Mainstream and Crosscurrents, Second Edition Chapter 6 Policing and the Law

Mainstream and Crosscurrents, Second Edition

Chapter 6Chapter 6

Policing and the LawPolicing and the Law

Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/eJohn Randolph Fuller

© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.2

What we expect of the police

The police must develop an occupational culture that shapes their response to crime, offenders, and the criminal justice system.



What we expect of the police

Manning: The police have the tasks of crime prevention, crime detection, and the apprehension of criminal suspects in an efficient, apolitical, and professional manner.



How the police work

Watchman style

Legalistic style

Service Style



How the police work

Watchman style

Distinguishes between two mandates of policing: order maintenance and law enforcement. Involves discretion Preserving the social order is key



How the police work

Legalistic style

Concentrates on enforcing the law by writing more tickets, making more arrests, and encouraging victims to sign complaints.

Requires little discretion



How the police work

Service style

Concerned with service to the community and citizens.

Employs alternative strategies: official warnings or diversion programs.

Discretion is used, but subject to formal review and evaluation.



The Quasi-military Nature of Police Organizations

According to Bittner, there are three reasons the military model is attractive to police planners…



Both the military and the police are in the business of using force.

The introduction of military-like discipline in the 1950s professionalized police departments.

The police lacked other models of organization.




The major difference between military organizations and the police is discretion.




The difference between the police and the military:

Military: Important decisions are made at the top of the chain of command.

Policing: Discretion is vested with the individual police officer


Police as Soldiers



What the Police Do

Patrol Investigation Traffic enforcement Peacemaking and order maintenance



What the Police Do

Patrol

To deter crime Enhance feelings of public safety Make officers available for service



What the Police Do

Patrol

Four aspects of response time: Discovery time Reporting time Processing time Travel time



What the Police Do

Investigation

Detectives take over evidence gathering so that patrol officers can resume patrol.

Photographers, crime-scene technicians, and others help detectives investigate the case.



What the Police Do

Traffic Enforcement

Respond to accidents Detect drunk drivers Apprehend suspects Enforce traffic laws Traffic duties most often bring police officers

into close contact with citizens



What the Police Do

Traffic Enforcement



What the Police Do

Peacemaking and Order Maintenance

Domestic disputes Crowd control Vice Mental illness Juveniles First response



Rules the Police Follow

Procedural law: Rules for the government

“Tying the hands of the police”?

The underlying values incorporated by the Constitution must be met.




Police discretion

The police do not make an arrest every time they are authorized to do so.



The criminal justice system could not effectively deal with so many cases.

The most serious offenders would be obscured by the mass of cases.


Police discretion



Rules the Police Follow: Police discretion

Selective enforcement

Pro Selective enforcement may result in less

overall crime and less damage to citizens and property.

Con Violates the idea of fair play. All suspects

are not treated equally. Depends on discretion.



Procedural laws and policing

The Fourth Amendment

Procedural law controlling the activities of law enforcement is derived from the Fourth Amendment.





The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.





Even though it constitutes only one sentence, the Fourth Amendment covers a lot of territory …





Search

Special-needs searches

Seizures

Stop-and-frisk

Arrests




Search

Trespass doctrine

Privacy doctrine

Plain-view doctrine

Open-fields doctrine

Public places

Abandoned property



Officers must have the approval of a judge to get a search warrant.

However, the court recognizes four major exceptions to the requirement that officers obtain warrants before conducting a search …


Search



Searches incident to arrest

Consent searches

Exigent circumstances searches or emergency searches

Vehicle searches


Search




Special-needs searches

Inventory searches Border searches Airport searches Searches of prisoners Searches of probationers & parolees Searches of students Employee drug testing




Seizures

The Fourth Amendment does not allow illegally seized evidence to be presented in court.

If the police intimidate a suspect so that he/she does not feel free to leave, an illegal seizure may be deemed under the Fourth Amendment.




Stop and frisk

Encompasses two distinct behaviors.

Stops are seizures.

Frisks are searches.

For a lawful frisk, a stop must meet the conditions of a lawful seizure.



Actual-seizure stops involve officers physically restricting a person's freedom.

Show-of-authority stops involve officers showing their authority and the suspects submitting.


Stop and frisk




Arrests

A higher standard of suspicion of guilt is required.

Requires that police have probable cause that the suspect committed a crime.

To use deadly force, the officer must believe the suspect to be a threat to others.



The court recommends four restrictions on home arrests …

The crime should be a felony.

The police must knock and announce.

The arrest should be made in daylight.

The police must meet a stringent probable-cause requirement that the suspect is in fact at home.


Arrests




Interrogation, Confessions, and the Exclusionary Rule

Individuals have constitutional rights that must be respected in the questioning process. These rights stem from the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments …



Fifth Amendment self-incrimination clause

Sixth Amendment right-to-counsel clause

Fourteenth Amendment due process clause


Interrogation, Confessions, and the Exclusionary Rule



QuestionsQuestions

Why are the police patterned after the military style of organization?

What do we mean by the term procedural law? Where in the US Constitution do we find the

authority for our laws concerning searches?

Documents

Mainstream and Crosscurrents, Second Edition Chapter 6 Policing and the Law