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Diversity in the Police Departments

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Diversity in the Police Departments
CJS/210
12/03/2014

“According to Wilson (1978), all police departments were faced with two fundamental but different types of problems: problems of law enforcement and problems of order maintenance. Law enforcement problems typically involved illegal conduct that could lead to an arrest, whereas order maintenance problems involved less serious behavior that in many cases could be dealt with informally by the police. Based on a study of eight police departments, Wilson concluded that police organizations could be divided into one of three basic categories depending on how they approached these problems: the watchman style, the legalistic style, and the service style.” (Grant & Terry, 2008, Chapter 9)
The watchman style places great emphasis on order maintenance and individual officer discretion instead of the letter of the law. The watchman police officer may be more willing to issue warnings, help informants stay out of trouble, or to help work out disputes between citizens instead of making an arrest. The watchman uses discretion in determining when to issue a ticket or make an arrest. The watchman may use bullying or harassment to help maintain the peace.
The legalistic style of policing tends to replace the watchman style as the police become more professional technologically advanced, and more proactive. The legalistic style emphasizes the importance of law enforcement and maintaining clear and impartial legal standards for the public and the police. A legalistic police officer sees things clearly in a “black or white” way. If an offence was committed, then an arrest will be made. The legalistic officer usually will not take extenuating circumstances into consideration when issuing a ticket or making an arrest.
The service style emphasizes on maintaining a good police-public relationship. Therefore a service style

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