Chapter 6
Challenges to
Effective
Policing
Learning Objective 1
 Explain why police are allowed
discretionary power
POLICE DISCRETION
Police Officer on Patrol
Lowest paid - Least amount of authority – Least
discretion
P.O. – great degree of freedom to take action he/she
feels the situation requires
Courts have upheld PO’s right to decide:
 What laws to enforce
 How much to enforce it
 Against whom and on what occasions
POLICE DISCRETION
 Justification for Police Discretion
 PO’s considered trustworthy and are therefore
assumed to make honest decisions
 Experience and training gives PO’s the ability to
recognize threats to society and know what action
to take to investigate or prevent them
 PO’s by nature of the job are extremely
knowledgeable in human, and by extension
criminal behavior ( 6th sense )
 Officers may find themselves in harm’s way and
must be allowed to take action to protect
themselves
POLICE DISCRETION
FACTORS of POLICE DISCRETION:
 PO’s beliefs, values, personality and
background
 Held to a set of rules ( US Constitution)
MAKING the DECISION:
 Nature of the Crime
 Attitude of the wrongdoer
 Relationship between the victim and offender
 Departmental Policy
DISCRETION and
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
 Officer tends to avoid making an
arrest in a family dispute ( to use
discretion )
 Sees it as a social services
responsibility
 Victims often refuse to press charges
 23 states have mandatory arrest
policies
Learning Objective 2
 List the three primary purposes of
police patrol
POLICE ORGANIZATION
and FIELD OPERATIONS
BUREAUCRACY:
 Formal rules govern each member
 Each member reports to someone
 Ultimate goal is maximum efficiency
STRUCTURE:
 Militaristic
 Rank/ Chain of Command/ Accountability
 Delegation of Authority
 Members supervised and disciplined
PATROL
 The Purpose of Patrol
1. The deterrence of crime by maintaining a
visible police presence
2. The maintenance of public order and a
sense of security in the community
3. The twenty-four hour provision of services
that are not crime related
PATROL
Community Concerns:
 Community sees patrol as a provider of services
 Only 1 /5 calls are crime related
 Debate if services should dominate a PO’s work
Patrol Activities
 Preventive patrol ( 40% )
 Calls for service ( 25% )
 Administrative work ( 20% )
 Officer initiated contact ( 15% )
Discussion Questions
 What is the purpose of patrol?
 What are its goals?
Learning Objective 3
 Indicate some investigative
strategies that are considered
aggressive
POLICE
INVESTIGATIONS
 Second main function of policing ( reactive )
 Detective – commonly promoted from patrol
 Investigate crime/ Stolen Property/ Cases for court
 97% of cases solved are routine
 Three categories of cases
Unsolvable
Solvable
Already solved
INVESTIGATIONS
 Investigations:
 Reactive, rather than proactive
 The responsibility of detectives
 Success is measured with clearance rates, or
the number of cases resulting in arrest and
prosecution
 Aggressive strategies include going
undercover and working with confidential
informants
INVESTIGATIVE
STRATEGIES
AGGRESSIVE INVESTIGATIVE STRATEGIES:
 Detectives can adopt aggressive strategies
 Undercover work
 Confidential Informants
Clearance rates and cold cases:
 Crime is cleared with arrest and prosecution
 Clearance rate depends on crime
 Cold cases are cases not solved
 80% of large PD’s have cold case squads
Discussion Questions
 What are the characteristics of an
investigation?
 What are some of the
responsibilities of detectives?
Learning Objective 4
 Describe how forensic experts use
DNA fingerprinting to solve crimes
DNA
 The DNA Revolution:
 DNA provides the genetic blueprint for
every living organism.
 When DNA is recovered at a crime scene and
matched to a suspect, the odds that match
is conclusive are 30 million to 1.
 The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is
a database that stores DNA samples taken
from crime scenes.
 As of 2007, CODIS has produces almost
59,000 cold hits nationwide.
Learning Objective 5
 Explain why differential response
strategies enable police
departments to respond more
efficiently to 911 calls
POLICE STRATEGIES
 Police Strategies – What Works?
 Response time to 911 calls
 Incident-driven policing
 Calls for service is the primary instigator for
action
 Response time as a benchmark of efficiency
 Differential response
 “Cold” calls versus “hot” calls
 Prioritize calls
 Location intelligence
PATROL STRATEGIES
 General patrol:
 Directed patrol:
 Relies on officers to
 Is designed to
monitor a certain
area detecting
crimes in progress or
preventing crimes
due to their presence
 Also called
preventive patrol, or
random patrol
 Random
respond to a specific
criminal activity at a
specific time
 Targeted areas are
labeled hot spots
 Gives police the
opportunity for
preparation
GENERAL PATROL TEST
KANSAS CITY
Test of patrol theories in Kansas City and tested
three strategies;
 Control beats - normal preventive measures
 Proactive beats – preventive measures
increased
 Reactive beats – preventive patrol was
eliminated
One year study showed that preventive patrol
showed that increasing or decreasing
preventive patrol had little or no impact
(Inconclusive)
HOT SPOTS and CRIME
MAPPIMG
 Evidence for directed patrol effectiveness is
strong
 “ Hot Spots “ – high level of criminal activity
 Crime Mapping – identifies “ hot spots “ effective
 CompStat – computerized crime mapping
(NYPD)
ARREST STRATEGIES
Types of Arrests
 Reactive arrests – made by general patrol
when they observe a crime or respond to a
call for service
 Proactive Arrests – made when the officer
takes the initiative to target a particular type
of criminal behavior
ARREST STRATEGIES
BROKEN WINDOW EFFECT
 Wilson and Kelling
 Crime is related to the quality of life in
neighborhoods
 Dilapidated neighborhoods send out signals
that crime is tolerated
 Disorder – fear among residents
 Broken Window arrest strategy – based on
“order maintenance
 Crack down on “quality of life crimes”
 “Zero Tolerance” discriminates/result in
mistrust of Police
Learning Objective 6
 Explain community policing and its
contribution to the concept of
problem-oriented policing
COMMUNITY POLICING
 Community policing is a strategy that
emphasizes community support for and
cooperation with police in preventing crime
 Problem-Oriented Policing:
 A key component of community policing
 Moves beyond simply responding to incidents
and attempts instead to control or even solve
the root causes of criminal behavior
 Two important aspects of problem-solving
policing are “hot spots” and crime mapping
LOCAL POLICE and
ANTI - TERRORISM
 Over the past decade – local police had to
confront the challenge of terrorism
 Local police are well suited to anti- terrorism
based on the large number of local Po’s
nationally and their knowledge of local
communities
 Department of Homeland Security provides
billions in anti- terrorist funding each year
Learning Objective 7
 Determine when officers are
justified in using deadly force
POLICE SUBCULTURE
 Us vs. Them
 Police Subculture – values and
perceptions shared by members of
the department, shaped by unique
existence of the police officer
 Core values of Police Subculture: learned through the socialization of a
rookie police officer
POLICE SUBCULTURE
 Begins on first day “on the job” , through
learning the values and rules of police work.
 Attending Police Academy
 Working with a senior officer
 Making an initial felony arrest
 Using force to make an arrest for the first time
 Using or witnessing deadly force for the first
time
 Witnessing major traumatic events for the first
time
POLICE SUBCULTURE
 “Blue Curtain” or “ Blue Wall of Silence”
Police cynicism:
 Characterized by rejection of the ideals of
truth and justice
 Suspicion police officers hold for citizens
(weak, corrupt and dangerous)
 Created through a feeling of helplessness
 Can lead to increases of police misconduct,
corruption and brutality
DANGERS OF POLICE
WORK
Physical and Mental:
 Threat of physical harm daily
 Considerable mental pressure and stress
 Alcoholism prevelant
AUTHORITY and the USE
OF FORCE
SYMBOLS OF AUTHORITY
 Uniform
 Badge
 Nightstick
 Firearm
AUTHORITY and the
USE OF FORCE
“Misuse of Force”
 In general the use of force by a police officer
is very rare
 Police officers are often justified to use force
to protect themselves or other citizens
 Nearly every department has a “ use of force
matrix “
TYPES of FORCE
 Authority and the Use of Force
 Reasonable Force:
 The degree of force that is appropriate to protect
the officer and other citizens.
 Non – Deadly
 A reasonable person would think force was
necessary
 Deadly Force:
 Force likely or intended to cause death
SUPREME COURT
DECISIONS
 Tennessee v Garner (1985) - mandated states
change fleeing felon rules
 Graham v. Connor ( 1989 ) – increased
argument for reasonable amounts of force
needed
LESS LETHAL WEAPONS
 Designed to subdue, but not seriously harm
suspects
 Include OC pepper spray, tear gas, water
cannons, rubber bullets and Tasers
RACIAL and ETHNIC
BIASES in POLICING
 Justice system vs “ Just Us” System
 Minorities targeted more frequently for stop
and frisk
 DWB or “ driving while black
 No evidence to suggest that officers are overly
racist, however “selective law enforcement “
does exist
 Cultural differences may result in “ contempt
of cop”
Learning Objective 8
 Identify the three traditional forms
of police corruption
POLICE CORRUPTION
Misuse of authority by a Police Officer
 Types of Corruption:
1. Bribery – accepting money or other payments
in exchange for favors
2. Shakedowns – coerce money or goods from a
citizen or criminal
3. Mooching – accepts “gifts” such as cigarettes,
liquor or services in return for favorable
treatment
CORRUPTION IN POLICE
SUBCULTURE
 No single reason to explain why corruption
occurs in policing
 Several stages lead to the moral decline of a
police officer
Minor gratuities
From bribes to payoffs
POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
Corruption/ Misconduct are inevitable – Who
polices the police ?
Internal Investigations:
 Internal Affairs within PD
 IA – often resented by PO’s but are preferred
to outside monitors
Citizen Oversight:
A number of cases don’t result in civil damage
or disciplinary action by the department
Causes frustration and calls for civilian
oversight committees ( adopted by 100 + PD’s)
Learning Objective 9
 Explain what an ethical dilemma is
and name four categories of ethical
dilemmas typically facing a police
officer
POLICE ETHICS
 Ethical dilemmas are defined as a
situation in which law enforcement
officers:
 Do not know the right course of action
 Have difficulty doing what they consider to
be right; and/or
 Find the wrong choice very tempting
 Four categories of Ethical Dilemmas:
1. Discretion
2. Duty
3. Honesty
4. Loyalty
GUIDANCE to ETHICS
 Incorporate into Departments Mission
Statement
 Conduct internal training
 Accept “ honest mistakes “ and help officers
learn from them
 Zero tolerance policy towards unethical
decision when mistakes are not so honest