The Problem With Police Brutality

Community policing is explained as a collaboration of community and the police working together to help identify and solve criminal activities. Additionally, the whole concept behind it is to promote public safety and to enhance the quality of life within the neighborhoods in which we reside in. Community policing is composed of two major components which are community partnership and problem solving. Community policing is a program that was initially started in the 1940’s. All of the support that was released for this program was materialized actually in the 1980’s. One of the main goals if not the most important goal was to bring in the law enforcement closer to their local public to help

I decided to do my research on the community policy in California LAPD, which stands for (The Los Angeles Police Department). Before I get into explaining their beliefs, efforts, and determination I want to explain what community policing stands for. The community policy is based on the partnership between police and the people. This means that the police and the people works together to create a better environment. The responsibility the police and people share is they try to prevent problems and make sure the community is safe and in order.

The basic premise is to create a relationship between the police and the community. Some aspects to the community policing approach are empowering residents to share responsibility and authority for the quality of life in the neighborhood and applying problem-solving approaches. Services to the public

Community policing broadens the nature and number of police functions compared with traditional policing. It emphasizes organizational change, active problem solving, and external partnerships to address issues that concern both the police and citizens. Community policing shifts the focus of policing by placing equal emphasis on crime control, order maintenance, and service. By providing better training for police officers with the issues of police profiling will make the police officers more aware of police profiling.

Brutality, corruption, and misconduct in police, or people in high ranking organizations, can be backtracked all the way to early times. There was not a good way to keep record of these instances, but the earliest known case of police brutality happened on June 10, 1893 and was reported on by the New York Times. Officer McManus tried to subdue a suspect and when he the suspect did not comply, McManus used excessive force to subdue the man. This was seen and the New York Times was told and because of this, the officer lost his job of employment. Brutality is something that will never be resolved, and happens in different departments all around the United States. This is not something that has just been centered on the United States, there are cases around the world that happens however with different countries there are different rules and ways to subdue a suspect. While this will never be fully resolved, there is always room for improvement and with help from officers this can be reduced. Police brutality is a term that many officers try to avoid, because with this term usually there are repercussions that coexist. It is a term that is concise and to the point; in subduing a suspect there was force used that was unnecessary. Whether the suspect was harmed or not, or whether the arresting officer believes he used reasonable force, there is a correct way to subdue a suspect and also a wrong way. Police brutality and misconduct can be defined by the Santhanam Committee Report

Police brutality is a very serious problem in the United States. The term “police brutality” has been used sense 1872. According to Wikipedia, it is an act of misconduct done by a member of law enforcement by using an extreme amount of force to physically, mentally or emotionally attack a member of society. The job of a police officer can be a dangerous one and sometimes they are put in situations where excessive force is needed. The problem is when there is excessive force used by the people that have been sworn to protect and serve the Americans. Some are using excessive force when it is not needed. It has created society to have a fear of the police. The officers have power but need to be responsible with that power. It has become a controversial topic among communities. .

-By definition the term police brutality is “applied in the context of causing physical harm, it may also involve psychological harm through the use of intimidation tactics beyond the scope of officially sanctioned police procedure.” In today’s society we have police known as riot police, who are known throughout the world to use extreme force. Statistics show almost every time the riot police are involved in crowd control, there is at least one fatality and multiple injured. This is why I believe this is one of the most important issues in the World today. Police are there to protect us but from April 2009 to June 2010 in the United States there were 5986 reports of misconduct from police officers. Police brutality has today’s citizens doubting the police department, and how they go about their arrest. Police brutality is an everyday occurrence, especially in cities where there are large communities of Blacks, Latinos and Asians.

As of September 1, 2015, in the United States police officers have killed 776 people and 161 of those people were unarmed at the time of their death (MintPress). There have been too many incidents where police officers have injured or killed someone that could have been prevented. Using maximum force with a suspect has become a routine in many confrontations. Officers have not been given the proper training to deal with individuals and how to handle them without using a weapon. If they were given more training on how to deal with situations resulting in using a weapon to stop an individual during certain scenarios police brutality situations would decrease, lives would be saved, and police would get their good reputation back. However, police departments would have to spend more money on re-training. Some people agree with police brutality and think that a civilian deserved their punishment, which is not right because no one deserves to be beaten or killed. Situations involving police brutality have been increasing throughout the years, which is a problem that must to be solved.

If the police departments in the United States stay on the same path of police brutality it hard to imagine what could happen in the next decade. It makes some people think will there even be police departments and what will they look like. With these ideas floating around police officers need to be more caution and aware of how to avoid police brutality.

Police brutality is a problem that still goes on around the United States. Even though cases today do not compare to the one’s many years back, brutality as a whole is bad. Police believe that wearing the uniform gives absolute power not

Community Policing is a value system which infuses a police department, in which the main organizational goal is working helpfully with individual citizens, groups of citizens, and both public and private organizations to identify and resolve issues which possibly effect the livability of specific neighborhoods, areas, or the city as a whole. Community policing can be beneficial to communities. Community policing can help prevent crimes from occurring. As officers get to know a community, they also get to know what is right and wrong with it. Typically, officers remain entitled to an area where crime happens often and as such they are left with fighting it as it is going or after it happened. In community policing neighborhoods, the officers are able to tell what might happen and as

Police brutality is not a new topic in America. I have researched cases that date all the way back to 1991; although I am sure there are cases long before this. One thing I have noticed is how the public responds to police brutality incidents. As we have seen in Ferguson, people of the city are rioting to try to get their points across. Not much has changed. People back in the day did the same exact things, or maybe even worse. The Rodney King incident of 1991 in Los Angeles, which I will go into more depth later in the essay, sparked outrageous riots. Over a period of five days in the spring of 1992, more than 50 people died and more than 2,000 people were injured in these riots. They also damaged over 1,000 buildings and cost the city of Los Angeles over $1 billion. These are ridiculous statistics and, unfortunately, not much has changed. (cnn.com)

Although I should know by now, I cannot help but think that there has been an overwhelming amount of police brutality in recent years. Police brutality can be defined as, when a police officer uses more force than necessary. This issue has spread throughout the United States of America, and is putting the lives of our citizens in great danger. Police brutality is not only physical, but it can also be verbal attacks; and, in most cases, it is caused by false arrest and racial profiling due to police corruption. Police brutality has been and continues to be a major concern in society and it is used very loosely to any and all forms of police misconduct. Whereas, in reality, excessive force of police misconduct is what defines police brutality. The jobs of a police officer are too calmly resolve public disturbance and disputes. Police officers are supposed to protect citizens; instead they are hurting and using excessive force. It is not right and it is unjust for a police officer to hurt a citizen due to an assumption without any actual proof of criminal activity.

Police officers must also work with the communities to form relationships. Community policing is defined as a contemporary approach to policing that actively involves the community in a working partnership to control and reduce crime (Bohm & Haley, 2014). Basically, community policing is a method in which police officers work directly with the people of the community to try and create a positive relationship to find a common ground which in return, would hopefully decrease the amount of criminal activity altogether. Community policing not only helps prevent and reduce crime, but it also helps citizens to see police officers in a different light. Sometimes the only encounter an individual has with an officer is when receiving a ticket or when an arrest is made, which can carry a negative connotation.

Community policing is a policy and a strategy aimed at achieving more effective and efficient crime control, reduced fear of crime, improved quality of life, improved police services and police legitimacy, through a proactive reliance on community resources that seeks to change crime causing conditions. This assumes a need for greater accountability of police, greater public share in decision-making and greater concern for civil rights and liberties.