Contemporary Policing Issues and Community Support Development - Coursework Example

Contemporary Policing Issues Name: Course: Tutor: Institution: Date: Introduction The global society is experiencing drastic and steady changes in the21st century. In this regard, it has become imperative for the respective societal structures to subsequently adjust in order to align them with the changing and dynamic societal needs in the new age. The 21st century is defined and characterized as the information age. In this regard, the century has resulted to changing societal needs, beliefs as well as cultures. One of the most affected areas across the globe is the policies development. The growing trends in the globe are increased society knowledge and information on legal and social issues. Therefore, the policy developers have been required to consult widely as well as incorporate the society in their decision making. This evaluation develops a review of the police enforcement in the society. In this regard, the police force, the arm of government both national and international charged with law enforcement has undergone major changes in its operations. One of the most stimulants of these changes is the media development. As Alan1 stated, Technology development such as satellites establishment have enhanced media development as well as media influence in the society. This evaluation develops a review on the relationship between the police department and their functions with the media. As such, the evaluation in particular develops an argument on the actual avenues and areas in which the media has enhanced and facilitated increased police force success and performance efficiency. Discussion Community Support Development One of the fundamental roles of the media in promoting police work is through mass and society education and information dissemination. In the 21st century, the media continues to play a significant fundamental educational role to the society. In this regard, the entity is actually perceived as the fourth arm of the government across the globe. Fundamentally, the media has over the yeas grown and expanded to its current status in the society. Traditionally, the most popular forms of communication were the print media through newspapers and periodical journals. However, the trend has eventually changed in the media industry to include and incorporate the digital media platform. Moreover, the media has evidenced an increasing growth of professional media platforms such as journals and newspapers to the society. In this regard, professional papers such as law and business papers have a critical informative role on the public and a majority of the population relies on the media to acquire information on various related issues in the market. Reviews in the society establish that the media has a major influence in the society decision making process. In this case, the police force has relied on the media to develop relations and connections as well as relationships with the society. In this case, the police force has applied the media to market its services to the community as a measure of increasing community engagement in police operations as discussed by Colins and Rhobert2. For instance, in the UK, the police force has initiated a series of community based projects and programs. In this case, upon the need and desire to launch community based projects, the workforce relies on the media input and contribution to advertise and market the respective reviews in the society. As such, the media enables the police force demonstrate and showcase itself as a society oriented force. This in turn helps them draw a parallel to the traditionally known police force. In the past, the police force was categorized and perceived as a law enforcement agency and by and large an enemy of the public in the society. Therefore, this led to enormous conflicts between the publics and the police force in the process of their duties and mandate execution. However, through the use of the media, both formal and informal has led to increased perception change on the police force operations. In this regard, the media has played a critical and crucial role in bridging the gap between the police and the society through information flow coordination. One of the strategic approaches and avenues through which stakeholders’ gap could be bridged is through communication management flow between the stakeholders3. As such, the media has over the years played the unequivocal mandate to facilitate communication as well as drum up support for the police service. One such avenue can be cited in the case of recruitment of police service officers in Australia. In this regard, the Australian media has developed an increased campaign over the years drumming p support for the service recruitment. In this regard, through comprehensive media campaigns, the police service recruitments have seen successful through the attraction of enormous population and pool of qualified and potential as well as successful workforce that allows the workforce an increased efficiency and performance success in its services execution mandate. Consequently, this has in turn led to a society culture of corporation and collaboration. Therefore, the society increasingly supports the police force and its law enforcement operations rather than opposing and negatively perceiving the police force. Therefore, this argument establishes that with its increased influence in the society decision making process, the media plays a crucial role of changing the society perception of the police force in the 21 century. Social Media As already discussed, the media has over the years developed and evolved to its current main sections of the mainstream media and the informal media platforms. On one hand, the mainstream media is comprised of the regular newspapers, radio and TV stations. On the other hand, the informal media is largely comprised on the social media and the blogs. On its part, the social media is as a result of technology development and the eventual need and trends by the Y generation to seek and establish virtual relationships. As such, this has facilitated increased focus on establishing social media communities such as on Facebook, twitter and my space. In this regard, the social media platform allows interactions and sharing of information and issues as well as contributions to contemporary debates among community members across the globe. Fundamentally, the use and advent of the social media platform has sequentially increased overall public participation on various sensitive issues through respective sharing of the daily occurrences on the public domain, a virtue that Adam, Adrian and white4 argued that it helps to reduce crime rates and support the police operations. On its part, the social media offers an online platform through which the public freely discusses and debates on numerous issues that the mainstream media would rather be unwilling to allow. The police force uses the social media platform to advance its policies and issues to the public. On one hand, the police force regularly updates and provides vital information on the workforce operations to the public through their numerous social media platforms. In this regard, the platform allows the public to debate and simultaneously offer their reviews and concerns on the various developed police updates on operations. Moreover, the police force, through their investigators, is able to identify trending issues and debates and consequently identify crime areas or potential crime areas and causes. As such, this information platform in the social media allows the police force to act proactively on the existing challenges On the other hand are the blogs. These blogs allow individual contributors to offer their opinions and recommendations on various issues. In this regard, the internet has numerous blogs relating to security and public safety. As such, the police use these blogs to sieve off relevant and crucial information on the operations and functioning of its security and law enforcement mandate. The blogs have one critical merit and advantage in that they allow for anonymity. In this regard, the contributors remain anonymous to both the police and the public. Therefore, this allows and promoted the respective contributors the opportunity to actively offer sensitive and crucial information on crime and public safety. Moreover, the anonymity ensures the propagation of individual rights and reduces privacy invasion upon reporting such crimes. Therefore, this evaluation establishes that the police force uses the informal media as a platform to not only acquires security related information, but also an avenue to initiate public debates on issues the police force requires the public input and contribution. Police Blotter Blogs Besides the use of the social media and anonymous blogs, the police force has resulted to the use of the media, especially on the digital platform to update the public as well as other related security and law enforcement agencies on the progress and regular performances of the force. In order to enhance the challenge of informal information reception as well as the increased threat of a false information presentation in the market, the police service established portals to formalize and make the recommendations and the forwarded informational official and authenticable. In this regard, the police force has resulted to the application and use of two main digital platform approaches namely the police websites and blogs. On one hand, the police websites offer vital information of the workforce to the public and other interested stakeholders. As such, through these approaches, the police force regularly updates the public on vital information such as crimes and arrests and actions undertaken by the force. Therefore, through the updates, Ian and Phrase5 stated that the police force and the public can develop and generate own statistical analysis on various pertinent issues. One of the key areas in which the updates from the police are relevant to the public is on crime analysis and an estimation and evaluation of the most dangerous areas as well as showcasing on the strategies and success of the police force in controlling crimes in the society/ In addition, the police digital platforms provide the society and their stakeholders with an opportunity to offer their crucial and relevant contributions on the operations and functioning of the workforce. As already discussed in this review, the 21st century is classified as an information age where the society is well informed and well versed with current contemporarily and emerging issues in the society. Therefore, the operations of the global society support structures have reversed form imposing decisions on the public to incorporating the society in the decision making process. In this regard, the police website and online portal provide an alternative official platform through which the society can offer their valuable contributions, report emerging issues and crime as well as petition the force or individual police officers on failure to perform on their mandate. Through the application and the use of technology developments in the media, the police force has enhanced reduced challenges on the police force operations through increased information circulation. This imperatively reduces conflicts of interests as well as confusion and lack of understanding between the various law enforcement organs such as the police force, the judiciary, the public as well as other interest groups in the society. Further, the platform allows for eased crime reporting approach thus allowing for increased reported crimes quantity overall. Therefore, this evaluation concludes that the use of the media, especially the digital platform by the police force to disseminate information and operational schedules to the public allows the workforce an increased support base as well as cooperation with other stakeholder in law enforcement. Policies Development All the above discussed reviews on the relationship between the police force and the media have developed an expository analysis on the approaches through which the police force uses the media to advance its services quality and delivery to the public in the 21 st century. However, it is imperative to note that the media has over the years played a crucial significant and vital role in shaping and influencing the operations of the police force. One such critical approaches and avenues through which the media has influenced the operations of the workforce is through policies development. The Police service in the current context is administered and operates within socially acceptable parameters. As such, the service is required to respect and honor the basic human rights despite its absolute role of providing and ensuring security to the public6. One of the strategic approaches through which the media has influenced the police service is through media campaigns. One of the most famous campaigns on the operations of the police force in the UK was the campaign on privacy and surveillance. Technological development in the security reams revolutionized the police service responsibilities and functioning. In this regard, the invention of the CCTV as well as the advent of the drones enhanced surveillance over the population. However, a major challenge emerged on the privacy and the extent of use to which the surveillance could be applied on the public such as the installation of the surveillance on rest rooms. In this regard, opposition and challenges emerged on the invasion of privacy by the police service in the execution of the surveillance duty. As such, human rights activities advocated for the establishment of a relevant and appropriate surveillance regulation to limit the police force access to private information and activities. Most importantly, the contention has been on the nature of access to private data and information. Increased media campaigns on the need to develop appropriate and relevant legislation on this concept led to the late July 2014 introduction of the Data Retention and Investigatory powers bill. The bill seeks to address the government access on technology based information. However, the media through reports and blogs by respective technology and security experts, have overly criticized the move to rush the amendment through the parliament citing its extended changes as a bleach of the European law provisions. Although this campaign could be unsuccessful, this current UK scenario demonstrates the approach and ways in which the media plays a crucial role in the establishment and development of policies for the police service. Based on this evaluation, it is apparently clear that the media has played a crucial role in the establishment and development of key policies in the police force operations and functioning in the market. Conclusion In summary, this essay review offers a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the relationship existing between the police service and the media in the 21st century. In this regard, the essay offers a descriptive analysis of the role the media plays in shaping the police force as well as the approaches and strategies through which the police force uses the media to advance its service quality and delivery success. In its analysis, the essay establishes that media developments such as the emergence of the social media have increased interactions and relationship development between the police service and the society. Moreover, the essay establishes that the setting up of police blogs, professional journals and websites, virtues of the 21st century media have increased corporation and understanding with the society. In addition, the review reveals that the media through its extensive influencing the society decision making model has promoted corporation between the society and the policies service through increased information dissemination. Moreover, it has played a crucial regulation role as the fourth entity though campaigns on the need to develop relevant and appropriate regulation framework on the police services a measure of safeguarding the rights and freedoms of the society against exploitation by the police force. References Bridges, Ian, & Sampson, Frase, Blackstone’s Police Operational Handbook2013: Police National Legal Database (7th edition, Oxford University Press 2012) Murray Lee, & Alyce McGovern, Policing and Media: Public Relations, Simulations and Communications (2nd edition, Routledge 2013) Rogers, Colin, & Lewis, Rhobert, Introduction to Police Work (Willian 2007) Rowe Michael, Introduction to Policing (2nd Edition, SAGE Publishers 2014) Sutton, Adam, Cherney, Adrian, & White, R. D, Crime Prevention: Principles, Perspective and Practice (2nd edition, Cambridge University Press 2014) Wright, Alan, Policing: An Introduction to Concepts and Practice (Willan, Policing society Series 2002) Read More