What is your first view of the role of the police?

Question

a) Doing a good job
b) Doing their best
c) Not as clever as the criminals
d) Have lost control
e) Too desk-bound
f) Have to little power
g) Ineffective/short-staffed.

Choices can be from one category only and a brief reason why please.

Answer 1

to protect rich greedy people

Answer 2

Well it's no one particular thing, it's a mixture of several of the above.
A. There's good average and bad but generally the good and average out weigh the bad officers.
B. Most will try reasonably hard, but sometimes officers get too overloaded with work so that some cases don't get the attention they deserve.
C. They're some very clever crims out there, but most get caught at some time or other (though not all) especially the high tech crims. Sometimes the crim will get away with something but then get caught for something else later. Don't forget the prisons have never been so full.
D. Difficult one in the main, no, but it's probably getting worse slow society breakdown).
E. Police have never been so desk bound as they are now and that falls squarely on the shoulders of this awful Labour government.
F. No not really, it's how we deal with crims when caught is the problem.
G. Short staffed yes, even with the increase in officers over the last few year (numbers are now set to drop). There's too much paper work, too much time spent filling in forms justifying their existence rather being out there. keep
paperwork simple and have with good support structures (file preparation) etc. The law and procedures are increasingly more complicated and are changing at an ever faster rate.

Answer 3

D. Have lost control.

They spend too much time nicking people for traffic offenses!
They don't spend enough time actually dealing with the scum that populate the U.K nowadays.

If you get mugged nowadays whats the point in even reporting it? They wont do a damn thing. They should start taking an interest in how other police forces around the world go about their job. You mess around in other countries and you either get a beating or thrown away for a good few days, no warnings or nothing.

They definitely need to toughen up or it'll get worse in this country.

Answer 4

On balance (b). The reason is that in some cases, they are not as clever as the criminals, they are too desk bound and are often short-staffed. In some areas they appear to have lost control, usually by misinterpreting such things as Data Protection, Human Rights and then in other areas they are doing a good job. And they do love playing with speed cameras, I've noticed.

Answer 5

Most of the senior officers now, in UK, went through University in the late 70's and were indoctrinated into left wing tendencies, which is why the police are now governed by PC and paperwork, courtesy of the Labour Party and their statistic led doctrine.

Answer 6

b. They go out and put their lives on the line everyday and put up will sorts of abuse along with it. There are people who always assume they are crooked.

I have always found the police very helpful and they go out their way to make sure that people are protected.

I think they are doing their best and I think people should give them more credit for what they do.

Answer 7

b) Doing their best. It`s the judges that let us down, once the
Police have brought the criminals to court the Judges pass
stupid sentences. The police must wonder why they bother.

Answer 8

B. Doing their best. The majority of law enforcement officers are honest and doing what they can to maintain order.

Answer 9

The only role for the police is to maintain law and order they are clearly failing the result will be anarchy

Answer 10

H) doing a terrible job

the police should have some sort of obligation to uphold the constitution, yet they enforce laws that infringe upon the constitutional rights of individual citizens

Answer 11

d. Have lost control.

I think the police have the low ground in fighting crime for several reasons.
1. Too much bureaucracy...I don't mean constitutional issues, I mean huggie-touchy-feel things.
2. I think the police departments have lost touch with what the general public wants them to be doing. While speeding tickets and catching hookers ARE important, more important to us are catching and monitoring child-molesters, finding stolen cars, catching illegal immigrants, catching theives, etc.
3. I think the police have lost control because they have allowed their dirty laundry to be aired for all to see. By that, I mean they have allowed the frustrations of the job to get in the way of doing the job. Over the top force issues, holier than thou appearance etc.
4. Police, not always but in general, spend all their time being reactive rather than proactive. One will never be in control by being reactive. One proactive instance is some PD's will etch the VIN of your car in all the windows for free...proactive to car theft. This is extraordinary...doesn't happen often.
5. I will give you a glaring example of "police have lost control". High speed chases. Is it really logical to chase some 100 mph through town for a tag light out? Given the totality of the circumstances, is it necessary to put by-standers and innocent people and their property at risk for a trivial ticket. How much do high speed pursuits cost the city in question? More than having a helicopter in the air all day? I would say in many cities that is the case. High speed pursuits for trivial issues are an example of police belief that a crime is a crime, and MUST be punished (refrence above priorities issue). An example of police thinking they must control the situation at all costs. It is police emotion getting in the way of logical thinking...that is having lost control.
6. Compartnemtalization/jurisdictional issues. Again, loss of control can fall into this issue, and is detrimental to public opinion of police effectivness. Example: Illegal immigrants issue. To quote Nashville Police Chief Ronal Serpas "Immigration enforcement not role of police". However, I am willing to wager next months paycheck that if you polled 1 million Americans, you would find public vastly different to that position. Criminal activity is criminal activity, just like the police feel about speeding vs. meth possession...equally illegal. Why then is it not equally illegal to be in this counrty illegally, and why are police not passively nailing illegals? Not logical, and not acceptable to the American public.

But lets look at the rest of your options:
a. doing a good job...yes, but back to the skewed priorities issue
b. doing their best...yes absoutely - especially in thier collective eyes, but again, with the public desire/ priorities issue
c. Not as clever...rarely, but sometimes...proactive vs. reactive issue
e. Too desk-bound. Yes, but not the biggest issue. If you catch someone for a DUI, you will be off the streets for close to 2 hours, plus the initial stop and arrest time. so, 1/4 of you shift is eaten up for one arrest. Efficient?
f. too little power...can you REALLY think this is an issue? So, no. Especially in light of the patriot act? What power they don't have, they tend to use anyway.
g. Ineffective/short-staffed...kind of, but refrence all the above about that. short-staffed can be self imposed. Take the amount of applicants a police department has in any hiring cycle...95 percent will be weeded out for drug use, number of exposures to law enforcement...all of which happened 10 plus years ago? People change. Short staffed can also be budget imposed...and that is out of the hands of the PD, it is the government that PD is working for. A good public relations campaign can handle this.

According to most police academians/scholors, the role of the police is to:

To prevent and control conduct widely recognized as threatening to life and property

To aid individuals who are in danger of physical harm, such as the victims of violent attack

To facilitate the movement of people and vehicles

To assist those who cannot care for themselves, the intoxicated, the addicted, the mentally ill, the physically disables, the old, and the young

To resolve conflict, whether it be between individuals, groups or individuals, or individuals and their government

To identify problems that have the potential for becoming more serious problems

To create and maintain a feeling of security in communities

Note: No where did it state unquestionable use of force, enforcement of moral values, being unattentive to public need, failing to arrest based on bureaucratic compartmentalization etc.

Sorry...was not very brief.