Week 2
Police culture
The culture of a police department starts with the
leadership of that organization. New
police officers are quickly introduced to that culture. I think it’s a culture
of policy, violence, secrecy and teamwork. The media leads society to believe police
officers abuse their power with the use of force, profiling and at times being
deceitful. When this occurs good police
officers are overshadowed by the bad and society immediately blame all police
officers. As children, most of us trust and believe police officers are
protectors. Once that trust is broken, it is hard to trust them again. Society
begin to make assumptions about the culture of policing. The text talks about 3
dominant characteristics of police culture:
Cynicism.
That is when police view all citizens with distrust. Basically viewing the
average citizen fitting a type as being “a certain type”.
Force. When a treat, either physical or verbal,
force is to be used. Force is a symbol
of authority and it is very effective method of control.
Police
being victims. Being a police officer sets them apart
from the average citizen. Police officers are misunderstood, over worked and under
paid.
I wanted to talk about this because recently I was
stopped by a police officer for running a stop sign in what I believe to be a
not so good area in Portsmouth. The manner in how I was approached and treated
made feel offended and a little upset. I was thinking to myself I’m not a
criminal so why is he acting in this way. Then I had to think about him as an individual
doing his job. I had to realize where I was and the time of day it was. After I
thought about that, I begin to understand why he had approached me in the
matter he did. After I exchanged my information and explained that I had come
to a complete stop, the traffic stop seem to head in a better direction. After
reading the text about police culture, it allowed me to put that traffic stop
in perspective. I still believe most officers enjoy their job and upheld the
police code of ethics.
Banks, C. Criminal
Justice Ethics. 2013. 3rd edition. SAGE. Thousand Oaks, CA.
Emotions may have been involved when he made the traffic stop giving off a certain demeanor. Who's to say he had a good or bad day? Maybe he wasn't feeling to well. I'm sure he didn't mean to come off wrong making you feel upset.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't take the police officer's attitude or demeanor personally, they are just doing their job. When they are first approaching your car, they don't know if you are a criminal or not so they have to use caution and kind of a stern way just to let the person they pulled over that they are in charge. I guess it's part of the code or job description or such. Being a police officer is a tough job I wouldn't want to do it, so God Bless all those that do!
ReplyDeleteOlivia
I agree with your thoughts and often times things can go so much smoother if everyone could just take a moment to take a breath and try to understand what the other person is going through before jumping to conclusion. We then jump to the wrong conclusion, misjudge and think the worst of each other instead of putting aside the emotions and try to speak calmly. I am trying to do more of this.
ReplyDeleteWhat I’ve experienced is this; there is most definitely that relationship or brotherhood amongst officers. Additionally, there are some in uniform who are extremely passionate about what they do and I think a lot of that passion gets misunderstood. I think you are right, in most cases the way a citizen is going to be approached depends on how that officer’s day has been leading up to that specific traffic stop. Most may not agree that is right (myself included) but they are human, and emotions can get in the way of work sometimes.
ReplyDeleteKeisha: You raised good points in your blog. Adding information about your traffic stop enhanced your blog. Professor Taylor
ReplyDelete