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Examining Police Roles
by Michelle Calderon, staff writer for AnaiRhoads.org
Without a clear description of police roles, it is difficult to assess what police officers have to do and what they are responsible for. While the Police Agency is the body of “governmental department charged with the regulation and control of the affairs of a community established to maintain order, enforce the law, and prevent and detect crime” (Dictionary, n.d.), recent transitions away from "traditional" policing roles to more community-oriented ones have made police roles even more difficult to define. The real question is: What are the proper roles for police in community safety?
Wilson (1968) suggested three kinds of things that need doing and which may therefore constitute components of contemporary police roles: law enforcement, order maintenance, and service delivery. Dantzker (2003) mentions a variety of styles of policing, including crime fighter, social servant, law enforcer, and watchman.
Of these policing styles, “the social servant focuses on the helping aspects of the job and may be the best suited both to patrolling and to community policing. This officer responds well to the needs of the public and tends to be good with public relations. He or she truly adopts the attitude of public servant. Because of this helping and community oriented approach, this officer quite naturally adopts the community policing philosophy. Officers who embrace this role also tend to be happier overall in their jobs” (Embar-Seddon, 2005).
Variation in the content of police roles carries important implications for police-community relations, internal police operations, police morale, and the quality and quantity of law enforcement (Black, 1980). Moore and Kelling (1983), for example, argued that the police strategy of emphasizing law enforcement neither serves to deter crime nor is it successful in apprehending offenders. Instead, it results in the neglect of many tasks once traditional to police work. It also may have the unintended consequence of weakening the bonds between police and private citizens. As a result, community policing has been implemented across the nation as an attempt to improve relations with their communities and to try to break the “us vs. them” attitude and isolation that police subcultures has traditionally had from the public. This process has changed police interactions with their citizens by increasing communications as well as enhancing public services of their duties.
In fairness, police duties have evolved into a much more complex form of opportunities to practice common sense and individual choices when determining methods of solving community problems. The content of the police role varies with local conditions and preferences, and with the discretion of individual officers. As society changes and new forms of crimes and social situations arise, police officers need to adapt to the sign of the times. While there are basic policies implemented and defining the laws and its abuses, many cases involve split decisions by officers in order to first simply control the situation. That entails many options and obstacles. Police now have to be versatile in their fields as well as other fields such as psychology, technology, new laws, public relations and many more. This would allow the officer to be the crime fighter, social servant, crime preventer, watchman, and sometimes mediator. While it is endless as to what a police officer can or cannot do, Dr. Embar-Seddon seem to provide a fit description of social servicing as being a good description of their capabilities in order to achieve many of their duties. In summary, police officers are expected to be able to find a way to perform his duties whatever it may entail.
References:
Black, D. (1980). The manners and customs of the police. New York: Academic Press.
Dantzker, M. L. (2003). Understanding Policing Today; Third Edition.
Embar-Seddon, A. (2005). Lecture Week 5.
Magenau, J. M. & Hunt, R. G. (1996). Police Unions and the Police Role. New York:
October 1996.Vol.49, Iss. 10; pg. 1315, 29 pgs. Retrieved August 26, 2005, from: Proquest Link.
Moore, M. H. & Kelling. (1983). , G. A. To serve and protect: Learning from police
history. The Public Interest, 70, 49-65.
Wilson, J. Q. (1968). Varieties of police behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
(n.d.). Dictionary of police roles. Retrieved on August 27, 2005, from:
http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~exec/edgerunner/issues5-6/article2.html
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