Police and Community Relations - Essay Example

Discussion of the Various Roles When the role of the police is analyzed from the functional perspective, many aspects come into the scene. The police tends to serve the society by contributing to the maintenance of law and order. Children are taught to obey the police, and they grow up with the idea that the police are the ones who the community has to follow, and they develop a lot of expectations from the police. Thus, there is an affirmative image of the police in the minds of the community people from the beginning of their lives.

The people also restrict the youth by putting a restriction on the usage of alcohol, drugs or any kind of indefensible offense like rash driving. Thus, the police act as a guardian and monitor the activities of the general public as well and do not remain restricted to control of crime only. Along with these functions there are manifest functions that the police are supposed to do (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). They include providing employment for the young men and women who would want to join such a service.

There are also police psychiatrists, forensic experts, police training officers who contribute equally to this service and have a stable means of income. There should be harmony in the relationship between the community people and the police. The community is dependent on the police for their protection, and the police in turn need the support of the community to carry out their day-to-day activities. The community needs to have faith in the police department as a body that would protect them against any kind of crime and maintain law and order in the society.

There often arises a conflict about the role that the police play and how the community perceives the police department of a state. There is often tension between certain groups of the community like tribal sects, classes of the society or races of different ethnicity, and the police. Often the children that grow up in a wealthy background have an idea that they constitute the elite class of the society, and, hence, the power both economic and social lies in their hands (Fitzgerald, 2000). However, with the election of Barack Obama in the presidential elections of 2008, the common people have now the idea in their minds that it is not difficult for any community or any race to be the one with the ultimate power.

But the societal segments that are wealthier than the rest do not find it easy to give up the power to someone from a very common background. Thus, there is always a conflict in such a scenario, and the police have to take a balanced view of the entire situation where the powerful section of the society is in conflict with the weaker sections of the society. The police have to ensure that the community willingly cooperates with the police. They are in a state of constantly seeking favor from the community.

Under certain circumstances where the physical force is necessary to be used they make use of it in the most rational way possible (Giddens, Duneier, & Appelbaum, 2007). The police should carry out the activities in a personalized way and should try to find the solutions to the problems in the most efficient and rapid way possible. The citizens of a state also have the responsibility of participating in the activities and help the police perform the