Characteristics of a Qualified Policeman - Essay Example

1. Discuss the main characteristics associated with the patrol and investigative police functions. Compare and contrast the activities as well as thepurposes associated with each function. According to the Police Operation Rules, police boxes are principle established in urban areas, usually operated in shift services. Residential police boxes, on the other hand, are in princip le established in non-urban areas (rural or semi-rural areas) and manned by a single officer, who lives his family in the residential section attached to the office. With these differences, the police box and residential police box have the ir own strengths. Police boxes are more advantageous in terms of the prevention of crimes and accidents, and the response to such events, because each of them is manned by more than one officer around the clock. In the case of a large-scale police box, someone is always there, so it is convenient for visitors. In contrast, each residential police box is manned by just one officer, making it possible to cover a wide area with a small number of personnel. The residential police box system is effective in rural and semi-rural areas, where there are relatively few crimes and accidents. Since officers posted at residential police boxes work and live in the same place with the ir family, they can keep in closer contact with community residents. Police boxes vary widely in size. Apart from an office area, a police box has a simple kitchen and break room for officers. A "community room", a reception room for residents, has recently been incorporated. Residential police boxes have been built as a combination of office and residence, and recently they also contain a community room in the office section. Small-size police cars are deployed at many police boxes and residential police boxes for use in patrols and trips to and from the police station. All police boxes and residential police boxes feature a red lamp above their entrances. Many community residents feel reassured when they see this lamp, and it has become an instantly recognizable symbol for a police box or residential police box. Officers posted at police boxes, in principle, work in shifts - four shifts in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and three in other prefectures. Under the three-shift system in which most police box officers works, on-duty officers work from one morning to the next, but their net working hours are 16, because they receive a total of an eight-hour break over the shift. At busy police boxes such as those located in city areas, however, officers cannot take such long breaks. In contrast, a residential police box officer works eight hours a day and five days a week. However, he needs to receive residents even outside working hours if requested. Because the area of a residential police box is fairly large, door to door visits are usually undertaken simultaneously with patrols. The wife often helps her husband by, for example, receiving visitors while the husband is out . The duties of officers assigned to patrol cars are more specific, and cover mobile patrols, the arrest of offenders, and rushing to the scene of crimes and accidents, followed by initial action. They perform the ir duties in pairs, with one officer driving the vehicle, while the other keeps an eye out for suspicious persons, and engages in radio communication. Patrols are the most important duty for community police officers in that the visible presence of police officers in their uniforms prevents crimes and gives community residents sense of security. Patrols are in principle to be performed either on foot or by bicycle, because that way officers can effective ly grasp the situation and assess suspicious persons. Where the area of the police box is large, a small patrol car or motorcycle may be used. While on patrol, officers question suspicious persons and make arrests or give guidance or warnings if there is a crime or an unlawful activity. They also give guidance to traffic law violators and juvenile delinquents, take care of drunken persons and missing children, and give advice to community residents. Officers on patrol sometimes drop "patrol cards" in mailboxes. Patrol cards inform residents of any security problem, while reminding them that police officers are on patrol in the area. . In Japan, the police emergency call number is 110. In each prefecture, all 110 calls are directed to the communications command center of the prefectural police headquarters, where commands are issued to the relevant police stations. Upon receiving a command, the police station dispatches officers from the nearest police box or sends patrol cars to the scene. Officers who have arrived at the scene report on the situation to the police station and the communications command center. If a certain type of crime, such as a felonious crime, is committed and the suspects are still at large, community police officers within a certain distance from the scene are immediately deployed. They are sent to find and arrest suspects by setting up checkpoints and other measures. In the handling of a criminal case, the role of community police officers involves gathering evidence, preserving the site, arresting suspects, and protecting citizens. With a serious crime, accident, or other incident, the case is handed over to specialized police officers dispatched from the police station or headquarters. Community police officers play the central role in clearing criminal cases on the street. Approximately 47% of Penal Code offense cleared by community police officers started with the questioning of suspicious persons. This illustrates the importance of police questioning. In contrast, detectives and other officers assigned to the criminal investigation branch work on mainly serious crimes, such as felonious offenses through investigations conducted in civilian clothes. Community police officers and detectives have different roles in overall crime clearance activities. Guidance and supervision for officers posted at police boxes is primarily made by senior officers from the police station, as well as the police box chief, if appointed. Residential police boxes are also subject to supervision by a senior officer from the police station. In addition to going the rounds of police boxes, the senior officer examines activity records to provide guidance. With officers assigned to patrol cars, a car locator system makes it possible to monitor their activities fairly closely, as it displays the location and status of each patrol car on the monitor screen at the communications command center. The method of evaluation varies from prefecture to prefecture. Generally speaking, priority is given to the clearance of crimes, but a good relationship with the community is also important. The evaluation also depends on the clearance of traffic law violations, performance of door to door visits, courtesy to citizens, and the appropriateness of clothes worn. 2.Present and discuss (in detail) the various factors that influence police officers' use of discretion. Provide examples of each of the factors as well as whether these factors should or should not be taken into consideration by police officers when making job-related decisions (i.e., whether to arrest someone or give a warning) One of the reasons of this difficulty is an increase in the number of crimes and accidents, which reduces time available to officers for door to door visits. Another factor is changes in the urban lifestyle. Namely, the number of double income or single member households, where no one is home during the daytime, has increased. This means many residents are unavailable or unwilling to cooperate with police officers. To resolve this issue, some prefectural police have assigned older and experienced officers for only door to door visit tasks. In addition, efforts have been made to work in collaboration with residents' organizations for the dissemination of crime prevention information and the promotion of crime prevention campaigns. Factors essential for a successful police box system are as follows: First, good security conditions are a fundamental prerequisite for the system. Although police boxes are institutions designed to secure public safety, they can only be successful in areas that are already safe. For example, in an area where terrorist attacks frequently occur, police boxes could become easy targets. It is still necessary for officers to make a lot of effort in order to defend a police box against less serious crimes such as vandalism and other attacks. A small number of officers are deployed to a large number of places under the system. Therefore, the police box system can be successful under highly secure conditions such as what Japan has. Japan's good security conditions have been underpinned by the police box system, and also by non-police factors such as sea-bound geographical conditions, a highly homogenous society, group conscious culture, economic and industrial development, and strict weapons ownership control. In other words, the police box system has been able to contribute to the safety of Japan because it already had favorable conditions for maintaining public security. Second, the presence of quality officers with a good relationship with community residents is necessary. Police officers stationed at a police box come into direct contact with community residents everyday. Their quality has a major influence on how residents perceive the police. In Japan, the high quality of police officers in general, not just community police officers, is believed to have contributed to the success of the police box system. While the Japanese police were embroiled in a series of scandals several years ago, most police officers are honest and diligent. It is reasonable to say that Japan has attained high quality police officer The quality of police officers is important from the viewpoint of personnel management. Officers posted at police boxes and residential police boxes come under the direct supervision of senior officers less frequently than those working at the police headquarters or a police station. It is difficult to maintain the efficiency of police boxes. To ensure proper enforcement of duties in such a working environment, it is necessary to recruit quality personnel and train them well. Although the Japanese police box system now faces various challenges under a deteriorating security situation, it has firmly taken root in the society for over 100 years, and has played an important role in the maintenance of public order, working with community resident contributions. The quality of communication between police vehicle occupants is not satisfactory and specialist training in pursuit commentaries is required for police passengers in particular. - The incidents covered include pursuits/follows undertaken by unmarked police cars (ie not fitted with concealed warning equipment) and convoys of police vehicles - these are not acceptable and should be explicitly prohibited. - The current distinction made by police officers and investigators between 'pursuits' and 'follows' is not helpful and should be discontinued with immediate effect - in the study, no behavioural differences could be identified between events characterised in this way. - Officers should not engage in chases without a clear, centrally agreed strategy for attempting to stop the fleeing vehicle safely - thus police drivers' discretion to chase should be reduced and central management and control of incidents increased. The key conclusion from the study is that the police continue to engage in too many pursuits/follows that endanger public safety and that the most effective way to reduce this is by increasing management control on the evolution of pursuits and reducing officer discretion about both initiating and continuing with pursuits. Forces may need to consider whether officers who pursue without control room permission, or who fail to adequately communicate risk, or who fail to pull over when instructed to call off a chase by the control room, should be at risk of being disciplined as a result This means that the police were often correct in their suspicions about the behaviour of the suspect vehicle when they failed to stop, and that relatively few involved completely 'innocent' drivers. However, this is a question of proportionality - while the police drivers may well be correct in wishing to stop the suspect vehicle, the extent of this objective should be weighed against the risk to both vehicles and all other road users. For this reason, the report recommends that the decision to initiate a pursuit or follow should be controlled centrally and that risk assessment and decision-making (as evidenced by clear communications with the control room) are explicit and ongoing over the course of the incident. It is not the aim or desire of the authors to end pursuits, rather to reduce the risk to road users by reducing the discretion of individual police drivers and increasing the role of police managers. References Alpert, G.P. & Dunham, R.G. (1990) Police pursuit driving: Controlling responses to emergency situations. Westport, CT: Greenwood: US Alpert, G.P. & Madden, T. (1996) Police pursuit driving: An empirical analysis of critical decisions. American Journal of Police, XIII: US Alpert, G.P. (1997) Police pursuit: Policy and training. National Institute of Justice. US Department of Justice: US Alpert, G.P. (1998) A factorial analysis of police pursuit driving decisions: A research note. Justice Quarterly. Academy of Criminal Justice: US Alpert, G.P., Fridell, L.A. (1992) Police vehicles and firearms - Instruments of deadly force. Waveland Press, Inc.: US Read More