Police Administration, Structures, Processes, and Behavior - Research Paper Example

Police Administration, Structures, Processes, and Behavior al Affiliation Introduction Connecting historical police practice with contemporary policy Across all policing eras, police culture centrally reflected the beliefs of police as evident in recruitment and selection, training and development, policies and procedures, and in officers’ behavior. It is also through police culture that one understands police behavior and the existing inadequate or poorly understood policies relied on by officers for guidance on their conduct (Swanson, Territo, & Taylor, 2012).Police culture also influences the perception of how officers view their role and the people they serve, thus affecting interagency cooperation’s effectiveness base on the whether the culture adheres to non-violent conflict resolution practices. In addition, policing is aimed at minimizing violent incidents between citizens and police officers as a result, it becomes possible to enhance police officers’ safety, while encouraging an environment that promotes mutual respects, and cooperation between police departments and the communities within which they operate. Over the past years, considerable progress has been achieved in improving the relationships between police and communities, more so the communities of color. The major focus is mostly on the reduction of friction that arises due to police use of force as a way of conflict resolution. Over many years, police had resulted in using deadly force while the society, on the other hand, has become aware and making the issue to receive widespread attention. Community policing initiative For effective conduct, each police department must set forth policing values reflecting its own community. These policies must be guided by the set of values offering a framework upon which all policies must be built to meet local needs. The framework constitutes of principles such as preservation and advancement of democracy; human life preservation; crime prevention; involving the community in services delivery; accountability to the community served; and commitment to professionalism and integrity. This paper evaluates law enforcement in America from the perspective of a law enforcement commander in the Ferguson Police Department. Furthermore, well-developed performance measurements’ perspectives capture the complex contemporary policing (U.S. Department of Justice, 2003). According to policing experts, the best way to measure performance in complex modern policing societies is through adopting approaches that utilize a mix of outputs or internal performance and outcomes; the use of surveys to generate results that are worth more clear interpretation; and combining incentives with performance, thus proving to be an operational way of obtaining results. 2. Police administration Description of the varying forms of interagency cooperation in United States Within the police taskforce, partnership and interagency cooperation are crucial strategies of addressing social exclusion, with the local communities being responsible for facilitating inclusion (Kaiser, 2011, p. 6). For different circumstances, different forms of interagency cooperation are appropriate given dimensions such as purpose, key actors and structures, stage or timing of partnership development, spatial dimension, and the implementation mechanisms. The main forms of interagency cooperation are collaboration, coordination, merger, integration, networks, and partnerships. Collaboration is form of arrangement where voluntary or discretion participation is present at a substantial degree amongst the members. Coordination arrangement, however, involves a lead agency or officer who directs a program, project, or operation among at least one other agency. In a merger, the arrangement is to transfer all or part of an agency or their personnel, jurisdiction, resources, and authorities permanently to another, existing or new, institution. With interagency integration, the arrangement combines, temporarily or permanently, other sections of agencies to achieve a specified project, operation, program, or policy. Unlike mergers, such interagency cooperation does not involved permanent transfer of personnel, authority, or resources (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2010). With network arrangements, the parties involved are all levels of government including federal, local, tribal, and state governments. Finally, partnerships involve public-private relationships where any form of government extends to include private sector involving not-for-profits, non-governmental and for-profit companies among others (Kaiser, 2011, p. 7). Explanation of the principles of policing and their influence to policing today Kaiser (2011) explains that one of the greatest expectations of police department is upholding the highest level of integrity since the society invests lots of trust in them. The implication is that interagency officers must remain mindful of their contractual agreement with the society and always act in ways that do not violate that trust. In addition, police officers must remain committed to professionalism in all areas of life through strict adherence to their code of ethics as stated under the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics. This way, all police members will be destined to promoting discipline. In their delivery of services, police expect that the people being served offer their support to ensure that crime is responded to as a problem of the community and not the police alone. Such sharing of law enforcement responsibilities requires cooperation between the community and the police, not just for identification of issues within the community, but also for the determination of the most appropriate strategies to resolve them. Besides resolving crime, police believe that their number one role is to prevent crime rather than react to already committed crime. Consequently, citizens will experience high quality life with little to fear concerning the reality and perception of crime (Shaw, 2013).The police are also expected to preserve human life through the believe that it is the most valuable resource and deserves allocation of resources necessary to respond to service demands, and justifiably use deadly force when requested. Definition of ethics and illustration of ethical challenges in policing Despite their commitment to ethics, police experience numerous ethical challenges in policing. While some may not require formal training, some challenges experienced by police personnel call for training in order to attain ethical leadership skills. Through police leadership development programs, police personnel are endorsed, presented, or certified through state commissions, colleges, and universities. These training are crucial regardless of the rank of the officer. For effective adherence to defined competence and behaviour, officers are expected to take up policing as a profession that constitutes of common vocabulary and language, orientation towards public service, common principles and goals, and a form of credentialing or licensing staff. Some ethical challenges that can be overcome with the right knowledge and competence include corruption due to supervisory cowardice, systemic arrogance, and rationalization defence (Martinelli, 2006). Other trainings that can greatly enhance police community relationships are procedural justice, racial reconciliation, and bias minimization. When coupled together, these concepts result in productive police-citizen partnerships, thus encouraging officers to cultivate leadership skills and abilities. In addition, necessary training will cause police officer to identify and know the best course of action to take in different situations, what is hard to achieve at any given time, and the wrong, but tempting cause of action during any situation (Braswell, McCarhthy, & McCarthy, 2002). 3. Police structures: Assessment of police organization models Understanding ranks and police hierarchy Like most organizations, law enforcement agencies employ strict organizational ranking systems for effective communication, encourage advancement, and discourage demeaning those in lower ranks. Though ranks in law enforcement define an officer’s position in the hierarchy, it does not necessarily amount to the officer’s quality, importance, or character. On the contrary, they assist agencies to run smoothly with job responsibilities and functions remaining the same across almost all law enforcement agencies. The most common ranks include police officer, lieutenant, corporal, captain, sergeant, detective, and chief commissioner (Swanson, Territo, & Taylor, 2012). Analysing and assessing the effectiveness of communication policy in police organization For effective performance, law enforcement agencies are expected to communicate effectively amongst themselves while serving the citizens. In order to attain that, police department establishes governance agreements that permit joint ownership, management, and operation of communications systems. Consequently, these benefit the agencies participating in managing such communication systems regardless of their geographic location. In addition, effective communication facilitates smooth partnerships among systems from local, federal, and state governments that would have remained incompatible preventing future communication while duplicating efforts. Today, communication is much easier with the introduction of technology that has shifted police communication from news media to include news conferences, press releases, radio, newspaper, or television reports. As police officers, embracing new and emerging communication technologies together with traditional media improves law enforcement officers’ attainment of information and the best practices to use to get to their target audiences. However, effective communication is hindered by lack of participation and involvement of key decision makers, particularly the selected representatives from all government branches. The lack of involvement and participation of key stakeholders makes it impossible to establish permanent commitments and benefits of any shared projects, thus long-term project funding of projects. It is also challenging to work with a community that does not understand or is not aware of the benefits of effective communications because they lose interest of understanding the benefits that result from shared communications. Finally, the worst task for law enforcement officers is the lack of availability of qualified interpreters to assist agencies in dealing with persons with challenged hearing. In this case, a qualified interpreter refers to a person with high communication skills for sign language for effective communication. Strengthening police structures and capacities In law enforcement, excessive use of force by police, particularly during moments of suspects’ resistance, is a crucial aspect. This is confirmed by the findings of a research in 2008 that indicated an estimated 1.4% of respondents confirming that police used or threatened to use force against them in their most recent contact. These statistics were comparable and identical to those of 2002 where statistically, 1.5% of the respondents had been threatened or had force used on them; while in 2005 1.6% of the respondents had experienced the use of or threat to use force by policemen in their previous encounter. The findings also indicated that men unlike women were more likely to be threatened or have force used against them during their recent contact. Additionally, black men unlike the Hispanics and whites experience the use of threat of force. Out of all those threatened, approximately 74% felt that the actions they experienced were excessive, while about half confirmed that the police had grabbed or pushed them. Furthermore, 19% of those threatened were injured, 22% argued with, insulted, cursed at, and verbally threatened the police, and about 40% got arrested during the incident. Amongst those who felt that the use of force by the police was excessive, 14% filed a complaint against the police (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2015). When the community perceives the police as using force, their trust reduces and this means that the police should seek to remain accountable and legitimate. Consequently, the citizens will end up genuinely collaborating with them for effective delivery of law enforcement. In addition, police supervisors and other leaders must not tolerate or endorse unreasonable and unnecessary use of force. 4. Police processes The relationship with other agencies In terms of working with other agencies, the law enforcers highly upholds collaboration especially where the ideas are needed to develop stronger relationships with the community served (Swanson, Territo, and Taylor, 2012). With the driving force to serve the community at our best, the each officer works towards eliminating any incident that would cause the society to have a tainted image or mistrust the police. In the presence of such mistrust or tainted images, the end result is to decline in relation with the community and this demeans community policing, as police are considered less accountable and unreliable. The greatest areas of inter-agency relations are in legal procedures during actual arrest process and Police and the criminal prosecution process. With a changing world where criminals also develop new techniques to evade police and commit crime, inter-agency collaboration is crucial. Besides working together to solve issues, officers are encouraged to choose activities that match their interest and skills such facilitating trainings, answering questions to immigrants, and mingling with the society through religious community events (Swanson, Territo, and Taylor, 2012). This grants officers the opportunity to freely interact with the residents and speak their minds and point out areas of improvements. Inter-agency awards also play the fundamental role of encouraging healthy competition that enables each agency to uniquely stand out in its services to the community as well as learn from each other. Dealing with Terrorism Terrorism management is also fundamental in interagency collaboration and policing. Through interagency collaboration, it becomes easy to have a community and agencies that proactively shares information without any systemic or human resistance. In addition, terrorism management has led to the establishment of organizational structures that are flexible and that readily integrates information from other sources and assigning responsibilities across agencies and tracking progress. Consequently, these removes impediments that could result in slowed efforts in preventing terrorism. In addition, interagency collaborations have facilitated information sharing among agencies and offering guidance on how to integrate agency efforts to counter terrorism. Dealing with terrorism also involves closely working with the Terrorism Threat Integration Centre to promote nationally acceptable counter terrorism strategies, while streamlining all efforts towards guaranteeing safe and secure communities. Law Enforcement Responsibility: Undercover Undercover is justified as it reinforces public trust while lowering crime rates. This mostly involves working with a taskforce that includes law enforcers, and community leaders to promote effective crime reduction while developing public trust. In terms of research, undercover gather information regarding current and future terrorism or criminal activity, and disrupt such activities while arresting those involved. For many years, the work of law enforcement undercover employees has been to combat prostitution gangs, and gangs manufacturing and distributing drugs and this has had great results. However, the changing times have introduced other criminal threats such as extremist and radicalized groups of both political and militant identities (Swanson, Territo, and Taylor, 2012). In order to improve undercover work, the agency offers counselling services to officers to check on their physical and psychological well-being given that they have to pass themselves out as habitual offenders to gather crucial information. Vilification of police and hate crimes When dealing with terrorism, law enforcers face vilification, especially when dealing with Muslims or Arabic communities. Criticism is also present in the way police are perceived to handle African American communities. In order to deal with vilifications, the agency welcomes initiatives that seek close operations and cooperation with Arabic communities coupled with partnerships with multicultural organizations and the community. For any such initiative, the agency plays the crucial role of facilitation and coordination to avoid the perception that the agency is a vulnerable target for racial vilification. While in their duty, law enforcers are should uphold professionalism by avoiding indiscriminate and violent attacks on member of Arabic or black communities. For instance, police should not engage in destruction of religious buildings, and demonstrate hatred against schools and organizations belonging to certain groups. This way, it is possible to reduce sharp race hatred crimes that impacts fear and uncertainty that is pervasive amongst members of Arabic community. Dealing with Hatred Crimes The agency understands that hatred crimes add an element of bias to victims especially due to race or ethnicity, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. However, dealing with hate crimes is difficult as crimes continually increase each year given reasons such as racial discrimination and prejudice, political and religious stereotyping, and sexual orientation. In most cases, the victim could be an individual, institution, business or institution, or the entire society (FBI, 2012). Home-grown Terrorism Despite the debate around hate crimes, it is evident that home-grown terrorism in the United States is on the rise. In most cases, young men are lured into crime and terrorism in search of revenge following discrimination due to their religion race or nationality. In addition, there are no referral services to communities’ organizations to support, counsel, and support victims during this times. For instance, the FBI (2012) indicated that anti-black bias contributed to about 66.1% of offenses while religious based offenses amounted to about 59.7 % for anti-Jewish. According to Zambelis (2006), reveals that African American Muslim converts pose the greatest threats in America and Europe as they tend to identify themselves with issues affecting the Black community in both continents such as equality. ­Measuring the effective use of police resources: Intelligence led policing ILP and Hot Spots Policing HSP Hot-spot policing and intelligence policing facilitate in curbing crime. Through hot-spot policing, the intention is to reduce physical and social disorder in high crime zones, thus minimize disorder related crimes. With intelligence led policing, crime reduction involves the use of officers to guide operations aimed at assessing and managing risks. 5. Police Administration Behaviour In different jurisdictions, excessive means different things, and so very few incidents of using excessive force are reported. In addition, most police use a ‘force continuum’ to ensure that their actions are guided instead of using the same level of force as the suspects. As a result, they only begin with polite requests, followed by demands to arrest (Swanson, Territo, and Taylor, 2012). This transitioning is attributed to the fact that police are capacitated to utilize minimum force to counter the force of the suspects. However, in most cases, the suspects use too much force to resist arrest yet the police have to get the suspects to comply, and to become subdued enough not to resist arrest. Once suspects are subdued different police perceive differently, anything that goes beyond that is viewed as excessive force. For effective operations, police motivation through recognition greatly contributes to the establishment of exemplary law enforcement. Additionally, the programs aimed at sharing information and challenging officers such as National Law Enforcement Challenge result in improved processes and guidelines of promoting safe communities and better understanding of law enforcement challenges. Conclusion For the law enforcement enthusiasts, this paper evaluated law enforcement in terms of processes involved, behaviours, structures, and administration. Law enforcers are tasked with ensuring that the community prevails in peace and safety and through community policing, the community can share information with police officers to contribute to even safer societies. To attain the trust of the society, law enforcers must ensure that they avoid excessive use of force and avoid racial vilification and discrimination that biases some communities over others. References Braswell, M., McCarhthy, B., & McCarthy, B. (2002). Justice, Crime and Ethics. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing Co. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2015, February 10). Use of Force. Retrieved from Bureau of Justice Statistics: http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=703 FBI. (2012). About Hate Crimes Statistics, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2015, from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2012 Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2010). National Response Framework and Strategic Plan . United States: FEMA. Kaiser, F. (2011). Interagency Collaboration Arrangements and Activities: Types, Rationales, Considerations. United States: Congressional Research Service. Martinelli, T. (2006, October). Unconstitutional Policing: The Ethical Challenges in Dealing with Noble Cause Corruption. The Police Chief, p. xx. Shaw, D. (2013, April 29). Police should focus on crime prevention not catching criminals. BBC UK, p. x. Swanson, c., Territo, L., & Taylor, R. (2012). Police Administration: Structures, Processes, and Behavior (8th Edition). United States: Prentice Hall. U.S. Department of Justice. (2003). Principles of Good Policing: Avoiding Violence Between Police and Citizens. United States: U.S. Department of Justice. Zambelis, C. (2006). Racial Trends in African-American Islamq. Terrorism monitor, 4(16). Read More