Issues in Policing Vocab PowerPoint Notes Vocab 1 Double Marginality The social burden African American police officers carry by virtue of being both minority group members and law enforcement officers 2 Cynicism The belief that most people s actions are motivated solely by personal needs and selfishness society 3 Blue Curtain The secretive insulated police culture that isolates officers from the rest of 4 Discretion The use of personal decision making and choice in carrying out operations in the criminal justice system For example police discretion can involve deciding whether to make an arrest prosecutorial discretion can involve deciding whether to accept a plea bargain 5 Emotional Intelligence The capability of monitoring one s own feelings and actions in order to guide action 6 Demeanor The way in which a person outwardly manifests his or her personality 7 Racial Profiling The practice of police targeting minority groups because of a belief that they are more likely to be engaged in criminal activity 8 Police Brutality Usually involves such actions as the use of abusive language the unnecessary use of force or coercion threats prodding with nightsticks stopping and searching people to harass them and so on 9 Corruption Exercising legitimate discretion for improper reasons or using illegal means to achieve approved goals 10 Knapp Commission A public body that led an investigation into police corruption in New York and uncovered a widespread network of payoffs and bribes 11 Meat Eaters A term for police officers who actively solicit bribes and vigorously engage in corrupt practices 12 Grass Eaters A term for police officers who accept payoffs when everyday duties place them in a position to look the other way 13 Deadly Force Force that is likely to cause death or bodily harm 14 Suicide by Cop A form of suicide in which a person acts in an aggressive manner with police officers in order to induce them to shoot to kill 15 Nondeadly Force Force that is unlikely to cause death or significant bodily harm 16 Less Lethal Weapons Weapons designed to disable or immobilize rather than kill criminal suspects 17 Miranda warning The requirement that police officers inform suspects subjected to custodial interrogation that they have a constitutional right to remain silent that their statements can later be used against them in court that they can have an attorney present to help them and that the state will pay for an attorney if they cannot afford to hire one 18 Search Warrant An order issued by a judge directing officers to conduct a search of specified premises for specified objects or persons and bring them before the court 19 Probable Cause The evidentiary criterion necessary to sustain an arrest or the issuance of an arrest or search warrant less than absolute certainty or beyond reasonable doubt but greater than mere suspicion or hunch 20 Stop and Frisk The situation when police officers who are suspicious of an individual run their hands lightly over the suspects outer garments to determine whether the person carrying a concealed weapon Also called a patdown or threshold inquiry a stop and frisk is intended to stop short of any activity that could be considered a violation of Fourth Amendment rights 21 Exclusionary Rule Evidence seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment unreasonable search and seizures cannot be used in a court of law 22 Good Faith Exception The principle that evidence may be used in a criminal trial even though the search warrant used to obtain it is technically faulty if the police acted in good faith and to the best of their ability when they sought to obtain it from a judge PowerPoint Notes Who are The Police Double Marginality social burden black police face by being both a minority and an officer First women officer is Alice Stebbins Wells Police Profession Police Culture Faces cynicism blue curtain core beliefs loyalty counts above everything else impossible to win the war against crime if the rules aren t bent members of the public are unreasonable demanding unsupportive Police officers tend to socialize with one another and believe that their occupation cuts them off from relationships with civilians Police Personality Can be described as dogmatic authoritarian and suspicious Since police are constantly exposed to dangerous situations and feel the need to use force and authority to defuse control threatening situations officers tend to develop cynicism Police Styles 1 The Crime Fighter 2 The Social Agent 3 The Law Enforcer 4 The Watchman Police Discretion The critical aspect that the individual police officer has the ability to make the call whether the offender be arrested given a warning or set free Can involve selective enforcement of the law Emotional intelligence defined as the ability to monitor one s own and others feelings and emotions to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one s thinking and actions This is crucial to police discretion Some factors affecting police discretion are 1 Legal 2 Environmental 3 Departmental 4 Peer 5 Situational 6 And Extralegal Problems of Policing 4 main problems 1 Job Stress 2 Fatigue 3 Violence and Brutality 4 Corruption Varieties of Police Corruption 1 Internal Corruption This corruption takes place among police officers themselves involving both the bending of departmental rules and the outright performance of illegal acts 2 Selective Enforcement or Non enforcement This occurs when police abuse or exploit their discretion If an officer frees a drug dealer in return for valuable information that is considered a legitimate use of discretion if the officer does so for money that is an abuse of police power 3 Active Criminality This is participation by police in serious criminal behavior Police may use their positions of trust and power to commit the very crimes they are entrusted with controlling 4 Bribery and Extortion This includes practices in which law enforcement roles are exploited specifically to raise money Bribery is initiated by the citizen extortion is initiated by the officer According to the Knapp Commission abusers can be classified into two categories 1 Meat Eaters Aggressively misuse police power for personal gain by demanding brides threatening legal action or cooperating with criminals 2 Grass Eaters Accepts payoffs and lets other simple things slide when their everyday duties place them in a position to look the other way Police Use of Force Use of physical restraint by a
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