One officer versus two officer patrol cars The articles used in this paper explain whether one officer or two officers patrolling is effective in maintaining safety among officers. One officer and two officer patrol cars has been a never-ending debated issue. The reason why it has been highly debated is because some agencies view two officers in a patrol car as less effective or no difference at all than one patrol officer. According to Frank Day (1955), agencies with one officer in a patrol vehicle have reported having signs of success. (p.) The advantages for one officer in a patrol car is that there is less distractions, and they respond faster to calls. In a two officer per car method officers can be distracted by conversations with their
The threat of danger is continuously present, which contributes to the officer’s constant suspicion in trying to identify a potential danger or a law being broken (Skolnick, p. 4). Because of this constant mode of thinking, many people find themselves not wanting to establish a social relationship or friendship with police officers. The danger element isolates the police officer from citizens that he finds representative of danger as well as isolating him from the more predictable people that he might ordinarily identify with (Skolnick, p. 4).
The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment was conducted in October 1972 by the Kansas City Police to test the effects of marked police patrol units on the incidence of crime to deter crime and ended in 1973. The experiment lasted over a year and was evaluated by the Police Foundation, established by the Ford Foundation, which also provided funding and technical assistance for the education of police. The Kansas City Preventative Patrol Experiment in policing ranked among the few major social experiments ever to be completed and still used today in American policing. (Kelling, G. L., Pate, T., Dieckman, D., & Brown, C. E., 1974)
This program received much ridicule from law enforcement professionals as it decreased, in their eyes, the versatility of their service to the community. It seemed as that in removing officers from their patrol vehicles, it would not allow them to respond quickly to other calls and better protect their patrolled communities. As they came to find, it actually gave the people in those communities a greater sense of security and pride in their home turf.
An examination of the patrol officer’s jobs and duties took place. The gathering of information and interviewing a seasoned patrol offer assisted in this examination. The city in which the patrol officer works is also studied. Research of the city of Hueytown’s population and history helped to understand the demographics and crime within the city. While Hueytown’s violent crimes are low, thefts and burglaries rank the highest. Communities, including the city of Hueytown, place patrol officers on the streets in order to protect and serve. Officer Louis Phillips, Jr. gave an interview that takes an in depth look at his journey as a patrol officer.
Friederich Nietzsche wrote, “Whoever fights monsters should seek to it that in the process he does not become a monster”. This aptly applies to police officers who face unexpected and potentially dangerous situations every day. Police officers are confronted with destructive and negative behavior on a regular basis. Law enforcement is one of the most stressful and demanding professions in the United States. Characteristics of police work are stressful because a situation can change at any time. An FBI report shows that approximately twelve out of every one hundred or 60,000 police officers are assaulted each year (Stevens, p. 587). Combined with many other factors,
The topic of police in general, and the brutal beatings, shootings, and arrests that have occurred over the past couple of years in the United States has hit the media full force, leaving many wondering what actions should be taken to keep the peace. Many question the system as a whole, and the training police officers receive, as well as their mental health. Across the borders, police are trained differently and follow various policies that may seem ridiculous or foreign, however, when comparing and contrasting two police systems, the similarities may be alarming, and the differences may be great, but knowing the strengths and weakness of each different system, can help towards progressing to have a better system and better training for police officers.
Bayley, D. H. (1986). The tactical choices of police patrol officers. Journal of Criminal Justice, 14(4), 329-348.
As a police officer, the major objectives are to maintain order, enforce the law, protect one’s property, and to save lives. In addition, police are divided into two roles based on how they perform their duties. The two roles of a police officer are a public servant and a crime fighter. A police officer whose role as a public servant is to serve all types of people, as well as criminals. Public servants regularly provide advice and make judgments as to the degree of risk they should take with the public. Many decisions involving risk are relatively easy to make, but others are complex and significant consequences (Kernaghan and Langford, 2016). These risks may involve using force and the consequences could be media backlash or a potential termination. Public servants abide by the oath and uphold the integrity and honor of the organization as an officer. Also, public servant officers like to play it safe because they like to be known as ordinary citizens who like to go home to their
The sample of patrol officers will then be assigned subgroups on the amount of time they have worked in patrol. This research will be comparing the secondary data for the two years prior to body-worn cameras and the two years after body-worn cameras. Because of the time frame being studied, officers with less than four years of patrol experience will not be examined. This allows officers to be assigned to subgroups of years in patrol by four year groupings. For example, 4-8 years, 9-13 years, 14-17 years. These groups will continue to the 30 year retirement standard in North Carolina law enforcement. The officers in the patrol division will be placed in a subgroup. The random sampling drawn from the patrol division will be proportionate to the makeup of the subgroups. This proportional stratified sampling will provide the most accurate depiction of proactive policing of patrol officers equipped with body-worn
This paper will show four different police departments that are currently hiring or recruiting for police officers. There will be a summary on the research found on the process used to recruit police officers. It will also show their current hiring trends and what hiring practices they have that are successful or not successful. The paper will also go over the different methods departments use to train their new officers and their values.
Choosing the job occupation of being a police officer inherently has its own risks and dangers that come with the title. A routine traffic is one of the many dangers that can lead to tragedy by sometimes not taking the correct precautions for the officer when dealing with a dangerous situation. One of the many options that an officer can take to be proactive in reducing these situations from going south, is actually, keeping more space between a suspect and the officer. “In the 30 years between 1985 and 2014, the trend rose slightly higher. During this period 69.7 percent of officers killed with firearms in the line of
I found you post to be quite interesting to read. It’s a tough decision on whether police cars should be allowed to be used for an officers personal use. The most logical answer would be that police cars should only be used for police work and that’s it. If that were the case we would not have a problem of increased the take home car fees. The department is spending a lot of money on these cars they pay for the gas and the insurance and the officers only pay a small fee. If an officer wishes to have a take home car and use it for personal use then a charge fee should be increased in order to help maintain and pay for the vehicle.
In Detroit for instance, 4200 patrol officers weree on the street in 1998, by 2015 the number was down to 1600. There was not, however, a proportional drop in the supervisory ranks. So let’s look at the job from an officers’ perspective,
Brannon (1956) explains that eventually more and more police departments would implement the changeover from two-man to one-man patrol units. For example, the Kansas City Missouri Police Department explains their reasons for the change. First, they believed putting more single-man units out on the street would result in “greater police service” for the city without adversely affecting the officer’s safety (Brannon, 1956, p. 240). Additionally, better police service would not result in an increased workload “beyond fair and reasonable standards” or an increase in operational costs beyond budgetary limits (Brannon, 1956, p. 240).
Automobiles and two-way radios dramatically affected police patrol in the twentieth century. As more and more of the public got into cars, so did the police. Motorized police patrol was deemed necessary to pursue motorized criminals and to enforce traffic laws. Motorized patrol also came to be seen as more efficient than foot patrol, since a larger area could be watched by police in cars. Then, the addition of the two-way radio made it possible for personnel at police headquarters to contact patrol officers in the field and dispatch them to respond to citizen requests for assistance. The impact of these two basic technologies should not be underestimated. Before cars and radios, police response to emergencies and other crises was more like the fire department model—from the station. Officers on patrol were out on the streets watching, but they were not in continuous communication with headquarters.