Police Professionalism and Responsibility Essay Example

The Volstead Act changed this relationship. Police officers as a result of the Volstead Act were expected to take a proactive approach to laws that many citizens opposed. These expectations forced police to choose between upholding the law and maintaining a good rapport with citizens. Bureaucratic Model of Policing in America

By the 1950s there had been meaningful and considerable changes in law enforcement to the point that policing was moving into the pinnacle of the professional phase. O. W. Wilson published the first edition of his Police Administration text, which very quickly became the bible for police administrators. Wilson and other professional police chiefs of the time preached that police departments should be centralized so as to exert more control and to thwart potential external political influences.

Wilson and his contemporaries essentially adopted the military model for policing that was first advocated by Sir Robert Peel in 1829 when he was organizing the London Metropolitan Police Department. Professionalism was viewed as organization efficiency and crime fighting (Gaines & Kappeler, 2008, p. 191). Classical organization principles that produced the appearance of greater control and efficiency were adopted. Police departments operated under the military model with officers being closely supervised and directed. Police departments abolished foot patrols in favor of motorized patrols.

Science and Technology in Professional Policing The introduction of science and technology really fascinated police officials. Police officials believe that policing could not truly achieve professional status without technology. The human aspects of police work were abandoned for science. Police officials pursed technological innovations on all fronts: police records system, fingerprints, chemistry, serology, toxicology, evidence collection, and radio communications. Police chiefs and their investigators increasingly depended on

physical evidence to obtain criminal convictions.

Police Professionalism in Depth Police professionalism is defined as the increasing of formalization of police work and the accompanying in the public acceptance (Schmallerger2007, p. 203). Police professionalism places important limits on the inappropriate discretionary activities of individual enforcement personnel. A profession is an organized undertaking characterized by a body of specialized knowledge acquired through extensive education and by well considered set of internal standards and ethical guidelines that hold members of the profession accountable to one another and to society.

Contemporary policing evidences many of the attributes of a profession. Specialized knowledge in policing includes a close familiarity with criminal law, laws of procedure, constitutional guarantees, and relevant Supreme Court decision: a working knowledge of weapons, hand to hand tactics, driving skills, vehicle maintenance, and radio communications; report writing abilities, interviewing techniques; and media and human relations skills.

Other specialized knowledge may include Breathalyzer operations, special weapons skills, polygraph operation, conflict resolution, and hostage negotiation. Supervisory personnel require an wider range of skills, including administrative skills, management techniques, and strategies for optimum utilization of resources. Police work is guided by and ethical code developed in 1956 by the Peace Officer’s Research Association of California (PORAC) in conjunction with Dr. Douglas M.

Kelley of Berkley’s School Criminology (Gaines & Kappeler, 2008, p. 187). The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics is reproduced in Criminal Justice today. Police professionalism and police ethics work in unisons. It should be noted that ethics training is still not well integrated into most law enforcement training programs, but a movement in that direction has begun amid call for expanded police ethics. Police ethics is defined as the special responsibility

to adhere to moral duty and obligation that is inherent in police work.

Professional associations are abound in police work. The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is one of the best known organizations of public service workers in the United States. The International Associations of Chiefs of police has done much more to raise professional standards in policing and continually strive for improvements in law enforcement nationwide. Accreditation is another avenue toward police professionalism. The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) was formed in 1979.

Police departments seeking accreditation through commission must meet hundreds of standards in areas as diverse as day to day operations, administration, review incidents involving of a weapon by officers, and evaluation and promotion of personnel. As of June 1, 2003 only 588 (3. 3%) of the nations 17, 784 police agencies were accredited while a number of others were going through accreditation process (Schmallerger2007, p. 207). However, many accredited agencies are among the nation largest.

As a result 24 percent of full time law enforcement officers in the United States at the state and local levels are members of the CALEA accredited programs. Although accreditation makes it possible for the identification of high quality police department, it is often not valued by agency leaders due to the fact that accreditation only offers few incentives. Accreditation does not guarantee a department any rewards beyond that of peer recognition. Twenty-First Century Police Responsibilities Police agents or agencies are those empowered to use force and other forms of coercion and legal means to effect public and social order.

The term is most commonly associated with police departments of a state that are authorized to exercise

the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. The responsibilities of police include fighting crime, but more generally consist of all activities that maintain the public welfare (Schmallerger2007, p. 210). This includes both protecting citizens from those who pose a threat, whether from within the community or outside, and preventing them from acting in disorderly fashion or otherwise in ways that disturb the order of society.

Some of these responsibilities overlap with those of the military, but the general mandate of the police is to protect citizens, removing the innocent from harm's way, while the military take a more aggressive responsibility. Law enforcement methods range from the wearing of uniforms and the use of obviously marked vehicles that promote the sense of authority, to investigations of crimes, to undercover operations involving infiltration into suspected criminal groups. In all, though, the task of law enforcement is to maintain a society that operates according to the established norms and laws, for the benefit of all its members.