Chapter 5 Police Officers and Law Enforcement Operations Who Are the Police Biggest attraction of the career is the variety of things one gets to do in one day Very difficult and unappealing job due to high stress and low pay Recruitment o Need to have at least a high school diploma o Be in excellent physical condition have strong vision o Have a clear background check absence of criminal record o Must obtain a certificate that shows they have passed their state s law enforcement training agency Can do it through college or larger cities will fund their time at the academy o Average salary around 40 000 dollars for an average officer o Federal agencies have higher salaries and better benefits The Changing Profile of the Police o The officers and becoming more diversified Used to be all white men for most of American History More than 22 of officers are of minority groups today o Minority Police Officers Has greatly increased since 1970 As cities have shifted in color so have the officers Detroit is 75 black 63 black officers El Paso 72 Hispanic 48 Hispanic officers o Women on the Force Policing was considered mens work for most of the 1900 s Opened up police work due to the complaint of gender discrimination About 10 women in the force today Some male officers complained that they would not be able to receive proper help from a woman police officer in time of need Many have also given positive reviews Training o Police academies can range for two weeks to 4 months o The most important part of the training is done in the fieldwork when rookies work with senior officers Learning their job on the streets Socialization the process by which the rules symbols and values of a group or subculture are learned by its members o Must learn the subculture of their particular department Learning how to handle dangerous situations paperwork Police Subculture Subculture the symbols beliefs values and attitudes shared by members of a subgroup of a larger society o Helps define the cop s world prone to constant change The Working Personality a set of emotional and behavioral characteristics developed by members of an occupational group in response to the work situation and environmental influences o Two major elements The threat of daner Must be keenly aware of clues in people s behavior or in situations that indicate that violence might happen Must be always suspicious never let down the guard Maintaining Authority Established through their actions Must know the line Police Morality o 3 dilemmas that morality helps to overcome The contradiction between the goal of preventing crime and the Officers must use discretion to handle situations in ways the officers inability to do so don t follow procedure The fact that they invariably act against at least one citizens arrest who can use coercive forcer to maim or kill o Stem from the belief that the public is hostile to them Many actually think high of police o Isolation is made worse by the fact that many officers interact with the public in moments of conflict emotion and crisis Made to seem as the bad guy Police Isolation Job Stress o Can affect how they treat citizens and their own health Always on alert and it takes a toll on their health Long hours and severe fatiguing work o Four major types of Police Stress External stress real threat and danger guns and darkness Organizational stress nature of work in a paramilitary structure bad hours and detailed rules Personal stress racial and gender status among peers social factors Operational stress dealing with thieves derelicts and mentally ill hostiles must be suspicious of all citizens o Now have stress prevention and counseling for officers Police Response and Action Police are mainly reactive initiating actions in the absence of citizen request rather than proactive initiating actions in the absence of citizen request o Normally arrive after crime hampered by time lapse and sometimes inaccurate information o Incident Driven policing policing which calls for service ar ehte primary instigators of action Less than 30 percent of calls are for crime Organizational Response o Influences how police respond to citizen s calls o Communications centers send police into actions Communicate through radios computers etc o 911 call brings a flood of calls to the police Baltimore has a 311 Non emergency call system Helped the effiency of 911 actual emergencies and had high praise o Differential response a patrol strategy that assigns priorities to calls for service and chooses the appropriate response Dispatcher receives the call and asks for certain facts in order to assign the right officer for the job vice patrol investigation etc o Some criticize all the technology because it isolated cops from the people Productivity o A major factor on response and action o Weekly briefings by police organization to their employers to explain their efforts and results in reducing crime o Computer systems put up to date crime data into hands of managers o Have trouble gauging the quality of their police work Clearance rate the percentage of crimes known to the police that they believe they have solved through an arrest a stat used to measure a police department s productivity o Don t wait out calls for vice crime gambling drugs prostitution but go on the hunt themselves o Traffic citations and fines parking tickets etc also affect productivity Delivery of Police Services Line functions components that directly perform field operations and carry out the basic functions of patrol investigation vice traffic and so on Staff Functions based in the chief s office and the support or services bureau as well as the staff inspections bureau Patrol Functions o Backbone of police services Take up 2 3rds of all sworn officers those who have taken an oath and been given powers by the state to make arrests and enforce the law o 3 functions answering calls for help normally near the scene maintaining a police presence preventive patrol making the police presence known to deter crime and to make officers available to respond quickly to calls probing suspicious circumstances o need to be in touch with community Investigation o Detectives officers assigned to investigative duties Involved after a crime has been reported and there has been a preliminary investigation Rely on technical experts o Apprehension When the crime has been committed there is a chain of events leading to the capture of a suspect Detection of a crime preliminary
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