Law and Order Unit V  The Police: Organization, Role and Function 1

Police organization  Most municipal police departments are independent agencies  They rarely work with other departments  They have their own budgets, rules, policies, procedures 2

Police Department Rank system  Patrolman  Sergeant  Lieutenant  Captain  Deputy Inspector  Inspector  Deputy Chief  Assistant Chief  Bureau Chief  Chief of Department  Deputy Commissioner  First Deputy Commissioner  Police commissioner 3

Time in Rank system  A system to promote officers based on their time in a particular rank  An officer accrues points based on time in rank, awards, citations, and test scores  when the accumulate enough points they get promoted  No officer is allowed to skip a rank, an officer cannot leave a department and assume a higher rank in another department 4

Patrol Function  Deter crime by maintaining a visible police presence  Maintain public order (peacekeeping) within the patrol area  Enable the police department to respond quickly to law violations or other emergencies  Identify and apprehend law violators  Aid individuals and care for those who cannot help themselves 5

Patrol Function  Facilitate the movement of traffic and people  Create a feeling of security in the community  A patrol officers responsibilities are immense they must make split second decisions  They may face a suicidal teen, angry mob, armed felon, domestic dispute 6

Patrol Function  Most of the time they are peacekeeping, this is where the officer must use discretion  Discretion is vital, officers must decide if a noisy neighbor complaint can be handled with just talking to the people or making arrests  They are looked as community problem solvers 7

Does Patrol Deter crime?  A visible police presence was once considered vital to deterring crime  The 1970’s experiment on patrols was designed to shed some light on the effectiveness of patrols  They divided the 15 districts into 3 groups, on e group retained the normal patrols, the second group increased the number of patrols and the third eliminated patrols 8

K.C. patrol experiment  The results of the experiment showed that patrols had little effect on crime patterns  And had little impact on the citizens attitude towards the police  Displacement might be a reason for the crime rates not changing 9

Improving patrols  Proactive policing: an aggressive law enforcement style that take the initiative against crime instead of waiting for criminal acts to occur  Aggressive patrol: jurisdictions that have patrol officers issue citations, aggressively arrest, detain suspects and actively enforce minor infractions have lower crime rates  NY city took an aggressive approach in the 90’s and greatly reduced their crime rate 10

Improving Patrols  Targeting specific crimes in specific areas  Patrols are increased in areas that have high crime rates, officers are told what crimes have been the biggest problems and they look for that type of activity  Kansas City gun experiment, police targeted a problem area for guns. Prior to the gun patrol there where 169 gun crimes in 29 weeks, after they had 86 in 29 weeks 11

Improving Patrols  Evidence shows that more arrests reduces the number of crimes  Aggressive police activity reduces the number of crimes  Technology: NYPD introduced Compstat, a computer program that takes input on crime and shows where patrols should target 12

Detectives  They investigate the cause of crime and attempt to identify the individuals responsible  Sometimes they go undercover and try to infiltrate a criminal organization  They can pose as victims to capture predatory criminals 13

Broken Window Model  George Kelling and James Q. Wilson created the Broken Window Model Their three points are 1) neighborhood disorder creates fear. Urban areas filled with street people, youth gangs, prostitutes, and the mentally disturbed are the ones most likely to maintain high degrees of crime 14

Broken Window Model  2) neighborhoods give out crime-promoting signals. A neighborhood filled with deteriorated housing, unrepaired broken windows and untended disorderly behavior gives out crime promoting signals. Honest citizens live in fear in these areas and predatory criminals are attracted to them 15

Broken Window Model  3) Police need citizen cooperation. If police are to reduce fear and successfully combat crime in these urban areas they must have the cooperation, support and assistance of the citizens  This approach requires a change in the entire department, not just a small department located in a traditional police department 16

Community Policing  Programs designed to bring police and the public closer together and create a more cooperative working environment between them  The federal government has encouraged the growth by providing millions in aid for the hiring and training of officers for this program 17

Community Policing  Early attempts to improve relationships between the community and the police had been handled by the Police-community relations or PCR unit 18

Community Policing  Foot patrols took officers out of the cars and on to the streets was one of the first steps to implementing community policing  It gave police a face and formed a bond between the community and the police  The first foot patrol experiments were conducted in Michigan and New Jersey  Residents in the area perceived greater safety and were less afraid of crime even though crime rates did not drop 19

Community Policing  Community-oriented policing: programs designed to bring police and the public closer together and create a more cooperative working environment  Feature a bottom-up approach to community problem solving, decision making involves the officer on the scene not directives from headquarters 20

Community Policing  Neighborhood policing: problem solving is best done at the neighborhood level,  police take the initiative in identifying issues and actively treating the cause  Efforts are made to decentralize 21

Community Policing  Police have to share power with community organizations  Citizens must be active  Patrol officers become managers of their beats 22

Community Policing  Police departments have to alter their recruitment and training  Officers must be problem solvers, along with their normal police duties 23

Problem oriented Policing  They focus on the problems of the community and find ways to solve them  They will develop tactical units to combat the crimes of the community  Gang units  Drug units  Car theft units 24

Internal affairs  investigates allegations of police misconduct  When there is an allegation they investigate 25