1. Challenges to Effective Policing

2. Recruitment and Training: Becoming a Police Officer
Basic Requirements:
U.S. Citizen
No felony convictions
Valid Driver’s License
Minimum 21 years of age
Weight, eyesight, and fitness requirements
Background check
Polygraph

5. Recruitment and Training: Becoming a Police Officer
Field Training occurs after the
academy.
The field training officer (FTO) helps the rookie apply what (s)he has learned “the the streets.”
Training includes the police
academy.
Laws of arrest, search, seizure, and interrogation
Weapons use
Crime scene preservation
Witness interviewing
First aid
Self-defense

6. Recruiting Members of Minority Groups and Women
Only within the past fifteen years have police agencies actively been recruiting women, African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and other minority groups.
Minority representation in police agencies has grown from 14.6% in 1987 to 23.6% in 2003.

7. Recruiting Members of Minority Groups and Women
Discrimination and the Law
1964 Civil Rights Act
1972 Equal Opportunity Employment Act
The Benefits of a Culturally Diverse Police
Force
Improved community relations
Higher levels of service

8. Police Organization
Cornerstones:
Bureaucracy
Delegation of Authority

10. Law Enforcement in the Field
Field Services (operations) include:
Patrol activities
Investigations
Special operations

11. Law Enforcement in the Field
The purposes of patrol include:
The deterrence of crime by maintaining a visible police presence
The maintenance of public order and a sense of security in the community
The twenty-four hour provision of services that are not crime related

12. Law Enforcement in the Field
Routine patrol activities can be categorized
into four areas:
Preventive patrol
Calls for service
Administrative duties
Officer-initiated activities

13. Law Enforcement in the Field
Investigations:
Reactive, rather than proactive
The responsibility of detectives
Success is measured with clearance rates, or the number of cases resulting in arrest and prosecution
Aggressive strategies include going undercover and working with confidential informants.

14. Law Enforcement in the Field
Forensics is the practice
of using science and
technology to
investigate crime.
Forensics can be used
to determine:
Cause of death/injury
Time of death/injury
Type of weapon
Identity of the victim
Identity of the offender

15. Law Enforcement in the Field
The DNA Revolution:
DNA provides the genetic blueprint for every living organism.
When DNA is recovered at a crime scene and matched to a suspect, the odds that match is conclusive are 30 million to 1.
The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is a database that stores DNA samples taken from crime scenes.
As of 2007, CODIS has produces almost 59,000 cold hits nationwide.

17. Police Strategies: What Works
More police officers, less crime?
Response time to 911 calls
Incident-driven policing
Response time as a benchmark of efficiency
Differential response
“Cold” calls versus “hot” calls

18. Police Strategies: What Works
General patrol:
relies on officers to monitor
a certain area to detecting
crimes in progress or
preventing crimes due to
their presence.
Also called preventive
patrol, or random patrol.
Directed patrol:
is designed to respond to a
specific criminal activity at a
specific time.
Targeted areas are labeled
hot spots.

19. Police Strategies: What Works
Reactive Arrests:
Arrests that come about
as part of the ordinary
routine of police patrol
and calls for service .
Proactive Arrests:
Arrests that occur when
police take the initiative
to target a particular
type of criminal
behavior.

20. Police Strategies: What Works
Broken Windows Theory:
A neighborhood in disrepair signals that criminal activity is tolerated in the area
By cracking down on quality-of-life crimes, police can reclaim the neighborhood and encourage law-abiding citizens to live and work there
Based on order maintenance of neighborhoods

21. Police Strategies: What Works
Community policing is a strategy that emphasizes community support for and cooperation with police in preventing crime.
Community policing is:
less centralized
proactive in nature

23. Community Policing Problem-Oriented Policing:
A key component of community policing
Moves beyond simply responding to incidents and attempts instead to control or even solve the root causes of criminal behavior
Two important aspects of problem-solving policing are “hot spots” and crime mapping

24. “Us versus Them”: Issues in Modern Policing
Police Subculture:
The values and perceptions that are shared by members of a police department. These values permeate agencies and are taught to new officers through a process of socialization.

25. “Us versus Them”: Issues in Modern Policing
Rituals critical to the police officer’s acceptance
of police subculture:
Attending a recruit academy
Working with a senior officer who passes on the lessons of police work and life
Making the initial felony arrest
Using force to make an arrest for the first time
Witnessing major traumatic incidents for the first time

26. “Us versus Them”: Issues in Modern Policing
The Blue Curtain, aka the “blue wall of silence”
Police cynicism
Physical and mental dangers associated with police work
Chronic stress
Alcohol abuse
Suicide

27. “Us versus Them”: Issues in Modern Policing
Authority and the Use of Force
Reasonable Force: Deadly Force:
The degree of force Force likely or
that is appropriate intended to cause
to protect the officer death.
and other citizens.

28. “Us versus Them”: Issues in Modern Policing
The United States Supreme Court and Use
of Force:
Tennessee v. Garner (1985)
Graham v. Conner (1989)

29. “Us versus Them”: Issues in Modern Policing
Types of Corruption:
Bribery
Shakedowns
Mooching

30. “Us versus Them”: Issues in Modern Policing
Sherman’s Stages of Moral Decline:
Officers accept minor gratuities.
Officers accept bribes.
Officers actively seek out bribes and commit extortion.

31. “Us versus Them”: Issues in Modern Policing
Police accountability:
Internal investigations
Citizen Oversight

32. Police Ethics Ethical dilemmas are defined as a situation
in which law enforcement officers:
Do not know the right course of action
Have difficulty doing what they consider to be right; and/or
Find the wrong choice very tempting

33. Police Ethics Four categories of Ethical Dilemmas: Discretion Duty
Honesty
Loyalty

34. Police Ethics Officers should ask themselves: Is it legal?
Is it balanced?
How does it make me feel about myself?