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2 main police function
- 1. order maintaince- police are focusing on minor crimes. they focus on things that may not be crimes at all, they are lesser things that impact of our quality of life
- ex. public drunkenness
2. crime fighting- this refers to the fighting of serious crime, making arrests, chasing suspects, and detective work.
what can you say about informal social control and the changes and role in rise of formal police
the community role was to maintain public safety.
- informal social control was the idea the community is responsible for enforcing social control.
- ex. parents disciplining their children. they were very well regulated as well as their behavior and the norms were the ideas of what is good and bad behavior
colonial era: early communites
they had the same beliefs and religious backgrounds. In the early communites you did not want to stand out and instead just go with the flow, follow the rules and to make sure everyone did so they would spy on eachother. it was the peoples duty to watch for strange behavior.
the colonial era: 3 conponents/law enforcement
1. sherrifs- they collected taxes,they were people who had alot of things to do and they were voted in and not chosen by the government.
2. the contable- the individual is in charge of the day to day law enforcement. the person who serves warrants and makes arrests. usually if you want him to make an arrest you have to pay him to do so.
3. watchman- they patrolled at night, not during the day and they are volunteers of the community. they were bodily men between the ages of 16 and 60 and they volunterred and patrolled for free. bodily people meant they can see and hear good. if they saw something unusual then they would cry for help and everyone would get up to help
emphasis- order maintenance. police function, the idea we need to maintain public order and standards.
3 elements of modern policing (1829 sir robert peel)
- 1. mission- detterence and prevent crime by deterring it.
- ex. when you speed down the street and see a officer you automatically push on the breaks. its the detterence.
2. strategy- prevent and patrol!
3. how to organize the police- like the military, they have ranks and wear uniform and follow a chain of command.
what is the revolution and unrest
1. industrialization- it was a major shift in society. they went from farming society to factories. it was the rise of machines and factories
2. urbanizations- the city expanded
3. immigration- the early settlers went to the city to find work. there were differences in cultrual ackground and people clashed. the informal society control start to disenergrate and crime start to rise, it was a shift in america.
4. riots and crime- riots because culture or unhappiness and sheriffs start to take more control
political era: 1830-1900 calling the keystone cops!
what was the quality of personnel and police-comunity relations?
quality of personnel- the quality was not good. how to obtain a job as a police officer you had to have money and know people. people who were getting the job were not qualify. people got hired cause they knew the mayor and everyone could get fired when a new political figure came into play so overall it was unstable and unorganized.
police-community relations- the comunity did not expect anything. the officers can be abusive to the public and people can be hostile. the public did not take the police very seriously and when the public behaved in riots it triggered the police to have weapons.
reform era: 1900-1970-what was on the reform agenda
- it was the idea of common ideas of what they need to do to fix the police. defined as policing are what they really do and what they are supposed to do.
- political influence- needed to be taken out
- chiefs better qualified chiefs- ex army experience
- personnel standards- lets have better qualifed people who are physically hit and had some intelligence
- special units- individuals focus on different areas.
- ex. instead of having someone do everything lets hire more people to make them do different things.
bottom line was to professionalize the police and make their profession more respectable.
crime fighting! focus on serious crime!
reform era-1900-1970- three factors of shaping the police role
1. crime waves- crime will rise for two reasons-1. things were happening during that time was great depression. you have a lot of unemplyment that contributed to the crime rising. and two prohibition- the rise of organize crime. crime waves were happening because glorified crimes that are happening. ex. bank robbers bonnie and clide. they robbed backs and got away with it.
2. uniform crime report (UCR)- it told us that crime rates are up or down. first time two things happened. 1. police will link crimes to crime statistics and the police will claim ownership of the statistics. they would only note the serious crimes like homicide but not add other stuff. so when they only link the serious crime and note that it went down then it looks good on the police.
- 3. new technology- 3 pieces that fall together to make policemen.
- 1. telephone 1877- report crime to the police to request service
- 2. the patrol car- before ww1 we see patrol cars and more away from horses.
- 3. two way radio- 1930's call for service and police can radio it in.
people are told to reply on the police and to take them seriously.
crime fighting1 focus on serious crime
the community era- calling all citizens- 1970-2000
what is the quailty of personnel and females role?
quality of personnel- it improved. training became mandatory and we see an increse of minorities and an increase in college educated officers.
females/patrol- push towards having equal treatment as male officers
emphasis- order maintenance!
local (municipal) agencies
- it was the most common police force, the local police made up of 70 percent. the big 6 refers to the largest city in the country.
- new york- 36000 police officers
- LA- under 10000
- chicago- 14000
- philly- 7000
- houston- 5500
the big 6 represents 7.5 percent of population. they are responsible for 23 percent of violent crimes.
models of sheriff departments
1. full service model- this has 3 elements 1. law enforcement like patroling. 2 judicial service meaning they will serve the courts and guard prisoners. 3. maintaning the county jail and they are responsible for controlling it
2. law enforcement services- wont have involvement in the courts
3. civil judicial model- responsible for courts and provding security, serving sopeonas, warrents and they are usually based on courts
4. correctional- judicial, 98 percent work in courts and have judicial functions. 87 percent maintain county jails
what are the problems with private security?
1. quality- they have poor quality and often private security had minimum training, lack back ground checks and qualifications are diff in some states.
2. regulation- have fewer regulations, law enforcement are highly regulated by state and local laws. PS are not regulated because if they do something wrong they will be charged as regular citizens
3. cooperation- usually nonexistent. they lack respect from one to another, PS are not respected in law enforcement
4. affordability- who can afford money for PS. people who need it cant get it and people who have money dont need it
police organization: criticisms of the Quasi-Military style
- us vs. them mentality- the outcome is the encouragement to mistreat citizens, if there is a division between citizens they will mistreat the citizens. this mentality puts a separation to the police
- "war on crime". punitive- do your job and shut up, you know if the police did something wrong and you hear about it. they are not being rewarded for good service.
low morale- the police job satisfaction is on the lower end of the scale in terms of their job
police organizational hieracrchy:
- chief best and authority increases.
- asst chief
- officer-detective. (lower rank) majority are in this level., supervision also increases as it goes up.
- horizontal grouping deals with activity and what exactly do you do and when do you do it.
- 1. clientele- varies. gang unit, drug unit domestic violence unit etc.
- 2.service style- you are in the officer and detective block and the services you do are different. officer patrols.
- 3. geography- districts, divisions, but majority have different areas. doing patrol but where are you doing it?
- 4.time- what shift do you work are also different. and keeping the coverage constant.
most of these position is a small agency and more of them are in line of administrators.
communication- types of downward communication
1. job instruction- new tasks on what needs to be done and telling you how to do your job
2. job rationale- explaining to you why you should it it and why you should respond to it a certain way
3. procedures- policies, rules, regulations
4. feedback- job evaluation
5. indoctrination- communication meant to motivate to just go with the program and buy into it.
report more upward communication than a male supervisor.
male officers ---> more communication and the less satisfaction they are with the female supervisors.
types of lying
- accepted lying- the public will put up a lot of lying by the police. serves purpose- nessary for doing the job and fill the need to.
- ex. undercover, media/public usually lie to protect an investigation or lie about the evidence.
- deviant lying- unexceptable rule breaking
- violations-actual violations of the law or department rules.
- legitimate goals- police lie are good to carry out their job and possible fall in the lines of framing someone or lying to cover your butt
- tolerated lying- lying we know happens
- necessary evils that are rationalized by the police
- enforcement-lie about engage in full enforcement and they let people go that they know violated the law
- interrogations- interrograting suspects, direct questioning of a suspect: non custodial- in which the person is not in custody and free to go. ex someone on the street that is asked to answer questions
- custody- suspect, you cannot be in custody if you are not the suspect in custody and you can leave whenever you want if your not the suspect stopping it
techniques of interrogation
- legal- psychological, they will mess with your mind a little bit
- deception- lie to you about the amount of evidence you have, someone else saying to them.
- illegal: physical force
- mental torture- not letting them eat or use the restroom
- promises- promising them a more lenient sentence if they talk
recruitment and selection process
- min qual- education- 81 percent require you to have a high school diploma.
- -college means better things like:
- better decision making and critical thinking skills
- better able to understand complex laws
- better communication skills
- problem solving skills
residency requirements- 25 agencies will require you to live in areas so you will know the are more and show more commitment
selection process- entrance exam-92 percent will use. and determine if you have- basic skills, cognitive skills, thinking, written tends to priory you in the selection process, assessment center (23 percent agencies use this), behavioral test
polygraph exam: government agencies only, measures physical responses, breathing patterns and sweat, asked questions not 100 realiable, psychological impact.
psychological testing- 67 percent will require. MMPI searching for personality disorders
1 vs. 2 officer units
- 1 vs. 2 officer units
- if there are 2 people patrolling one place that makes one less officer patrolling somewhere else.
- upside, automatic backup
90 percent use 1 officer units and more efficient.
- upside 1 officer more are patrolling, no INCREASE IN RISK
- downside of 1 officer is they don't engage to self initiated activity, they investigate less, they are requesting more officer backup which is not needed
non crime demand
- -non-crime demand:called by civilians, out of 80 percent of the calls of the service only 20 percent deal with crime
- boundaries- wanting them to maintain social boundaries. not someone who committed an offense but we just want them removed that make us akward, and we want someone that makes us uncomfortable removed.
- restore order- relieving unpleasant situations, that we can deal with ourselves, ex noisy party, problems with the family, fighting with your neighbors..
- diversion- when we call the police to complain about someone else to divert the attention away from themselves. ex. an domestic violence and calling against the victim.
- emergencies- things when children is missing, area of suicide attempts,
patrol research findings
kansas city preventive patrol. from 1820 until 1972 we just said okay sir robert must of been right. 1972 kansas city preventive patrol researched. levels of patrol was altered.
- -patrol levels; different areas,
- first level of patrol was controlled, nothing changed, stayed the same
- reactive group- told the officers in that area not to patrol and only to react to the calls that are only received.
- proactive, 2 to 3 time greater patrol then the normal amount of patrol.
- wanted to know if more crimes happened to areas where the officers did not patrol
- all the levels of crime was not affective and stayed the same!!
- backward patrolling, officers might not of been happy about being told not to patrol so when the reactive group got a call they used there lights and siren to show that they were coming even though it was not needed
- -foot patrol- different levels of foot patrol
- would foot patrol make a difference and impact crime? idealized that having officers walking around they would be involved with the community
- -finding, not change of crime levels. showed that it was ineffective,
- -attitudes- increase of citizens attitudes were happy, viewed them favorably.-citizens were less afraid of crime. even though crime was not effective for more foot patrol the citizens perception of seeing the officers on foot thought that the crime went down. it makes people feel better of having officers patrol on foot
- -response time, the quicker the officer response the better
- -80 to 90 percent officers are unable to arrest someone at the scene. researches found that a combination of factors
- first- discovery/ report by the citizen- crime has happened, but the time can vary. reporting crime is the time it takes to discover the crime and report it. 4.5 to 5mins delay- researches find that this is were it can delay and how long it takes the citizen to record the situation. they hold up the citizens ability
- process- they have to find out what is going on, you can be historical and you may not be able to understand them. but the dispatcher has to decide to on if they have to send out a car. it takes about 2.5mins. they have to locate the car, find out what happened. etc.
- travel-time it takes the officer to reach the scene. 5.5mins in times of travel time.
- *did not support on how policing should run
discretion- 3 sources
- Discretion:action that the police make based on the individual judgment.
- patrol has 3 decisions to make
- 1. whether or not to get involved. if it is not a direct call of service. but it can be if something is wrong or see someone speed by, are they going to decide to pursue it? if they don't decide then they don't, but if they do..
- 2.the manner on how they would get involved, are they going to be in good attitude and manner? how are they going to approach them?
- 3. how selecting an option to solve the problem? are they going to make an arrest? are they going to get a ticket or get a warning?
why police have discretion?3 reasons/sources?
- 1. criminal law. officers have ther own opinion of how they agree with the law, they may thnk other things are more important
- 2. work environment of patrol officers, a lack of witness to police encounters and overall many citizens encounters are only being watched by other citizens. that idea of low visibility, not direct supervision of the officer. officers lack supervision and lack the times a person watching
- 3. limited resources- police will sometimes not enforce something because of time or lazy but truth of the matter is that they pick and chose what they want to do. they want to arrest someone that is more important, it will take a officer about an hr off the streets and they want it to be important
influences on officer decision making- officer and situational
- a.belief systems- all officers have police systems, different officers have their own pet peeves, ex views on domestic violence, an officer may thing domestic violence is very bad but some officers may not see it as a big of a deal. which officer will be more likely to arrest someone.
- b. experience- more experience you gain as an offer the way you use ur discretion will change overtime based on how much time you have on ur belt , new officers will use more force and use more aggression.
- c. universal vs. particular- officers with more experience often use universal, which means they based their decision on the characteristics of the situation to address. in these situation i the officer tends to do these types of cases. ex i have a more universal response to robbery, etc. the particular perception, the decisions that the police make are based on the citizens and the characteristics of people. ex. "i am going to check out what the people involved say and base my information on what the people say. it is going to be particular to the situation.
4. situational: whether a policeman is going to arrest you!!
- a.crime, how bad is the crime? the more serious the crime the more likely they will make an arrest.
- b. victim- always influence what the officer will do, one things is does the victim want an arrest made. huge influence on the police , characteristics of the victim of herself or himself. meaning some of it has to do with the lifestyle of the victim can a prostitute get raped?
- c. suspect- are u disrespectful towards the police. rude, suspect attitude has a lot to do with arresting the suspect.
- d. relationship- relationship of victim and suspect. the closer the relationship the less likely the police will make the arrest.
*** race and gender?how they play a role. research does not indicate in terms of arrest, minorities are arrested in greater rates then whites.
gender- men more likely to be arrested than women? well men hav a greater rate cause they do more of the stuff. even though suggest it to us, we don't have proof of it.
investigations- 3 purposes
- reactive- crime has been occured and now they are trying to figure it out
- proactive-monitoring crimes an watching them as it happens like collecting evidence. ex. things that are undercover, building up cases. not doing anything to prevent anything but retrieving evidence
- preventive- to make sure the crime does not occur. prevent certain crimes from being committed. ex. when someone is interested in hiring a hit man. using informants of some kind.make sure it doesn't happen
- -patrol officer is called in for the crime first.
- -identifying a suspect and arrest them-if possible, they are responsible for it
- -medical assistance- may have a live victim
- -secure the scene- making sure ppl aren't trampling over the crime scene.
- -evidence- the patrol officer collects some evidence that can be immediately destroyed.
- -notification- notify everyone with the crime.- ex broadcast a vehicle etc.
- -initial report- they are the first eyes on the scene so they record what they know what they saw and what they did.
- *patrol officer becomes very important.*
what does follow up investigation consist of=reality
- researchers tells us that..
- reports-filling out reports in a timely fashion, need to get a status of a case which are:
- 1.closed status- cased close and they were able to arrest an suspect
- 2.suspended status- info that the detectives had is no further evidence and cannot go any further. they may know they have a suspect but cannot go forth with it or the suspect may be dead. or not enough evidence that they cant convict them
- 3open status- investigation or continued investigation is promising. there is a reason to investigate after the two weeks. usually reserved for extreme case and is promising. they are getting close. ex. michael jackson
- arrests- detectives will produce on average two arrests a week. and drives the behavior of..
- skimming- detectives will choose the most solid case and will most likely solve them.
influences on investigative decision making
- influences on investigative decision making:
- how much work will a detective do on any given case?
- suspect ID- do they have what they need to identify a suspect? if they cannot then it is a loser case and will most likely dump the case
- crime- severity of the crime, more severity it is the more detectives will put effort on the case.
- victim- the creditability of the victim, if the victim is alive. are they famous? if they are a drug addict, the detectives may be less likely to put forth effort.
- future value- serial offender? eamples are serial cases. down the road you can link the case.