...Police Department Roles and Function CJA/214 August 21, 2015 Police Department Roles and Functions In today’s day and age in the United States there are numerous functions of police agencies. Traffic, patrol, juvenile services, undercover investigations, and special operations are just a few of the many functions of a police agency. There are three levels of police agencies they are local, state, and federal. Each level has some similarities as well as their differences. All functions and roles of policing in any and all communities are valuable and all serve a purpose. Police agencies have several roles and functions such as traffic, patrol, juvenile services, undercover investigations, and special operations are just a few. Police officers tasked with traffic functions are responsible for ensuring the safe movement of traffic, identifying potential traffic problems, arresting offenders, automobile accidents and injuries, safe movement of pedestrians, investigating damaged property, and regulating parking on and off the streets. Traffic functions help keep the roads safer for the public and assist with the flow of traffic. Patrolling functions and patrol officers are the most visible in the police department and are always providing police services within the community. Patrolling officers are always in the eyes of the public and working day in and day out. Patrolling can be done by vehicle, foot, bicycle, and/or horseback riding. Patrol officers...
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...Analyze Police Culture CJA 214 April 24, 2014 University of Phoenix Analyze Police Culture Police officers play a unique role in American society. Police officers are the "keepers" of society's well-being as they enforce the law and maintain the peace. In this role, it is important to review all relevant information that may affect their performance including the development of a subculture. A culture is the common set of morals, knowledge, and conduct that the members of the community share. Subcultures are a set of unwritten laws that restrict and control the behavior of individuals within the group. Police subculture directs officers on how complete their tasks, how hard to work, what kinds of relationships to have with their fellow officers and civilians. It establishes the nature of these interactions: whether they are aggressive or peaceful. The subculture determines how police officers should think and feel toward their police supervisors, officers of the court including judges and prosecutors and the laws they are required to enforce. Police subcultures can also describe to a few negative aspects of policing. It can refer to an "us versus them" approach to policing. The police out on the street, personally interact with “criminals” are referred as “us” while everyone else including “criminals”, “civilians” and even “senior police officials” are referred to as “them.” This mentality leads to the belief that they are the good guys and everyone else is a potential bad...
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...Police History CJA/214 Policing has been around for many years. Policing was known to exist prior to 1066, since then there have been many changes to policing styles. Throughout this paper I will be discussing police history by describing the impact Sir Robert Peel had on the way police operate and also by looking at the relationship between the United States government and the policing organizations throughout the United States and how it may affect police practices. Policing has been a part of the world for decades. In the early 1600s citizens were responsible for monitoring each other’s behavior; it was known as “watch and ward”. Later on in the 1700s, policing became more religious based. By the 1800s, policing had developed and established into a more structured organization. While many historical figures had a hand in developing the concept of today’s police guidelines, Sir Robert Peel’s nine principles have had a profound impact in the police community. Sir Robert Peel is known as “the father of modern policing” served as Home Secretary of England when he designed a collection of different elements and ideas that would eventually evolve over the years. Peel believed that policing should accrue within the community and not by military forces. These nine principles were designed to hold the police accountable to a set of rules of conduct. He envisioned police working closely with...
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...Police Operations Paper Jessica Eley Todd Larson CJA/214 9/6/11 In the early 1900 policing made up of two basic functions patrolling and investigating crimes. Patrol officers patrolled the areas mainly on foot requiring direct contact with the community they served. The detectives investigated illegal gambling operations and corruption. Looking into modern policing dangers in the job is a primary concern and how to improve measures for the safety of the officers. The Taser is a less than lethal weapon used to stop individuals without fatally wounding them. The use of modern technology in today’s policing has become widespread in securing Americas borders and every day policing duties. In policing there are applications significant to the aid of police officers; database and information technology, computer-aided dispatch, records management systems, and mobile computing. When looking into the terrorism, Homeland Security and law enforcement agencies across the country it is so imperative that all of these agencies work together to solve crimes by information sharing and departmental assistance. The police will play an important role as peace keepers, specialist in antiterrorism, and community outreach professionals. The dangers that cause over half of all police deaths are traffic incidents. In 2009, 56 officers died in the line of duty by traffic incidents. According to data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reported traffic remains the...
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...Police Department Roles and Functions CJA/214 Police Department Roles and Functions Within any organization, it is important for the chief to delegate roles and functions to each department as applicable. As a result of effective administration, the departments come together to achieve a particular goal. An analogy of this method would be that of the mechanisms of a clock which has plenty of unique working parts that, when put together, will tell the time. As such, the roles and functions of police organizations will be identified along with their role as it applies to the law. There are various types of police agencies ranging from the local to federal level which will also be described. Finally, the specific role and function of patrol work will be explained. Roles and Functions of Police Organizations Roles and functions begin within an organizational chart that assigns tasks and authority for achieving goals. There are two basic classifications of police functions which are either operational or administrative (Grant and Terry, 2012). One role in a police department is in administrative services. The units that provide these services are sometimes referred to as support units. Their functions are usually in hiring and training of police officers, record keeping, planning and research as well as internal affairs. These units are co-staffed by sworn officers and civilian employees. Operational units or line personnel are...
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...Police History Paper Detric Lester CJA/214 April 28, 2013 Professor Shawn R. Kehoe, MPA Throughout the course of history, American policing has been influenced heavily by the English system. England and Colonial American citizens were both responsible for law enforcement in the early stages of development in their communities. The history of policing has changed progressively over the years. In the legal system law enforcement systems evolved over a period of time causing major differences in the titles, responsibilities and credentials of police officer. The historical development of police history time line began during the Early 1630’s when Colonial America early constables and sheriffs were concerned about the behaviors of the community-approved religious attendance and the appropriate restraint of farm animals, they served court papers for a fee. In the early 1840’s Metropolitan America in New York the first full time preventive force was established, with each district having its own authority. Each ward had a separate patrol and citizens were chosen by Aldermen to be officers. Frontier America territory became a state by the early 1840’s, then sheriffs and marshals were elected in the towns and counties. New entrepreneurs elected to reduce violent crime to keep their business thriving and their town’s reputation clean. By the early 1920’s police professionalism characteristic were policies focused on law enforcement and crime control, and social service elements...
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...Police History In the infancy of policing the early colonists followed the English style of policing; monitoring the community on behaviors, moral, and civil obligations rather than criminal issues. Citizens performed these policing duties and were referred to as a civic duty, no training or pay was offered for these services. The wealthy citizens that did not want to serve their watch began to pay others to do their duty for them. Philadelphia began to offer monetary compensation for the citizens in 1658 for their service and jail wardens began to employ watchmen and increased their responsibilities and offered a salary. As villages and towns began to form crime increased and the need for motoring the citizens became a priority, colonies began to develop a system of sheriffs similar to the traditional policing in the English countryside. These sheriffs and constables patrolled the community for approved religious attendance and proper animal’s restraints on farms. They also collected taxes and served court papers for a fee. They were not too worried about crimes being committed In the 1840’s policing focused more on crime prevention rather than crime detection and punishment for the crime. Guidelines improved relations between the community and the newly established police officers. The community thought that the police officers should wear a uniform to distinguish them from the citizens. As society and the economy began to change crime increased and the need to establish...
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...History of Police No Name CJA/214 00/00/00 Instructor: No Name We can learn a lot from the history of our police; this history tells us about how we first started off as society. As society today, this history should be something that everyone should know about. The start of our police was a great period in history. America learned a lot of its policing tactics from Great Britain and still uses many of those tactics with a few modifications today. It is a misconception that policing stayed the same over the years, they have learned and applied many different ways of handling different scenarios over the years and police departments continue to evolve. The police has gone through different stages in America’s history, political era, reform era, community era, and the new development stages. In the early colonies policing took form of both informal and communal, patrols called “Watch”. The system of the “Watch” was composed of volunteers in the community and their primary duty was to warn of potential danger. Boston was the first to create the night watch in 1663 followed by New York and Philadelphia shortly after. Watchmen would often sleep or would drink on duty making this a very ineffective crime deterrent. Most the watchmen volunteers were either forced into service by the town, as a form of punishment, or were simply attempting to evade military service. Philadelphia organized an independent police force in 1833 followed by Boston and New York with day police and night...
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...Officer Selection Juan Torres Course: CJA/214 February 4, 2012 Instructor: Jess Gutierrez Officer Selection Law enforcement recruitment; it is the law enforcement agencies responsibilities to select the best candidates for their personnel. Although, there are different levels of law enforcement; including local, state and federal, there requirements and process are similar. Every candidate has to go through a process including; personal interview, criminal record check, background investigation, driving record check, medical exam, psychological evaluation, drug test, written aptitude test, physical agility test, polygraph exam and voice stress analyzer ("Requirements to Become a Police Officer", 2003-2012). Law enforcement agencies not only hire officers, their goal is also to retire them as well. By doing so, they depend on career development programs. As for a local police; there are four steps in to becoming a police officer. It sounds like four simple steps and one becomes a police officer, in the contrary four steps go along way. The first step is meeting basic prerequisites; according to "Requirements To Become A Police Officer" (2003-2012), “all police departments require their police officers to have at least a high school diploma or equivalent education” (Step 1: Meet Basic Prerequisites). Age limit is another requirement; almost all local police agencies require a candidate to be at least 21 years old, also be a U.S. citizen and have a valid driver’s license...
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...Police Department Roles and Functions Justin Lewis CJA/214 April 23, 2014 Mr. Wheelen Police Department Roles and Functions Police departments are one of the most important parts of the criminal justice system. Our police departments are the frontline of defense for society. If society does not feel protected by the police then they are less likely to trust them. Along that same line, some of the citizens will become vigilantes in their own minds trying to “stop criminals”, making the officer’s jobs more difficult than it already is. In the United States, the duty of the law enforcement is to uphold public safety, first and foremost, by reducing the amount of crime in the environment. To achieve this responsibility worldwide, police officers have to partake in many roles. Several of those roles are conflicting roles, depending on the method of the organization, some accentuated over others. All police departments, no matter the location or size, have goals set up. These goals set forth a sense of purpose and direction. The primary goals of policing are the prevention of crime and protection of life, to uphold and enforce the law, to combat public fear of crime, to promote community safety, to control traffic, to encourage respect for the law, to protect the civil rights and liberties of individuals. These goals are important because they help to mode organization in a police department. The five responsibilities of police officers are to enforce the law as instructed...
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...Effects on Modern Policing CJA/214 Sir Robert Peel Paper: Effects on Modern Policing Through many years in our history, policing worked without checks and balances, and strictly with trail and error. The structure that was used in those days was not entirely solid in design. There was no procedure to fight crime and law enforcement had no basis. Then, modern policing began in the early nineteenth century. Sir Robert Peek finally allowed for a change in the criminal justice system after years of society trying to convince SIR ROBERT PEEL the English Parliament. There would ultimately be a plan to fight crime in England. Sir Robert Peel progressively designed a structure that was a collection of different elements 2 and ideas that would eventually evolve over the years. Robert Peel had great knowledge for how the law should work so he set great foundations that would evolve into today’s law enforcement agencies. Sir Robert Peel continued to work on his structure of law enforcement for over 30 years. Peel would later be referred to as the “father” of modern policing and progressive ongoing political efforts to rebuild a struggling English Law enforcement system. In the early 19th century, London faced a lot of challenges concerning ethnic conflict, poverty, crime, disorder, weak public safety, and various other elements that placed the entire city at risk for violence and chaos. In 1829, Robert Peel would establish London’s first Metropolitan Police after years of attempting...
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...Police Recruitment Geoffrey St. Clair CJA/214 May 14, 2013 Rachel Quintero Police Recruitment There are quite a few requirements to the recruitment process to become a police department. The entire process can take anywhere from about 4 months to over a year. There are many things that can affect how long the process takes and there are many steps. This paper will discuss the hiring process for the San Antonio Police Department as well as the training programs and career development programs it offers to the officers that are currently employed. Just like most jobs the hiring process for the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) starts with a written application. This application can also be completed online however it must be printed out and turned in to the police department in person. The application consists of basic background information like: full name, date of birth, address, and also past employment history and drug or crime history. Once the applicant has filled out the application and turned it in they will be scheduled to take the written exam. Applicants must pass the written exam with a minimum score of 70 percent. On the same day as the written exam if the applicant passes, the next step is the physical fitness exam. The fitness exam consists of push-ups, sit-ups, running, climbing a five foot wall, and dragging a 180 pound dummy 20 feet. There are minimum standards and according to the "San Antonio Police Department Careers" (2013) website the...
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... CJA/214 11/26/11 Mark Logan Sir Robert Peel’s Position on Policing to the Diverse Needs of the Modern Day Society The necessity of an orderly society points out to be the most important ingredient of social, political, and economic progress. Many lawyers and magistrates had been trying to contribute to that effect especially those who are public servants. One of these administrators of justice is Sir Robert Peel who had contributed much for the benefit of the society through his famous position on policing to the diverse needs of the modern society. Sir Robert Peel was born last February 5, 1788 at the place called the Chamber Hall near Bury in Lancashire (Bloy, 2008, p. 1). He served twice as a Prime Minister in his country England and had parliamentary career until he died in the year 1850 (Bloy, 2008, p. 1). The family of Sir Robert Peel entered weaving and farming as livelihood in his early years and later moved into textile manufacture business that made them wealthy. There are nine (9) pointers for the position of Sir Robert Peel in policing that made his ideas last until this time. First, the primary mission of the police is the prevention of crime and disorder. There is no other purpose for the establishment of the police in the society but to prevent crimes. Second, police ability to perform their duties depends upon the approval of the public in police actions. The public plays a big role in providing the police an atmosphere to perform...
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...Police Operations Fenisa Williams CJA-214 October 24, 2011 Kimberly Rieson Police Operations Policing agencies have a number of responsibilities and operations they must perform regardless if they are at the local, state, or federal level of the government. Even though there are similarities and differences between the agencies, there is still room for improvement in reference to the working relationships and communication among them. In addition, regardless if the agency is classified as a local, state, or federal agency, these agencies encounter the same day-to-day police dangers, use similar technology, and use the same basic types of weaponry. Dangers of Policing Each day an officer awakes to go to work his or her life is in danger. The dangers can range from getting into a car wreck on the way to work, while responding to a call, poor nutrition, assaulted on the scene of a call, and from handling of apprehend suspects. Driving is part on an officer’s daily duty; however, that does not make him or her immune to a car crash. Not only do they have to pay attention to what they are doing but also must be aware of the other hundreds of vehicles to who they are sharing the roadway. When an officer gets into a police chase, the likelihood of a wreck increases significantly. Therefore, an officer must have a valid reason to initiate a car chase. Another danger to an officer is the issue of his or her health. Police officers normally work rotating shifts...
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...Police Officer Selection Process CJA/214 Police Officer Selection Process Local law enforcement officers hold the most important responsibility of working the “front lines” of crimes in communities all over the country. Some departments have the advantage because they deal with a smaller population, but there are cities with millions of people. Considering the vast sizes of population in different cities, it’s important to acknowledge that the task of a police officer should be designated to the best candidates. Furthermore, the training and education provided should be optimal so that officers are well equipped to secure public safety. Law enforcement agencies are structured based on their geographic locations; and can potentially be divided into districts if the terrain is large enough. Uniformed law enforcement officials usually patrol inside a designated area. Having officers constantly patrol the same areas allows them to familiarize themselves with the location. The familiarity allows police officers to quickly notice any irregularities among the community. Larger jurisdictions call for police officers to patrol the area in pairs. The reality is that officer constantly face criminals as they pursue or arrest them, enforce traffic laws, and resolving other problems throughout the community. The New York Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department are the most popular departments in the country but they have significant...
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