Verified Document

Police Patrol Scenario The Actions Term Paper

Recklessly creating a situation that increases the required amount of force is immoral. Officer Smith should have ordered the occupants out of the car from the cover of her own vehicle. Using cover effectively would have required the occupants to take far more overt action, getting out of the car and turning around, in order to be a threat to the officers. Officer Smith unnecessarily increased the danger to herself, and therefore the risk that she would have to use deadly force. Creating a dangerous situation for others is immoral, and that was the result of Officer Smith approaching the car. Some might argue that the death of an armed robber may be a net positive for society, but death is an excessive punishment for robbery, and the police do not have the moral, or legal authority to appoint themselves judge, jury and executioner upon encountering criminals on the street. My assessment of the situation would not change if the occupants were Portuguese tourists. I can only judge Officer Smith based on what she knew. Information gained after a decision is made may serve to validate correctness of the decision, but has no bearing on its justification....

Officer Smith is legally obligated to make her decision based on the information available to her. The fact that the occupants turned out to be tourists, not criminals does not affect the information that was available to Officer Smith when she made the decision to shoot. It was still immoral for Officer Smith to create an unnecessary risk that she would have to use deadly force. All possible explanations must be considered when suspects are behaving suspiciously. Officer safety is not limited to the protection of the officer. Officers should limit the danger to themselves to minimize the risk that they will have to use force.
Bartollas, Clemmens and Hahn, Larry. Policing in America. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon, 1999.

Kappeler, V, et. al. "Perspectives on the development of police character. Forces of Deviance: Understanding the Dark Side of," 84-108 Waveland Press, Inc. 1998

Worden, Robert. "Ther "causes" of police brutality: theory and evidence on Police Use of Force. And Justice For All: Understanding and controlling police abuse of force." 31-60, Police

Executive Research Forum, 1995.

Sources used in this document:
Kappeler, V, et. al. "Perspectives on the development of police character. Forces of Deviance: Understanding the Dark Side of," 84-108 Waveland Press, Inc. 1998

Worden, Robert. "Ther "causes" of police brutality: theory and evidence on Police Use of Force. And Justice For All: Understanding and controlling police abuse of force." 31-60, Police

Executive Research Forum, 1995.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Policing Policies Analysis This Study Seeks to
Words: 1831 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Policing Policies Analysis This study seeks to strengthen the practice of policing by demonstrating the effectiveness of the problem-oriented policing. The information provided herein is useful to practitioners as it compares problem-oriented policing against community-oriented policing. Practitioners will be able to create much robust policing intervention when addressing real life situations within the field by grasping the theoretical mechanisms (Hess & Orthmann, 2011). In addition, by linking academic theories to policing,

Police Crisis Intervention
Words: 2957 Length: 10 Document Type: Term Paper

Police Crisis Intervention A crisis refer to a case, characterized by a precipitating stressor event, a view that an event will lead to distress, and diminished functioning when it is not possible to relieve the distress using known coping resources. Prior studies suggest that studies on crisis intervention started in the late 1940s in reaction to several stressor events. For instance, during the World War people underwent many tribulations, which called

Police Applicants: What Types Questions Police Applicants
Words: 638 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Police Applicants: What types questions police applicants interview phase determine possessed racist bigoted ideologies? 2. Religious Beliefs: 1. Should police officers pro-life forced provide security pro-choice demonstrators clashes religious beliefs? 2. Police applicants: What types of questions would you ask police applicants during the interview phase to determine if they possessed racist or bigoted ideologies? When interviewing a police applicant, it is possible to ask direct questions regarding his or her legal

Community Oriented Policing Vs. Problem
Words: 7854 Length: 25 Document Type: Term Paper

(1990) Municipal Government Involvement in Crime Prevention in Canada. This work provides insight into the way that municipal government interacts with the police in the organization of crime prevention structures and the delivery of crime prevention services and activities. (Hastings, 1990, p. 108) The idea of municipal government interaction in crime prevention is shown to have been spurred on in Canada by "....the successes of locally organized and community-based initiatives

Problem-Oriented Policing Crime Reduction Program in the City of...
Words: 2030 Length: 7 Document Type: Research Proposal

Implementing a Problem-Oriented Policing Crime Reduction Program in the City of Nashville, Tennessee Statement of the Problem Law enforcement agencies have made substantial progress in reducing violent crime and property crime rates in many municipalities across the country, and the United States can be regarded as being significantly safer for its citizenry today compared to the alarmingly high crime rates in the 1990s (Gramlich, 2020). Nevertheless, pockets of high crime rates remain

Policing Issues Affecting 21st Century Law Enforcement Officers
Words: 2520 Length: 9 Document Type: Research Paper

Militarization of Police The 21st century has provided in a very short time, major changes to the way society interacts and operates. Governmental structures and institutional principles have also greatly swayed in recent decades. It is apparent that the world is drastically changing and evolving into a new form of culture and society that presents many problems and issues, especially in cases of the law and law enforcement. The law is changing

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now