As, the late president, Ronald Reagan once said, “Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives”; this statement remains true today. Law enforcement is one branch of our government thus the statement by Reagan applies to police officers as well as direct government officials. Police officers have no intention of running or ruining the lives of citizens but to protect them from harm unfortunately this has become hard for the public to believe due to social media. The media has had a negative impact on society's view of police officers. Police officers must do whatever is necessary to protect citizens, this is their job and social media chooses what sides of law enforcement to publicize. Shortly following the
An article in the Washington Post revealed that across the nation 963 people were shot and killed by police in 2016. This puts police in a losing situation. Not only have they lost the trust of many, but they are now portrayed as the enemy. A police officer’s duty is to protect the people and enforce the law. After the shootings, people don’t see them as protecting anyone, but instead harming the population. More than often now the perception is that they are the bad guys who take advantage of their power.
I understand police officers everywhere have their own lives on the line, every time they suit up to protect and enforce the law amongst the population. I do appreciate the risk they do to keep us safe from absolute
Despite the fact that some cops may utilize their energy to undermine and behave in any way they if it's not too much trouble there are numerous officers that serve and secure; taking the guarantee that they pledged to truly, which is the thing that larger part of the populace today neglects to figure it out. Verging on consistently, cops are tasked out to restore arrange or recover peace in rushed circumstances and are confronted with the test to utilize power without it being viewed as a "lowlife" or danger to the group or far more terrible accused of a wrongdoing of Police mercilessness. More regularly than any other time in recent memory, daily papers, sites, and TV have dialed in on these
When the public looks at us as public servants they expect officers to be of the highest ethical, and moral standard. When the police deal with the public, unfortunately it is usually when something is wrong. To be able to fix things that are wrong in society you have to be a person of integrity with moral values. The public would never trust someone who does not have integrity to fix there problems. In order for officers of the Las Vegas metropolitan police to perform their duties the community needs to be able to trust them. When a officer is trustworthy, he or she can be relied upon to be honest, reliable, and loyal, which to me means they have integrity. But its also equally important to be respectful, responsible, fair, caring, and demonstrate good citizenship. An officer with integrity does exactly what he says, and says exactly what he means. There is no conflict or doubt between his thoughts and actions. His actions are consistent with the values he claims to
In your article “stop bashing the police”, you state that “police work is inherently dangerous” (Dent). I agree, police officers have a tough job, not only do they have to protect the citizens of this country, but they also must protect themselves. Yes, their job is to help enforce and protect the law, but how exactly are they protecting society if their main go to kind of enforcement is to kill? yes, police officers help by getting murderers and robbers off
It seems that in some cases police officers forget this. “Prior to Ferguson, police were politically untouchable.”(Somashekhar et al.) Police officers had not been put under the spot light as much as they have been recently. The law seemed to always be on their side protecting them from all wrong doing. Fortunately, the media has finally given these wrongful acts a place to be investigated. Law enforcement agencies can no longer turn their heads on what is really going on. “Some in law enforcement are troubled by this trend, worried that public sympathy is shifting toward suspects and away from the police who put their lives on the line every day.” Yes it maybe a police officers job to arrest people doing crimes but it is also their job to protect. Just how it may not be fair that they put their lives at risk everyday and are scared to get killed in the line of duty, people should not live everyday scared to go out and be confused for a criminal by an officer just because of their skin color, clothing or location. Police officers have to go into work everyday know g that there will be consequences to there wrongful actions. This will make them think twice before pulling out their guns on innocent people of color. Yes, there are criminals that police need to be careful for but this does not mean that everyone one has to pay the cost. Officers should be charged if proven to be at fault for being involved
They are sworn to maintain high ethical standard and protect, serve and make society safer as a condition of their employment. Each office is then issued a badge which is used to identify whether a person is a law enforcement or not. The badge is a symbol of integrity, having integrity means being totally honest and truthful in every part of life, personally and professionally (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2000). But do all officers uphold these requirement? Absolutely not! Oakland, CA. 2009. Oscar Grant was shot dead by Bay Area Rapid Transit law enforcement officer Johannes Mehserle, age 27. Officer Mehserle and other police officers had been responding to reports of a fight, and arrested and handcuffed Oscar Grant, age 22, and several others in a subway station. Mr. Grant was handcuffed, unarmed and lying on the ground when Officer Mehserle pulled out his gun and shot him in the back. In court Mehserle claimed he thought his gun was his Taser. He was sentenced to two years in jail and let out on parole in June 2011. This is another example of police misconduct/brutality. Not only should the offices be criminally charged but also force to pay any settlement out of their pockets for their wrongdoing. Taxpayers like myself are paying millions of dollars in lawsuits resulting from police brutality, misconduct, wrong convictions,
Although police officers take an oath to protect and serve citizens in our society. we have some officers that our corrupt and willing do anything just to protect themselves from being exposed from their unethical behavior. In 1994 three officers from New Orleans police department committed an unspeakable crime murder for hire and a violent drug gang. The killing of Kim grove was thirty-two years old and was gunned down by police officer that were there to protect her instead they killed her.
No matter where law enforcement officers are they should maintain their professionalism. For instance, it does not make a good impression on the public if an officer is off duty and out with his buddies at a bar getting drunk and belligerent. If other patrons know he?s a police officer, it damages his reputation and public image as well as the department he works for. Police should also always be careful of what they say. You never know who could be listening. Perhaps a co-worker?s wife stopped in at the department store for something and another officer made crude comments that were over- heard by the wife. Not only is an incident like that downright rude and unprofessional, it could also be interpreted as harassment. Police officers must realize that they are expected by the community to maintain a level of integrity that others are not held to. This off-duty behavior could be misread as the officer being insincere about his job when on duty.
Police officers are held accountable for everything they do. The public is always watching. Police officers are members of the communities they work in. They are just paid to protect and serve their neighbors within that community.
Police officers are often viewed as oppressors and unjust by the community, when in reality they are just doing their jobs. The job of a police officer is to apprehend criminals and detect crime, and the maintenance of public order and to the extend and complication of this duty police officers often need to make split second decision that is not often view by the public as what we call “self-defense” which is a right we all have as human beings and stated in the Universal Declaration of
What they do or fail to do can affect seriously the span of the damage to life, property, and community spirit. Police officers are required to take an oath when they first join their department. The police oath is a code of ethics. The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics establishes the basic responsibility of a police officer is and I quote: “As a Law Enforcement Officer, my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality and justice. I will constantly strive to achieve these objectives and ideals, dedicating myself before God to my chosen profession…law enforcement.” These are the expectations of the citizens, and when they are abused it threatens the faith of all. The most recent case raising unethical questions may be the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, an unarmed black male shot down by police officers. Another reason might be the rise in reports of suspicious deaths of inmates in custody making headlines across the country. These type of situations bring up difficult questions regarding the limits of police authority, are there some inequalities in the way that law enforcement officers treat certain racial, socioeconomic, or cultural groups? Are the factors, such as whether a citizen is ethnic or white, poor or Middle class, making a difference in the type of treatment one is likely to receive from the
Police officers take an oath to protect and serve the community. The community looks to police as a leader. I believe leaders set the standards, so police officers should be held to higher standards than the general public. Police officers are considered to be at the top of the organization chart. A wise saying states, “If the head (brain) is not working correctly the other parts of the body is lost.” The police are considered to be the head and the community is the other part. How could they enforce the laws that have been set by the government if they had no ethics and morals? There would be complete turmoil through the country.
In today's society the police, play may roles. They are the peacekeepers, law enforcement and many other jobs. However, recently they have become the subject of a very heated and large debate. Many believe that the police should give up their brute type tactics for a more civilized and humanized approach, while others feel that the police should crack down on the most insignificant of offences to type and disparage crimes that are more serious. In this paper, we will be analyzing both sides of this issue, from the look of the police administration to the public's view of it. When we mention today's police force we will be using the New York City police force as are basis of comparison, because they seem to
When we think of the police, we normally think of the brave men and women out on the street, enforcing the law, catching criminals, helping out the public in cases of emergency and making us feel safe in general. Most of the Police in most of the world is like that which is a good thing, However in the United States of America the police here are a bit more ruthless. Most of the police officers are very nice people and they really do want to help out in their community, but unfortunately there are some bad and corrupt cops in the system that will break the law and do some bad things. In the Modern world most bad cops are seen as racist and trigger happy. They don’t kill for fun of course but whenever they feel threatened they are trained to feel as though they need to take down their target since they are taught to make sure they don’t do something that will end up killing them. While nobody is at fault with these cases it is unfortunate that it does happen. Thankfully most of those cops are not as bad as the actual corrupted ones where they do business with drug lords and take their money just so that the criminals don’t get ratted out and so that they can continue their business. While there are some organizations that are corrupted the people in America do have power and a decent morality to do something about it. There are many organizations and cases that happened in the supreme court that has changed how the police behave and act when they are out on the