Chapter 7

1. Chapter 7
Issues in
Policing

2. Who Are the Police
Police and Education
Race and Ethnicity
Women in Policing

3. Who Are the Police?
Police and Education
 About 16% of departments have some
type of college requirement
 About 9% require a two-year degree
 Only 1% of local police department
required a four-year degree
The jury is still out on whether educated
officers are more effective

4. Who Are the Police?
 Benefits of higher education for police
Better Communication with the Public
Better Writers
Generation of Fewer Citizen Complaints
Greater Self Confidence
Behave More Professionally
Less Inclined to Use Force

5. Race and Ethnicity of Full-Time
Sworn Personnel in Local Police
Departments, by Size of Population
Served

6. Who Are the Police?
Minorities in Policing
 Over the past several decades, police
departments have made a concerted effort
to attract minority police officers
 Minority officers help to gain the
confidence of the minority community
 Qualities that can improve police
performance
Spanish speakers (any foreign language)

7. Who Are the Police?
Minorities in Policing
 The African American experience
Discrimination
Double marginality
 Minority representation today
Almost 25% of local police officers today are
minorities
More aggressive and self-assured
Job-related stress

8. Who Are the Police?
Women in Policing
 About 15% of sworn officers are female
 Still struggling for acceptance
 Higher levels of job-related stress
 Many female officers report that policing
is male-dominated and not
very woman friendly

9. Who Are the Police?
Women in Policing
 Female officers are less likely than male
officers to be charged with improper
conduct.
 Female officer recruits are more likely to
fail the entrance physical exam than male
officer recruits.
 Female officers tend to receive harsher
punishments than male officers if cited for
disciplinary action.
 Female officers are less likely to use force
than male officers.

10. Percent of Full-Time Sworn Law
Enforcement Officers Who Are
Women Among Local Police
Departments and Sheriffs’ Offices

11. The Police Culture
Personalities
Policing Styles

12. Police Culture
Six core beliefs are viewed as being at
the heart of the police culture:
a. Police are the only real crime fighters
b. No one else understands
c. Loyalty to colleagues counts above
everything else
d. The war against crime cannot be won
without bending the rules
e. Members of the public are basically
unsupportive and unreasonably demanding
f. Patrol work is the pits

13. Police Personality
Some experts believe that police
officers develop a unique set of
personality traits that distinguish
them from the average citizen
 This working personality is shaped by
constant exposure to danger, and the
need to use force and authority, to reduce
and control threatening situations

14. Thinking Point
• Think about the issue of the
“police personality.”
Based on what you have read, seen, and
generally been exposed to about the
police, do you believe a distinct “police
personality” exists? Why or why not?
Do you know someone in law
enforcement? Do they have this “police
personality”?

15. The Police Profession
Police styles
Working personalities adopted by police
officers that can range from being a social
worker in blue to being a hard-charging
crime fighter
Police styles:
 The crime fighter
 The social agent
 The law enforcer
 The watchman

16. Thinking Point
• Police Style
What police style do you believe is
represented most frequently as associated
with policing in the media?
Based on your personal experience with
the police, what is the style of policing you
have encountered?
Do you believe there is a style of policing
that “most” police officers exhibit?

17. Police Discretion
Police Discretion

18. Police Discretion
Discretion
 The use of personal decision making and
choice in carrying out operations in the
criminal justice system
Most police officers use a high degree of
personal discretion in carrying out daily
tasks
Low-visibility decision
making

19. Police Discretion
Factors Influencing Discretion
 Crime factors
 Victim factors
 Environmental factors
 Departmental factors
 Peer factors
 Suspect behavior and characteristics
 Officer characteristics
Probably the greatest example of the use of
police discretion:
 The discretion police officers use in traffic stops.
 compared to the use of discretion in Homicides,
Aggravated Assaults, or Hostage Situations.

20. Thinking Point
• Find 1-2 articles on a case of
racial profiling that occurred in
the past 5 years in your state.
Discuss the lack of discretion used in that
case. Where “could” discretion have been
used?

21. Problems in Policing
Role Ambiguity
Job Stress
Violence and Brutality
Corruption

22. Problems of Policing
The role ambiguity, social isolation,
and threat of danger present in
working the streets are the police
officer’s constant companions
 The most significant negative effects are
job stress, fatigue, violence and brutality,
and corruption

23. Job Stress
Difficulties maintaining social and family
relationships, considering their schedule
and workload
 Some stressors are job related
 Internal conflict with administrative policies
that deny officers support and a meaningful
role in decision making
Stressors are typically:
 External
 Organizational
 Duty
 Individual

24. Job Stress
Controlling police fatigue
 Review policies, procedures, and
practices
 Assess how much of a voice officers are
given in work-hour and shift-scheduling
decisions
 Assess the level of fatigue officers
experience
 Review recruit and in-service training
programs

25. Violence and Brutality
Brutality
 Refers to actions such as using abusive
language, making threats, using force or
coercion unnecessarily, prodding with
nightsticks, and stopping and searching
people to harass them
Evidence shows that
only a small proportion
of officers are continually
involved in problem
behavior

26. Corruption
Corruption
 Consists of exercising legitimate discretion
for improper reasons or using illegal means to
achieve approved goals
Two types of corrupt officers:
a. Meat eaters
 Aggressively misuse police power for personal
gain by demanding bribes, threatening legal
action, or cooperating with criminals
a. Grass eaters
 Accept payoffs when their everyday duties place
them in a position to be solicited by the public

27. Corruption
 Types of corruption include:
 Internal corruption
 Selective enforcement or nonenforcement
 Active criminality
 Bribery and extortion
 Causes of corruption include:
 Police personality
 Institutions and practices
 Moral ambivalence
 Environmental conditions
 Corrupt departments
 Officer characteristics

28. Video: Public Corruption

29. Video: Discussion
Questions
What types of cor ruption
were evident in the video?
What is the impact of
cor ruption on society’s trust
shor t term?
What about the impact long
term?

30. Controlling Corruption
Strengthen the internal administrative
review process within police
departments
 Accountability system
A system that makes police supervisors
responsible for the behavior of the officers
in their command
 Outside reviews boards
 Change the social context of policing
 Special prosecutor

31. Use of Force
Use of Force Continuum
Deadly Force
Non-Deadly Force

32. Use of Force
Police use of force may not be as
common as previously believed, but it
still remains a central part of the
police role
 There is still debate over whether police
are more likely to get rough with minority
suspects
 Suspect behavior may be a more
important determinant of force than race
or ethnicity

33. A Use-of-Force
Continuum

34. Deadly Force
 Deadly force
 Force that is likely to cause death or significant bodily harm
 Non-deadly force
 Force that is unlikely to cause death or significant bodily harm
 Such as Pepper Spray which shuts the eyes of a suspect and
automatically induces shortness of breath.
 Tasers (may change in the future)
 Factors related to police shootings
 Local and national violence levels
 Exposure to violence
 Workload
 Firearms availability
 Social conflict
 Administrative policies
 Race

35. Controlling Deadly Force
One of the most difficult problems that
undermined the control of deadly force was
the continued use of the fleeing-felon rule in a
number of states
 Tennessee v. Garner (1985)
 Outlawed the indiscriminate use of deadly force against
an unarmed and non-dangerous fleeing felon
 Individual state jurisdictions still control police
shooting policy and some states have adopted
statutory policies that restrict the police use of
violence
 Internal review and policy making by police
administrative review boards are used

36. Nondeadly Force
Can range from the use of handcuffs
and suspect compliance techniques
to rubber bullets and stun guns
 Researchers have found that the crime in
question is strongly linked to the type of
nondeadly force used
 Officers are also influenced by past
experience, the presence of other officers,
and the presence and behavior of
bystanders

37. Nondeadly Force
Graham v. Connor
 Created reasonableness
standard
Less lethal weapons
 Designed to subdue suspects
 Among the most widely used nonlethal
weapons are impact munitions
Used to stun or otherwise incapacitate
uncooperative suspects so they can be
subdued

38. Police As Victims
Less Deadly for both Public and Police
Below 100
Police Officer Memorial
Trooper James Sauter (28)

39. Law Enforcement
Officers
Feloniously
Killed or
Assaulted

40. Police as Victims
Fewer people are being killed by
police, and fewer officers are being
killed in the line of duty than ever
before
 The National Law Enforcement Officers
Memorial
The nation’s monument to
police officers who have
died in the line of duty
 Illinois Police Officer Memorial
Illinois 1st Thursday in May
Springfield, Illinois

41. Below 100
The 5 Tenets
 Wear Your Belt
 Wear Your Vest
 Watch Your Speed
 WIN—What’s Important Now?
 Remember: Complacency Kills!
www.below100.com

42. Trooper James Sauter
Illinois State Trooper
28 Years Old
Newly Married
Lived in Vernon Hills