American Law Enforcement Systems – Flashcards

NCVS- Nation Crime Victimization Survey- only 51% of victims of violent crimes are 39.3% of victims of property crimes report the crime to the police. Police not held responsible for crimes they don't know about. UCR- Uniform Crime Report- official record written by the police of crimes reported. Not all crime reports are completed, most likely to make the crime rate seem less than it is. What is completed is believed to be the more serious crimes.

5 basic steps: 1. Identifying and arresting any suspects. 2. providing aid to any victims in need of medical attention. 3. Securing the crime scene to prevent loss of evidence. 4. Collecting all relevant physical evidence. 5. Preparing a preliminary report PERF- Police Executive Research Forum- study divided follow up investigations into 3 categories of activities: routine (interviewing victims and checking crime scene), secondary (canvassing for witnesses, interviewing other people and witnesses, discussing case with supervisors, collecting physical evidence), and tertiary activities(discussing case with other detectives, checking dept. records, checking the national crime info center computer files, check other records).

traditional measure of success. FBI defines a crime as cleared when the police have "identified the offender, have sufficient evidence to charge him, and actually take him into custody, or in exceptional instances, when some element beyond police control precludes taking the offender into custody.Nationally, only about 21% of all reported index crimes are cleared. Based on reported crimes only.

1. Based on reported crimes, 39% of all crimes reported. true clearance rate is much lower than the official rate. 2. despite the UCR guidelines, police depts. do not use the same criteria for clearing crimes. 3. The data can be manipulated to produce an artificially high official clearance rate.

Rarely an important factor in solving crimes. A major part of the problem is that it is difficult to obtain useful prints.

All DNA data obtained from local, state, and federal law enforcement officers is forwarded to the FBI. To manage all of the data, the FBI created a NDIS. The system was designed to store two types of data: 1. forensic index data, which contains DNA profiles from genetic evidence gathered from crimes scenes. 2. Convicted offender index data contains genetic information on offenders who have been required to provide blood samples for genetic typing.

Most popular demand reduction strategy. The drug education program, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, originated with the LAPD in cooperation with the LA public schools in 1983.17 hour long classroom sessions conducted by a sworn police officer. Involves both info about illegal drugs and their consequences and training in social skills to help resist illegal drug use.

Consist of 3 different types: 1. Targeting suspected high rate offenders for surveillance and arrest. 2. Special warrant service for suspected high rate offenders who have outstanding warrants or are wanted for probation or parole violations. 3. Case enhancement programs to provide prosecutors with full information about the criminal histories of high rate offenders.

Most popular police led gang prevention program-Gang Resistance Education and Training program. Phoenix PD established in 1991. Nine week class, led by uniformed officer, offered once a week to middle school students. Introduces conflict resolutions skills, cultural sensitivity, and the problems that are associated with gangs and gang related behavior.

Defined by the FBI as "the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, r any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives." Declined dramatically since 9/11. 1. Domestic- planned and carried out by Americans on American soil. Most common type of terrorism. 2. Foreign- involves terrorist activities coordinated and perpetrated by foreign persons or countries against the US. The worst foreign terrorist attack was 9/11/01 - fewer than 3,000 killed.

Has been ushered into police depts. across the nation, studies have illustrated that few understand the underlying concept. Popular strategies include instituting foot or bicycle patrols, establishing neighborhood police substations, identifying neighborhood problems, dealing with disorder, organizing community meetings, or conducting community surveys. Community policing represents a major change in the role of the police.

The image of broken windows symbolized the relationship among disorder, neighborhood decay, and crime. A broken window, is a sign that nobody cares about the appearance of the property. Asserts that an increase in community decay produces an increase in serious crime, and only by redirecting police services toward neighborhood deterioration and disorder can a community prevent crime.

Wilson and Kelling maintain the traditional policing focuses on the end result of this process: serious crime. Yet the evidence indicates that the police officers ability to fight crime is very limited. They argue that the police should intervene at the beginning of the process of neighborhood deterioration- at the first signs of neglect and disorder.

influenced the history of policing forever when they teamed together and wrote an essay entitled "Broken Windows" for Atlantic Monthly magazine. They argued that the police should focus on their resources on disorder problems affecting the quality of neighborhood life. Emphasized that the police should address those problems that create fear of crime and lead to neighborhood decay.

1. decentralized decision making: giving rank and file officers more author to decide what problems to work on and how to use their time.

"How free should community officers be to select alternatives for solving problems?" pioneered a new approach to the police role in 1979 wit his concept of problem oriented policing. Played a pivotal role in reorganizing the complexity if the police role through his work with the American Bar Foundation Survey of Criminal Justice in the 1950s.Argues we should think of the police as a government agency providing a wide range of misc. services.

Scanning- Analysis- requires police to collect info about the problem in an attempt to identify its scope, nature, and cause. Often leads to police focusing on 3 categories of problem characteristics: actors, incidents, and past responses. Response- Data collected at the analysis stage are used to develop a strategy to address the problem and implement a response Assessment- Involves an evaluation of the effectiveness of the response

First significant problem oriented policing experiment in Virginia. Several years, the police there had faced a high rate of burglaries in the New Briarfield apartment complex. Project utilized the SARA model.

warns that one aspect of changing the police role is the danger of involving the police in politics.

Based on broken windows theory. It calls for the police to primarily focus on disorder, minor crime, and the appearance of crime. It is characterized by interventions that aggressively enforce criminal and civil laws and that are conducted for the purpose of restoring order to communities.

defined as 1. an official action. 2. by a criminal justice official. 3. based on that individuals judgment about the best course of action. -Domestic dispute arrests: Donald Black found that police arrested only 58% of people suspected of committing felonious assault in domestic violence situations. -Mental health commitments -Juvenile court referrals -Deadly force

Discrimination- misuse of discretion against racial or ethnic minorities. Ex. Racial Profiling Denial of due process- deliberately harassing suspected drug dealers, prostitutes, and pimps to chase them out of the neighborhood rather than arresting then is an abuse of discretion Systematic underenforcement of the law- tolerating after hours clubs in a certain neighborhood, can damage quality of life in that area. tolerated gambling, prostitution, and after hours of clubs in poor are racial minority neighborhoods Poor personnel management- effective supervision requires clear performance standards. Need to be given clear guidelines on how they are to handle different situations. Otherwise, it is impossible to fairly evaluate the officers performance Inconsistent policy- if the officers on the street make decisions inconsistent with department policy, the policy will not be carried out.

Contributes to the exercise of discretion. -Patrol officers work alone or in pairs. -In many critical incidents, there is no direct supervision by a sergeant. -The majority of police- citizen encounters occur in private places, with no other observers present- observers who might be able to testify about the officers behavior.

Legal Factors -Supreme court decisions- officer has to work that a DA will challenge the evidence at trial and have the judge exclude it because of an illegal search -State court decisions- decisions by the state supreme court similar to Mapp or related to other police actions -State law- laws governing arrest discretion in domestic violence incidents. officer has to work about not violating the mandatory arrest part of that law. Administrative Factors -Dept. policy- limit high speed pursuits. officer has to be concerned about complying with the policy in certain situations. -Supervision- sergeant signs off on all arrests. officer has to worry that his or her supervisor will not sign off on an arrest where there is very limited evidence, or which appears to involve racial bias. Organizational Factors -Peer officer culture- Ex. in a dept. does not tolerate pushing people around for no reason. officer has to worry that a peer officer will report him or her for this. alternatively, in another dept. the peer culture does tolerate it, and officers regularly engage in low level uses of force

James Q. Wilson- "discretion increases as one moves down the organizational hierarchy." Skolnick- "police work constitutes the most secluded part of an already secluded system of criminal justice and therefore offers the greatest opportunity for arbitrary behavior."

Davis and Goldstein argue that the first step toward controlling police discretion is admitting that it exists, that it can create problems, and that control is necessary. 1. Abolishing it. 2. Enhancing the professional judgment of officers. 3. Regulating it through written policies

Joseph Goldstein concluded that it was illegal and should be abolished. He and others have argued that the police do not have the legal authority to nullify the criminal law by not arresting a criminal offender. Sentencing guidelines that leave judges some room for discretion are a good example of this approach.

Administrative rulemaking seeks to guide the exercise of police discretion through written departmental policies. Deadly force- defense of life standard for the use of deadly force clearly spells out when it may be used (threat to life of officer or another person) and when it may not be used (unarmed fleeing felon). Domestic Violence- mandatory arrest policies on domestic violence instruct police officers that they much make an arrest when a felonious assault has occurred. High speed pursuits- Dept. policies on HSP instruct officers to consider road conditions, the presence of pedestrians, and other potential risks before initiating a pursuit.

Standard Operation Procedure. Written rules and policies are collected and codified in a depts. SOP manual. It is the central tool of modern police management. Typically several hundred pages long. Many placed on their websites.

1. The have traditionally over emphasized relatively trivial issues and ignored critical issues in the use of law enforcement power. 2. "Crisis Management" process by which manuals develop. New policies are typically adopted in response to an immediate crisis: a lawsuit or community protest. Manuals are often not revised for many years, and, as a result, important subjects are not reviewed or updated.

Walker replies to these criticisms by arguing that uncertainty is inherent in the nature of policing, that some rules are better than no rules at all, and if officers evade rules, the task is to ensure greater compliance and not to throw out the rules altogether.

Refers primarily to relations between the police and racial and ethnic minority communities. Walker, Spohn, and DeLone argue that "the criminal justice system is characterized by obvious disparities based on race and ethnicity."

A report on Policing a Multicultural Community by the PERF concludes that "preventing, mitigating, and negotiating intergroup conflict in the community must become an integral part of police practice. To remain effective, indeed to increase effectiveness, police must increase effectiveness, police must become skilled inter-cultural craftspeople."

Involve a crime control strategy of both identifying and apprehending offenders, and at the same time sending a message of deterrence to people on the street. Young racial and ethnic minority males in particular regard this practice as harassment.

Allegations of police brutality, defined as the use of excessive physical force by the police, represent the most common complaint voice by minorities about the police. Authorized by dept. policies to use force in certain situations: to protect themselves, to affect an arrest, to overcome resistance, and to bring a dangerous situation under control. Excessive force is any level of force more than is necessary to accomplish a lawful objective. A police officer is not justified in sing physical force in response to mere disrespect. Have adopted a use of force continuum, indicating the different levels of force appropriate for particular situations.

Found that among municipal police depts., African Americans represents an average of 21.4% of the population but represent 42.3% of all people filing complaints against officers.

1985, ruled that the fleeing felon rule, under which the Memphis offcers acted, was unconstitutional. The decision accelerated the trend toward adoption of the defense of life standard, which greatly restricts the use of deadly force by police officers.

-An officer cannot stop or arrest a person solely on the basis of race or ethnicity. -The police also cannot use race or ethnicity when it is one element in a general profile of criminal suspects. That is, the police cannot stop all African American males who are young or wear baggy jeans. -The police may use race or ethnicity when it is one element in the description of a specific criminal suspect and where that information is based on credible information from a reliable source.

A corrupt act by a police officer is a criminal act. Criminal activity by a police officer undermines the basic integrity of law enforcement.

Most common form of police corruption. Free meals, free dry cleaning, or discounts on other purchases.

Accepting bribes not to enforce the law is a far more serious form of corruption. Some bribes are isolated acts, such as when an officer takes money not to write a traffic ticket.

Passively accept what is offered to them

Aggressively demand favors

Type 1: Rotten Apples and Rotten Pockets- least serious form of corruption exists when it involves only a few police officers acting on their own. rotten apple theory describes a situation where only a few officers are independently engaged in corrupt acts. Rotten pocket exists when several corrupt officers cooperate with one another. Type 2: Pervasive Unorganized Corruption- "a majority of personnel who are corrupt, but who have little relationship to each other." Many officers may be taking bribes for not issuing traffic tickets, but the officers are not actively cooperating with one another. Type 3: Pervasive Organized Corruption- most serious form. Organized level that penetrates the high levels of the dept. Ex. Systematic payoff to protect illegal activities, with the payoff shared among all members of a unit and their supervisors.

Barker argues that the "occupational setting" of police work "provides the police officer with more than ample opportunity for a wide range of deviant activities."

1. police work exposes officers to many opportunities to be corrupt. Police enforce the law, and inevitably, some people seek to avoid arrest by offering a bribe. 2. policing is low-visability work. Officers generally work alone or in pairs, with no direct supervision. 3. the impact of police work on officer attitudes also contributes indirectly to corruption.

Known example of successful corruption control all involved strong action by chiefs: William Parker in LA.....

William Parker in LA and O.W.W in Chicago believed that even a free cup of coffee compromised the integrity of the police.

Internal Affairs Unit/Officer of Professional Standards. Responsible for the effective control of corruption that requires meaningful investigation of suspected corruption by the dept. itself.

Goldstein comments that "corruption thrives best in poorly run organizations where lines of authority are vague and supervision is minimal.