CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN ACTION: THE CORE

1. CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN ACTION: THE CORE

2. Chapter 6Challenges to Effective Policing OUTLINE • Recruitment and Training: Becoming a Police Officer • Police Organization • Refocusing on the Community • Law Enforcement in the Field • “Us versus Them”: Issues in Modern Policing • Police Ethics • Criminal Justice in Action—The DNA Revolution

3. Chapter 6: Effective Policing • Blue curtain p.146 • A metaphorical term used to refer to the value placed on secrecy and the general mistrust of the outside world shared by many police officers. • Broken windows theory p. 138 • Wilson and Kelling’s theory that a neighborhood in disrepair signals that criminal activity is tolerated in that area. Thus, by cracking down on quality-of-life crimes, police can reclaim the neighborhood and encourage law-abiding citizens to live and work there. 1 of 2

4. Chapter 6: Effective Policing • Bureaucracy p. 132 • A hierarchically structured administrative organization that carries out specific functions. • Citizen Oversight p. 151 • The process by which citizens review complaints brought against individual police officers or police departments. The citizens do not have the power to discipline misconduct, but can recommend that action be taken by police departments. 1 of 2

5. Chapter 6: Effective Policing • Clearance rate p. 144 • Comparison: the number of crimes cleared by arrest and prosecution with the number of crimes reported. • Differential response p. 134 • Response time is adapted to the seriousness of the calls. 1 of 2

6. Chapter 6: Effective Policing • Hot spots p. 137 • Concentrated areas of high criminal activity that draw a directed police response. • Police cynicism p. 146 • Suspicion that citizens are weak, corrupt, and dangerous. Results from exposure to citizens at their worst. 1 of 2

7. RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING:BECOMING A POLICE OFFICER (cont.) Basic Requirements • Most agencies require at a minimum that a police officer: • Be a U.S. citizen • Not convicted of a felony • Driver’s license • 21 years old • Weight / eyesight reqs

8. RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING:BECOMING A POLICE OFFICER (cont.) • Additionally most agencies engage in: • Background checks, drug tests • Review educational, military, and driving records • Credit checks • An (FBI) search • Fitness test Basic Requirements

9. RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING:BECOMING A POLICE OFFICER (cont.) • 1968: 5% of officers were African American, even less were women • 2002: 17% are minorities, 27% are women • Recruiting Members of Minority Groups and Women

10. POLICE ORGANIZATION (cont.) • Striving for Efficiency • Measured by response time and arrest rates • Response Time and Efficiency: • Incident-Driven Policing: A reactive approach to policing that emphasizes a speedy response to calls for service

11. POLICE ORGANIZATION (cont.) • Arrest Rates and Efficiency: the more arrests a police department makes, the lower the number of criminals there should be on the streets of the community • An additional measure of police effectiveness is citizen satisfaction • Striving for Efficiency

12. Chapter 6: Effective Policing • Police Subculture p.145 • Values and perceptions shared by members of a police department. • Problem-solving policing p. 136 • Identify potential criminal activity and develop strategies to prevent it. 1 of 2

13. Chapter 6: Effective Policing • Reasonable force p.148 • Degree of force that is appropriate to protect the police officer or other citizens and is not excessive. • Socialization p. 146 • Process through which a police officer is taught the values and expected behavior of the police subculture. 1 of 2

14. POLICE ORGANIZATION (cont.) • Professional vs. Community Policing p. 137 • Professional model policing focuses on technology and efficiency to reduce corruption • Involves rapid response to calls and preventive control (police patrol reduces chances of crime) • Refocusing on the Community

15. POLICE ORGANIZATION (cont.) • Professional vs. Community Policing p. 137 • Community Policing is a reaction to the professional model • Return to foot patrol, “reconnect” with community • Uses problem solving to approach crimes as problems that can be solved with long-term approaches • Refocusing on the Community

16. POLICE ORGANIZATION (cont.) • Professional vs. Community Policing p. 137 • Look at the comparison of professional and community policing in your book • Pick a style of policing that you think makes more sense • On a separate sheet of paper, write down: • 5 reasons that your style should be used over the other one • What is the ultimate goal of your style? Why should this be the goal of police work? • Refocusing on the Community

17. POLICE ORGANIZATION (cont.) • Professional vs. Community Policing p. 137 • Split into two groups, one for professional and one for community • From your lists of reasons, come up with the 5 best arguments for your side as a group • Share your arguments with the class • Refocusing on the Community

18. REFOCUSING ON THE COMMUNITY (cont.) • Uses hot-spots and crime-mapping to actively tackle problem areas of the city • Problem-Solving Policing

19. REFOCUSING ON THE COMMUNITY • Broken Windows Theory: Theory that a neighborhood in disrepair signals that criminal activity is tolerated in the area • Crackdowns: When police intensely focus their energies on a particular crime or set of crimes in a given area • Broken Windows: Popularizing • Community Policing

20. REFOCUSING ON THE COMMUNITY • Compstat system: It starts with beat officers reporting the exact location of crimes and other crime-related to department officials • These reports are then fed into a database, which prepares grids of a particular city or neighborhood and highlights areas with a high incidence of violent crime, drug dealing, and so on • Broken Windows: Popularizing Community Policing

21. LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE FIELD • Community policing is one of the field services that police officers perform. • Field services aka “operations” or “line services,” include: • Patrol activities • Investigations • Special operations

22. LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE FIELD (cont.) • Police on Patrol: The Backbone • of the Department • The most common law enforcement agent is the patrol officer, who is responsible for deterring and preventing crime as well as providing social services • The Purpose of Patrol: • The deterrence of crime by maintaining a visible police presence • The maintenance of public order and a sense of security in the community • The twenty-four-hour provision of services that are not crime related

23. LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE FIELD (cont.) • Police on Patrol: The Backbone of the Department • Patrol Activities:Thefour general categories are: • Preventive patrol: By maintaining a presence in a community, either in a car or on foot, patrol officers attempt to prevent crime from occurring • Calls for service: Patrol officers spend nearly a quarter of their time responding to 911 calls for emergency service or other citizen problems and complaints • Administrative duties: Paperwork takes up nearly 20 percent of patrol time • Officer-initiated activities: Incidents in which the patrol officer initiates contact with citizens

24. LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE FIELD (cont.) • Police on Patrol: The Backbone of the Department • Preventive patrol: • Direct patrol: Patrol strategies that are designed to respond to a specific criminal activity at a specific time • General Patrol: Patrol strategies that rely on police officers monitoring a certain area with the goal of detecting crimes in progress or preventing crime due to their presence. Also known as random or preventive patrol • The Kansas City Experiment: The theory of preventive patrol was tested by the Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment, conducted in 1972 and 1973

25. LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE FIELD (cont.) • Investigation is the second main function of police, along with patrol • Patrol is primarily preventive, investigation is reactive • Detective: The primary police investigator of crimes • Police Investigations

26. LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE FIELD (cont.) • Police Investigations • More than 97 percent of cases that are “solved” can be attributed to: • A patrol officer making an arrest at the scene • Witnesses or victims identifying the perpetrator • Detectives undertaking routine investigative procedures • Clearance Rate:A comparison of the number of crimes cleared by arrest and prosecution to the number of crimes reported during any given time period

27. LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE FIELD (cont.) • Police Investigations • The Detection Function: • A detective division in the larger police departments usually has a number of sections: • Crimes against persons • Crimes against property • Vice, a broad term that covers a number of public order crimes

28. LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE FIELD (cont.) • Police Investigations • Cold Case Investigations: • The term cold case refers to a crime that has been unsolved for a long period of time • Cold case squads have become more common in the past decade, thanks to advances in forensic science • DNA testing, in particular, has revolutionized cold case investigating

29. LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE FIELD (cont.) • Police Investigations • Aggressive Investigation Strategies: • Sting Operation • Undercover Operation • Confidential informant (CI) • A human source for police who provides information concerning illegal activity in which he or she is involved

30. “US VERSUS THEM”: ISSUES IN MODERN POLICING • Racial tension and questions of excessive force are two of the many on-the-job issues that make law enforcement such a challenging and often difficult career

31. “US VERSUS THEM”: ISSUES IN MODERN POLICING (cont.) • The values and perceptions that are shared by members of a police department, and to a certain extent, by all law enforcement agents • These values and perceptions are shaped by the unique and isolated existence of the police officer • Police Subculture

32. “US VERSUS THEM”: ISSUES INMODERN POLICING (cont.) • Police Subculture • The Core Values of Police Subculture : • Socialization: The process through which a police officer is taught the values and expected behavior of the police subculture • Rituals critical to the police officer’s acceptance: • Attending a recruit academy • Working with a senior officer who passes on the “lessons” of police work and life to the younger officer • Making the initial felony arrest • Using force to make an arrest for the first time • Using or witnessing deadly force for the first time • Witnessing major traumatic incidents for the first time

33. “US VERSUS THEM”: ISSUES IN MODERN POLICING (cont.) • Blue Curtain:A metaphorical term used to refer to the value placed on secrecy and the general mistrust of the outside world shared by many police officers • Police Cynicism: • The suspicion that citizens are weak, corrupt, and dangerous; this outlook is the result of a police officer being constantly exposed to civilians at their worst and can negatively affect the officer’s performance • Police Subculture

34. “US VERSUS THEM”: ISSUES IN MODERN POLICING (cont.) • According to the U.S. Department of Justice, police have the most dangerous job in the United States • According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, policing is one of the ten most stressful occupations in the country • The Physical and Mental Dangers of Police Work

35. “US VERSUS THEM”: ISSUES IN MODERN POLICING (cont.) • Both police officers and civilians tend to equate terms such as authority and respect with the ability to use force • The “Misuse” of Force • In general, the use of physical force by law enforcement personnel is very rare, occurring in only about 1.5 percent of police-public encounters • The Department of Justice estimates that law enforcement officers threatened to use force or used force in encounters with about 664,500 Americans in 2002 • Authority and the Use of Force

36. “US VERSUS THEM”: ISSUES IN MODERN POLICING (cont.) The Use of Force by Police against Suspects • Authority and the Use of Force

37. “US VERSUS THEM”: ISSUES IN MODERN POLICING (cont.) • Types of Force • Reasonable Force: The degree of force that is appropriate to protect the police officer or other citizens and is not excessive • Deadly Force: Force applied by a police officer that is likely or intended to cause death • Non-lethal Weapons • Designed to subdue but not seriously harm suspects • Authority and the Use of Force

38. “US VERSUS THEM”: ISSUES IN MODERN POLICING (cont.) • Defined as the misuse of authority by a law enforcement officer “in a manner designed to produce personal gain” • Types of Corruption • Bribery • Shakedowns • Mooching • Corruption in Police Subculture • There is no single reason that police corruption occurs • Police Corruption

39. “US VERSUS THEM”: ISSUES IN MODERN POLICING (cont.) • Who shall police the police? • Internal investigations: • Internal Affairs Unit (IAU). A division within a police department that receives and investigates complaints of wrongdoing by police officers • Citizen Oversight: • The process by which citizens review complaints brought against individual police officers or police departments; the citizens often do not have the power to discipline misconduct but can recommend that action be taken by police administrators • Police Accountability

40. POLICE ETHICS • The rules or standards of behavior governing a profession are aimed at ensuring the fairness and rightness of actions • Police Code of Conduct: “A police officer will not engage in acts of corruption or bribery” • Officers will never allow personal feelings, animosities, or friendships to influence official conduct”

41. POLICE ETHICS (CONT.) • A situation in which law enforcement officers: • do not know the right course of action, • have difficulty doing what they consider to be right, and/or • find the wrong choice very tempting • Ethical Dilemmas

42. POLICE ETHICS (CONT.) • Elements of Ethics • Discretion • Duty • Honesty • Loyalty • When considering a particular action, officers ask themselves: • Is it legal? • Is it balanced? • How does it make me feel about myself?