Chapter 6 Issues in Policing:

Professional, Social, and Legal

Learning Objectives

Summarize demographic trends in policing

Explain how minority and female officers act and are treated

Explain police culture and personality

Identify distinct policing styles

Describe factors that affect police discretion

Learning objectives

Discuss four major problems of policing

Distinguish between deadly and non deadly force—and methods for controlling each

Explain the importance of less-lethal weapons

Be familiar with the Supreme Court’s involvement with the police through its effort to control search and seizure, interrogation, and the establishment of the exclusionary rule.

Who Are the Police?

Traditionally, police officers have been while men with a high school education

Now, an increasing number of police officers have attended college

Affirmative action programs have helped to change the racial and gender composition to reflect the community makeup

Who Are the Police?

Demographic Makeup:

For more than 30 years departments have recruited women and minority officers

Women are now 13 percent of police personnel

Minority groups are now 25 percent of police personnel

Police departments are more heterogeneous, using skills (such as language skills) to gain the confidence of the community

Who Are the Police?

Minority Police Officers:

1861 First African American police officer,

Washington, D.C.

1872 Chicago hired its first African American police

officer

By 1890 an estimated 2000 African American police officers were employed in the U.S.

Who Are the Police?

Minority Police Officers: Historically, African American officers were

assigned to patrol African American communities

Early on, racial prejudice was common within police departments, and as late as the 1950s, some white officers refused to ride with African American officers in patrol cars

Who Are the Police?

Women in Policing:

1910: Alice Stebbins, first woman to hold title of police officers (Los Angeles)

Women endured separate criteria for selection, were given menial tasks and were denied opportunity for advancement

Relief of bias with 1964 Civil Rights Act

Who Are the Police?

Women in Policing:

Research indicates that female officers are highly successful police officers

Relationship strained by tensions and dilemmas associated with:

Sexuality

Competition for desirable assignments and promotions

Who Are the Police?

Education Characteristics:

Today about one-third of police agencies require some type of college requirement

More than three times the number than in 1990

Police departments are the benefactors of police officers with higher education

The Police Profession

The Police Culture:

Policing has unique characteristics, which separates it from other professions

So-called blue curtain – characterized by:

Cynicism

Clannishness

Secrecy

Insulation from others in society

The Police Profession

The Police Culture:

Joining police subculture means:

Having to stick up for fellow officers against outsiders

Maintaining a tough, exterior personality

In response to their insulated, and dangerous lifestyle, officers develop a distrust or suspicion of others’ motives and behaviors

Core Beliefs of the Police Subculture

Police are the only real crime fightersNo one else understands the real nature

of police workLoyalty to colleagues counts above

everything elseIt is impossible to win the war on crime

without bending the rulesMembers of the public are basically

unsupportive and unreasonably demandingDetective work is better than patrol

The Police Profession

The Police Personality:

Some describe the police personality as dogmatic, authoritarian, and suspicious

Cynicism is found at all levels

Negative values and attitudes are believed to cause officers to be secretive and isolated

Policing Style

Police Discretion

Use of personal decision making and choice in carrying out operations in the criminal justice system

Critical aspect of professional responsibility is the personal discretion each officer has in carrying out daily activities

Discretion can involve selective enforcement of the law

Factors that Influence Police Discretion

Legal factors Discretion is inversely related to severity of offense

Environmental factors Community expectations impact the amount of discretion

expected

Departmental factors Organizational policies, practices, customs, and

supervision

Peer factorsSituational factors

Demeanor and behavior of person encountered

Extralegal factors the age, gender, income, or race of the person

encountered

Problems of Policing

① Job Stress

② Fatigue

③ Violence

④ Corruption

Problems of Policing-Corruption

Categories of Corruption:

Meat eaters:

Aggressive misuse of police power for personal gain

Grass eaters:

Accepting some benefit during their everyday duties (ex: accepting gratuity)

Four Varieties of Corruption

Causes of Corruption

No single explanation

Wide discretion by police coupled with low public visibility

Unenforceable laws governing moral standards promote corruption

Control of Corruption

Use of Force

National Survey:

9 out of 10 subjects who had police contact reported that officers acted properly

2% had force used or threatened during contact

Black and Hispanics experienced police use of force at higher rates than whites

Deadly Force

Refers to the actions of a police officer who shoots and kills a suspect under justifiable circumstances

Factors Related to Police Shootings

Exposure to violence

National crime rates

Community threat levels

Administrative factors

Lack of proper training and preparation

Controlling Deadly Force

Fleeing-Felon rule

Tennessee v. Garner

Review State-controlled firearms policies

Department internal reviews

Use of Force

Graham v. Connor:

Supreme Court case establishing the “Objective Reasonableness” standard for use of force

Issues of force to be judged from the standpoint of a reasonable officer at the time the force was used

Use of Force

Less Lethal Weapons

Wide Variety of Weapons

Close distance

Mid range distance

Other Technologies

New weapons being developed in the field

Nonlethal weapons may help reduce police use of force

Police and the Rule of Law

In the courses of police duties the Rule of Law applies to the:

Investigation

Search, seize and gathering of evidence

Interviews and interrogations conducted

Suspect’s arrest

Case presentation to the prosecutor’s office with sufficient evidence to convict

Police and the Rule of Law

Interrogations and Confessions:

Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

The Miranda Warning: Right to remain silent

Any statements may be used in court of law

Right to consult with an attorney and have present during interrogation

If a person cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed

Improperly gathered confessions and statements are generally inadmissible

Police and the Rule of Law

Search and Seizure:

Manner in which police seize evidence governed by search-and-seizure requirements of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

Search warrant:

A court order authorizing and directing the police to search a designated place for evidence of a crime

Why are search warrants required?

What information is required for a search warrant?

What exceptions are there to the search warrant requirement?

Warrants

Police and the Rule of Law

Warrantless Searches:

Under certain circumstances a valid search may be conducted without a search warrant

Six Valid Warrantless Searches

Police and the Rule of Law

The Exclusionary Rule:

Weeks v. United States, 1914

All evidence obtained by unreasonable searches and seizures, coerced confessions or other violations of Constitutional rights is inadmissible in criminal trials

Supreme Court decision created guidelines that control misconduct by police officers

Police and the Rule of Law

The Exclusionary Rule:

Mapp v. Ohio, 1961

Exclusionary rule applicable to states

The “good faith exception” (to the exclusionary rule):

Evidence is admissible in court if the police officers acted in good faith by first obtaining court approval for their search even if the warrant they received was deficient or faulty