Students Post and Response Week 8 (for Hifsa Shakaut)

What do Travis and Stone suggest as the "new professionalism," and do you agree?

I believe that the over all suggestion from Travis and Stone is a revamp of how we approach the work place as Law Enforcement. There is a professional standard that almost all work places should use, in this case Travis and Stone have set rules and guidelines for Law Enforcement. Some of these guidelines are also words you hear in the popular news media such as Legitimacy, Transparency, and Accountability etc.

The current American public demands such action now a days compared to the long and drawn out investigations of the past. This has helped bridge many gaps with the American public that often when not given answers will conclude their own, that or be driven by popular new media outlets to dread the worst.

I agree that Law Enforcement must always be a standard in professionalism, times change and so does that standard, so I agree that Law Enforcement must chance with it.

What is the promise of "Democratic Policing Reform"?

The term “Policing Reform,” has been used by many different politicians throughout time in a effort to oversee police reform in a political manner. The issue is that when you hear these terms from most politicians there is no plan that follows these baseless claims, so as a civilians your hearing talking points with no merit, with no execution. There are many agencies throughout the United States that have over watch groups and government monitoring groups that over see operations, often after an incident.

The goal of this policing is that by reforming police departments then have a universal standard for actions, conduct, technology, hiring etc. In a perfect world peace officers would be interchangeable, a 20 year veteran from New York would be the same as a rookie from California, but anyone that has had any job in any career filed would know that’s impossible. These ideas are solid in thought just lack any real world execution and thus will never become a reality.

What has US Law Enforcement contributed to law enforcement accountability throughout the world?

It is without a doubt that the United States has set some of the best standards world wide as far as police interaction with the public, this is of course due to many different factors. It would be unfair to look at any third world country and state “do it like America,” when some police officers are not afforded any sort of compensation for their work. In many countries Police do not have guns, cars or even uniforms yet along training, so to Monday morning quarterback an agency like that would be cruel, so for sake of argument lets look at countries with the means to provide top grade backing to their police forces.

Looking at just technology, the United States has done a great job of incorporating technology both foreign and domestic into law enforcement, in fact in many ways the only thing holding back most agencies is the public sentiment on technology and big brother. There is current facial recognition software and hardware that could be implemented in any city within the United States, there is also license plate cameras and software that can attach to cars themselves, but over all the feedback from the public has been negative concerning these advancements.

Now that we are at the end of the course, what do you believe are the key elements of ethical, effective, and accountable law enforcement?

This is the hardest question asked of anyone currently in Law Enforcement or anyone that has worked the job for any number of time. All the suggestions you will hear from the community, politicians and critics are often without any relevant merit. It reminds me of when people state to NASA, “why don’t we just fly to mars,” it’s the pure ignorance of the comment shows how much the person knows about space travel.

One of the main issues with the ignorance of the American public is that the American public has an unhealthy relationship with Police, and you can see that with the vast amount of police tv shows and movies. People often forget these are shows and movies for the purpose of entertainment and there is no realistic credibility to the shows at all. One of the biggest complaints from most peace officers is when people state, ‘I know my rights,” when in fact they do not.

I believe that teaching the public will be the biggest issue that Police Officers will have to face moving forward in the United States, if there is some sort of uniformed education given to the public that would fix many of the issues law enforcement is facing in todays climate.