- Discuss what Marquis means by ‘vagging’? How does the distinction between 'vagging' and not play a role in a more expansive definition of 'policing'?
Answer: According to the article written by Marquis entitled, The Police as a Social Service, he defined vagging as a means of arresting people or persons who are practicing the act of ‘vagrancy’. Marquis (1992) argues that vagrancy is the state of homelessness or a person living as a vagrant, idle and without any support at all. The Vagrancy Act was created to prevent vagging which leads to violence and crimes.
“In Toronto, an embarkation point for the West, there was an historic concern with the problem of transient males. Late nineteenth-century charity administrators had responded to the "tramp menace" by instituting a work test at the House of Industry and expecting the police to take care of a limited number of waifs; the relationship between the police and the unemployed was complicated by shifting distinctions between tramps and "vagrants" on the one hand and the more respectable unemployed on the other” (Marquis, 1992 p. 344).
Marquis also noted that by implementing the strict policy against vagabonds there will be lesser chances of people who will commit vagrant acts and therefore a notable decrease in crimes. The distinction between ‘vagging’ plays a vital role in creating stronger policies that will further strengthen the laws against waifs who are violating the Anti-Vagrancy Act. For this reason alone, it has been noted on his article that vagrant individuals are considered a part of the so-called ‘floating population’ and in accordance with laws, persons who are accused of doing vagrancy are arrested and deemed unwelcome at police stations at Toronto and most likely charged with crimes related to Anti-Vagrancy Act (Marquis, 1992 p. 344).
2) How would you define police effectiveness and how would you go about measuring it?
Answer: Police effectiveness are defined by the usual criteria such as the number of cases (easy and difficult) solved as well as the number of criminals caught and sent to jail. In a community for example, the effectivity of the police force was rated by the citizens in accordance to the number of policemen patrolling the entire community along with other vigilant citizens who support the police team in capturing the criminals who poses a threat to the safety and well-being of the people living in the area.
“In addition, in the absence of specialized civic agencies, the police also became responsible for administering and overseeing a plethora of social welfare and public services. Among other things, this included regulating health standards, providing an ambulance service, taking censuses, and giving overnight shelter to tramps in police stations. The consequence was that policing rapidly evolved into a multifaceted institution with broad and amorphous powers to intervene in the lives of city dwellers; the control of crime was but one aspect of this social role” (Boritch and Hagan, 1987 p. 310).
Statistically speaking, another method of assessing the police effectiveness is the data gathering techniques wherein each police station or branch will be required to submit their reports including crime, blotter cases and investigation (both on-going and finished) to serve as a basis in further research. By using this empirical methodology, these valuable data are sent to the main office for assessment and study. In this case, the data of the past year and the present will be compared with one another whilst the gathered information are jotted and noted for evaluation and re-submission to the branch of origin. If the information sent is properly analyzed, law enforcers will be given a notice and a possible meeting with the senior officers for other solutions to decrease the crime levels in the community.
3) Using the historical papers by Boritch and Hagan and Marquis as evidence, discuss whether or not ‘police culture’ has remained stable over time.
Answers: The police culture has been continuously evolving throughout the years. After the Second World War, it has become evident the drastic change of the police culture and the modern influences of certain ideologies. For example, the Feminist movement which began in the late nineteenth century in the Western World led to the new path for women to become engaged in sciences, politics, public service and many more. In the police force, according to the article written by Greg Marquis:
“The hiring of policewomen in 1913, although a token effort was a manifestation of the contemporary social service and moral purity movements. Social service, if relatively undeveloped compared to the police institution's more coercive operations; helped to maintain police legitimacy” (Marquis, 1992, p. 335).
The above statement alone is an example of the changes that happened in the history of law enforcement. Before, there were no women employed in the law enforcement agencies because of the gender issues. In the 17th up to the early 19th century, this field was mostly governed by men than in women. But in these modern times, there are already an increased number of women employed in this services pertaining to combat and public safety. In addition, aside from the influx of women in the law enforcement, policies and laws had been created in order to promote a stronger country and to combat the individuals who violate the laws of the State. Boritch and Hagan (1987, p. 314) argues that:
“Our point is that although clearly the organization of policing and police ideology underwent substantial changes during and after the urban reform era, it has not been shown conclusively that these reforms also resulted in a major reorientation of police enforcement policies.”
As a result, the constant changing environment of the law enforcement especially in the police force made the field more diverse and provided more access for the government to establish protection against domestic violence particularly in the women and children section. Further studies made by Erik Monkkonen (1981) also noted the significant changes that took place in the police organization ideology and allocation of resources. Monkkonen argues that these changes occurred in the Progressive Era which traces its roots back from 1890 in American cities as the police force shifted and focused on more prevention of more serious crimes by addressing simple violations against the law. Moreover, the continuous emergence of urban settlements also paved the way for a more diverse police culture because different indigenous groups of people migrate from one place to another in search of better job allocations. This poses another reason in the stability of the police force because the agency, in order to provide a better service to the people needs to hire more police officers who will do the job of serving the community.
4) How does the documentary Law and Disorder help tie together the themes of ‘policing culture’ and ‘policing as culture’? Is what happened in the NOPD case a story of a few bad apples or deviance produced through cultural norms? You must justify your position.
Answer: The story of the shooting and an allegedly declared martial law in New Orleans in the state of Louisiana became a media sensation amidst the wreckage brought by the hurricane. According to the report, few bad apples were caught looting on the streets. There was an incident of homicide in which a white car was found with a burnt human skull and a femur shot with bullets four days after the storm. Policing as a culture is closely related in the NOPD case story of Louisiana. In accordance with Marquis’ article which describes the Anti-Vagrant Act, vagabonds or people wandering across the streets without permanent direction are arrested and charged for vagrant cases. In relation to the New Orleans’ case, the violation of this act led to a serious crime of looting which is totally against the law. To the police who organized policies in keeping the city safe and protected, this meant as a form of violation to the law and organization. Policing as a culture is almost existent in almost any countries in the world; policies are laws which in turn make the city organized. Policies are meant to organize a city and to stop the lawlessness of its citizens. Because of these policies, the law and enforcement will be able to monitor all the crimes happening in the city as well as chase all the criminals responsible for violating the laws.
The chaotic killings that happened in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina originated from a report authorizing the NOPD to shoot the looters on the streets. Many media scholars said that because of this event in the New Orleans it has created the media sensationalism in which all angles of the story as well as the existing policies of the NOPD were carefully investigated and researched to bring out the answers. In addition to this, because of the killings the idea of harsh law policy was suspected to surface once again in the culture. However, the police as the protector of the society was duly authorized by law to carry-out punishments to those who violated the law and order, but in the case of NOPD, it seems that the NOPD carried out the punishments as drastic and without thinking critically. The fact that the whole state emerged from the horrors of Hurricane Katrina made the people restless and it was a human nature to search for food in order to avoid starving. The shootings made by NOPD officers were too drastic; making the citizens of Louisiana afraid of the police officers than the criminals themselves. Other reports of from the past years had shown the incidents wherein the policemen lost their trainings in their mission and instead of protecting innocents; they ended up killing the civilians.
References
Boritch, H., & Hagan, J. (1987). Crime and the Changing Forms of Class Control: Policing Public Order in "Toronto the Good," 1859-1955*. Social Forces, 66(2).
Marquis, G. (1992). The Police as a Social Service in Early Twentieth-Century Toronto. Social History/Histoire Sociale, 25(50).
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS),. (2010). Law & Disorder. Retrieved from http://video.pbs.org/video/1573979464/
The United States Department of Justice,. (n.d.). Civil Rights Division New Orleans Police Department Investigation. Retrieved 2 June 2014, from http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/nopd.php
