The Police in America have always been Controversial
The establishment of the police is a mandate of the constitution to ensure law enforcement, as well as public order and safety. It is created as an instrument to maintain a civil nation. As Egon Bittner asserts, the police, as an agency, are empowered and responsible to provide short-term solutions to emergent problems. Its manpower is competent enough to provide intervention to any form of emergencies, without any exceptions (Bittner, 1974). It is an institution created by the state as part of its efforts to police the people and protect the state and the people from lawless elements. Unlike the military that focuses in the context of national security, the police functions to administer the criminal law. The United Nations supports that the police, as an organization, commit to honorable and competent public service which is consistent in upholding high standards of integrity at the personal and procedural level of exercising their responsibilities (UNODC, 2006).
The police function as a law enforcement agency that works based on the derivatives of the provisions of the penal code. In other words, it operates as an institution concerned with criminal justice. Accordingly, the police work on the assumption that they are vanguards of the war on crime. They also operate as an institution that stringently enforces the law and dedicate themselves primarily in crime prevention. It is also assumed that they work hand-in-hand with the prosecutors, judges, and correctional personnel (Bittner, 1974). While the police’s primary function is focused on addressing criminality, they also work with the community in various functions such as maintaining traffic, community relations, intelligence, problem-solving, partnerships, decentralization, and facilitating supportive environments (Brooks, n.d.).
The prevalence of community has policing paved way for the expansion on the role of the police, far from the stereotypical role of maintaining peace and order. In the light of these functions, it can be understood that the police elicit behaviors and discretion on varying circumstances. Two approaches became apparent in the United States: community policing which was introduced in the 80s under the Koch administration opened a holistic approach and community involvement in policing, and is less stringent in nature. The more enforcing one, the zero-tolerance policy which was practiced under New York City mayor Guiliani, exhibits a far tougher way in dealing with criminals. These two approaches are examples of how police behaviors are different in dealing with criminality and imposition of the penal codes; however, these approaches cannot be treated as an explanation on why the police elements behave badly.
While the goal of the police is to eradicate criminality, the police develop a set of behavior, often as a result of police discretion. Police officers often exercise discretionary actions which include minor to major decisions to respond to a situation (Brooks, n.d.). As Ericson (1982) defines, discretion involves taking or not taking an action and having the power to decide how to address a situation taking into consideration its significant impacts to the police and the community. The exercise of discretion often poses problems such as unequal treatment to citizens, intrusion to due process, or even discretionary measures that were not discussed and decided upon by headquarters’ top brass (Brooks, n.d.). These problems only piles up to the tarnished image of the police in the USA.
Consider the cases of Latinos and African-Americans who became victims of police brutality. In a report of CNN, 20-year old Amilcar Perez-Lopez, a native of Guatemala was shot and killed by San Francisco police officers last February 28, 2015. Reports suggest that the police officers were chasing after him and shot him in an instant. This incident is only the growing number of cases of police brutality among races (Reyes, 2015).
Also, the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter has raised the issue of police brutality among African-Americans. The police killings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown in 2012 and 2014, respectively, have created a snowball of protests from the streets and in the internet to denounce the misconduct of white police officers (Sinder and Simon, 2015). The movement has since grown and spawned support at the global level, challenging the American police.
In addition, the zero tolerance policy spearheaded by Police Commissioner William Bratton under New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani was also met with protests from the Civil Rights movement because of allegations of human rights violations committed by the police. Greene (2014) reported that the complaints on police brutality have increased up to 75 percent over the last four years. Amnesty International also supported the reports, stating that there is a multitude of documentation that support the misconduct and abuse under the zero tolerance policy imposed by then-New York mayor. Conversely, there was no proof that associates the drop in New York’s crime rate to the zero-tolerance policy. This finding only proves that punitive approaches do not guarantee a safer community.
The abovementioned cases make the American police controversial both at the local and at the global levels. While US government, through President Barrack Obama initiated actions to address the situations, the prevalence of police brutality represents a system failure where impunity lives. The reputation of the police as an institution has been tarnished because of the bad behaviors exhibited from police discretions; however, the controversies must be viewed into a systemic lens. It is not limited to “bad apples” or few “rotten tomatoes” in the institution. Hence, it entails a widespread reform to be able to elevate the status of the police to the general public.
Bad police behaviors can be a result of a myriad of factors ultimately connected with the political, social, organizational and cultural contexts. Multiple researches attribute factors such as bureaucracy, leadership qualities of the officer, socioeconomic status, race, and even educational attainment of the officer as among the reasons why the police elicit certain bad behaviors and even result to the tainting of the institution as a whole.
Aside from the factors, an important consideration of the police behaviors is the “belief system” or the orientations and policing styles of the officers. These belief systems, often subjective in outlook, comprises of beliefs, attitudes, and values, among others (Worden, 1995). Brooks (n.d.) found that there are vast number of researches that study the attitudes, orientations, and styles that are associated with the discretionary behavior of the police. Wilson (1968) explains that the discretionary behavior of the police depends on how they make judgments about the situation and how they practice distributive justice. It depends on the moral standing of the victims and perpetrator, and these judgments presets actions from the officers. In addition, the previous experiences of the police in handling individuals and groups have provided them indicators on suspiciousness, crime risks, and even the moral character of individuals (Werthman and Piliavin, 1967).
Brown (1981), Muir (1977) and Ericson (1982) have pushed for considerations in police attitudes or orientations to understand the discretionary behavior of the police. Accordingly, there is a need to examine how the police officers view their jobs, the law, and the circumstances and people that they face in their everyday work as officers. They view things as general and uphold a parallel set of beliefs that guide how they behave, work and operate. They follow a guide for their behaviors based on the rule-of-thumb, their experiences, and other mandates such as departmental rules, and legal codes (Ericson, 1982). Brooks (n.d.) has cited the study of Stroshine, Alpert, and Dunham that found that police officers develop a set of working rules that consider time, place, appearance, personality, views of fairness, safety, and protection, among other factors as indicators on the set of behaviors that they would exhibit while on-duty. Still, these working styles reflect how relative the behaviors of police officers are in terms of treating the perpetrators and victims.
For instance, during the zero-tolerance campaign launched in the New York Police Department by Giuliani, the approach has upheld the broken window theory—an approach that uses firm suppression as a means to quell the predatory criminals (Greene, 1999). From the lens of this approach, it can be viewed police exhibits a more proactive role in crime prevention through application of changes in management tools, techniques, and technology and implementation of decentralization of authority through wresting of decision-making power to the precinct and borough commands instead of awaiting decisions from the headquarter brass (Silverman, 1997).
In a study conducted by Porter and Warrender (2009), they found that the most common bad behaviors of police include:
Physical abuse: indiscriminate and reckless police discretion on situations that may be confronted with resistance or conflict. It also pertains to the use of brutality and excessive force, often unjustified, that may cause harm or lead to killing, torture, or cruel treatment.
Sexual abuse and misconduct: police officers who subject the witness, victim, or the perpetrator to sex-related abuse such as rape or sexual harassment. Said misconduct also leads to extortion in several cases.
Prisoner maltreatment: Police officers beat or torture or coerce the suspect to confess. The use of intimidation to induce physical and mental distress among the suspects.
Traffic violation: The neglect or irresponsible driving of police officers leads to violations in terms of speed regulations and proper use of signal lights. Ironically, they violate traffic rules which they stringently enforce to the public.
Extortion: This is one of the most common violations of police officers, especially in enforcing traffic regulations, or conducting spot checks. They readily accept cash offers by traffic violators.
Corruption: Police officers gain personal wealth from the office he or she manages.
Manipulation of evidence: This happens when the police officer tampers the evidence either to prove guilt or innocence to a suspect.
Unauthorized disclosure of evidence: In relation to corruption and bribery, this happens when police authorities disclose a certain amount of information to the media, intelligence or other parties to gain publicity or to extort from the suspect or the victim.
Note that these are not only committed by male police. While most of the cases of police brutality involve males, female police officers can also be alleged as a culprit in the abovementioned cases. Gaub (2015) has found in her research that factors such as having children and employment issues, increases the risk of misconduct among the female police officers. This proves that police misconduct can be committed by both sexes.
With these commonly perpetrated cases of bad police behaviors, it is important to address the issues to repair the tarnished reputation of the police since its creation. There is a dire need to implement reforms inside the police institution, as well as in training, selecting, and promoting police officers.
At the organizational level, high-level of integrity and professionalism must be implemented at the top brass up to the rank-and-file officers. Command responsibility enters into the picture. Officers as well as key government agencies must be the lead in creating policies that define the functions and mandates of institution. It also means strengthening the accountability of police officers. Studies show that the more bureaucratic the system is, the more punitive the actions of the police officers are. It also increases the probability of arrests (Brooks, n.d.). Improving the bureaucratic system entails changes in administration and management. In the case of NYPD, while there is no direct correlation between the lowering to crime rate to the zero-tolerance policy, the efforts of Bratton has improved the management of the police in New York (Greene, 1999). This has paved way for adapting new management techniques which created a better disposition to the police officers.
In terms of racial and situational factors, reforms must be done to ensure that the rights and liberties of cultural minorities are respected. The socioeconomic status of the neighborhood and its racial composition affect the discretionary behavior of police officers. Police officers usually have selective treatments to a well-off client than the poor ones. They also tend to treat the poor ones severely (Sun and Payne, 2004). More African-American and Latinos communities are also treated differently by police officers. They impose a more coercive action rather compared to their treatment to whites. The National Research Council (2004) agrees to this, stating that the police exhibit more punitive actions to poor neighborhoods and community of minorities. This necessitates measures to empower police officers on the fairness of justice system, especially how it caters to everyone regardless of their minority, socioeconomic status, gender, and sexual orientation.
It is also important to continue fostering community policing. As evidenced in San Diego, the neighborhood has led the “neighborhood watch” and citizen patrol to observe suspicious activities, identify problems encountered by the community, facilitate crime prevention programs, use of legal remedies, enforcement of strict building code, collaboration with community organizations and business entities to clean up, close down or change the locations or properties that may continuously promote anti-social activities such as prostitution, gang wars, among others (Greene, 1999). Community policing, despite its failure to lessen the crime rate, can still be utilized in a proper manner. Such includes continued partnership with the community for the people to proactively engage in crime prevention.
Apart from community policing, it is also important to involve women and minorities in reforming the police system. This can be in the form of including women and minorities in the roster of police officers. Gaub (2015) has found that the presence of female officers in police stations provides a positive attitude towards policing than male police officers. The presence of other genders and minorities provide a facilitating avenue in assisting minority citizens.
It is important to continuously educate and empower the police officers from the top brass up to the lowest ranking police officer. It is necessary to conduct a widespread education program to harness more efficient, gender-sensitive, supportive, and community-oriented police officers. Apart from college degrees, it is also important to push for programs that aim to train officers on the justice system, cultural and gender sensitivity, among many others that could improve how they relate to the community. High level of integrity, competence, and professionalism must be upheld to avoid misconduct and abuse of power.
Ultimately, police brutality and misconduct can be thwarted through systematic changes in the government where the police. There will be no genuine peace and order as long as the police foster punitive actions and bad behaviors.
Reference
Bittner, E. (1974). Florence Nightingale in pursuit of Willie Sutton. Policing Key Readings. USA: Northeastern University Press
Brooks, L. (n.d.). Police Discretionary Behavior: A study of style. Critical Issues in Policing
Brown, M. (1981). Working the street: police discretion and dilemmas of reform. New York: Rusell Sage Foundation
Ericson, R. (1982). Reproducing Order: A Study of Police Patrol Work. Toronto: University of Toronto Press
Gaub, J. (2015). Bad Lady Cops: Explaining Sex Differences in Police Officer Misconduct. Arizona: Arizona State University
Greene, J. (1999). Zero Tolerance: A case study of police policies and practices in New York City. Crime and Delinquency Vol. 45. New York: Sage Publications
Muir, W. (1977). Police: street corner politicians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
National Research Council (2004). Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing. USA: The New Academics Press
Porter, L.E. and Warrender, C. (2009) A multivariate model of police deviance: examining the nature of corruption, crime and misconduct. Policing & Society, Vol. 19
Reyes, R. (2015). Police brutality towards the Latinos is unacceptable. Retrieved from: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/09/opinions/reyes-police-brutality-latinos/
Sidner, S. and M. Simon (2015). The rise of Black Lives Matter: Trying to break the cycle of violence and silence. Retrieved from: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/28/us/black-lives-matter-evolution/
Silverman, E. (1997). Crime in New York: a success story. Public Perspective
Sun, I and B. Payne (2004). Racial Differences in resolving conflicts: a comparison between white and black police officers. Crime and Delinquency (50)
