Police Abuse Essay Research Paper In recent

Police Abuse Essay, Research Paper

In recent years, police actions, particularly police abuse, hascome into view of a wide, public and critical eye. While citizens worryabout protecting themselves from criminals, it has now been shown that theymust also keep a watchful eye on those who are supposed to protect andserve. This paper will discuss the types of police abuse prevalent today,including the use of firearms and receipt of private information. I willalso discuss what and how citizens’ rights are taken advantage of bypolice. For these problems, solutions will be discussed, focusing onpolitical reform, education, and citizen review boards. These measures arenecessary to protect ourselves from police taking advantage of theirpositions as law enforcement officers with greater permissive rights thanprivate citizens. Because of this significant differential, all citizensmust take affirmative action from physical brutality, rights violations,and information abuse. Problems arise, however, when one side is told what to do byanother, as there is bound to be conflicting viewpoints. In regard topolice abuse, there will be many officers who feel that their job offighting escalating street crime, gangs, narcotics violations, and otherviolent crimes is difficult already, and that worrying about excessivepolicy for abusive behavior will only further decrease their ability tofight crime effectively, efficiently, and safely. Citizens, however, havebeen caught up in this gung-ho attitude, and police are more and more oftencrossing the line of investigation and interrogation with abusive behavior.This abuse must be monitored so that police do not forget who they areserving–not themselves, but the public. This means that even thecriminals, who are a part of the public, have certain rights, particularly,civil rights. All citizens must be aware of these rights to protectthemselves against over-aggressive officers who take advantage of theirposition as badge and gun holders to intimidate and abuse civilians forpersonal or departmental goals. Such conflicts have significant implications on departmental andadministrative policy procedures. One of the main police abuse problems isphysical brutality. The main goal here should be to get the policedepartments to adopt and enforce a written policy governing the use ofphysical force. The policy should restrict physical force to the narrowestpossible range of specific situations. For example, their should belimitations on the use of hand-to-hand combat, batons, mace, stun guns, andfirearms. However, limiting polices’ actions will bring much debate,especially from police officers and administrators themselves. Many feelthat their firepower is already too weak to battle the weapons criminalshave on the streets, and limiting their legality of gun use will not onlyendanger them, but the innocent bystanders who must endure the hierarchygunpower creates in the benefit of criminals. For instance, not only should officers use brutality in verylimited situations, to help curtail unwarranted use, but policies shouldrequire officers to file a written report after any use of physical force,regardless of how seemingly insignificant. That report should then beautomatically reviewed by superior officers. It is necessary to involvesuperior officers so that a tolerance of brutality is not established, andan atmosphere conducive to police abuse is not created. Police may feelthat such action would be burdensome. This is so because police oftenalready feel burdened and restrained by policy and paperwork which takes alarge amount of their on-duty time. When will police be required to dopaperwork on how long and what was done during each coffee break to ensuretax payers are getting their every seconds worth. There must be areasonable balance between civilian intervention and administration.Although, if every incidence of police abuse was requested to be reported,how many actually would be. Maybe only those serious enough, as depictedin new guidelines, would make it, leaving some space for officers to exertpressure without crossing serious and abusive policy. Another tactic to control police brutality is to establish a systemto identify officers who have been involved in an inordinate number ofincidents that include the inappropriate use of physical force. Theincidents should then be investigated. For those officers who arefrequently involved in unnecessary police brutality, they should becharged, disciplined, re-trained and offered counseling. If such treatmentproves ineffective, officers who violate abuse standards should be broughtup on review before an administrative board comprised of citizens andpolice officials. A third violation should be met with termination andloss of pension. Some may claim that this is paranoia and will simply costtoo much. A single officer can tie up numerous other non-problem officersduring the discipline and re-training stages, only adding to the cost ofrehabilitating this problem officer. When does an officer needintervention. When is the officer worth keeping or discharging. Isidentifying abusive officers a form of prejudice. The police officer isthere to serve and protect the public who pays his or her salary. Theofficer should then be subject to any investigations into his or herabusive actions on the job. A third method for controlling police brutality is creating acivilian review board. The review board should be independent from thepolice depar