Introduction to
Criminal Justice
Policing: Roles, Styles,
And Functions
Chapter Six
Bohm and Haley
Question
If a role consists of the rights and
responsibilities associated with a
particular position in society,
Then,
“what is your role expectation
of a police officer?”
Role of the Police

Service to the community

Public safety

Decision-making and discretion

Adhere to code of ethics

Role Conflict: Stress from trying to perform two
incompatible responsibilities, i.e., the expectation that
police should be social agents of the community and at
the same time control agents.
Police Functions

Patrol

Investigation

Traffic

Drug Enforcement
Patrol




Preventive patrol (random patrol): unsystematic patrol
based on discretion of officer with the goals of preventing
and ferreting out crime.*
Directed patrol: patrolling under guidance or orders that
are usually based on crime analyses that identify problem
areas, i.e., GIS crime mapping.
Aggressive patrol: the practice of having an entire patrol
section make numerous traffic stops and field
interrogations, i.e., seat- belt stops, sobriety stops, etc.
Methods of patrol: automobile, foot, bicycle, motorcycle,
marine, and horse.
* Refer to the Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment (1972).
Investigation
Criminal investigation is a lawful search for
people and things to reconstruct the
circumstances of an illegal act, apprehend
or determine the guilty party, and aid in
the state’s prosecution of the offender.
This includes the preliminary or initial
investigation and the continuing or
follow-up investigation.
Investigations
(Critical Functions)




Locate witnesses and
suspects
Arrest criminals
Collect, preserve, and
analyze evidence, i.e.,
DNA, AFIS
Interview witnesses

Interrogate suspects

Write reports



Recover stolen
property
Seize contraband
Prepare cases and
testify in court
Question
What is your expectation of
the role of the detective?
Traffic Functions

Educate

Enforce

Recommend
Drug Enforcement
(Critical Functions)

Street-level enforcement

Mid-level enforcement

Major investigations

Crop eradication

Smuggling interdiction

Problem oriented and community policing strategies

Drug demand reduction

Asset forfeiture
Community Policing
A contemporary approach to policing
that actively involves the community
in a working partnership to control
and reduce crime.
Components of Community Policing


Community partnership
Problem solving, i.e., SARA and
crime triangle analysis.

Flexible management

Implementation
Characteristics of Terrorism

Distinction between domestic and international
terrorism, i.e., Oklahoma City – September 11,
2001.

Political in aims and motives.

Exploitation of fear (terror) through violence or
the threat of violence.

Psychological effects (fear through intimidation).

Perpetrated by a subnational group or non-state
entity.
Characteristics of Terrorism
(cont’d)




Designed to create power when there is no
power.
To terrorists, there are no rules of warfare or
codes of conduct.
The goal is that through the publicity generated
from their violence, terrorists will have the
leverage to effect political change.
Perpetrated by some organizational entity with
an identifiable chain of command capable of
conspiratorial conduct.
Terrorism Typologies

Nationalist: seek to form a separate state for
their own national group, i.e., freedom fighters.
Examples include: IRA, Basque Fatherland and
Liberty, and Kurdistan Worker’s Party.

Religious: use violence to further what they
believe are divinely commanded purposes – a
spiritual rather than a military objective.
Examples include: Al-Qaeda, HAMAS,
Hezbollah, Aum Shinrikyo.
Terrorism Typologies
(cont’d)

State-Sponsored: Used by radical states as
foreign policy – provide a cost effective way to wage
war covertly through terrorists, i.e., U.S. embassy –
Tehran (1979). States considered to sponsor terrorism
include: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan,
Syria.
Terrorism Typologies
(cont’d)

Left-Wing, Right-Wing, and Anarchist:
Left-wing groups seek to destroy capitalism and replace it
with a communist social regime.
Right-wing groups seek to create fascists states.
Anarchists are revolutionaries who seek to overthrow all
forms of government. Examples include: Left-Wing (Red
Brigade, Baader-Meinhof Gang, Japanese Red Army); RightWing (Neo-Nazis, skinheads, white supremacists); and,
Anarchist (contemporary anti-globalization groups).