate any political influences and dismiss any officers whose intentions were not virtuous. In addition, reformers aimed to professionalize the entire criminal justice system, especially units (patrol officers) who worked the closely with the public. To professionalize these officers, reformers required them to be well trained and educated. Due to the increase of standards, policing did change from being well-paid professional
To excel these accommodations police departments had to “ …[improve on] work conditions, salaries, training, …communication between patrol officers, headquarters, …law enforcement agencies, …[sharing] information, and aid in investigations (Gardiner, 2016). A reformer named August Vollmer, the father of modern policing, established policing programs in different colleges and encourage students to get an education (Gardiner, 2016). O.W. Wilson followed by William H. Parker focused on organizing police agencies in a military format and found that “using motor patrols… reduce police-citizen contact and opportunity for corruption” (Gardiner, 2016). In addition, Gardiner states if there were more minority (such as African Americans) and female polices officers, complainants and criminals would be more cooperative and more communication between society and law enforcement (2016). “…Fairer distribution of police services, less use of deadly force, greater respect for individual rights, and equal opportunity for minorities within the Nation's police departments” (Williams,
This was the cause of The War on Drugs and Racial riots because people got so out of hand that it was difficult for police officers to control the crowd with the equipment they usually carry (Gardiner, 2016). “…Racism was the main cause of the riots but… other societal problems such as unemployment, discriminatory housing and employment practices, inadequate social services, and unequal justice” (Gardiner, 2016). For law enforcement to regain the trust of their community is from them to “communicate more openly with the public and made it clear that the situation was at a critical level and needed to be addressed immediately” (Gardiner, 2016). Usually making the public aware of what’s going on and explain the actions of an officers would somewhat make society understand why law enforcement have change their approaches when they encounter a serious problem. In conclusion, sadly police agencies still need a lot of improvement to regain societies trust. There are still many “crooked” officers that use unnecessary excessive force and may even be racist. What agencies can do is have some kind of punishment (ie. jail time, prison, or a fine) that will deter officers from committing such crimes. Communities can also help make this happen by going to city