Critical Issues in Policing Paper
CJA/214
Robert Krause
12/15/2014

Critical issues when it comes to policing can be summed up in many different ways due to your experience, and education with police. Here we will discuss what I feel are the most critical. Here you will find a summary of the dangers of policing, less than lethal weapons, the technology used in policing, and issues with homeland securities and the connection with policing. When it comes to the dangers of policing, many people can only think of an officer getting shot. Even though that’s true, there are also other dangers. Another danger people don’t take in consideration is a cop being injured or even killed in a car chase or vehicle pursuit of a suspect. Officers lose their lives every day in vehicle related deaths. The most of all is the safety of their families. With laws put in place to insure that officers live in the community the serve and protect. Now officers have to worry about running into suspects they have apprehended when out doing normal things with their families. Other dangers like stress, and responding to disaster situations aren’t even taken into consideration by people when asked about the dangers of policing. With all the different dangers in policing, police have come up with different protocols to ensure their safety and also the safety of the offender. Using non lethal weapons such as tazers, combat skills, and mace help do just that. In the instance where an offender is resisting arrest and is trying to cause intentional harm to an officer, a tazer will help the officer apprehend the suspect if used correctly. Specific combat skills have been taught to police to help them get control of an offender so that they properly can place handcuffs and arrest the offender. Mace is also used to subdue an offender who is resisting arrest or being violent with an officer. All these non lethal weapons have been put into place and for the most part seem to work. In today’s society criminals have been able to outsmart police with new found technologies, making it extremely hard to catch them. This is a major issue when it comes to policing. With identity theft and other cyber crimes at an all time high, police had to step back and take a different route. Education qualifications were put into place, along with police agencies across America hiring hackers and educated individuals to help arrest these criminals. Even though police have made a major step in understanding and using new technologies, technology is growing at a rapid pace which continues to hold threats towards the future of policing. When it comes to terrorist’s attacks and homeland security issues, police are always one response away from a major issue that can cause them their lives. Since September 9th 2011 where thousands of police and firefighters lost their lives, police and homeland security work together more than ever before. Putting specific response and other plans in to place, help make sure that this horrific event will never happen again. An additional issue in policing that I clearly see is the fact that no matter how times change police conducts their job duties of laws that are outdated and no longer are effective. I personally think all laws should be reviewed and shaped to today’s society, because this issue helps drive a wedge in between the people and the police. The law is written in black and white, but was written and put in place in an old outdated society. The lack of knowledge the public has on these laws is definitely a critical issue. I say this because in most cases citizens have no idea they just broke the law. Let’s take resisting arrest as a example. Nine out of ten people have no idea that simply telling an officer no is resisting arrest. If a person has no understanding of what is going on and simply says no officer why am I being arrested, there should be other protocols put into place to make sure no one is hurt for their ignorance. Or charged with more than one charge for simply not knowing.