Category: Police

There has been a lot of news and social media coverage on police brutality and shootings leading to a push for police retraining. The aftermath of events like Ferguson, Missouri, New York, Baltimore, and Cincinnati, Ohio. Has led to the development of many social activist groups such as Black Lives Matter, Cops Watch, and Cop Block.

Which has fueled the discussion on police training and how citizens have become proactive in patrolling their communities using technology with cameras as surveillance. Taken this approach versus reactively turning on their cameras when police enter their neighborhoods or when they happen to be around police activity.

Examining how police are being trained and continued training; in areas of approaching suspects, mentally health population, shooting of unarmed suspects, and mass shootings. Evaluating a variety of training polices in various police departments and partnerships to assess the differences in how police are trained to address issues. I will look at these cases to see if there is a difference in policies. Correlating these training policies against the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) guide to examine if various competencies are being meet. This will help in identifying gaps in training and the need for further evaluations, amendments, and recommendations.

Police Training

All police officers go to training. Receiving an offer of employment is not immediately accompanied by a badge, uniform, and set of keys to your new cruiser. Completion of an academy and field training program will be the final step to becoming a full-fledged officer.

Each state and jurisdiction have different training requirements. Training can be gained at such places like community college, state sponsored institutions, in house training programs after the hiring process or sponsorship to attend an academy somewhere else. Whichever route a potential officer take, rest assured, they will receive extensive training prior to been put on the streets.

There is no standard national curriculum, but the state may guide agencies in developing training programs. Each state has a Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) or similar entity which establishes minimum selection standards for law enforcement officers, sets minimum education and training standards, and serves as the certification or licensing authority for sworn personnel (1). These agencies may be helpful in getting an idea of your state’s approach to law enforcement training.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Training Agencies (CSLLEA) (2011) From 2004 to 2008, the total number of full-time local police employees increased by 20,000 (3.5%) to about 593,000 (Table1).

The 2008 CSLLEA included 17,985 state and local law enforcement agencies employing at least one full-time officer or the equivalent in part-time officers. The total included:

• 12,501 local police departments
• 3,063 sheriffs’ offices
• 50 primary state law enforcement agencies
• 1,733 special jurisdiction agencies
• 638 other agencies, primarily county constable offices in Texas.

Increasing hiring police offices, agencies must be equipped to handle the needs and requirements of this highly active public sector job. Although, recruitment increased, there was a net decrease in full time sworn personal, employed by state and local law enforcement agencies in 2002-2004.

There is an apparent need for training and many police officer’s organizations have stepped up to fulfill that need in conjunction with officers. For instance, to meet the needs of police officers serving rural communities, Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) worked in collaboration with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and numerous rural Indian tribal police agencies to develop a basic training program that would focus on training officers to respond to police calls in which they have little or no backup. In 2011, FLETC and its BIA and Indian tribal police partners began to make the training need become reality. For two years, they held numerous working group meetings to discuss every aspect of law enforcement training to determine the curriculum for the Rural Police Officer Training Program (Smoot, 2016).

Community policing is an organizational philosophy that promotes community and police partnerships, and focuses on proactive problem solving and community engagement to address the causes of crime, fear of crime or being a victim of crime, and other community issues. By effectively training officers to address the people and issues that they were sworn to sever gives each party a stronger sense of community. It also, shows that the police officer is part of the community and should not be seen as threat. As Block (2011) mentions, effective leadership is the building blocks to a continued relationship building.

To define the role of a police officer one must understand completely the role of the police in today’s world and to ensure that cognate basic recruit training programs are the rule rather than the exception. A framework has always been necessary for viewing the police function. So that training planners include within any given training program all of the actual activities in which police become involved during their daily tours of duty, based on the realities of police work. As such, officers all across the law enforcement community embarked on their respective job task analysis efforts in agencies’ attempts to define exactly what basic training was important and how much of it was needed in any given area of the job. For many peace officer standards and training (POST) units, this has proved to be a very fluid process, which means that job task analyses must be reevaluated to stay up to date with what is happening in the society at large at any given time (John, 2016).

While police officers remain our primary first responders to active shooter incidents and mass-casualty events. Responding officers can prevent unnecessary deaths by addressing immediate threats, and then providing emergency care including the application of tourniquets and pressure dressings to prevent hemorrhage, triaging casualties, establishing secure casualty collection points, and coordinating care with existing EMS responders.

The time has come to provide officers with basic Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) training and equipment in order to potentially save the lives of victims, bystanders, police officers and suspects in the event they are wounded. TEMS is not intended as a replacement for EMS services; rather, it’s an operational medical element that complements these resources in order to promote the success and safety of the law enforcement mission. Federal, state and local governments should recognize this need and provide the necessary funding to train and equip police officers for an effective response to mass casualties (Gerold, 2013).

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) partnered with the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) to create a one of kind cultural awareness training program tailored to the needs of Las Vegas law enforcement. The online training module was released in September 2011. The module is based on the Law Enforcement Partnership Program training program SALDEF developed in conjunction with national law enforcement professionals in 1999. The training program includes “On Common Ground”, a training video developed by SALDEF and the United States Department of Justice. The training program has been used by numerous federal, state, and local law enforcement departments, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Washington Metropolitan Police Department (Singh, 2012).

In U.S. police department budgets, most funding goes to salaries and equipment, and virtually nothing to training. It is a deadly formula, says Maria Haberfeld of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (Waldman. 2014).

Police departments can repair and strengthen community relationships by understanding and training officers on three key concepts: procedural justice, bias reduction, and racial reconciliation. Together and when implemented, these concepts create an environment in which effective partnerships between the police and citizens can flourish. The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office seeks to provide these critical resources to ensure integrity and ethics are well-understood and embedded in the culture of policing.

With the help of COPS Boston Police Department has developed an Enhancing Cultures of Integrity Technical Assistance Guide (2010). This guide has 7 Strategies for project development and implementation; 1) Self-Assessment Techniques for Internal Monitoring, 2) Improving Citizen Complaint Processes, 3) Ensuring Accountability to the Community on Special Events Planning and Intelligence Collection, 4) Adaptation of Command Staff Integrity Training, 5) Review and Enhancement of Use of Force Policy and Training, 6) Recruitment Initiative, 7) Transition Team Focus Groups.

This technical guide is similar to SHM Competencies by outlining specific strategies. For example, Strategy 5: Review and Enhancement of Use of Force Policy and Training. The BPD planned to deliver 1-day training sessions to police chiefs and senior managers on the complexities and responsibilities associated with using force in the line of duty. The proposed training model would employ case studies to help participants:

• Engage their beliefs and experiences about using force
• Examine and discuss police accountability in the field
• Study the impact of using force on community/police relations
• Consider the relationship between use of force issues and police integrity/leadership

This is the type of framework that every police agency needs to be effective in address those components that are relevant to the neighborhoods that they serve as well as standard in force, communication, community building, and interviewing.

In conclusion, there must be ways to provide necessary basic recruit academy training and continued training. Allowing recruits to have hands on training and current officers continued training while serving the public, at the same time. One means of striking this balance is to utilize a staggered agenda, along with mandated step-by-step certification levels. States like Texas, over the past decade, has developed personnel expertise. Satisfying the interests of specialized interest groups and legislated training mandates.

Input from all levels of personnel; Chiefs, Academy Directors, and POST commissions can and should provide recommendations regarding line personnel training issues as well as a supervisory curriculum. In house training styles should reflects a step-by-step, progressive education program. Offering both mandated training topics as well as discretionary training preferences within defined timelines.

Reference

1. Block, P., 2011. Flawless consulting: A guide to getting your expertise used. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
2. Bernd, C., 2014. Police Departments Retaliate Against Organized” Cops Watch” Groups Across the US. Retrieved from http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/26527-police-departments-retaliate-against-organized-cop-watch-groups-across-the-us September 23, 2016
3. Connolly, J., September 2016. Rethinking Police. The PoliceChief Retrieved from http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=1667&issue_id=112008#2 September 15, 2016
4. Georold, K., 2013. National Tactical Officers Association Calls for Increased Emergency Medical Training for Police. Law Officer. Retrieved from http://lawofficer.com/2013/10/national-tactical-officers-association-calls-for-increased-emergency-medical-training-for-police-officers/ September 21, 2016
5. Grossi, D., 2011. Police firearms training: How often should you be shooting? PoliceOne. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/shooting-deaf-man-inadequate-police-training.aspx September 16, 2016
6. Singh, K., 2012. Las Vegas Police Department Develops Cultural Awareness Training Program. Law Officer. Retrieved from http://lawofficer.com/2012/01/las-vegas-police-department-develops-cultural-awareness-training-program/ September 21, 2016
7. Smith, A., 2016. Fatal Shooting of Deaf Man Raises Concerns About Police Training.
8. SHRM. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/shooting-deaf-man-inadequate-police-training.aspx September 13, 2016
9. Smoot, R., 2016. Rural Police Officer Training. Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers Journal. Retrieved from https://www.fletc.gov/fletc-journal September 14,2016
10. Unknown Author, July 2011 Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Training Agencies. Retrieved from http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/csllea08.pdfSeptember 14, 2016
11. Unknown Author, 2010. Boston Police Department Enhancing Cultures of Integrity and Technical Assistance Guide. COPS. Retrieved September 16, 2016 from http://ric-zai-inc.com/Publications/cops-p184-pub.pdf
12. Unknown Author, 2016 International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training, Model Minimum State Standards For Post Administration, on the Retrieved from http://www.iadlest.org/standards September 12, 2016.
13. Waldman, P., 2014. Expert: U.S. Police Training in Use of Deadly Force Woefully Inadequate. The American Prospect. http://prospect.org/article/expert-us-police-training-use-deadly-force-woefully-inadequate September 23, 2016

The consensus of most people is that people who are facing police brutality are the ones who are “committing the crime” that deserve the punishment. Where does the law stand with what is police brutality and what is not? How does everyone figure out what punishments deserve this?

Well, in America, there are several different categories that fall under the word of “police brutality”, some are: false arrest, intimidation, racial profiling, sexual abuse, etc. Since the definition of police brutality is so broad, it is hard to determine what is and isn’t under that terminology. The most notoriously known category for police brutality are racial profiling. Most of the victims that falls under this category are African-Americans. The most famous event of this was the Rodney King incident where an African-American man fell victim to police brutality that resulted in him getting pulled over during a high-speed chase and beaten. This incident sparked a riot in Los Angeles (1992 Los Angeles riots). Police brutalities are more likely to happen in urban areas because areas like these are filled with more people and activities which can be more likely for crimes to happen. However, this can depend on the city that you live in. Some cities can be well-developed but houses poor and ghetto suburban residents that are riddled with criminal activities. Ghetto areas are a hotspot to gang-related activities, violence, vandalism, and drug-dealing. The laws are of course, are against police brutality and any conduct that the police acts against. Cops, as well as any other members of society are instructed to obey the laws or else face punishment. However, some of those police officers do get away with their crimes unpunished. The police have to be aware of others’ rights and use the necessary level of use of force appropriate to what the situation requires. Some police officers happen to jump the gun or being too trigger-happy and end up over-escalating the situation themselves which results in what we know as, “police brutality”.

Another question a lot of people consider is if the brutality was truly racially motivated, some cases of seemingly racially motivated situations were deemed to be undecided on who was in the right. The problem with that is that there is no solution to the issue of police brutality, police barely ever get convicted of their crimes, as most citizens would. Considering the statistics, it is more likely for a minority who is unarmed to be killed than an unarmed white-person. This is a major threat to minorities and it goes to show that it still has not resolved, considering the methodology of the police force is not working. The issue is not only that there is nothing being done to punish some of those police officers who have done wrong, but also that there is footage and they still do not get punished a lot of times. Some argue that police officers need to spend more time training and demand every department to require passing college before becoming a certified police officer. Eric Garner, a father of six, was arrested for “selling cigarettes without tax stamps”, but Eric argued that he was sick of being harassed and he was not selling cigarettes. The NYPD police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, put Garner in an illegal chokehold, which goes against the policy of the NYPD. This is an example of excessive force; since Daniel denied it, but there was evidence stacking against him, the general consensus would be that he would be indicted for his crime, yet the jury did not, and he got away with the murder of Eric Garner. This is one of many examples of the use of excessive force, and white on black crime. The question of motivation will never be answered, but the general assumption would be that there could have been certain racism involved in the homicide.

The one interesting aspect of this conversation is that cops who target and racially profile African-Americans with the use of excessive force are most likely white, it is hard to find evidence stacking against any other race of police officer, but sadly, it is so frequent that a police officer will kill a U.S. citizen, that it seems to become such a common topic that is discussed in politics. The reasoning behind the amount of killings is that the police usually get off with less than they should, since a lot of the crimes they commit are completely unjustified, but it is so hard to pinpoint a way to make them pay for their actions.

All in all, the examples of police brutality are absolutely riveting and the statistics really go against African-Americans, since police usually kill more unarmed black males than they do white males. The facts are absolutely shocking and it is hard not to look at it from a hard standpoint to try to figure out what the country is not doing right for these circumstances. The main point is that the ideology of America is skewed so the ones with more power have it easier and the facts do not go against that statement.

State police have always been a central part of this country, and their mission has remained the same since there conception in 1751. They’re Given their power by the state for which they serve, and are to uphold the constitution of the United States as well as the laws in place at the federal and state level. Police are public servants in the United States meaning their funding comes from taxes. It would be safe to say they have become a universal standard in the modern world. Police, at the beginning of their career, will take the law enforcement oath of honor.

“On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character, or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always uphold the constitution, my community, and the agency I serve.”

The police badge is a symbol of power and is meant to be a symbol of their respect and hard work for that power. That’s also why their character and integrity is mentioned. In Criminal Justice they teach and warn about The Oath of Silence, which is an unwritten rule that some police will follow, it is defined as the following… “They do not report on a colleague’s errors, misconducts, or crimes, including police brutality. If questioned about an incident of alleged misconduct involving another officer, the officer being questioned would claim ignorance of another officer’s wrongdoing or claim to have not seen anything.” This is where the more human part comes into play, not every man and woman in policing is very principled, letter of the law kind of individual. Which is why Law enforcement comes with a certain degree of controversy because of corruption and brutality that always makes it to the news. This isn’t to say they aren’t passionate or bad at their job; that they don’t take it seriously, it’s just there is a human element. So, the research question for this paper is where do police draw the line, from considering something to be a professional courtesy to it being something they have to report, and at what point is it considered an unethical use of their position.

Background Information

The United States has a very different system for law enforcement, compared to foreign counter parts. In Rise of the Warrior Cop, written by Radley Balko an investigative Journalist, found the US had more than 16000 Law enforcement agencies. Which includes the City police, County Police, state police and federal agencies. The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that police officers do not have a duty to protect any one individual, in fact their only job legally speaking is to enforce the law in general. When the use of force considered appropriate as a response to the behavior of a perp. It is well within their means to do so, this is why generally speaking if the officer doesn’t have a history with on the job accidents, they are usually overlooked. Police brutality was used in the American News as early as 1872, it was reported the police beat of a civilian under arrest at the Police Station. What we know as police today is believed to be developed from the model the French used, dating back to the 17th century. In fact, by around 1910 most countries had adapted to this model of “Modern Policing”.

Sources that will be used are as follows. First, Breaking the blue Wall, it is a personal account of the Hopson vs New Jersey case Witten by Justin Hopson. Hopson refuses to turn a blind eye to a colleague’s unlawful misconduct and is relentlessly harassed, beaten, and threatened by the people he exposed. Rise of the Warrior Cop written by Investigative Journalist Radley Balko talks about how, in recent years, have evolved into something he classifies as grossly Unconstitutional. The War on Cops by Heather MacDonald is about the alienation of police and how these very broad stroke solutions to solve police corruption can effectively do the opposite of what they are supposed to do. To Protect and Serve was written by Norm Stamper, a retired police chief. He discusses the problems with policing and how he would fix them.

The Blue Wall

Blue walls can exist in many forms, all it is referring to is when police choose not to disclose information. Whether or not it is illegal (typically is), it doesn’t matter from a definition standpoint. The author of The Blue Wall of Silence, Alex Quinn, defined it as “The Blue wall around police only when a police officer is the offender. It will be revealed what tactics are used by police to ensure they or a colleague is not arrested. Police officers who abuse their power will often engage in creative report writing, in order to get someone falsely arrested or discredited. These reports are read to attorneys and judges before arraignments, pretrial, trials, and sentencing. The Words written in police reports provide a preconceived notion about the defendant.” (Quinn 7). However, both civilians and other police can encounter walls, even federal agencies. Some law enforcement may slowly develop an arrogance for the position they hold, and can in some cases can think they are above the law. This is why police have Ethical Obligations in a professional setting. With that being said, many law enforcement professionals feel as though the current framework is relatively primitive. With one of them being ex-state trooper, Justin Hopson, who was assaulted and repeatedly harassed for reporting his partner for an illegal arrest. There can be many possibilities as to why officers get this aggressive. What you typically see the Police say on the causes of misconduct in policing, call it a naive explanation that includes psychological, behavioral and background factors. Hopson says that what actually causes people to crack is the unbelievable pressure to conform to the police culture, part of that being the “Code of Silence”. You can see why putting crime on a pedestal when cops do it, could warp their code of ethics. Hopson goes on to say,” I had a romantic idea of law enforcement when I was growing up. I realize that all to clearly now. It was a combination of the good guys I saw on TV, and my father’s own occupational adventures, which cast my perception of the police. I had seen a movie or two featuring ‘police corruption,’ and I figured that kind of thing existed in New York or L.A. but it seemed to awfully melodramatic. Surely police corruption didn’t occur Nationwide.” (Hopson 57). Meaning police, Hopson included, start to think became a cop was naïve. The only difference with Hopson is he was able to get out, according to him most just get pull in further.

Blue Wall Effect on Law Enforcement

Interdepartmental cooperation is required in law enforcement quite often, we have many examples for this in history. In the late 19th century European police agencies undertook cross-border surveillance because of concerns political radicals. Much like when the Prussian police surveilled Marx when he lived in London. The interests of public law enforcement agencies in cross border cooperation in the control of political extremists and ordinary crime were primarily started in Europe, which ultimately led to the establishment of Interpol just before World War 2. There are many examples of cross border policing under private supporters and by public police forces dating back to the 19th century.

Due to a long-term deterioration of the public’s confidence for law enforcement in the United States, body cams started becoming more and more standard issue. Even so the police are permitted to protect private rights in some jurisdictions. To guarantee that the police wouldn’t restrict in the regular capabilities of the courts, some police acts require that the police may only interfere in the cases where defense from courts can’t be attained in time, and where, without interference of the police, the realization of the private rights could be obstructed. Investigative Journalist Radley Balko, believes there is a strong correlation between educated Cops and Ethically challenged ones. “It has become clear that only the educated Law Enforcement are able to competently respond ethical dilemmas. Officers who can efficiently and appropriately work through these dilemmas can be valuable to their community. He can’t rely of his instincts alone, he must also must be knowledgeable in police ethics, moral reasoning, and a clear expectation for conduct in their profession.” (Balko 141). Balko noticed this from his travels all over the US Speaking with numerous police captains, that officer’s physical environment is less to blame compared to their social environment. The implication of ethics is that they should account for each other in all actions, they have commitments to the group. What reflects poorly on one reflects on the rest.

Alienation of Police/Civilians

Law enforcement finds themselves under scrutiny for their uses of power, especially if it is lethal force. Especially, when a cop of one ethnic group injures or kills a suspect of a different ethnic group. In the United States, such occasions sometimes instigate fights and allegations of bigotry against police and accusations that police participate in racial profile. This is further explained in Heather MacDonald in her book The War on Cops and Jeff Roorda’s The War on Police, MacDonald is a bestselling Political Scientist and Roorda is a retired Police chief. Roorda and MacDonald seem to agree the Ferguson Missouri was a turning point. The police department in Ferguson had a history with Racial bias and the shooting of Michael Brown sent the town into civil unrest. The people were afraid to have any kind of encounter for law enforcement because it could get very violent very quick when the individual being addressed by police.

During the pursuit of a suspect, officers can become enraged with adrenaline, which can ultimately affect their judgment in turn, leading to aggravated assault. When in this emotional state it can safely be considered an inappropriate use of force. While Officers have the legal right to decide how they respond/ treat suspects, they may justifiably escalate the situation verbally. However, these efforts to enhance police accountability only reveals that they relied on rules and punishment. Meaning the rule-based systems of accountability seem insufficient if officers hold different values or there is a subculture which nurture values different from the ideals of democratic policing.

The Militarization of Police

Most larger jurisdictions also utilize specially selected and trained seemingly military units armed with military-grade weaponry for dealing with predominantly violent situations beyond the capabilities of a standard patrol officer, this may include serving warrants to dangerous suspects. In the US these units are usually known as SWAT teams. The Constitution of the US states that law enforcement personnel are legally allowed to shoot in any instance that they feel the need to protect their own lives or the life of a civilian or to prevent the suspect from fleeing arrest or a crime scene. In the case, Tennessee v. Garner, it legal to shoot a fleeing suspect only if they could cause injury to civilians, this was to make sure law enforcement couldn’t shoot every suspect that tries to flee custody. Law enforcement should always focus on removing civilians from dangerous people and/or situations, to do this they are equipped with various non-lethal weaponry. Such as chemical agents, concussion grenades and rubber/beanbag ammo.

Criminal Justice Ethics

Criminal procedure law has been developed to control officers’ discretion, so that they do not randomly or unjustly exercise their powers of arrest, search and seizure, and use of force. In the United States, Miranda v. Arizona prompted the use of Miranda/constitutional warnings. In Miranda the court created safeguards against people making self-incriminating statements made after an arrest. The court held that the prosecution can’t use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, all coming from questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way, unless it establishes the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the Fifth Amendment’s right against self-incrimination. Police in the United States are also prohibited from holding criminal suspects for more than a sensible amount of time before arraignment, the use of torture or physical intimidation to extract confessions, using excessive force to get an arrest, and searching suspects’ bodies or their homes without a warrant obtained upon a proof of probable cause. The four exemptions to the constitutional requirement of a search warrant are: Consent, Search incident to arrest, Motor vehicle searches, Urgent circumstances. The large majority of police agencies have adopted the code of police ethics, in a more or less spoken form. But, as I have already mentioned, police ethics is still at relatively still in the beginning of its development.

When you compare law enforcement ethics to medical or business ethics, police ethics is relatively Primitive. There are a few reasons for this, the big one being the misunderstanding of the need for police ethics. The intrinsic value of police officers within this framework is loyalty. Whereas Leadership is either not accountable to anyone or they are accountable only to which ever party in power. It isn’t surprising that police ethics does not have this much given context. Some experts are misled by a notion that as long as police perform their work strictly by the book, they need no police ethics. Advocates of this view also deny police officers the right of discretion. Unfortunately, when one is faced with an ethical dilemma, the laws prove themselves to be insufficient. A lot of effort needs to be put into education and training in ethics, before police officers can be faced with a moral problem or ethical dilemma and make a thought-out decision in an efficient amount of time. It takes time to not make quick decisions based on prejudice or impulsively alone even the mastery of the process of moral reasoning and decision-making does not, by itself, guarantee ethical conduct, nor do all of the situations require moral reasoning and discussion. If police officer experience inconsistent behavior from their supervisors, preferential treatment of some officers and/or citizens, solidarity with, and cover-ups for, the officers who violate standards of their profession. Integrity in Law Enforcement, then, means that a police officer genuinely accepts values and moral standards of policing and possesses the virtues of his profession. That he can consistently act out of his own will, in accordance with the values, standards, and virtues, even in the face of external pressures. Of course, not all police officers have integrity. The argument is that rotating officers helps the detectives to better understand the uniformed officers’ work, to encourage cross-training in a wider variety of skills, and prevent Inner circles from being formed because it can contribute to corruption or other unethical behavior. With technology now civilians can do a whole lot with watching and recording police when necessary.

Introduction

The term “Encounter Killing” is a word used in India since late 20Th century to describe alleged extra-judicial killings by police or armed forces, supposedly in self defence when they encounter suspected gangsters or terrorists. At that time, police used to attack the city’s underworld, and the practice spread to other large cities. Some cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata were at a very high frequency of encounter killings by police. Some of the killings have been controversial and people have alleged that Police created fake encounters as opportunities to kill suspects.

Meaning

Police encounters generally means extra-judicial killing of person who are usually in custody of police by the policeman without following the rule of law. As such in Indian penal code and Criminal Procedure Code, the term police encounter is not defined specifically but there are other provision which states the meaning of police encounter.

Laws relating to encounter

So, in India not only police but every citizen of India has a right of private defence i.e., A man is justified in repelling force by force in defence of his person, habitation or property against one who manifestly intends and endeavours by violence or surprise to commit a felony upon either. The right is recognised in every system of law.

Section 96 & 100 of Indian Penal Code, provide with right to private defence. As per Section 96, no offence is made out if any act is done in self-defence. But it needs to pass the test of Section 99 of Indian Penal Code, which provides that the act should not extend to causing more harm than that is required for the purpose of self-defence. Section 100 provides when the right of self-defence extends to causing death. For an act to fall under this defence, certain conditions need to be satisfied:

1. The accused should be innocent while committing that act;
2. There should be absence of any safe/ reasonable mode of escaping by retreat;
3. There must be apprehension of death/ severe bodily injury; and
4. There should be the necessity of taking life.

Clause 3 of Section 300 of IPC, comes into light which provides that if any public servant/ any person authorized by public servant, exceeds their power to causing death while acting for advancement of justice and which they believe as lawful and mandatory for discharging his duty without any ill intention, then they will not be liable for murder. Section 46(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure; provides a wider power to the person making arrest. It provides that if any person tries to escape arrest, the person making the arrest has power to use all necessary force required for making the arrest.

At the time of arrest, if a person accused of heinous crimes, where the punishment is life imprisonment or death penalty, in such cases, if that person tries to escape from the arrest, police may also kill that accused person if it has no other option of taking him into custody. But, say a person is accused of theft, where According to Section-379, the imprisonment may extend upto three years and not life imprisonment, so in such a case if he tries to escape from police custody, police cannot shoot a person or kill him.

Police encounters when legal and when not?

When the life of the police is in danger and the police have no other option of arrest, they may also kill an accused if he is alleged of heinous crimes and trying to escape from its custody, in such cases police encounter is legal.

Also, if during a police encounter, an innocent person in a mob dies, police is not liable for the same if it has taken all the sufficient precautions during that encounter. Sadly, even if it happens, it gives permission to not only police but every citizen of India that while practicing right to private defence, if a person shoots and if there is no other person besides saving his life, then even if the innocent person dies, law protects that situation.

But at the same time law also protects the right of alleged criminals and prohibits the police from encounter killings. Encounter killings are general exceptions that deal with general conditions of non-imputability or general grounds of exemption from criminal liability.

The legal functions of police authorities are to investigate the case and arrest the offenders of the crime in their legal capacity. In cases where there is extrajudicial killing of persons who are usually in custody, by the policeman without following the rule of law, are said to be police encounters that are not legal or fake encounters. It is staged in such a way, that it appears to be crossfire by the policemen. But law protects such persons from the act of police.

Article 6(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provides: “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” Article 14(2) of the ICCPR, provides everyone accused of a crime to be considered as innocent until otherwise.

The staged/ fake encounters (referred to as instant justice by masses) are against the key constitutional provisions Article 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution. Article 14 provides us with Rule of Law which states that Law is supreme. Article 21 provides that every person has the right to life and personal liberty in accordance with the procedure established by law. Right to fair trial is the heart of criminal jurisprudence and the same flows from Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

Consequences of Encounters

Police encounters are a blot on the judiciary system of our country. There are a lot of incidents in India where these killings are happening and are against the basic principle of human rights in India. The problem with encounters is that, say a criminal was “encountered” today, it was right; everyone applauded the police for doing so. The police might do even more encounters tomorrow, in a streak of more and more encounters, an innocent person will get killed one day. In fact, this has already happened in many cities.

The reporters of India Today went undercover as businessman to the police officers and said that they wanted to get a case of a bank robbery filed against their competitor, so they asked the police to nab an innocent man and “encounter” him in order to trap the competitor in a case and some police officers were ready to gun down an innocent civilian in an encounter for 8 lakh rupees.

It is extremely easy to conduct encounters of innocent people for money, promotion or publicity and this is already happening. Questions have been raised on so many encounters across the country. There are more than 800 cases where the police probably murdered an innocent person, talking about only one state.

This is the reason why the people who formed our constitution, put three pillars in place – Legislative, Executive and Judiciary. If only two pillars would carry out all the work, then they would not have made the third one. All the three pillars keep each other in check and could be called a system of checks and balances. The entire building would crumble even if just one pillar becomes more powerful.

Leading encounter cases in India

The recent case of Vikas Dubey’s Encounter, 2020 made questioned the veracity of the encounter again like many other cases. The incident took place in the early morning of July 10, 2020, where a hardcore criminal accused in recent murder of eight policemen in Kanpur on July 2, 2020 was being taken away to Kanpur from Ujjain by Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force. On the way to Kanpur, a vehicle carrying the accused is said to have been met with an accident wherein the accused tried to flee away after snatching the pistol of the policemen. It is further said that the policemen surrounded him from all the sides and requested him to surrender but he fired. In counterattack, the policemen also fired in which the accused got injured. After being taken to the hospital, he was declared dead. Apart from Dubey, five of his associates have also been killed by the police in reported encounters over the last week.

This encounter under mysterious circumstances have raised many questions on the authenticity of the Uttar Pradesh police’s claims, a lot of people on social media have also alleged that this encounter was faux. But we cannot pass any judgement till the investigation is not completed.

Some of the cases of Real Encounters

1. Bhopal jail encounter,2018

In October 2016, eight people associated with the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) allegedly escaped from the Bhopal Central Jail and were subsequently shot dead by the state police.

The probe report stated that the deceased persons were asked to surrender, but, instead, began firing at the police and public. Therefore, the police had to open fire and even after that they showed no intention to surrender, sustained injuries and died on the spot.

At the time, many videos surfaced suggest the encounter was staged.

In June 2018, a one-man judicial commission headed by S.K. Pandey, retired judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, gave the police a clean chit.

2. Batla House case, 2008

The Batla House encounter took place in Delhi in 2008.On 19 September 2008, a Delhi Police special team carried out an encounter in Batla House in Jamia Nagar, where two suspected Indian Mujahedeen terrorists were killed along with inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.

The operation led by Sharma, an encounter specialist, was supposed to only gather information from residents of the area after the 2008 September blasts in Delhi. However, it escalated into a 20-minute shootout.

Many questioned the veracity of the encounter, and claimed it was staged. The National Human Rights Commission also conducted an investigation into the encounter, on a plea filed by People’s Union for Democratic Rights, and eventually gave a clean chit to the Delhi Police.

3. Veerappan Case, 2004

In October 2004, the notorious Veerappan, infamous for kidnapping, elephant poaching and sandalwood smuggling, was shot dead in an encounter by the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force. He had been on the run for a decade was tricked into getting into an ambulance as he needed to visit a hospital in Salem for his eye.

The STF fired 338 bullets at the ambulance, out of which three hit Veerappan. However, it was questioned at the time whether his encounter was staged and actually a cover-up job. But nothing was found out.

Some of the cases of Fake Encounters

1. Manipur extrajudicial killings, 2010

In February 2020, four Manipur policemen, including an inspector, surrendered before the Imphal West chief judicial magistrate in connection with the alleged fake encounter of Irengbam Ratankumar on 1 September 2010.

The case was among more than 1,500 extrajudicial killing by the Manipur Police and security forces. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CBI, which was investigating the case, submitted a charge sheet against the police personnel in May 2019.

2. Ram Narayan Gupta, 2006

Ram Narayan Gupta alias ‘Lakhan Bhaiya’, who was apparently an aide to gangster Chhota Rajan, was shot dead in 2006 by the Mumbai Police when he was picked up from Vashi and killed in an allegedly staged encounter in Versova.

Following the encounter, a Mumbai sessions court in 2013 sentenced 21 people, including 13 policemen, to life imprisonment for killing Gupta. It also held them guilty of conspiring and kidnapping him. However, the prime accused, encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, was acquitted.

3. Sadiq Jamal, 2003

In 2003, the Gujarat Police shot dead Sadiq Jamal, claiming to have information that he was planning an attack on Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders. According to an investigation by the CBI, not only was Jamal shot dead by the police in a fake encounter, but also that the Intelligence Bureau played a role in it.

According to the CBI, Jamal did not match the profile of reports of a plan to kill Modi and others, and his past criminal record only included an altercation in 1996 and arrest for gambling in 2002. Many police inspectors and top IB officials were questioned and later accused in the case of his ‘encounter’.

In 2017, Jamal’s father filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court seeking compensation of Rs 50 lakhs from the state government.

Conclusion

Exercise of power needs to be within the rule of law. Fake encounters are nothing more than mockery of rule of law. It affects administration of the criminal justice system and credibility of the rule of law. In a civilized society, staged encounters can never be an alternative to the process of conviction through trial. Three different branches: legislature, executive and judiciary have been made for different purposes. The existing police officers are extremely overworked, “ The Police in India Report,2019” released by the CSDS, tells us that on an average, a police officer in our country works for fourteen hours a day and 50% of them do not even get a day off the entire week. There should be 2.8 million police officers in our country, but there are merely 1.9 million of them, which means 30% of the posts are still vacant. Speedy trial for a person convicted of serious offences is the need of the hour. People are losing their utmost faith in the judiciary due to several reasons like: years and years taken in conviction of an accused. . Our criminal justice system and police need to go through major changes.

References

1. The Indian Kanoon
2. 2. The Indian Penal Code book by Prof. S.N.Misra
3. The Constitution of India book by Dr. Narinder Kumar
4. The Code of Criminal Procedure book by Prof. S.N.Misra
5. The Policing in India report,2019 by the Centre for the study of developing societies (CSDS)

Abstract

This paper talks about police brutality and excessive force and how it is affecting people perspectives and attitude toward police officer. Police brutality and excessive force has and is a big issue around the United States. Innocent people are being killed or mistreated by officers who don’t respect protocol and who take advantage of their power. This paper also explains body cameras and how they are useful and how race and ethnicity is being targeted at times. The article also explores solutions towards this issue.

Literature Review: Police Brutality and Excessive Force

Police Brutality and Excessive Force has been an issue in the United States that seems like there has been no solution too. The killing of people in this country has become a routine something normal (Francis-Santiago,2016). A police officer should be protecting the people of a city or town and at times it seems like they are doing the opposite of their job. According to Francis-Santiago (2016), In the united states the police kills two people every day. Things like race and ethnicity are a big factor of the choices a police officer make and use their power the wrong way and end up hurting people who are innocent.

Data collected for this research has helped to make this essay and assemble. The research will help understand the reader of what police brutality and excessive force is, and some subtopics that may influence or may help this issue. Question will be answered throughout the essay that help backup what the research. There is a total of four questions that will help the reader understand more about police brutality and excessive force. The questions for this research include:

Question 1

What is Police Brutality and Excessive Force?

Question 2

Are certain race/ethnic being targeted?

Question 3

Are body cameras useful?

Question 4

What can be done to stop this?

What is Police Brutality and Excessive Force?

Police Brutality and Excessive Force is something you hear about almost everywhere. It is a big issue where there is always a story, but what exactly is it? According to Law Enforcement Use of Force (n.d.) excessive force is the application of force beyond what is reasonably believed to be necessary to gain compliance from a subject in any given incident. Lyman, (2016) states that police brutality is extra-legal violence that is willfully conducted by officers who knowingly exceed the bounds of their office. Police brutality happens because of excessive force when a police officer exceeds the force needed to control a person it leads to police brutality where the officer can’t take control of the situation and abuses its power. A police officer is trained and told to only use the amount of force necessary to mitigate an incident, make an arrest, or protect themselves or others from harm (Police Use of Force, n.d.).

In order to know if a police officer was using the correct amount of force the case of Graham V. Conner created a few guidelines to set and end point of what is excessive force and what is not which are known as the Graham factors. The supreme court decided that these are the best things to not second guess an officer’s decision and to see if they exceeded the force that was needed for a certain person. Excessive force cases against the police (2017) states:

In judging whether an officer used excessive force, one must consider, “the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.”

To see if an officer follows the Graham factors knowing the officer’s safety is important to see and understand if he or she reacted the right way. As an officer knowing background information on a suspect is important to understand the severity of the situation. It is also important to know if a suspect is a threat to others who are around, the police officer, or himself (Excessive force cases against the police, 2017).

Are Certain Race/Ethnics Being Targeted?

Police officers are criticized to attacking minorities and it looks like it might be a factor to their decisions, and it seems like African Americans are being targeted more. There is anecdotal evidence showing that African Americans are more likely to be subjected to excessive use of force by police than are people of other races (Ajilore & Shirey, 2017). African Americans are what people think of for incidents of police brutality and excessive force. People, who are African-American/Black are twice as likely to be killed by a police officer while being unarmed compared to a Caucasian/White individual. (Lombardo, 2017). There is a high number of African Americans being killed by police. In an interview to an African American male he states, I’m actually afraid too call them why am I calling them for if it’s going to be backfired on me (Francis-Santiago, 2016, Personal Interview). People no matter who they are should be afraid to reach out to police officers who are supposed to be there to help you.

African Americans aren’t the only once being affected by police brutality and excessive force, but according to Downs (2016), among minorities, the rate of police killings for Latinos is second to those of African-Americans. People don’t always talk about other race and ethnicities being targeted. The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice noted that the number of Latino victims of police killings is 30% above average, and at 1.9 times the rate of whites (Reyes, 2015). Latinos and Hispanics don’t get as much as much attention from the media and people like African Americans, but Hispanics deserve to live and work in communities where the police treat them with fairness and respect. Latino lives do matter and ought to matter just as much as those of other Americans (Reyes, 2015).

Figure 1: https://necpluribusimpar.net/reality-police-violence-us/

The graph shown above show the probability of force being used from a police officer offer towards a race. The audience can see how African Americans/Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos are being targeted more than Whites/Caucasian.

Figure 2: https://thesocietypages.org/toolbox/police-killing-of-blacks/

The image above shows a graph of the percentage of kills by police officers that each race White, Blacks, and Hispanics from the year 2015-2017. The audience can see how from the years given the numbers of African Americans/Blacks were being targeted the most and then Hispanics/Latinos and finally White/Caucasian.

Are Body Cameras Useful?

Police officers have been accused of doing the wrong thing and not doing their job right and lately police have been using body cameras, but are they useful and necessary? In an interview to Lawyer Scott Rynecki says, that citizens have a powerful weapon that is not a gun, but a cellphone and a voice and because of the cellphone camera police brutality cases have raised. (Francis-Santiago, 2016). Before cameras people couldn’t see thing to believe them, but as simple as a camera is it can be so useful for this problem. From 2007 to 2013, the percentage of local police departments using in-car video cameras increased from 61% to 68% (Local Police Departments, 2013: Equipment And Technology, n.d).

The increase of body cameras on police officers has been a good thing for the safety of citizens around the United States. Report Show Body Cameras Reduce Excessive Force By Police (2017) states:

“Officers wearing cameras were slightly more likely, by about five to seven percent, to make an arrest or issue a citation based on a call for service. So, they were actually more productive than officers not wearing cameras,” says Dr. Coldren.

Wearing cameras has a lot of potential benefits that can help people and officers both in their own way. Body cameras on an officer can be useful and beneficial for increase civility, quicker resolution, corroborating evidence, and more (Body-Worn Cameras: What the Evidence Tells Us, n.d.).

What Can be Done to Stop This?

Police brutality and excessive force has always been an issue, but its been recently heard of more, but why has this problem gotten bigger and what can be done to stop it? Although the researcher may not have the answer to this completely there is somethings that can be done to decline the numbers for police brutality and excessive force. First Starting with teaching respect to people. Not every cop is doing the wrong thing and if they feel threatened, they have probable cause to use force. Also, have penalizations or consequences towards police officers that are doing wrong to citizens. Not every person that has been killed is a threat to society. Finally, supporting movements that bring awareness. Movements like Black Lives Matter have made a difference and have helped people become more aware of their surrounding and of events that are happening (Alang & Contributor, 2017).

Conclusion

In conclusion, police brutality and excessive force has been a big issue that together as the people of this country can try to make the rate of it slow down. By reading this, the readers, can understand more about this issue and get informed more. The reader can also look at the police officer point of view by an understanding of the procedures that go in to taking action, but without exceeding force. People in general can get more involved in movements like Communities United against Police Brutality or get involved within their own community.

To get more information and a better understanding on police brutality and excessive the researcher conducted a survey to see what other people in the community think about this issue. The audience that was targeted to take this survey were college students of any age. The survey was done via the website Survey Monkey and given to multiple UTEP students from different locations found in the university. The survey included multiple choice and free response question to get a further understanding and see what others though about the issue police brutality and excessive force. Here are some of the questions give un the survey:

Q1. What is Police Brutality and Excessive Force?

________________________________________________________________________

Q2. Are certain race/ethnic being targeted?

___Yes, If so which ones

___No

___Hispanics

___African American

___White

___Other

Q3.Are body cameras useful?

___Yes

___No

Q4.What can be done to stop this?

________________________________________________________________________

Even though the survey targeted different people the results for the survey were almost all the same. Everyone that took the survey agreed that Police brutality and excessive force is when an officer takes advantage of their power or authority. Although they were all explained differently, they all ended up getting to the same. For the second question, multiple choice was given 76.3% of the audience given the survey though that race, or ethnicity are being targeted. 7.8% of the audience said no. They were also asked what race or ethnicity they though were being targeted and the results are as followed 81.5% African Americans, 2.6% White, 76.3% Hispanics, and 13.6% for other. For the third question, people were asked if they though body cameras were useful 86.8% said yes and 13.1% said no. For the final question people were asked what they think can be done. People who took the survey had the same ideas of consequences for the police officers and to bring more awareness.

Reference Page

1. Ajilore, O., & Shirey, S. (2017). Do pass: [#]AllLivesMatter? An Evaluation of Race Excessive Use of Force by Police. Atlantic Economic Journal, 45(2), 201. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s11293-017-9538-6
2. Alang, S., & Contributor, O. (2017, May 12). How to dismantle racism and prevent police brutality. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/2017/05/12/how-dismantle-racism-and-prevent-police-brutality/101481438/
3. Body-Worn Cameras: What the Evidence Tells Us. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nij.gov/journals/280/Pages/body-worn-cameras-what-evidence-tells-us.aspx
4. Documentary, R. (2016, February 26). Retrieved November 07, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNuDHJEmNlY
5. Excessive force cases against the police. (2017, December 21). Retrieved from https://mccreadylaw.com/blog/excessive-force-cases-police/
6. Law Enforcement Use of Force. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=84
7. Lemoine, P. (2017, December 09). The reality of police violence in the US. Retrieved from https://necpluribusimpar.net/reality-police-violence-us/
8. Lombardo, C. (2017, February 22). Retrieved November 08, 2018, from https://vittana.org/42-shocking-police-brutality-statistics
9. Local Police Departments, 2013: Equipment and Technology. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5321
10. Lyman, M. D. (2016). Police Brutality/Excessive Force. Encyclopedia of Street Crime in America. doi:10.4135/9781452274461.n135 https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-excessive-force-and-police-brutality
11. Pages, T. S. (n.d.). POLICE KILLING OF BLACKS: Data for 2015, 2016, 2017, and first half of 2018 – Sociology Toolbox. Retrieved from https://thesocietypages.org/toolbox/police-killing-of-blacks/
12. Police Use of Force. (n.d). Retrieved from https://www.nij.gov/topics/law-enforcement/officer-safety/use-of-force/pages/welcome.aspx
13. Report Show Body Cameras Reduce Excessive Force By Police. (2017, December 19). Retrieved from https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2017/12/19/257460/report-show-body-cameras-reduce-excessive-force-by-police/
14. Reyes, R. A. (2015, June 09). Police brutality toward Latinos unacceptable (Opinion). Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2015/06/09/opinions/reyes-police-brutality-latinos/index.html

Racial profiling to some people is a “requirement” and should be handled with extreme caution, but to others, racial profiling is severely unjust and should be handled as a case of prejudice. According to the article “Racial Profiling,” racial profiling can occur when someone is accused or assumed to be related to a crime because of race, religion, or ethnicity. The United States in particular has unreasonably targeted people of color, most of all black residents, which has subsequently dwindled the trust in law enforcement in regard to communities of color. Not only has racial profiling been used throughout law enforcement, but it has also been used by average citizens of today’s America.

Racial profiling in America is considered a major problem in the twenty-first century. According to “Public Opinion on Racial Profiling, by Race,” a bar chart is representing the percentage of how many individuals (by race) are agreeing to the saying “yes, racial profiling is widespread” in certain hypothetical situations. When motorists are stopped on roads and highways, 50 percent of Whites agree to the saying of “yes, racial profiling is widespread” while 17 percent more of Blacks and 13 percent more of Hispanics agree to be stopped by law enforcement. 20 percent more black shoppers compared to 45 percent of white shoppers are stopped and questioned of possible theft at malls and stores along with 56 percent of Hispanic shoppers. Taking the lead in being stopped at security checkpoints in airports is 54 percent of Hispanics following closely behind is 48 percent of Blacks, and taking last once again is 40 percent of Whites. “70% of Blacks surveyed by the Pew Research Center say that Blacks in their communities were treated less fairly than Whites when dealing with the police” (Public Opinion). A poll created and taken by NBC News shows statistics that 64 percent of citizens in America say Racism remains a major problem. Alongside the 64 percent is 30 percent of American citizens agreeing that racism exists in today’s society, but is not considered a major problem. In February 2018, 26 percent of individuals believe that America’s biggest source of division is race. Only three months later, that percentage went up by four in May of 2018. 40 percent of black shoppers have stated that they have been treated unfairly in stores which are 33 percent more than white shoppers. 26 percent of Hispanic shoppers being the median. Almost 100 percent of white shoppers said they were not treated unfairly in stores compared to 57 percent of black shoppers agreeing to that statement. 14 percent of white employees say they have felt discriminated against in the workplace based on their race while 48 percent of African Americans felt this way. Only 12 percent less of Hispanics from black employees agreed. Almost three-fourths of American citizens believe that a serious problem in this country is racial discrimination against blacks. 89 percent of blacks and 81 percent of Hispanics share this belief while only 68 percent of whites believe it is a serious problem in today’s America and 30 percent believe otherwise. 84 percent of blacks and 71 percent of Hispanics believe white people benefit from advantages, and while half of the white people “don’t enjoy any advantages,” 47 percent of white people do in fact enjoy these benefits (Arrange). Although 56 percent of whites surveyed being involved in social activities with multiple races of people, 39 percent said they mostly interact with whites only. This is compared to 23 percent of blacks interacting with their own race and 21 percent of Hispanics. Unbelievably, but not shockingly only 51 percent of Americans speak of race relations among friends and family while 47 percent do not (Arrange).

To introduce the opposing viewpoint of being against racial profiling is for racial profiling. In regards to the incidents involving Rodney King (1991) and Abner Louima (1997), many supporters of law enforcement have said an exaggeration of the problem pertaining to police brutality is caused by the news media, and the relevance of isolated incidents is overemphasized. It is stated that the entertainment industry and the news media enforce damaging stereotypes. White American citizens conclude from their own personal experiences that police officers enforce the law without bias of opinions and feelings. “The vast majority of police officers, they maintain, are well-intentioned professionals who do not act with abusive intolerance” (Williams 22). As sources of information, many Americans rely on mainstream news magazines and television for the latest and current news which causes media stereotyping to be cunning and sneaky (Williams 28). This creates a problem of often assuming a criminal is black and sometimes Hispanic because Americans are relying on being told rather than researching facts and statistics for themselves.

However, racial profiling is still considered a major problem and statistics prove just so. Information was collected on the likelihood that black drivers or their cars were searched, compared with white drivers based on “Racial Profiling by the Largest Police Agencies in the Four Selected States.” In Torrington, Connecticut, black drivers were five times more likely to be searched. Black drivers in Chicago, Illinois, were five-point two times more likely. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, black drivers were two point eight times more likely, and the Rhode Island State Highway Patrol stopped black drivers two point five times more than white drivers. Comparing to the times more likely black drivers were searched is the likelihood that black drivers had contraband, compared with white drivers. In Torrington, Connecticut, point eight of black drivers were more likely to be traveling with contraband than white drivers. Now Chicago, Illinois is notorious for crime and rundown neighborhoods, but only point seven of black drivers were more likely than whites to be in possession of contraband. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina well was point seven times more likely, but shockingly the Rhode Island State Highway Patrol has searched black drivers and found contraband making them one point seven times more likely to be in possession than white drivers (Largest Police Agencies). Not only are there statistics of wrongdoings pertaining to racial profiling, but are many stories and cases of racial profiling that support these statistics and stereotypes. One event is of a mom who was attending a college tour who called the police on two Native American teens because they made her “nervous.”

Racial profiling, as well as the use of deadly force, have really given our nation something to talk about, whether it be a causal political conversation with a neighbor or a worldwide news post with millions of comments about a helpless ethnic individual that was gunned down unnecessarily by a law enforcement officer for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The way that our nation views racial profiling and deadly force is much different than the way those involved in our criminal justice system view the issue. Although the views may be conflicted it is an issue that will continue to grow in our country does not put in the effort to make it go away. There is no such thing as racial profiling, there is simply racism.

Racial profiling is a growing issue that seems to have created quite the topic for a talk in our nation’s media outlets. This issue is factually defined as an issue that occurs when a group of people or individuals selectively focus on a person’s race or ethnicity and then proceed to harass, detain, or follow the individual. There are some that portray racial profiling as targeted policing efforts against minority groups while another side views the issue as mere that, an issue, an issue that our nation has within the last ten years had to look for ways to eliminate after thinking the issue was terminated after Jim Crow laws. Our nation’s law enforcement system exists merely to create safety for the citizens of the nation. Without this system, the world has no structural community safety organization. As much as a massive majority of the world wants to believe that racism is an issue of the past, it is still very much so a current growing problem in todays world. Although our law enforcement system is supposed to remain completely unbiased and never base arrests or decisions of criminal punishment on assumption that one race is superior to the other, it happens more often than it should. This does not make the entire system corrupt, just the individual committing such an act. Those who act in the dark of racial profiling need to be held accountable for their actions. Not only does racial profiling affect our criminal justice system, but it also affects the people in our communities. News media and entertainment are compelling forces in creating negative cultural and ethnic stereotypes. Due to the image that media has constituted about those of ethnic background, our communities are beginning to fear those of color. Racism is slowly expanding more and more into our country and becoming a problem that we will soon not be able to control.

Excessive or deadly force and racial profiling by police officers are completely unconstitutional, yet it is still happening. These matters often end in tragic results. There have been innumerable instances in which police have used deadly force against minorities or those of a different ethnic background when it was completely unacceptable to do so. Individuals have been beaten, murdered, and robbed of their freedom and families due simply to the fact that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and the color of their skin. In an article titled,” Skin Deep; Minorities Seek Relief From Racial Profiling”, Rebecca Porter includes, “For years, civil rights advocates have been collecting complaints from minority citizens who feel they have been singled out to be stopped and searched by police on the streets and by employees and customs agents in airports”. This statement alone displays the need for our country to pull together and put a stop to this outstanding affair. Hundreds of colored families are affected by this debilitating problem. Imagine having to worry about your son or husband getting gunned down or beaten by someone who is supposed to protect them just because the way they were walking looked a little suspicious. Not only does this affect the families but this issue has also destroyed public trust in police. Where does one turn when they cannot turn to the one organization that is supposed to protect them in a time of need. Law enforcement leaders need to step up and ensure that situations such as the Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin instances absolutely do not happen again. Racial profiling does not stop in the streets, it occurs in airports as well as other public places like grocery stores, gas stations, amusement parks. Hundreds of racially targeted searches are completed each year in busy airports. Colored men and women are singled out with the assumption that they are smuggling illegal materials or drugs.

The people that live in this country are what keep it going the most. Whether we feel like we all play a very important role in keeping our nation’s organizational law system going correctly. This is extremely hard to do when one is living in fear every moment of their life. To those who have never experienced the inconvenience of racial profiling, it may seem to be a small topic that does not matter. The victims of this hate crime pay for it emotionally, physically, mentally, and in some cases, financially. Seeing as this has become such a huge issue, it is affecting the success of our children, the ones that will soon run this world. How are we supposed to have successful and happy children when the world is full of damage and hatred. Our education system is beginning to feel the effects of racial profiling within schools and after-school programs, this leads to bullying, which can then lead to psychological issues later on in life. It is similar to the facts stated above, although racial profiling is unconstitutional, some officers do it anyways. Although there is a zero-tolerance policy in 90% of schools, racism still occurs on a day-to-day basis. Imagine how defeating it is for our colored children to go to school and find out that they are not accepted by the other children due to the color of their skin. The problem starts at home, we should be teaching our children that everyone is equal, no matter their color, the shoes on their feet, the clothes they wear, or where they live. We are all the same biologically. Social media plays a huge role in racism in schools, it is a developing issue that will only get worse in the years to come if we do not stop it. Children are seeing racism on their social media accounts and are looking at it more along the lines of a joke than a crime. When these children return to school and use these jokes they are affecting the lives of many other children in negative ways. A majority of these kids are afraid to speak up and let someone know these things are happening in our schools. In the text, “Policing” by John Worrall and Frank Schmalleger, the following is included, “They defined police crime as an “officer’s use of the official powers of his or her job to engage in criminal conduct” (p.206) This factual statement is just one of many examples of laws that an officer breaks while acting in racial profiling. It can also be seen as corruption or abuse of authority, none of which are legal.

There are many ways one can begin to put a stop to racial profiling. The legal or law enforcement system can start by trying to be more like a protector instead of a warrior to help gain back the trust of the public. More wellness or safety programs need to be established within policing and enforced greatly to ensure that they are following all policies and rules to keep both themselves and the public safe. Better training programs could also help to put a stop to this controversy. It is important to remember that blacks are not the only race targeted by racial profiling, Hispanics, Arabs, and Muslims have also become major targets of this crime. In an article titled, “Racial Profiling and The War on Terror: Changing Trends and Perspectives”, Abu B. Bah includes, “ Prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States, blacks were the main victims of racial profiling. Since the terrorist attack, however, Arabs and Muslims are becoming the primary targets for profiling by law enforcement agencies”. Due to this awful attack, it seems as if the country has decided to target the race that committed the attack, this is completely unreasonable seeing as it was two individuals, not all of the race that committed the act. Racial profiling has fueled the fire for many political and constitutional debates, especially involving the fourth amendment rights of our citizens. The fourth amendment guarantees the right for people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures. This is a prime example of how we are taking the rights away from those of ethnicity by profiling or targeting them and proceeding to go through their properties under the assumption that they are committing a crime without any solid evidence.

One of the biggest issues we face as a country is the lack of coming together to make this world a safe and happy place. There are innumerable issues that destroy the morals and or character of our citizens. It is time that we looked away from our phones, tv screens, and computers and saw these people for exactly who they are: mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, they are human just as we are and if treated correctly they will make a huge difference in this nation. Accountability is a factor that we could really work on in this country, those who believe that racial profiling is okay should be punished through the criminal justice system just as other law offenders have. Racial profiling is a human rights violation. In order for our justice system to work properly, it depends on the equal treatment of our citizens and basing investigations on evidence, not bias or stereotypes. It is important that our criminal justice system lives up to the constitutional standards it was built on.

Historical analysis of Policing

Reactive (Traditional) Policing – police respond when a call comes in stating that a crime has occurred. Upon arrival the patrol service take a report then pass the investigation over to the detectives’ branch. At this point, the patrol service officer(s) would return to their patrol vehicle or station, awaiting next call out.

Problem-Orientated Policing((POP)- has an emphasis on trying and prevent crime from happening. This policing model has detectives watching for patterns in crimes to help understand when and how crimes are being committed. Once they have a pattern they will search for ways in which to help prevent crimes from continuing to happen in those areas. This model has more of a proactive stance than the traditional policing models do.

Community-Orientated Policing – focuses on police building ties and working closely with members of the communities within their AOR. The officers will make their presence known and also rely on community members to report any suspicious behaviour or tips on criminals in the area. Crimes are those that is recognised by a community’s perception or at risk of particular types of crime given a time frame.

Intelligence-led Policing (ILP) – built around risk assessment and management, ILP is defined as a strategic, future-oriented, targeted approach to crime control, focusing upon the identification, analysis & management of persisting and developing problems or risks.

UK is a standard instance of Multiple Coordinated Decentralized police force. UK does now not have a country wide police service, however a community of 43 man or woman police forces responsible for policing particular counties, cities or areas, except the forces with distinctive jurisdiction. These forty three forces are shaped of greater than 140,500 police officers, 14,000 volunteer exclusive constables and 13,400 neighborhood help officers. UK has a three-way system of responsibility ensures forces run smoothly:

Home Office funds the police and has the overall responsibility as overseer and coordinator of the police forces.Police Authorities make sure local forces operate efficiently and effectively. Chief Police Officers have responsibility for the direction and control of regional forces.

According to UK Home Office, this system prevents political interference in policing and avoids giving any single employer power over the complete police service. In addition there is an independent Police Complaints Authority and an Inspectorate of Constabulary. While the Police Complaints Commission examines the complaints in opposition to the police officials, the Inspectorate of Constabulary acts as an audit wing for the police which observe and check the efficiency of police.

The Police Reforms Act, 2002 requires the Home Secretary to put together a annual Policing Plan and to place it before the legislature. The budgetary manage of every police pressure rests with the Police Authority, which consists of at least 17 members. There is representation for local elected representatives, judiciary and frequent men, In each and every police authority, such representation consists of nominations from the Home Office as properly as members chosen via an open recruitment process. All bodies like Inspectorate of Constabulary, Independent Police Complaints authority and Police Authorities function as impartial bodies with separate corporate identity, distinct from that of police

The difficulties facing the police is the approaches in which our society is altering will have an effect on the future of policing in essential ways. These adjustments are being fashioned by using social and economic factors that are considerably past the on the spot manage of politicians and policy-makers. Nevertheless, very vital picks do have to be made and our aim is to have a high quality impact on the future sample of policing. The British policing way of life is widely admired at home and abroad. We should attempt to retain the way of life of ‘policing with the aid of consent’ which has been and stays the hallmark of British policing.

1980s, the multi-agency approach was heralded as a panacea for many crook justice problems, among them the successful implementation of community crime prevention initiatives. Accordingly there has often been sufficient settlement to get agencies working together, resources allocated and communities ‘involved’. The highlighting of partnerships between the police and different organisations, and the improvement of multi-agency strategies, have added about some huge successes particularly in the area of toddler protection but also, for example, in relation to different types of crime such as burglary prevention in Rochdale or some of the specific objectives of the Safer Cities programme in England and Wales amongst others.

Although the positive aspects from multi-agency work have no longer usually been as vast as may have been hoped there is surely a principal price to pay in phrases of wasted resources, strength and effort if companies do now not communicate. Nevertheless, regardless of the very actual good points made in some areas, the exceptional laid plans have often led to tremendously little motion and even less success in practice.

A variety of substantial issues have been recognized in relation to multi-agency work. First, there is the question of ‘power’. With the multi-agency method there is continually the opportunity that one company — if it is sufficiently powerful — will try to set the agenda irrespective of the wishes of the other individuals of the group.

In addition, there is regularly a lack of in shape between The position and obligations of the police corporations in the criminal justice system. All too often organizations ‘do not begin on equal terms’. The 2nd hassle has often been that of resistance and non-cooperation. Whilst tremendous examples of the affect of the multi-agency strategy exist, it is obvious that a wide variety of barriers have a tendency to beset such initiatives. There is the sensible question of whether the corporations delivered collectively are without a doubt able to perceive a common problem and goal and whether or not their understandings are compatible.

There are also in all likelihood to be sectional interests within any specific locality, which straight away makes representation problematic. Not only might also it be extraordinarily hard to arrange representation of all factors of a community, however such tries as are made can also be undermined by way of the disinclination of certain businesses to be represented on multi-agency panels. In addition to the difficulties in achieving common understandings, there is also the question of the ‘status’ of communications. In particular, there are frequently tough questions about the sharing of information. There is the hassle of the breaking of confidentialities and, as some would have it, the inherent chance to civil liberties.

Informal working preparations are held, on the one hand, to be dangerous because they are in truth unaccountable and, on the other, to be beneficial because they stimulate and facilitate fluid and innovative practices. two Finally, and possibly crucially, there is the problem of the lack of a responsible employer or individual. One of the potential problems in imposing crime prevention measures results at once from there being no organization or individual with standard responsibility for taking the lead in organizing the initiative.

Thus, in one faculty vandalism project one of the motives that some of the agreed crime prevention measures had now not been carried out after two years of the project used to be that the organizations concerned — the schools, the neighborhood authority and the police — each thinking that every other party was once accountable for driving the programme.Similarly, a learn about of an inter-agency racial harassment project concluded that ‘in future multi-agency efforts it looks fundamental to vest someone with the role of coordinator responsible for carrying out the administrative work of the project’, even though they went on to stress that the coordinator ‘should no longer be seen as a alternative for enterprise engagement with the substantial work of the project.

References

1. Multi agency working in criminal justice by Aaron Pycroft and Dennis Gough
2. Multi agency working in criminal justice by Aaron Pycroft and Dennis Gough second addition
3. Legal skills by EmilyFinch/ Steafen Fafinski
4. Coretta Philips-Home office Research,Development and Statistics Directorate-second edition (LSE Research online)
5. UK Parliament
6. Homeoffice.gov.uk
7. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/11/contents
8. https://blog.oup.com/2015/03/anti-terrorism-law-reform/
9. https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/

The police play an important role in the american society. When people think about police, they think about enforcing laws, catching criminals, helping out the public which make them feel safe. However this does not apply just in the united states but worldwide. Some people might know the concepts of the police system in the united states, but they may feel surprised about how different the organization and the structure of police agencies around the world act. It could be anywhere around the world , police officers are responsible for ensuring safety , looking out to the public and preventing crime. The international police systems have evolved on a social-cultural background, and for this reason alone there are enormous variations between these police systems.

Police officers in the united states have the right and the opportunity to act at their discretion to stop, arrest, and use force to bring about an arrest. Police discretion relates to a police officer’s ability to make a crime scene decision. Its all depends on the police officer’s decision whether or not to make the arrest or write a ticket. Some examples are when a police officer directs a driver to pull over for reckless driving or minor offense like not obeying traffic signs, the person then has a choice whether to give a ticket or a warning to the driver. There are positives and negative effects on police discretion. The negatives are applied discretion based on the belief system of the officer, one individual may receive a fine for an offense while a second individual is arrested for the same crime, and maybe some officers may disregard out of laziness blatant or outrageous violations or crimes. The positives are people who violate laws may get a warning instead of a citation or arrest, fewer jails, jail officers, or police officers are needed and officers may choose what type of traffic violations to enforce or ignore.

Police brutality is seen in the police system as a true issue. Police officers job has the potential to be extremely challenging and sometimes includes dangerous circumstances. In such situations, the officers may have to use force to gain control. The force continuum dictates the level which is best suited to the situation. Most people don’t realize that the force doesn’t meet the officers job. But overcoming the force is their job. Police departments have very strict operating procedures concerning the use of force by the officer and how force is applied. Most of these actions of police brutality are always associated with racism. Many countries have permitted their police force to use force to apprehend and protect the suspects. However, they should use reasonable amounts of force to control any situation and achieve their goals. Racial discrimination is one of the major contributors to society’s police brutality. Some of the actions of police brutality are perceived with regard to racial profiling. Racial profiling is the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. In criminal investigations, racial profiling is mostly brought about by early considerations of the race. Even though the police officers have been taught to follow the rules, they are too aggressive. A white officer, for example, would pull over an African American whenever they assume they have drugs or weapons on them. This assumption is proven to not be true because the US statistics have always shown that white people are more involved in drug use than the African Americans.

Police brutality can only be eliminated if the public and the police work together. The police efforts in stopping these brutalities can only be done through its administrative organs. For example the public officers regulating security need to discard laws that inflict strict punishments to the people who file falsified complaints against the police officers. This is due to the fact that at times these laws act as a limit to people who believe that they are truly victims of brutality. Many people will be convicted of crimes if they allegations are now not common and this is very dehumanizing. The police administration should also set up citizens evaluate boards. These boards will provide the citizens the chance to bring in their opinions and their definitions of excessive pressure into the evaluation of the police conduct. The federal government need to also enact laws that will propel the police officers into questioning twice before punching or kicking a person, the use of a nightstick unnecessarily, or using excessive force on the suspects. There are some public efforts that need to be administered so as to limit or even discard these police brutalities. For example, the public should be explicitly educated on a variety of ways of figuring out cases of brutality and the responsibilities which they can undertake in ending.

Comparing the policing system between the united states and a country where my parents were raised might be fascinating. My father was born and raised in Egypt . when my father was 18 years old he was a police officer, which is a very young age to start. I would ask my father about the police system and how would he act to the public. He would always tell me how hard and stressful the position was. He would have secrets that won’t be said. At night my father be around the streets in dangerous locations to make sure the neighborhood is safe. After 2 years in the police , my father had quit his job because of the stress he was going through. The Egyptian police are likely to face difficulties transitioning out of a generation where their strength used to be unmatched by the civilian populace, and with people still fearful of violence, reconciling past action will prove difficult for Egyptian law enforcement. Findings of this study will render policy makers, public officers and three police administrators clear directions to enforce policies and programs that can enhance the possibility of successful police reform. The Egyptian police brutality is seen in 2011, the revolutionary movement in the Middle East known it began to take root in Arab nations and basically challenged entrenched social values and governance styles. Egypt, in particular, bore an outstanding amount of this strain for social change, and used to be the scene for big riots and protests alike, eventually ending with the give way of the government. Police under president Mubarak had a reputation for using violent tactics with them, particularly during the protests in 2011, and Egyptians were valid in their fears of these authorities.

The police system in egypt is different from the american system because it’s both two different cultures. The U.S. police have over 18,000 U.S. federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, and it is estimated there are between 750,000 and 850,000 officers. This shows that the American police population is bigger. They also receive benefits with a salary of $45,000 a year from police officers in America. In egypt police they have about was reported to be about 122,000 officers an estimated 40,000 positions were unfilled because police jobs paid poorly and offered few benefits. Since egypt is not that of a wealthy in the police system they get paid every month instead of weekly like the american officers. Every month an egyptain police officer would earn 8,000 pounds which is $470 a month. Meanwhile the amercian police would make $948 per week. Another difference is that the American police system has a lot of shootings. For no reason would police officers shoot. For example, a person can fight a police officer, if the fight gets worse, that officer could shoot at the target. Police in united states are more trustworthy with their job. For instance, American police officers respect others they speak to but Egyptian police officers are always disrespectful and use adverse language. A similarity between the American police system and the Egyptian police system is that people from different cultures protested both for what they wanted, and for what was right. In the american society Martin Luther King, Jr., was a very powerful individual, constantly struggling for what he thought to be African Americans ‘ equality. He wasn’t afraid to stand up and say what he wanted for society to tell the world. He was fearless and did all he could to prove a point. His most popular speech is ‘I Have a Dream ….’ he spoke to society about all he wanted. He wanted blacks to be treated equal as white. In the egyptian society In November 2013, the interim government of Egypt enacted a protest law requiring thorough protest notification to be considered legal for such meetings. Under former President Hosni Mubarak, restrictive protest laws and public assembly severely curtailed the right to protest. The disagreement between these legal precedents and the violence against people. This shows that both of the system is somewhat similar.

Police brutality in many cultures is still apparent to this day. These brutalities were fostered primarily by race and ethnicity. These police brutalities are aimed primarily at the minority or vulnerable groups like the poor and the weak elderly. It is the responsibility of the police and officials, the state and the general public to remove this vice.

Can the use of excessive force on African Americans by police officers be justified by their motto “to protect and to serve” ? According to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Frank Edwards, Hedwig Lee, and Michael Esposito found that about 1 in 1,000 African American men and boys in America can expect to be killed at the hands of police. Men and women between the age of 20 and 35 are at risk of death at the hands of police. Experiencing and witnessing unwarranted arrests, harassment, and deaths that go unpunished can inflict permanent damage both emotionally and psychologically. Police brutality is a human rights violation that classifies a civil rights violation because officers exercise excessive force against a civilian. Police brutality against African Americans is a major human rights violation that affects many individuals across the United States.

Racism towards African Americans in law enforcement causes innocent lives to be taken. Amadou Diallo, an unarmed and innocent twenty three-year-old immigrant from Guinea was killed by New York City police officers on February 4, 1999. The officers mistook Amadou for a rape suspect from one year earlier. He was shot forty one times and killed with nineteen bullets. The Supreme Court moved the trial from the Bronx New York to Albany New York because officers shared their concern that in the Bronx, it would be impossible to find twelve impartial jurors. All four officers went from being charged with second degree murder to reckless endangerment within its two day trial. “Diallo’s parents filed a $61,000,000 lawsuit against NY city and in March 2004, they accepted a $3,000,000 settlement” (Nelson). There are many families that have gone through such a painful experience and do not receive compensation for emotional and physical distress. Amadou was wrongfully identified and it cost him his life. The officers that made this mistake did not have to pay for their wrong doings.

Rodney King was on a high speed with L.A.P.D. on March 3, 1991. When the chase ended, according to Bibliography, King was removed from his car and brutally beaten. George Holliday witnessed the act and caught it on camera. The four L.A.P.D. officers that were involved in this crime were each charged with assault with a deadly weapon as well as excessive use of force by a police officer. The three month trial sparked the Los Angeles riots. Their trial was originally supposed to take place in Los Angeles, but defense attorneys argued that a fair trial in Los Angeles would be impossible because of the amount of publicity the case has gotten. The trial was then moved to Simi Valley where the jury was composed of ten caucasian and two minority citizens. The four officers were found not guilty in court. King was then awarded $3.8 million for the physical injuries he sustained. Amadou Diallo and Rodney King both had their trials moved because of the fear of an impartial jury. The trials took place in a predominantly caucasian neighborhood which also makes the jury impartial. Both cases received compensation for police misconduct that instilled trauma not only in these two men, but also in the African American communities. The fear African American communities are experiencing in relation to police officers can cause mental health issues.

African Americans are experiencing stressors related to the fear of becoming a victim to a police encounter. By experiencing and witnessing unwarranted arrests, harassment, and deaths that go unpunished, these communities fear for their life. According to Sirry Alang, a health researcher with the American Journal of Public health, when one is faced with a threat, the body will produce signals that turn on your fight or flight instincts that are necessary for survival in the short term. When the threat becomes repetitive, in the case of police brutality, the survival process causes wear and tear on the body’s organs. According to PBS African Americans face a rate of 96 out of 100,000 deaths by police while Caucasians face a rate of 64 out of 100,000 deaths by police. Having such a high statistic number is going to cause a bit of paranoia. These communities are affected emotionally because they are constantly losing loved ones at the hands of those who are supposed to protect you. Cassandra Chaney and Ray Robertsons conducted a study that examined findings provided by the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project (NPMSRP), and found “fatalities at the hands of police are higher than they are for the general public”. This can cause individuals to be fearful of law enforcement.

Self defense is protected by the second amendment and is being taken away from the African American community. In 1976 Terrence Johnson, a fifteen year old African American, was originally arrested by two white police officers in Prince George’s County for taking coins from a laundromat. The suburb has a long history of police brutality. Johnson claimed that he was severely beaten by one of the policemen and killed the officer in self defense. The state tried Johnson for first-degree murder and requested that he be charged as an adult. “His bond was set at $1,050,000, an amount that had never been placed in the county’s history” (Turner, Seltzer). If he was convicted as an adult, he would receive two life prison terms and in order to have the possibility of parole he needs to serve at least thirty five years. If he was tried as a juvenile, he would be free by the age of twenty one. Terrence was a victim of police brutality and retaliated in self defense. When it comes to encounters with authorities, self defense is never really talked about. There is a thin line between self defense and threatening the safety of an officer. Officers are trained to identify if the situation they are in is going to require excessive force. An instance where an officer may need to use excessive force is if a criminal is trying to escape or they have a weapon on them. Race should never be a reason for an officer to feel endangered. Matthew Bernard is a caucasion 18 year old male who was charged with killing his mother, sister, and nephew. According to ABC news, “the sheriff’s office issued a BOLO for him saying he was armed and ‘very’ dangerous” (Tyree). When a police officer found him, he had his gun drawn. Matthew was running from the woods naked and strangled a bystander as the officers hit him with a baton. This man is resisting arrest, putting innocent lives in danger and was not tackled or shot. Terrence Johnson shot the officers beating him down for taking money from a laundromat. Matthew Bernard is a triple homicide suspect that was treated as a minor threat. The officer had probable cause to tackle or shoot this man and chose to do neither.

Although some may argue police officers are just doing their job, the strategies used during arrests are sometimes collateral. When police officers use excessive force against a minority, the media only shows the violent scenes. They don’t show the encounter leading up to the arrest. The citizen may have been resisting the arrest and the officer has to follow protocol. There may have been times where an officer believes they must use excessive force to complete an arrest because they felt unsafe. It is unfair to state all police officers use brutal force based on an individual’s ethnicity. This does not excuse some officers’ behaviors. Officers are trained professionals and should be able to identify at what point in time they need to be aggressive.

This is an issue that is going to take a long time to overcome because it is a grey area. The police force has rules and regulations to try and limit the amount of police brutality cases they recieve, but you can’t control everybody’s actions. Some officers believe they are doing their job and are doing whatever means necessary to protect themselves and the citizens around them. This is going to take a few years but we have already made progress. A very helpful solution is protesting and spreading awareness to police brutality cases. Body Cameras are now required for all officers. Witnesses are at the scene and can depict what actually happened by capturing the incident on camera.

Protesting is granted to all Americans by the first amendment. To end police brutality we all need to force policy makers to face their subconscious racism by protesting. Frank Leon Roberts, an activist and writer, explains The Black Lives Matter movement as an activist movement founded in 2013 when Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager, was killed in Florida in July 2013. It originated as a hashtag on all social media platforms and informed the public about all police brutality victims. By participating in such a movement you are adding to the voice of those who lost theirs so their story can be heard and they will always be remembered. Black Lives Matter is a human rights movement rather than a civil rights movement. By protesting all police brutality encounters you are letting officers know that their actions do not go unseen. By protesting you are demanding that the court take this matter for what it is, a murder, and persecute accordingly. Protesting does not always guarantee a positive outcome. You are putting pressure on elected officials to take action, but some may not care enough to take action. The amount of publicity a case gets causes an uproar in communities but that does not mean justice will be served. The Rodney King beating sparked the Los Angeles riot which included looting, fires, and lifes lost. The four officers were found not guilty and it caused citizens to fight back. The people wanted justice which is understandable considering the case was caught on video and broadcasted on KTLA. This is not protesting, this was a violent riot that came from a good place but ended up causing more damage to the community. Nothing can change the fact that these families were impacted by police misconduct, but by telling their story we are making sure that their legacy still lives on. These victims have made a huge impact and can educate people on the reality of police brutality.

An action put in place to limit the number of police brutality cases is officers being required to wear a body camera. The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys state, “Unlike dashboard cameras, these cameras record virtually all officer contact with other individuals in the field, whether on foot or in a vehicle—in both audio and video” (Macari). By using body cameras, police officers should be less likely to commit a questionable act because they know that their actions are being recorded and the footage can now be used against them. These cameras have the potential to make officers think twice about their behavior because they know if the situation ends poorly, then tape is now concrete evidence that can and will be used against them in court. Now all citizens have a reliable witness to use in a court case. Body cameras can be seen as an intrusion of privacy for both the citizen and the police officer. Since the officers are required to wear the camera, their privacy is being invaded. Citizens also may not want to be recorded, but it is a requirement set in place for the protection of both the officer and the citizen. If a citizen is resisting arrest or is a potential threat to the officer and the officer acts accordingly, these cameras have footage to present in court that shows exactly what happened. Same goes for a citizen that feels they are being mistreated. They can take the officer to court and use the footage as evidence. These cameras are put in place to protect all parties.

Police officers have to put aside their prejudiced views towards African Americans and put the law above their stigmatism. The only way to truly stop racism in police brutality is to eliminate all racism within law enforcement. Officers can not fear African Americans and take extra precautions based on their skin color. A traffic stop needs to just be a traffic stop. There is no need for somebody to lose their life for running a stop sign. According to the American Psychological Association, “New Orleans police are being trained to step in when they see their colleagues about to overreact in heated situations, tell them to take a break and urge them not to do something they will regret” (Novotney). The goal of this training is to provide officers with tools to help prevent overreactions or potential misconduct by officers. They implemented using discrete codes that encourage a coworker to calm down and to stop what they’re doing or let them know another officer is going to take over. Law enforcement needs to be trained on how to put the law before their own tempers. This is taught during their training. There needs to be regular checkups on these officers. Police officers tend to have ptsd from previous arrests and can cause them to act out of character. That’s why seeing a therapist regularly can help level their mind. When law enforcement is on duty, there is nobody watching their every move so by having a college with them, there is somebody there to step in if the officer is losing their temper. You can’t control everybody’s actions and police officers are human. Everyone has their own beliefs but as an officer your job is to put the law above all. If you can not do that, then you should not be a police officer. Subconscious racism exists in all fields of law enforcement, but can not be acted on. Officers must face penalty if caught in a racist act or they will do it again.

Being educated on all human rights violations is extremely important so you know what is happening in the world. Just because it is not affecting you directly, that shouldnt make it any less important to you. As an ally your voice needs to be heard along with those who have been fighting for their freedom. The more people protesting, the louder our voices are heard and government officials will be forced to take action and make a difference in the community. Officers have instilled fear in the African American community when they are supposed to be the ones you call when you’re in danger.