The paper emphasizes the police as formal law enforcement agency destined to guard the rights of people in the society and involvement of local governments in policing. The minorities and women’s inclusion in the police department has proved improvement in policing over the time. Prime responsibilities of police in local government as well as in the state and the federal government are further explained in the essay.
Social control is defined as the concept of people behaving and reacting to the troublesome individual. Few responsibilities such as inform to police if some unusual thing occurs in the neighborhood, are accredited to an individual as a responsible citizen of the society. The police department is part of the system of social control where police have to ensure that the law is being followed dutifully. The police can lower the crime rate by proving themselves to be an effective part of the system of social control. Authoritative measures are taken by the department to be part of the system of social control and make sure that the law is justified.
Police gain the trust of society and as a result, society accepts police to be part of the system of social control. Police have been working on regulation of rules and laws to make sure justice is being served to every citizen, regardless of caste, color, and creed. Complaints such as violation of morality, breaking the law, and other customs are taken care of by effective policing. Police are socially aware of how to safeguard the rights of citizenship, regardless of racial differences. Equality is the main ingredient for the police to be a part of the system of social control. Police ensures equal treatment for white Caucasians as well as Negroes. Hence, the police implements social control for society by responsibly using the authorities.
The police community relationship tends to improve when a police department ensures that the law is being followed, and every citizen’s rights are being guarded. In order to make an effective relationship between police and community, programs are proposed by the government. Community policing is the concept where police work and responds to residents of the community promptly. Essentially a police and community work as a team to ensure the law and justice in the community (Amatrudo and William Blake). The community policing programs have improved the relationship between police and communities to a great deal since residents of a community feel responsible and report to police on the core issue. As a result, police gains trust of the community and prevention of crime is ensured by the implementation of community policing programs.
The prime responsibilities of police within local government include traffic duty, provide assistance to public, and make sure that the law prevails in the community, whereas the state and the federal law responsibilities include investigations and enforcements. If a police officer moves from the local government to the state or the federal law, he might end up dealing with administrative duties and tough jobs. The strength of the prime responsibilities of a police officer within state or federal law is that the police department givens more authority over jurisdiction. The weakness is the enormous difficulty of performing the job such as investigating a criminal murder case.
The police unions have far more adverse effects on police department since such unions try to hide their loopholes by covering up the bad cops. The police department is facing a lot of issues created by the police unions. Police unions to some extent have disturbed the police department immensely.
Proper training and education of police officers make them appropriate for the deployment of law. An intellectual, tactful, and sound police officer proves to be an effective officer than the one without it. The research conducted by Dr. Cunningham suggested that numerous chiefs with an ample supply of educated officers prove to be effective at performing the job (The police chief). Including women and minorities in the department of police has shaped up the police culture in a positive manner.
People from different backgrounds and women are encouraged to be a part of police and proving themselves to be competent. The agencies are being diversified by the enrollment of women and minorities since agencies require a blend of traits such as empathy and effective communication. Law enforcement agencies believe that with the addition of women and minorities, police culture has been diversified to a great extent. Therefore, it is concluded that the police department is an essential part of the community as well as government.
Works Cited
Amatrudo, Anthony and Leslie William Blake. Human Rights and the Criminal Justice System. Abingdon: Routledge, 2014.
The police chief. "Support for college degree requirements: The big picture." 2016. policechiefmagazine.org. 2016. <http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=959&issue_id=82006>.
