1. Chapter 5 The Police: Role and Function

2. Learning Objectives Understand the organization of police departments
Articulate the complexities of the police role
Explain the limitations of patrol and methods for improving it
Summarize the investigation function

3. Learning objectives
Explain what forensics is and what forensic experts do for police agencies
Understand the concept of community policing
Discuss the concept of problem-oriented policing
Be familiar with the various police support functions

4. The Police Organization
Local police agencies are independent agencies within the executive branch of government
Often cooperate and participate in mutually beneficial enterprises such as joint task forces
Most local police departments are organized in a hierarchical manner

5. The Police Organization

6. The Police Organization
Police agencies are functionally independent organizations with unique set of:
Rules
Policies
Procedures
Norms
Budgets
Regardless of its size, the head of a police organization is the police chief

7. The Police Organization
Pros and Cons of Police Organization
Most police departments employ a time-in-rank system for determining promotion eligibility
Those promoted must spend a designated period of time in the next lowest rank
Pros:
This system promotes stability, fairness and limits favoritism
Cons:
Limits administrative flexibility to promote talented people

8. The Police Role
Crime fighting is a small part of overall police activities
Significant portion of officers’ time is spent handling:
Minor disturbances
Calls for service
Administrative duties
The police role is both varied and complex

9. The Police Role
About 1/3 of all sworn officers in the nation’s largest police departments are assigned to such units as:
Communications
Antiterrorism
Administrations
Personnel

10. The Patrol Function
Uniform patrol officers are the backbone of policing
Account for two-thirds of most departments’ personnel
Major purposes of patrol are to:
Deter crime by maintaining a visible presence
Maintain order within a patrol area
Respond quickly to law violations or other emergencies
Identify and apprehend law violators
Aids citizens in distress
Facilitate movement of people and traffic
Create a feeling of security in the community

11. Patrol Activities
The bulk of patrol efforts are devoted to order maintenance
Peacekeeping
Officer discretion often defines the balance between orderly or disorderly conduct
The primary role of police seems to be “handling the situation”
The real police role may be as a community problem solver

12. Does Patrol Deter Crime?
Kansas City Patrol Study:
The most widely heralded attempt to measure patrol effectiveness
Variations in patrol strategies had little effect on crime patterns
No clear deterrent effects of preventive patrol efforts

13. Improving Patrol
Police departments have initiated a number of programs and policies to improve patrol effectiveness:
Proactive policing and directed patrol
Making arrests
Rapid response
Broken Windows policing

14. Proactive Policing and Directed Patrol
Use of aggressive, proactive patrol may help reduce crime
Active enforcement of minor regulations
More likely to experience lower felony crime
Directed patrol
Involves concentrating police resources in high crime areas

15. Making Arrests
Some studies suggest that contact with the police may cause some offenders to forgo repeat criminal behavior
If the number of arrests per capita increases, crime rates go down

16. Rapid Response
Efforts to improve police efficiency with rapid response times have not been proven to be effective
Studies showed that the rapid response by officers had little to no effect on crime

17. Broken Windows Model of Policing
A term used to describe police as maintainers of community order and safety
Neighborhood disorder creates fear
Neighborhoods give out crime-promoting signals
Police need citizen cooperation
Community preservation, public safety, and order maintenance – not crime fighting – should be primary focus of patrol

18. Using Technology
Police departments have relied upon technology to guide patrol efforts. One such program:
ComStat:
The best known program first used in New York City
The system provided information about where and when crime was occurring
Policing strategies were incorporated
ComStat is credited as a major contributor to the drop in crime in NYC

19. The Investigation Function
Modern criminal investigators:
An experienced civil servant
Trained in investigatory techniques
Knowledgeable about legal rule of evidence and procedure
Cautious about the legal and administrative consequences of his or her actions

20. Discussion questions
What are the most positive/negative aspects of being a criminal investigator?
What kinds of crimes does a high tech crimes investigator deal with? How are these offenders different from other types of offenders?

21. Criminal Investigator (High Tech Crimes) CATCH Team, DA of San Diego

22. The Investigation Function
How Do Detectives Detect?
Detectives investigate causes of crime and attempt to identify those responsible
Police detective rely heavily upon interviews and forensic evidence
In order to create a crime story detective use a three pronged approach:
Specific focus
General coverage
Informative

23. The Investigation Function
Sting Operations
An investigatory approach using undercover officers who deceive criminals into openly committing illegal acts
Common, and highly successful in investigation of prostitution, gambling, and narcotics
Critics argue constitutes entrapment or may encourage commission of additional offenses

24. Evaluating Investigations
Police have only a 5 percent chance of solving a crime if more than 15 minutes elapse from the time of occurrence to reporting
Detectives generally lack sufficient resources to carry out lengthy probes unless crime is serious
Most crimes are solved when the perpetrator is identified at scene of crime by patrol officers

25. Improving Investigation with Technology
Technological breakthroughs have aided crime investigation
Information technology has revolutionized police work in many areas:
Communications
Criminal Identification
Record Storage
CopLink

26. Improving Investigation with Technology
DNA Profiling:
Most important investigative technology since the adoption of fingerprint comparison
Facebook and Twitter have also been added as tools

27. Discussion Questions
How can technology improve investigations regarding fingerprints?
What is important for fingerprint matching other than minutiae points?

28. Fingerprinting

29. Improving Investigations with Forensic Science
Forensic specialists can examine blood and other body fluids and tissues for the presence of:
Alcohol
Drugs
Poisons
Forensic scientists analyze trace physical evidence such as:
Blood spatters
Paint
Soil
Glass

30. Improving Investigations with Forensic Science
Forensic scientists also provide testimony in a court of law when the case is brought to trial
Some criminalists are generalists many focus on a particular area:
Toxicology
Blood pattern analysis
Crime scene investigation
Impression evidence
Trace evidence
Questioned documents

31. Community Policing
Set of programs and strategies designed to bring police and the public closer together and create a more cooperative working environment
First involved improving relationships with the public
Designed to make citizens:
More aware of police activities
Alert them to methods of self-protection
Improve general attitudes toward policing

32. Implementing Community Policing
The community-oriented policing concept was implemented through a number of innovative demonstration projects:
Foot Patrols
Neighborhood based policing models

33. Changing the Police Role
Neighborhood–Orientated Policing (NOP)
Changing Management Styles
Changing Recruitment and Training

34. Challenges of Community Policing
Defining Community
Defining Roles
Changing Supervisor Attitudes
Reorienting Police Values
Revise Training
Reorient Recruitment

35. Community Policing Effectiveness
Some community policing efforts can reduce disorder and impact the crime rate
Volunteers report higher confidence in the police force and its ability to create a secure environment
No clear-cut evidence that community policing is highly successful at reducing all types of crime

36. Problem-Oriented Policing
Requires police agencies to identify particular long-term community problems and develop solutions to eliminate problems
Departments must rely on local residents and private resources in order to be problem solvers
Police resources concentrate on “hot spots”
Concentrating police resources on these areas could reduce crime

37. Support Functions Personnel Services Internal Affairs Budgeting
Communications
Training