The benefits of Community policing
The police and citizens often have different viewpoints about community policing. Community policing can be very labor-intensive and the police often have numerous different types of pressure on them from a variety of locations within the jurisdiction.
For this week’s assignment, you are to evaluate how a police agency should deal with the multitude of different types of requests for service that they have and still be able to engage in a robust community-policing effort. Assess how a well-functioning community-oriented policing program can lessen the stress on law enforcement manpower. Determine how the police and citizen groups can effectively communicate with each other.
Write a 2 page APA style paper. Only the body of the paper will count toward the word requirement (title page and references are in addition to the 2 pages)
In your paper, cite at least 2-3 references using the APA style guide format for the in-text citation.
The benefits of community policing
In his work, Spohn has dominantly focused on issues of disparity and discrimination along America’s corridors of justice. As can be guessed from his topic, he has tried to give a historical review of how the minorities have continued to face unequal sentencing compare to the whites. The race is a factor that cannot be overlooked when sentencing criminals. Heumann and Cassak (2001), also add that police profiling of suspected criminals in the neighborhoods as a contributor to the irrational sentencing.
Explanation of the role of community policing
American citizens continuously grapple with the social injustices that face them every day as they set out to build their country in all sectors. Disparity and discrimination have become an anthem for many since the antebellum era of slavery hence painting a picture that the whites, who are perceived to be the rightful citizens, always on the right while the colored population that mostly is perceived as the villain always on the wrong.
The constitution was intended to be a template of solving social, civil, economic, and even security issues among the Americans. However, of all these cited issues, the law has not been able to adequately solve the issues and cases pertaining to social injustices. Racism and gender bias have become permanent topics in the media, local dailies and social networks like Facebook. This is because the justice system is not satisfactorily handling the cases that are related to people of different racial backgrounds, sexual orientation or gender. Often, the African- Americans and Latinos complain of their fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers being ruthlessly murdered or unjustly accused and sentenced for longer periods compared to their white counterparts.
The revolution in laws, practices, and policies that govern sentencing and case determinations are merely virtual since for the past three decades when the reforms were made, racism and gender disparity and discrimination have just escalated instead of reducing. He continues to indicate that; though the liberalists saw structured sentencing as a way of improving fairness while the conservatives saw it to increase harsh penalties thus reduce crime, the reforms have consistently been leaning towards the African- Americans and Latinos as the whites are less severely punished. This is major because, in the process of sentencing, the prosecutors and judges check on areas such as; the earlier offense records of the defendant, age, gender, and state of employment. Therefore, whether African- American, Hispanic, or Latino, the unemployed, young males stand a greater chance of being sentenced. Additionally, the jury also considers the type of case presented, the status of bail, attorney’s intellectual capacity and color as well as setting of the case. On gender disparity, women are given shorter terms to serve compared to men except when the case in question is serious.
As if this is not enough, Heumann & Cassak (2001), emphasize that policing has become a vital method of preventing possible crimes within the borders of America. By closely monitoring the associates of former violators of the law, the police officers are able to detect the simplest of criminal intentions. However, these consistent monitoring makes people uncomfortable especially the minority group. The fear of being followed in the streets, highways, and airports creates tension among people who end up making mistakes even without intending to. Heumann & Cassak (2001), cite a case of Illinois vs. Wardlow whereby the defendant escapes for fear of being imprisoned yet he is innocent and thinks he will not win the case because he is black.
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