Chapter 6: Policing: Purpose and Organization Study Notes

Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the Twenty-First Century

Chapter 6: Policing: Purpose and Organization

Basic Purposes of Policing in Democratic Societies

Enforcement and support of laws
Investigation of crimes and apprehension of offenders
Crime prevention
Maintenance of peace and tranquility
Provision of enforcement-related services
Mission Statement: “The basic mission for which the police exist is to reduce crime and disorder” (Peel)

Enforcing the Law

Police agencies are the primary enforcers of criminal laws, perceiving themselves as crime fighters.
Scope of Duties:
- Enforcing the law is not encapsulated in their role entirely; police spend a majority of their time involved with non-emergency calls, controlling traffic, and writing tickets.
- Limitations are acknowledged; police cannot enforce all laws due to complexities and resource constraints.
Expectation for police to support as well as enforce the law.
Respect for the law must start from the behavior of police, both personally and publicly.

Apprehending Offenders

Police apprehend offenders during the commission of a crime or shortly thereafter.
Many offenders are caught only through extensive investigations requiring meticulous techniques and strategies.

Preventing Crime

Crime Prevention Strategies

Definition: Crime prevention refers to a proactive approach aimed at addressing the root causes of crime.
Goals:
- Reduce crime and criminal opportunities.
- Lower potential rewards of crime.
- Alleviate public fear of crime.
Techniques:
- Access control, theft-deterrence devices, hot-spot policing, predictive policing.
Programs: Organized efforts concentrating resources to mitigate a specific form of criminal threat.
Community Involvement: Programs depend significantly on community collaboration.

Predicting Crime

Police utilize various tools for predicting crime occurrences:
- CompStat: A structured process for crime analysis and management, employs crime mapping.
- CrimeStat: Analyzes crime hot spots, spatial distribution of crime incidents, and facilitates distance analysis.
- ShotSpotter: Technology that detects gunfire and alerts police of its location.
Debate: Concerns exist regarding whether such tools target impoverished or racially marginalized communities disproportionally.

Preserving the Peace

Police maintain the peace through various activities that may not strictly relate to law violations.
Focus is on quality-of-life offenses, critical for community morale:
- Addressing minor law violations that negatively impact residents and business owners.
- Tackling physical disorder and signs of social decay.
Broken Windows Theory:
- Premise: Urban decay usually signifies lax law enforcement.
- Intervention via improvements and managing public behavior can create an environment where serious crime is deterred.
- Criticism exists concerning aggressive policing of neighborhoods marked as “broken windows,” potentially leading to unproductive arrests of economically vulnerable individuals.

Providing Services

Police can be mobilized through public calls, particularly via the 911 emergency system.
The system prioritizes and directs calls to patrol officers or specialized units.
Some locations have established a 311 non-emergency telephone service.

Operational Strategies

Five Core Operational Strategies:
- Preventive patrol
- Routine incident response
- Emergency response
- Criminal investigation
- Problem solving
Ancillary Operational Strategy: Support services.

Preventive Patrol

Description: The dominant policing strategy traced back to Sir Robert Peel.
Purposes:
- Deter crimes
- Disrupt ongoing crimes
- Enable quick officer response
- Enhance public perceptions of safety and security.
Officers primarily interact with the public during patrols, expected to engage consistently.
Questions remain regarding the effectiveness of preventive patrol in crime reduction; however, community expectations persist for visible patrolling.

Routine Incident Response

Officers gather information and typically document it in written form, restoring order and providing services.
Response Time:
- Refers to the duration it takes for police officers to respond to service calls.
- Directly correlated with citizen satisfaction levels.

Emergency Response

Critical Incidents encompass:
- Crimes happening in real-time.
- Situations where human life is endangered.
Emergency responses take precedence over all other police tasks.
Training for emergencies includes first aid and hostage rescue protocols.
Police face scrutiny regarding their methods in dealing with incidents involving individuals experiencing mental distress, prompting some jurisdictions to employ trained civilian responders.

Criminal Investigation

Overview

Definition: The process of discovering, collecting, preparing, identifying, and presenting evidence to understand criminal occurrences and ascertain responsibility.
Roles:
- Criminal Investigators/Detectives: Tasked with solving crimes and producing evidence for prosecution.
- First Responders: Initial investigators managing immediate needs, securing scenes, and laying groundwork for investigations.
Crime Scene: The physical location where a criminal act is believed to have transpired.
Preliminary Investigation:
- Initial actions include emergency assistance and securing the crime scene.
- Key facts and assessments are documented.
- Determining crime occurrence is vital for initiating enforcement actions and protecting evidence.
- The involvement of investigative specialists may be requested based on situation demands.
- Comprehensive reports of all investigative activities are compiled.
Crime Scene Investigators: Specialists knowledgeable in forensic techniques are frequently used, dependent on department size; civilian personnel may also assist.
Solvability Factor: Information relating to a crime that aids in identifying the perpetrator. Low solvability factors suggest it is unlikely that ongoing investigations will lead to arrests.

Problem Solving

Goal: Problem-oriented policing is aimed at mitigating chronic community offending.
Models:
- SARA Model: Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment.
- CAPRA Model: Clients, Acquired and Analyzed, Partnerships, Response, Assessment.

Support Services

Description: Encompasses activities such as dispatch, training, human resources, property and evidence control, and record administration.
Purpose: Support the operational functions of police agencies, ensuring effective resource delivery to officers in the field.

Managing Police Departments

Police Management: Denotes administrative duties involved in controlling and coordinating personnel, resources, and agency activities.
Composition: Police managers include sworn personnel with administrative authority or civilian staff.

Police Organization and Structure

Line Operations: Field or supervisory tasks directly associated with daily police functions.
Staff Operations: Support activities such as training and administration, complementary to line operations.
Hybrid Structure: Most law enforcement agencies encompass both line and staff operations.

Chain of Command

Definition: Hierarchical structure dictating authority within police departments.
Purpose: Clarifies reporting relationships and responsibilities.
Span of Control: The number of personnel or units managed by a particular supervisor.

Epochs of Policing

The Political Era (1840s-1930): Characterized by strong ties between police and public officials, serving political interests.
The Reform Era (1930-1970s): Emphasized professional crimefighting focusing on traditional crime-solving efforts.
The Community Policing Era (1970s-Today): Focused on police-community partnerships, with attention to quality-of-life offenses.
The New Era (2001-Present): Transformations following the 9/11 attacks, emphasizing homeland security and intelligence-led policing.

Policing Styles

Wilson’s Three Styles:
- Watchman Style: Associated with order maintenance, often used in political era contexts.
- Legalistic Style: Focused on strict law enforcement, akin to professional crime-fighting of the reform era.
- Service Style: Modern style emphasizing community needs, viewing police officers as helpers and facilitators, rather than aggressors.
Departmental Mixtures: Many police agencies adopt a blend of various policing styles.

Police-Community Relations (PCR)

Background: Emerged from social unrest in the 1960s, recognizing the need for collaboration between police and communities.
Legitimacy Concept: Police derive legitimacy from the communities they serve, moving away from stark enforcement paradigms to positive interactions with citizens.
Challenges: Modern PCR initiatives often target already satisfied groups, leading to alienation and management difficulties within police engagements.

Team Policing

Definition: Restructures typical patrol strategies into integrated teams assigned to specific districts.
Historical Context: Experimented during the 1960s and 1970s, facilitating more localized and accountable policing practices.

Strategic Policing

Overview: Originates from the reform era; retains focus on combating traditional crime but expands to address non-traditional offenses using innovative tactics.

Problem-Solving Policing

Assumption: Many crimes are a result of underlying social issues.
Approach: Investigates and addresses systemic social problems affecting crime rates, incorporating community resources and active citizen involvement in prevention efforts.

Community Policing

Emphasis and Elements

Partnership with Community: Encourages joint efforts between police and the public in crime-solving and peace maintenance.
Key Elements Include:
- Community-based crime prevention initiatives.
- Patrol activity reorientation towards non-emergency service importance.
- Enhanced police accountability to citizens.
- Decentralization of command, involving greater civilian input.

Traditional vs. Community Policing (Table 6.1)

Police Identity:
- Traditional: A government body chiefly responsible for law enforcement.
- Community: Viewed as part of the public; citizens are active participants in policing.
Departmental Relationship:
- Traditional: Often conflict with other public services.
- Community: Act as a single department contributing to quality of life improvements.
Primary Role:
- Traditional: Focused on crime solving.
- Community: Solving problems with emphasis on community needs.
Efficiency Measurement:
- Traditional: Effectiveness gauged through detection and arrest rates.
- Community: Measured by absence of crime and disorder.
Priorities:
- Traditional: High-value/high-violence crimes.
- Community: Addressing community-disturbing issues.
Interactions with Community Calls:
- Traditional: Optional when real police work is lacking.
- Community: Vital and significant opportunities for engagement.
Professionalism:
- Traditional: Promoting quick crime responses.
- Community: Cultivating strong community relationships.
Intelligence:
- Traditional: Crime intelligence focus.
- Community: Broad intelligence from community interactions.
Accountability Nature:
- Traditional: Centralized and strictly governed.
- Community: Localized accountability to community interests.
Headquarters' Role:
- Traditional: Supply rules/directions.
- Community: Champion organizational values.
Media Relations:
- Traditional: Shield operational officers.
- Community: Essential communication with the public.
Prosecution Perspectives:
- Traditional: A priority goal.
- Community: Utilized as a tool among many.

Critique of Community Policing

Challenges:
- Difficulty assessing program efficacy and citizen satisfaction.
- Ambiguity regarding the concept of community engagement.
- Variable acceptance levels of non-traditional policing by some officers and management.
- Community policing initiatives may lower police morale within departments.

Terrorism's Impact on Policing

Post-9/11 Shifts: Increased focus on preparedness and intelligence within law enforcement agencies at all levels.
Local Police Role: Important for counteracting terrorism, contingent on budget and threat likelihood.

Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) and Antiterrorism

ILP Definition: The use of criminal intelligence to inform policing strategies.
Components:
- Criminal Intelligence: Compiled, analyzed, and shared information for anticipating, preventing, or monitoring crime.
Type of Criminal Intelligence:
- Tactical: Targets immediate crime threats for strategies and apprehensions.
- Strategic: Offers insights to decision-makers for overall crime prevention and resource allocation.

Information Sharing and Antiterrorism

Necessity Post-9/11: Highlighted the need for a fully integrated criminal justice information system.
Key Sharing Systems:
- Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP) and Law Enforcement Online (LEO): Essential platforms for sharing information.
- National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS): Connects agencies across the U.S. and Canada.

Fusion Centers

Functionality: Fuses intelligence from diverse agencies for comprehensive threat assessment.
Purpose: Streamlines data management and analysis for effective crime and threat response.

National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan (NCISP)

Goal: Establish a nationwide integrated criminal justice information system.
Development Involvement: Encompassed representatives from various law enforcement levels.
Guidance: Provides concrete steps for agencies to exchange essential law enforcement and terrorism prevention information.

Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Diversity in Policing

Current Focus: Efforts aimed at increasing underrepresented groups within police forces.
Composition: While people of color are increasingly represented, women remain significantly underrepresented in leadership roles.

Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Issues in Policing

Advantages of Female Officers:
- Typically utilizing less physical force and attracting fewer excessive force allegations.
- More effective in de-escalation and obtaining community trust, particularly regarding violence against women.

Women as Effective Police Officers

Performance Insights

Research indicates that female officers demonstrate commitment, satisfaction, and a distinct self-perception in their roles.
Integration Variance: Women experience differing degrees of integration into police culture—those feeling connected vs. those facing isolation.
Utilization Issues: The underutilization of female officers can lead to dissatisfaction and frustration in their positions.

Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the Twenty-First Century

Chapter 6: Policing: Purpose and Organization

Basic Purposes of Policing in Democratic Societies

Enforcement and support of laws
Investigation of crimes and apprehension of offenders
Crime prevention
Maintenance of peace and tranquility, including reducing crime and disorder (Peel's mission statement)
Provision of enforcement-related services

Enforcing the Law

Police are primary enforcers, but much time is spent on non-emergency calls, traffic control.
Enforcement is limited by complexities and resources; respect for the law starts with police behavior.

Apprehending Offenders

Offenders are apprehended during or shortly after a crime, or through extensive investigations.

Preventing Crime

Definition: Proactive approach to address crime's root causes.
Goals: Reduce crime/opportunities, lower rewards, alleviate fear.
Techniques: Access control, theft-deterrence devices, hot-spot policing, predictive policing.
Community Involvement: Essential for effective programs.

Predicting Crime

Tools like CompStat (crime mapping), CrimeStat (hot spot analysis), and ShotSpotter (gunfire detection) are used.
Debate: Concerns about disproportional targeting of impoverished/marginalized communities.

Preserving the Peace

Focus on quality-of-life offenses affecting community morale and addressing physical disorder.
Broken Windows Theory: Urban decay suggests lax enforcement; intervention deters serious crime. Criticized for aggressive policing impacting vulnerable individuals.

Providing Services

Public calls (911 emergency, some 311 non-emergency) mobilize police.

Operational Strategies

Five Core Strategies: Preventive patrol, routine incident response, emergency response, criminal investigation, problem solving.
Ancillary: Support services.

Preventive Patrol

Dominant strategy (Sir Robert Peel) aiming to deter/disrupt crimes, enable quick response, and enhance public safety perception.
Effectiveness in crime reduction is debated, but public expectation for visibility persists.

Routine Incident Response

Officers gather information, restore order, and provide services.
Response Time: Correlates with citizen satisfaction.

Emergency Response

Priority for critical incidents (real-time crimes, endangered life).
Training includes first aid, hostage rescue; scrutiny over handling mental distress incidents.

Criminal Investigation

Definition: Discovering, collecting, preparing, identifying, and presenting evidence to understand crimes and assign responsibility.
Roles: Criminal Investigators/Detectives solve crimes; First Responders manage immediate needs and secure scenes.
Preliminary Investigation: First aid, scene securing, fact documentation before specialist involvement.
Solvability Factor: Information aiding perpetrator identification; low factors suggest unlikely arrests.

Problem Solving

Goal: Mitigate chronic community offending.
Models: SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment) and CAPRA.

Support Services

Activities like dispatch, training, HR, evidence control, records, supporting field operations.

Managing Police Departments

Police Management: Administrative duties by sworn or civilian staff to control personnel, resources, and activities.

Police Organization and Structure

Line Operations: Direct daily police functions.
Staff Operations: Support activities like training.
Most agencies have a Hybrid Structure.
Chain of Command: Hierarchical authority structure.
Span of Control: Number of personnel managed by a supervisor.

Epochs of Policing

The Political Era (1840s-1930): Police tied to political interests.
The Reform Era (1930-1970s): Professional crimefighting focus.
The Community Policing Era (1970s-Today): Police-community partnerships, quality-of-life offenses.
The New Era (2001-Present): Post-9/11, homeland security, intelligence-led policing.

Policing Styles (Wilson's Three)

Watchman Style: Order maintenance, political era.
Legalistic Style: Strict law enforcement, reform era.
Service Style: Community needs, officers as helpers.

Police-Community Relations (PCR)

Emerged 1960s, emphasizing police legitimacy from communities and positive interactions.
Challenges: Often targets satisfied groups, leading to alienation.

Strategic Policing

Reform era origin; combats traditional crime but also non-traditional offenses with innovative tactics.

Problem-Solving Policing

Crudicial crimes result from underlying social issues; investigates and addresses systemic problems with community involvement.

Community Policing

Emphasis: Police-community partnerships for crime-solving and peace maintenance.
Elements: Community-based prevention, reoriented patrol, enhanced accountability, decentralized command, civilian input.

Traditional vs. Community Policing (Key Differences)

Identity: Government body (Traditional) vs. Part of public (Community).
Primary Role: Crime solving (Traditional) vs. Problem solving (Community).
Efficiency: Detection/arrest rates (Traditional) vs. Absence of crime/disorder (Community).
Professionalism: Quick response (Traditional) vs. Strong community relationships (Community).
Accountability: Centralized (Traditional) vs. Localized (Community).

Critique of Community Policing

Challenges include difficulty assessing efficacy/satisfaction, ambiguity of community engagement, variable officer/management acceptance, and potential for lowered police morale.

Terrorism's Impact on Policing

Post-9/11 led to increased focus on preparedness and intelligence at all levels of law enforcement.

Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) and Antiterrorism

ILP: Using criminal intelligence to inform policing strategies.
Criminal Intelligence: Compiled, analyzed, shared info for anticipating/preventing crime.
- Tactical: Immediate threats.
- Strategic: Long-term prevention, resource allocation.

Information Sharing and Antiterrorism

Post-9/11 need for integrated criminal justice information systems.
Key Systems: LEEP, LEO, NLETS for interagency sharing.

Fusion Centers

Fuse intelligence from diverse agencies for comprehensive threat assessment and streamlined data management.

National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan (NCISP)

Goal: Nationwide integrated criminal justice information system for law enforcement and terrorism prevention.

Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Diversity in Policing

Efforts to increase representation of underrepresented groups; women remain underrepresented in leadership.

Women as Effective Police Officers

Use less physical force, fewer excessive force allegations, more effective in de-escalation and building trust.
Research shows commitment and satisfaction, but underutilization can cause dissatisfaction.