Chapter 3 – Policing Role, Styles,
Functions and Legal Constraints
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Role defined: the rights and responsibilities
associated with a particular position in society
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Based on expected behaviors from the people
being served for that role
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“Public Servant”
“To Serve and Protect”
Conflict arises when trying to perform
incompatible responsibilities
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Quick decision making – try to mitigate this
with training
Total independence – lack of supervision and
sometimes even guidelines
“Dirty Work”
Perceived Danger
This leads to different styles of policing
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Legalistic
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Emphasizes total enforcement of the laws and the use of
threats or actual arrests to gain compliance
 They are enforcers and/or professionals
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Watchman
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Emphasizes informal means of dispute resolution
 Keep the peace at all costs
 Tend to be idealists, concentrating on social order and due
process
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Service
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Emphasizes helping the community as opposed to law
enforcement
 They are optimists, concentrating on due process
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Realists
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Are not concerned with social order or due process
Usually very cynical
Also known as reciprocators because they lack the
passion to do the job
Avoiders
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Don’t want to get involved with the community at
all
Do as little as possible to keep the job
No passion for the job and little interest in helping
people
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Preventive Patrol
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Trolling
Patrolling the streets with little direction in between
calls for service
 Will more police officers present reduce crime?
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Directed Patrol
Systematic use of police resources to target the
highest crime areas
 Heavy use of Crime Mapping
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Aggressive Patrol
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Based on the directive to make several traffic stops
and field interrogations
Conduct several arrests for both minor and major
offenses
Field interrogation
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Temporary detention used when officers find people
in suspicious circumstances
 Look for things that are out of place
 Racial profiling
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Foot Patrol
One of the newest “movements” in Community
Policing
 No appreciable affect on crime rates
 Great deal of influence on Fear of Crime
 Helps with SARA
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 Scanning – id problems
 Analysis – understand underlying conditions
 Response – develop and implement solutions
 Assessment – determine solutions’ effect
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Reasonable suspicion to stop
Probable cause to search
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A search is an exploration of people, property or
places for the purpose of discovering and identifying
evidence, contraband, etc.
Leads to seizure
Can be based on a warrant
Can also be based on an arrest
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Must have probable cause
Must be specific
The Exclusionary Rule
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Three purposes
 To protect individual rights from police misconduct
 To prevent police misconduct
 To maintain judicial integrity
 Mapp vs. Ohio brought this to the states
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Search incident to arrest
Plain view doctrine
Protective sweeps
Exigent circumstances – safety of the public