Introduction
American police force is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Since 9/11, the department of law enforcement has its major challenges and issues on their daily activities. Despite many shortcomings, the American police force has managed to prevent crimes of large magnitude. The dedication shown by police officers to maintain law and order on a daily basis is highly laudable. However, the challenges growing everyday on police activities leads to major worries. In this paper, we would identify the major challenges faced by the American police force today. Let us discuss on the issue that leads to these major challenges and how it impacts the police activities and on the society as well. We would also find a proper solution for this ongoing issue.
Challenges due to budget cuts on police force
American police force is facing a major challenge of fulfilling its responsibilities due to annual budget cuts by the governments. There is always a justification from ruling governments on their budget cuts. The reasons are mostly welcomed even by the citizens and the media. The governments mostly justify saying that the crime rates have come down and hence there are other areas of development needs focus. There are other reasons added to their justification providing better jobs to citizens have helped to reduce the crime rates. The severe sentencing of 10 to 20 years in prison by the justice system for offenders involving in minor crimes like theft, public assault, illegal drug use and other criminal activities has prevented people from invoked fear among people thus reduced the crimes on large numbers. Moreover there is another reason given saying that youngsters are given proper education and as a result they grow up as better citizens and understand the severity of crimes would affect their future lives. Hence the governments justify that these are the major reasons why they allot budget on other sectors that indirectly helps to reduce crime rather than directly spend much on police force.
The reasons might seem to be a proper justification on the part of the government. However the reality on the ground is completely different. One prime example is that there is a rise in crime rate in the state of California which is seen as a result of budget cuts. The result of some changes include the change in action plans by officers in charge on daily activities like reduction in police force especially the trainee officers and the specially appointed civilian forces, responding to only serious offences like murder, riots and other major offenses, increasing the numbers on police patrol rather than specific activities like civilian cases, financial crimes or undercover activities and finally lest focus on traffic violations. As the strength in police force is seen declining in large numbers the challenges grow higher everyday (Goode, 2012).
Reasons for decline in police force
It’s clear that the annual budget cuts in law enforcement are the major issue for the decline in police force. The decline is not just related to the numbers but also the living background of the police officers. When the life of a police officer is seen on a far sight approach, it is very much evident that they do struggle on their daily lives. The stress factor that causes these officers are on an alarming rate which most of the time left unanswered. The challenges that most officers face on duty doesn't go very well on most of them especially when there are political pressures when involved in major cases also adds major stress on them. There are several situations in their lives where they won't be able to differentiate themselves between family and job. It leads to often mistrust in family relationships. After dealing with criminals consistently involving in repeated offenses, there are times that police officers involve themselves i viewing their family members on the same angle. For example, there are officers who view their children with the thought that they might be lead to crime related activities based on the relationships they develop when they are out of schools. There are also situations that citizens don’t prefer police jobs due to low level of payments (Tyler, 2015).
Solutions to improve police force and proper policing
The immediate need for improvement lies on the ruling governments. They are required to completely increase the annual budgets in order to ensure that there shouldn't be any shortcomings on a long run. The police forces need to reassign the day to day activities by showing importance to all forms of offenses despite its magnitude. There should be a proper focus to improve the police recruitment process. The citizens need to be involved on day to day activities and they should be encouraged to provide complete support to the police force. The police training process need to have a major makeover in training activities in order to encourage the citizens to participate more. The trainers need to be on par the best officers to be put in charge for training process which will bring the best out of the trainees. The mental attitude of the trainees needs to be encouraged on a large scale which will help to improve policing on a long run (Wylie, 2014).
Conclusion
The police force in America need to retain its lost glory. The challenges due to reduction in budget might be easily justified by the rulers of law. But the ground reality is very clear that officers in charge on day to day activities face major challenges. Hence the governments need to retain on allotting budgets on a large scale. There should not be any level of shortcomings in dealing with the police force. By providing the funds required to meet the daily requirements, the standards of policing would improve on a large scale. The interests in people will increase more to join the police forces without hesitation. As America heads to a new era of advanced technology, the faces of crime is expected to change on a large magnitude. In order to deal with it, the governments should bring in a new policy of providing standard funds to the police force and encourage people to be a part of the force.
References
Goode, E. (2012). Crime Increases in Sacramento After Deep Cuts to Police Force. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/us/after-deep-police-cuts-sacramento-sees-rise-in-crime.html?_r=0
Tyler, D. J. (2015). Pitfalls of Police Work Leading to Domestic Violence. Problems, Issues & Challenges In Law Enforcement. Retrieved from: http://www.spiritofthelaw.org/sol1art6.html
Wyllie, D. (2014). Bullet Points: Challenges facing police trainers in 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.policeone.com/police-trainers/articles/6738346-Bullet-Points-Challenges-facing-police-trainers-in-2014/
