Robert Morris University Role of The Police Officers Discussion

150 words minimum with 1 reference each.

Kelsey 1

The three basic methods used by police to fulfill their mission include random routine patrol, rapid response to citizens’ calls to 911, and retroactive investigation of past crimes by detectives. All of these methods are not as effective as they should be. The random routine patrolling has been proven to not be in any way improving of crime rates in any community. One great example is the Kansas City Study. According to our text, “In effect, the study failed to demonstrate that adding or taking away police patrols from an area made any difference within the community.” The rapid response to citizens’ calls to 911 is definitely not always quick nor effective. Perfect example, my boyfriend was jumped one block away from a police department and it took them over thirty minutes to show up to the scene. When it comes to retroactive investigation of past crimes by detectives, police mainly focus on the crimes that are more important and work their way down to those that are less minor crimes. There also situations where police departments throw away past files to finish investigations of crimes. For example, there has been many agencies that have thrown away unsolved rape kits. There definitely needs to be improvement with all three of these methods.

Carly 2

According to our book, the three main methods used in policing are a random routine patrol, rapid response to 911 calls and emergencies, and investigation of past crimes by detectives. Officers randomly patrol specific areas to make sure that there isn’t any preventable trouble occurring. This is important so that the crime rate gets reduced and neighborhoods become more like communities rather than unsafe, scary areas riddled in which no one can coexist peacefully. Rapid response to 911 calls is incredibly important for obvious reasons. If someone is calling 911, it is likely for an urgent reason and these emergencies must be attended to right away by someone qualified to deal with the crisis, such as a police officer depending on the circumstances. The last of the three is the investigation of past crimes by detectives, which deals with “cold cases” and other unsolved crimes that must be solved and need a follow-up. The more cases that get solved, hypothetically, the crime rate should decrease as more criminals will be taken off the streets and won’t be able to repeat their actions. I think that having these three pillars in place is a great idea, but the execution isn’t always the best, much like a lot of the other policies that police forces are expected to uphold. I think to a certain extent they are held up well, knowing that most officers in these positions are qualified, intelligent, and work well in the situations that may be found when working in a branch that was mentioned above. If an officer is “cut out” for the job, they should be able to uphold these branches relatively easily, taking special circumstances in mind. I think that they are usually upheld as crime rates seem to be going down for certain crimes and areas, but there is always room for improvement.

Citation:

Dempsy, J. S., Forest, L.S. (2016). An introduction to policing. Cengage Learning, 8th Edition.

Original Assignment FOR REFERENCE, I don’t need an initial post.

This is a Post-First Discussion. You must make your initial post prior to seeing the responses of your classmates.

Discuss whether the three basic methods used by the police to fulfill their mission are effective. If they are effective, why? If they are not effective, why not? [LO 1-2]

Review the Discussion Scoring Rubric for grading and participation guidelines.