Police "reality shock" when entering profession
The astonishment a new police officer experiences during the first weeks and months on the job when encountering the unpleasant aspects of dealing with the public, the criminal justice system and the department.
police "reality shock" with public
hostility from citizen, there are stereotypes based on the uniform, gun, badge. They have to do the dirty work that no one else wants to do (tell a family their family member has been killed in a car accident). arrests, plea bargain
police "reality shock" with criminal justice system
Use police officers as "insiders" and they see the reality of the system
police "reality shock" with the department
Department Politics
Code of Silence
Also known as the "blue curtain". a code of honor among police officers whereby officers refuse to testify against corrupt colleagues, creating a veil of secrecy around police actions. Secrecy: It is the attitude displayed by police officers to the rest o
Is police work is the most dangerous occupation?
No
Civil Service
Formal and legally binding procedures governing personnel decisions. Nearly Universal. Purpose: to ensure personnel make decisions objectively. Reinforces the hierarchy of police department (rewards hierarchy, seniority hierarchy, status hierarchy, rank h
Civil Service Problems
Limits the power of the chief in making personnel decisions. limits opportunities and incentives for individual officers.
Provisions for discipline make it difficult for chiefs to terminate or discipline bad officers.
The capacity to use force (Egon Bittner)
This further isolates officers from the public. Egon Bittner suggested that police have arrest powers, ability to take a life. This distinguishes their job from other occupations. They are symbolized by the uniform, badge and weapon ( officers rarely have
Police attitudes
Are a product of selective contact with the public. They deal with professionals who had negative attitudes toward police(lawyers, judges, caseworkers). The stereotype "youre a cop youre supposed to get hostility" . They faced with public hostility, offic
Police Unions
Majority of officers are in unions.
What are the 3 police unions?
1) Fraternal Order of Police 2) International Union of Police Associations 3) Teamsters Law Enforcement League
Police Unions: Collective Bargaining
The method of determining conditions of employment through bilateral negotiations
Police Unions: Grievance Procedures
Provides due process to employees
Impact of Police Unions
Improvements in salaries and benefits and major impact has been the reduction of the chiefs power.
Glass Ceiling (Woman officers)
hurts career advancement because they are a woman. Lack of promotions. (12% of sworn in officers are women)
Minnesota Domestic Violence Experiment (1981-1982)
An increase in arrests lowered the chance of repeats ( not accurate) The truth is many people stopped calling cause they did not want friends, or family arrested for domestic violence disputes. "Flawed
Education Effect
Fewer complaints
Cohort Effect
Officers hired in one decade will have different ideas and lifestyles than officers hired in later decades. Old street cop culture vs. new bureaucratic style
Street Cops", middle class mobile
...
task forces
Officers are put into different ranks based on specific talents.
Office politics. Cliques
Horizontal clique
Station Queens
Avoid danger. Initiate few contacts with citizens. Respond only to calls to which they are dispatched. Make few traffic stops/field interrogations/ arrests
Active cop
Initiates calls, makes more arrests and is in more contact with citizens. back up officers on other calls, assert control of situations.
Noncrime models
aka Stephen Mastrogskis models. Four different ways that non-crime calls for service can help improve police effectiveness in dealing with crime.
What are the four noncrime models?
Crime Prophylactic, Police knowledge, social work and community cooperation.
Crime Prophylactic
Police intervention can defuse potentially violent situations and prevent them from escalating into criminal violence.
Police Knowledge
non-crime calls give officers a broader exposure to the community with the result that they have more knowledge that help them solve crime
Social work
latent coercive power of the police can help steer potential lawbreakers into law abiding behavior (treatment, rehab) (POLICE WANT THIS)
Community cooperation
Effective responses to noncrime calls can help police establish greater credibility with the police.
COMPSTAT
Computer Comparison Statistics. Holds Commanders Accountable. Clarifies the department's mission, goals, and values. Organizational power and authority transferred to commanders who are responsible for geographic areas. Resources are transferred to comman
Vice Crimes
Vice Crimes are victim-less crimes with no complaining party. It involves behavior that many regard as legitimate and private. Conflicting public attitudes. Enforcement is selective, arbitrary and inconsistent. (Prostitution, drugs, gambling(illegally) --
Symbols of the Police
Badge, gun, uniform. People react to these symbols and form stereotypes
Police Personality (Skolnick)
Good versus bad people. 52% of police think it is okay to use more force than needed on person. Officers routinely suspicious of all people. Develop perceptual shorthand-associate with criminals and other potentially dangerous people. Everyone is a crimin
Policing the Mentally Ill
Police response to the mentally ill: 1) Hospitalization 2) Arrest 3) Informal Disposition. Psychriatic first aid, "mercy booking" ---> popular term for the practice by some US law enforcement departments of jailing (booking) for his or her own protection
Call girls
More upper class of Prostitutes. They get their name because in most cases they receive phone calls from clients and arrange to meet them at convenient locations. (hotels, apartments,etc).
Skeezer
Women and men who trade sex for crack cocaine
About how many prostitutes are full-time in the nation?
250,000 and it is a 7-9 billion industry.
Stereotyping
citizens react to the badge, gun, treat officers as a category rather than an individual.
Performance Evaluation of Police Problems
Unclear definitions, Halo effect, central tendencies
Cost to prostitution
7 to 9 billion
Order Maintenance
Domestic violence, traffic enforcement, neighbor disputes and service calls
What is the most common type of order maintenance?
Traffic Enforcement
The Halo Effect
a cognitive bias in which an observer's overall impression of a person, company, brand, or product influences the observer's feelings and thoughts about that entity's character or properties. (She is beautiful she must be good)
Division along racial-ethnic lines
form their own groups. There is limited interaction between officers of different races and ethnicities.
Professional Departments
Follow the Book approach to policing-professionalism is equated with bureaucratization. DO NOT CHALLENGE THEM.
Friendship networks
the chief can maintain networks of friends through favorable assignments
Seniority
The more experience the more job opportunities. Eliminates favoritism and discrimination. Least experienced officers get the most difficult assignments--> leads to younger officers being better qualified and trained than older officers.