Chapters Summary

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CHAPTER 6
Critical Issues in Policing

Introduction

  • Police work is dangerous

  • Police may confront violent/angry people

  • May be assaulted or killed in the line of duty

Police Discretion

  • Discretion: the authority of the police to choose one course of action over another

  • Discretion is the heart of police work

  • Used to determine if and how to proceed within the confines of the law

Full Law Enforcement

  • Police respond formally to all suspicious behavior

  • Impractical
  • Most violations minor
  • Criminal justice system does not have resources for full enforcement
  • Paperwork and court time
  • Vague legal statutes
  • Strain police/community relations

Selective Law Enforcement

  • Police under-enforce some laws, over-enforce others

  • Problematic
  • Unfair for police to respond differently to similar situations
  • Officers may abuse power by targeting specific individuals or groups
  • May lead to favoritism and corruption

Legal Factors Affecting Arrest

  • Seriousness of offense

  • Prior arrest record

  • Presence of evidence

  • Reasonable suspicion

Nonlegal Factors Affecting Arrest

  • Demeanor and respect toward law enforcement

  • Race

  • Sex

  • Social class

Additional Extralegal Factors

  • Officer characteristics may affect arrest decision
  • Age
  • Education level
  • Race
  • Gender

  • Department policy

  • Informal culture of department

Pros and Cons of Discretion

  • Arguments in support of discretion, need for individualized justice

  • Cons
  • Low visibility of discretionary decisions
  • Suspects denied due process
  • Some citizens receive preferential treatment
  • Public may see discretion as being biased against some groups

Controlling Police Discretion

  • Written rules provide officers with guidelines re what actions to take in certain situations
  • High-speed pursuits
  • Use of force
  • Handling special populations
  • Overtime hours
  • Outside employment

  • Technology
  • Automatic Vehicle Locator monitors patrol cars

Police Corruption

  • Misuse of authority by officers for the benefit of themselves or others

  • One of the oldest and most persistent problems in policing

Costs of Police Corruption

  • Undermines agency integrity

  • Protects other criminal activities

  • Undermines criminal justice system effectiveness
  • Undermines agency professionalism

  • Imposes secret tax on honest businesses

  • Undermines public confidence in police

Types of Corruption

  • Corruption of authority

  • Kickbacks

  • Opportunistic theft

  • Shakedowns

  • Protection of illegal activities
  • “Fixing” charges

  • Direct criminal activities

  • Internal payoffs

  • “Flaking” or “pudding”

  • Noble cause corruption

Investigating Police Corruption

  • Chicago Crime Commission (1920s)

  • Wickersham Commission (1929)

  • Knapp Commission (1973)
  • Grass eaters
  • Meat eaters

  • Mollen Commission (1990s)

Corrupt Police Departments

  • Rotten apples and rotten pockets

  • Pervasive unorganized corruption

  • Pervasive organized corruption

Explaining Police Corruption

  • Officer personality

  • Police discretion

  • Minimal supervision

  • Low public visibility
  • Limited accountability

  • Peer group secrecy

  • Managerial secrecy

Managing Police Corruption

  • Honest administration; chiefs lead by example

  • Train recruits

  • Internal Affairs unit

  • Prosecute officers suspected of breaking the law

  • Reward honest officers

Police Use of Force

  • Capacity to use coercive force a defining characteristic of policing

  • Limits on force police may use
  • Limited by law
  • May only use when performing official duties
  • Not used maliciously or frivolously

  • General rule: Police may only use as much force as reasonably necessary

Police Brutality

  • Unlawful use of force: all unnecessary force used by police

  • 1931 commission found widespread use of coercion and force

  • Commission investigating the LAPD after Rodney King assault found 5% of officers accounted for more than 20% of allegations of excessive force

Reducing Police Brutality

  • Identification of violence-prone officers before they act out

  • Independent review boards

  • More effective disciplinary procedures

  • Refined police selection criteria

  • More thorough police training

Deadly Force

  • Fleeing-felon rule: police could shoot fleeing felony suspect
  • Tennessee v. Garner (1985) found this doctrine unconstitutional

  • Defense-of-life standard: use deadly force only in defense of own or another’s life

  • Preservation-of-life standard: police must use every other means possible to maintain order before turning to deadly force

Deadly Force

  • Deadly force: amount of force likely to cause serious bodily harm or death to another person

  • Departments may be sued, officers may be criminally prosecuted or dismissed

  • Deadly force not evenly applied
  • Varies between cities and across neighborhoods
  • Racial and ethnic minorities killed in disproportionate numbers
  • Few police-citizen contacts end with deadly force

High-Speed Pursuits

  • Can be very dangerous; suspects, innocent bystanders, officers may be injured or killed

  • Departments are training officers in defensive driving

  • Formalizing procedures and enforcing written policies regarding when officers may participate in pursuit of fleeing suspect

Decision to Pursue

  • Severity of the offending infraction

  • Speed of travel

  • Number of pedestrians and vehicles on the street
  • Weather conditions

  • Whether suspect is known and can be apprehended later

  • Whether benefits of apprehension outweigh the risks of pursuit

Police Stress

  • Interferes with police officers’ ability to carry out duties

  • Stress: upsetting condition, occurs in response to adverse external influences, capable of affecting officer’s physical health

Causes of Police Stress

  • Personal/family factors

  • Nature of police work

  • Conflict with supervisors
  • Frustration with courts

  • Relations with media

  • Criticism from public

Factors Affecting Stress Levels

  • Officer’s personality and background characteristics

  • Work experience

  • Level of education

  • Assigned duties

Results of Stress

  • Poor job performance

  • Absenteeism

  • Corruption

  • Alcoholism
  • Heart disease

  • Divorce

  • Child abuse/neglect

Women in Policing

  • Lola Baldwin: first female officer
  • 1905, Portland, OR PD

  • Alice Stebbins-Wells: first regularly commissioned female officer
  • 1910, LAPD

  • By 1925, women employed in more than 145 departments

  • Today, nearly 12% of all police officers nationwide are female

Women in Policing

  • 1967 President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice report stated women should perform same duties as men

  • Glass ceiling: percentage of women in supervisory roles is very small

Women in Policing

  • Women officers equally effective as men

  • Perform as well as men, use similar techniques, no more likely to display weapons

  • Less likely to use deadly force

  • Respond more effectively to domestic violence incidents than men

African Americans in Policing

  • First African American officers hired in Washington, D.C. in 1861

  • 1900: about 3% of all officers were African American

  • Today about 12% of officers are African Americans

  • Few differences in job performance between African American and white officers

Latinos in Policing

  • First Latino officers hired in 1896 in NYC

  • Today about 11.6% of officers are Latinos (about 14% of U.S. population is Latino)

Female and Minority Local Police Officers

Source: Hickman, M., & Reaves, B.A. (2015). Local police departments, 2013. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice

Increases in Minority Officers

  • Increase partly due to lawsuits filed by African Americans and Latinos

  • Charged that departments discriminate against them on entrance requirements and promotion exams

  • Supreme Court has ruled that departments must demonstrate hiring and promotion requirements are job related, bias free, fairly administered, properly graded

Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972

  • Set stage for affirmative action programs and quota systems for hiring and promotion of police officers

  • Critics of quotas say they violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • Proponents say they are a needed remedy for past wrongs