Police Shooting

Critical incident stress results from the crisis of a critical event such as a death of a loved one, a traumatic incident, or an officer-involved shooting. A crisis for an individual is defined as “the perception or experiencing of an event or situation as an intolerable difficulty that exceeds the person’s current resources and coping mechanisms” (James & Gilliland, 2013, p. 8). For a law enforcement officer, “Mitchell (1991) said that a critical incident is one in which the officer’s expectations of perfect performance suddenly are

Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement by Kevin M. Gilmartin, Ph.D. is a book that seeks to inform and instruct those seeking to be in law enforcement, law enforcement professionals and their families of the realities of a career in law enforcement- professionally and personally. And how to best prepare for emotional survival of “on-duty and off-duty” life. It also compares and contrasts what happens to officers at the beginning of this journey and what typical happens to officers overtime; focusing mainly on what happens to officers that don’t know the techniques of emotional survival. Though it

Skolnick begins by concentrating and analyzing certain elements pertaining to the law enforcement profession. The elements Skolnick identifies are danger, authority, and efficiency in the eyes of the public, which all produces unique cognitive and behavioral responses as officers. To Skolnick this is the working personality aforementioned. Understanding this, Skolnick begins the discussion of how police culture plays into a policeman’s working personality. First it is important to realize that police officers are required to respond to assaults against citizens of the community, as well as the properties and possessions of those people. This has several implications. First, “The policeman, because his work requires him to be occupied continually with potential violence, developed perpetual shorthand’s identify certain kinds of people and symbolic assailants, that is, as persons who use gesture, language, and attire that the policeman has come to recognize as a prelude to violence,” (Skolnick, 143). This concept can be trouble to some, as it seems to have a discriminatory feeling

When local police departments receive the new military gear, the tendency of them relying on it even in situations that do not have any real threat to the officer or their safety increases. This has been called "the rise of the warrior cop" (Balko). Social psychological research and anecdotal evidence from law enforcement specialists suggest that militarized policing can escalate situations that could have ended peacefully (Singal). There are already a lot of cases of police violence all around the country and not all of the country’s police forces have received military weaponry. There would be more cases like Michael Brown, Laquan McDonald, and Ronald Johnson, where it could have ended peacefully with the person in custody. Instead, they are dead and their deaths have fueled riots and protests all across the nation. These events bring with a lot of negative media for police departments and for the ones in charge of them. If officers were to carry more advanced and deadly weaponry, it will lead to more cases as these. This would be due to the "weapons effect" which states that the presence of weapons fuel more aggressive behavior (Singal). By having the local police carrying these heavy duty weapons, they will be more prone to exhibiting aggressive behavior and lead to more cases like the ones previously mentioned. Bruce Bartholow, a social psychologist at the

Although many believe that law enforcement agents are usually men and women that are emotionless individuals that do not sympathize and feel what the ‘wrongly’ accused victims have felt, yet they have not seen the silent side of the effects being in the force against crime, leaving a deep impact in officers and such. PTSD in the body of police officers isn’t widely known, but it is a tolling factor in their career. This is a problem that is slowly taking surge, much like a tumor or a virus.

Yes I do feel that our police departments generally do a good job of screening applicants. The Knoxville Police Department employees 397 police officers to protect the city of Knoxville, which had a population of 185,638 in 2015 (UCR, n.d.). According to the statistics on officer involved shootings from the Knoxville Police Department there showed to be no shootings in 2015 but in 2014 there were five officer involved shootings, three of which were fatal for the suspect (knoxvilletn.gov, n.d.). In each of these cases the officers were exonerated from liability as their actions were found to be within departmental policy (knoxvilletn.gov, n.d.). I feel that the psychological testing of incoming officers is an important aspect to ensure we hire the most professional officers for our police forces but sometimes individuals with behavioral or mental issues can be missed and any individual who exhibits such traits or bias should be dealt with or dismissed from the force to avoid issues that could impact the entire

Seeing these events people conclude that these shootings are the result of law enforcements being bias to black or white people. But in“Paper finding no racial bias in shootings by police criticized” by Samantha nelson shares about the reality of the bias. Here she writes about a new study confirming that “black women and men are treated differently in the hands of law enforcements.. They are likely to be touched, handcuffed, and pushed to the ground…but when it comes to the most lethal form of force-police shootings- the study finds no racial bias”. She shares about Mr. Fryer a Black economic Harvard professor who studied the data of 1,000 shootings in major cities in America. In result, Fryer found that the results contradict to the image

In a matter of 630ms an officer is confronted with the decision to open fire on a suspect or proceed with caution. Police officers are trained to deal with a broad range of circumstances, including minor traffic violations to hostile shoot outs. Additionally, they are trained to deal with a wide range of people from compliant to aggressive and to act accordingly in each condition. The decision to use lethal force is supposed to be restricted to situations in which an officer feels threatened. However, in light of recent officer involved shootings, civilians have begun to think

Overall, the vast majority of police shootings are justifiable. Police shootings are almost always in actual self-defence, where the culprit has tried to attack the officer or has possibly reached for a gun. 58% of people shot by police were armed with guns and 17% with an edged weapon such as a knife. This could be suggested as being the reason that 99% of officers get away with using force. There are thousands of cases which prove that police use their force in the right way. I have used the definition of police brutality as being where an officer has used excessive force. Such as when an officer shoots a victim or beats the victim. The majority of police brutality cases are where an officer has shot someone. However the majority of police

This happens so the person will hopefully become scared and will put the weapon down (Williams, 1999). Police must be quick and alert when dealing with a deadly force situation. The police must do and choose the right choices when dealing with a situation, because if they do anything unethical can receive jail time or even get

Life isn’t easy though, is it? A viable option is to have cops instead of shoot or choke people they could just question them. Ask them right there if they are suspicious if they have a gun and if they do if they have a permit for it. If they don't answer within a given amount of time you consider them a threat and then ask them to show you their hands, if they don't you can arrest them for disobeying the law. Another way is that instead of training cops to shoot for the chest, teach them subduing methods if they have to shoot. They could shoot the shoulder or leg if they must not the chest. They could also do what they plan to do and put video cameras on the officers outfits so you know exactly what happened. The most reasonable one to go with is for them to just simply ask the man they think is suspicious the questions, I know that it could be dangerous but have your taser ready in case not taken out but ready. That way you then can taser them if they try to pull a gun out on you and if by some weird incident they dont answer no or yes and they pull their hands out still and you taser them and they don't have a gun you can say he didn't answer your questions at all. And if the cops want to make sure they don't get blamed at all they can if they want have a video camera attached to their

The article summarizes the questionable police department training by teaching the police officers to shoot first before ask questions under questionable circumstances. This article also raises the issue of the validity of the research done by Dr. Lewinski supporting police shooting. Dr. Lewinski is a psychologist and an expert in police shooting research and has testified in numerous police shooting cases. For Dr. Lewinski, the officer’s motive for shooting an unarmed person was to self-defense and the act was very appropriate and reasonable. However, the question raises is whether the act was necessary for the police officers to shoot the individual in the back, and the video footage, witness testimony and forensic evidence challenges the police officer’s testimony. Yet, Dr. Lewinski was able to apply his theory and help to acquit the officers in all the cases.

As crime coexists with humanity, the presence of the police force ensures the suppression of crime and the safety for our society. Every occupation has its own work stress. What is unique is all the different stress found in one job. Aside from the heroic services police officers perform in their duty, they experience overwhelming stress in their daily duty. Police stress refers to the negative pressures related to police work (Police Stress, n.d.). In order to maintain peace and order, there must be an effective police force up and running. For that to happen, departments need to be aware and deal with the negative effects caused by police stress. Whereas, police officers must conquer their stress in order to work at their

Armed police are required to become skilled at responding to events that demand the use of firearms (Fyfe, 1981). Arguments arise from the public's failure to recognise the police’s difficulty in making a straightforward judgment as to whether coercive force or the use of guns is required in events (Dick, 2005). When police do use guns, there is a risk that police may misfire and consequently cause more victims as a result (McCulloch, 1989). Furthermore, in circumstances that require force, natural biological impulses kick in; informally known as the fight or

The history of policing can be traced back to the beginning of time. When looking at the subject of police work there is a large culture and history that follows along with it. There are many topics that can be analyzed when identifying, and describing the elements and the significances that are associated with policing. A large element of the police job that plays a large factor in the work and attributes to the policing culture is the amount of stress that an office will face while performing on the job. Another part of the job that plays a large part in the culture