Chapter 6- Policing: Purpose and Styles

The Police Mission

• Enforcing the law

• Apprehending offenders

• Preventing crime

• Preserving the peace

• Providing services

Enforcing the Law

• Enforce federal, state, and local criminal laws

• Not only purpose; Most officers spend majority of time answering non-emergency public service calls, controlling traffic, writing tickets, etc.

• Only 10-20% of calls to police actually requirement law enforcement response

Apprehending Offenders

• Includes Investigation of Crime Scene, gathering information, witnesses, etc. to lead to arrest of potential offender (discussed in-depth at later time)

Preserving the Peace

• Peacekeeping is virtually limitless police activity involving not only activities that violate the law, but also includes quality-of-life offenses and regulating events that could potentially disrupt the peace

Preserving the Peace-Supervising of Potential Events

• Parades• Public Demonstrations• Strikes• Marches• (etc.)

Preserving the Peace- Quality of Life Offenses

• Minor law violations (also known as petty crimes)

• Some violations demoralize residents and creates disorder- offenses include:– Excessive Noise– Graffiti– Abandoned Cars– Vandalism

Preserving the Peace- Quality of Life Offenses

• Other violations reflect social decay. This includes– Panhandling/ Aggressive Begging– Public Urination– Prostitution– Roaming Youth Gangs– Public Consumption of Alcohol– Street Level Substance Abuse

Preserving the Peace- Quality of Life Offenses

• Homelessness is not technically a violation of the law unless it involves trespassing, but is typically addressed under quality-of-life programs

Preserving the Peace: Broken Window Model of Policing

• Theory based on notion that physical decay in a community (litter, abandoned buildings, etc) can lead to crime by signaling that laws are not being enforced

• Decay pushes law-abiding citizens to withdraw from streets, which then sends signals that criminals can operate freely.

• Police will work with communities to encourage repairs, control behavior in public spaces, etc.

Preserving the Peace: Broken Window Model of Policing

• Some people are against expanded peacekeeping involvement because:– Police should not be taking a law enforcement

approach to social and economic problems– Liberties are infringed upon- where is the line?– Programs are funded through taxpayers, which

could mean raise in taxes

Providing Services

• Police Resource are ready to assist as needed– Websites– 911– 311 (non-emergency) • Created due to high volume of non-emergency 911

calls; Ex. Hastings Police Dept Handled 12,895 calls for service in 2001; only 1, 837 related to serious crimes; 11,058 were for calls such as lost and found articles, minor traffic accidents, suspicious persons, barking dogs, etc.

5 Operational Strategies:

• Preventative Control• Routine Incident Response• Emergency Response• Criminal Investigation• Problem Solving

Preventative Control

• Deter and Interrupt Crimes in Process• Position officers for quick response to

emergency situations• Increase the public’s feelings of safety and

security• Patrol: Operational Mode uniformed officers

are expected to work in w hen not otherwise involved in answering/responding to calls.

Routine Incident Response

• Respond to minor traffic accidents, disruptions, etc.

Emergency Response

• Emergency responses (aka critical responses) include crimes in progress, serious traffic accidents, natural disasters, incidents of terrorism, officer requests for back-up, and other situations in which human life is in jeopardy

• Emergency response takes precedent to all other police matters at the time

• Response to emergencies less than routine incidents

Emergency Response

• Part of police training includes emergency response techniques:– First aid– Hostage rescue– Physical capture of suspects

Criminal Investigation

• Process of discovering, collecting, preparing, identifying, and presenting evidence to determine what happened and who is responsible when a crime occurs.

• Criminal Investigators are referred to as detectives; up to them to solve crimes and produce the evidence needed for prosecution

Criminal Investigation

• Investigation is mostly reserved for detectives, any police officer can be involved in initial stages of investigative process– Secure crime scene– Talk to witnesses/recording statements– Arresting people (if necessary) during crime in

process– Noting facts such as position of victims, unusual

actions/activities, etc.

Problem Solving (least well-developed role of policing)

• Police communicate with clients most affected by community problems

• Information is acquires and analyzed to determine cause of problem

• Solutions developed through community partnerships

• Police respond with workable plan• After plan is implemented, police periodically

assess the situation to ensure progress

Basic Structure of Police Departments

• Divisions (specialties/tasks; i.e. juvenile justice, counter-terrorism, etc)

• Authority– Chain of Command (hierarchy)

• Roles– Line

• Field activities (police officers, detective, etc)• Supervisory activities (Police Commissioner, Sergeant

– Staff• Administration• Training

Styles of Policing• Watchman

– Order and maintenance– Liberal discretion of police officers

• Legalistic– Enforce to the letter of the law– Don’t bother with community issues that do not break the law

• Service– Helpers as opposed to soldiers in a war on crime– Empowerment, Rehabilitation is emphasized over punishment

– (see handout for further descriptions)