1). It can be argued that police officers and other law enforcement officials have one of the most difficult jobs in the United States. The answer to whether police officers should have the same due process as a citizen is quite simple. The U.S. constitution guarantees rights, including the right to due process, for each and every citizen of the United States, and law enforcement officials are also ultimately the citizens of the country. It is often argued that law enforcement officials should not possess rights greater than those possessed by other citizens. However, this also means that their rights should be lowered than those that other citizens possess. Due process rights are a constitutional protection that protects U.S. citizens from being unfairly persecuted by the government. Even law enforcement officials need protection and deserve to have due process rights. Treating police officers more harshly is unjust just as treating them more leniently is, and violating their right to due process is a violation of the U.S. Constitution itself and the protections it officers to all legal citizens of the country. Even law enforcement officials expect and deserve to receive honest representation even if they violate their oaths, and like any other U.S. citizen, they should be tried fairly, and punished if found guilty, while not ignoring their due process rights.
2). The criminal justice system is an important system within the United States. Despite the expectations of officials and the advances in technologies, the criminal justice system must continue reducing crime, respecting human rights, and raising technical capacity, and that too within limited budgets. Perhaps, that is why there are different types of budgets, namely the Line Item Budget, the Performance Budget, and the Program Budget that the criminal justice system can utilize. The Line Item Budget is a type of budget in which an individual line is dedicated to each significant cost, and in the criminal justice system, it is the easiest budgets to review. For instance, there may be separate lines for the anticipated costs of armor, heating fuel, etc. until all funds are calculated. The Performance Budget is a type of budget in which funds can be allocated to different segments of the criminal justice system based on the performance level they are currently achieving. Utilizing this type of budget can improve the allocation of funds and resources, especially when they are scarce, and make criminal justice system function more effectively. The Program Budget is a type of budget that is designed for a particular law enforcement activity or program. In the criminal justice system, this type of a budget can be utilized in the criminal justice system to allocate funds to law enforcement programs matching the goals set for them and the criminal justice system as a whole.
1). Higher levels of technological advancements are quickly changing the society we are living in. More powerful and greater capabilities have been created for policing and law enforcement by latest technologies. Augmented Reality (AR) is a potentially powerful emerging technology of the 21st century. Policing and law enforcement in the near future might be significantly impacted by AR technology. The police would be able to combat crime and terrorism in innovative ways. In the future, AR technology could be applied to patrolling, SWAT operations, criminal investigation, training and supervision. One such example is the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) technology. This would be a device that police officers, especially SWAT officers, would wear. This device would audibly and/or visually distinguish civilians and fellow law enforcement officials from potentially hostile targets so that friendly forces and/or innocents are not accidentally shot down. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could also be controlled using the AR technology and surveillance activities could be enhanced by the combination of the two. The possibilities of such an advanced technology in the law enforcement field are endless but before being deployed as a viable option certain obstacles will have to be overcome. Of course, the biggest obstacle would be to make such technologies function within constitutional limitations without violating privacy rights. AR and any other similar technologies, in particular, violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. constitution.
2). Police officers have been using non- lethal weapons along with their lethal counterparts for a long time. There are times when peace can be preserved without the use of deadly force. This is when an array of nonlethal weapons such as beanbag rounds, pepper spray, and tasers can come in handy, allowing police officers to apprehend criminals without using deadly force unless absolutely necessary. The biggest benefit of carrying non-lethal weapons for police officers is that they perform their most basic duty of apprehending suspected lawbreakers without causing too much ill harm. Even suspected lawbreakers have a right to free trial and if a suspect is not hostile, then the use of non-lethal weapons is the easiest and safest way to neutralize them in order to take them into custody. According to police officers, causing a suspect enough pain that they no longer resist and can be taken into custody is the basic concept based upon which non-lethal weapons such batons, beanbag rounds, and pepper spray are used, and they agree that these weapons indeed work in most situations. They also agree that tasers are far more effective than other types of non-lethal weapons used by the police since the shock causes muscles in a suspect’s body to lock up, effectively neutralizing the target. The effective and proper use of non-lethal weapons can potentially lower the ratio of police shootings.
References
K. J., Peak. Justice administration: Police, Courts,and Correction Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
