Policing: The Impossible Mandate

Question 1

what are commonly understood functions of police work?

Answer 1

• serve and protect
• maintain social order and public trust
• deter/prevent crime
• enforce the law
• use of legitimate force

Question 2

what is the police role associated with?

Answer 2

• sense of secular sacredness or awesome power
• an absolutist morality encased in a sacred canopy
• linked directly to the state (obligated to defend its interests)

Question 3

What happens when a police officer dies?

Answer 3

it unites them; chipping away at a absolute monolith; emboldens solidarity among police

Question 4

What it public morality to the police?

Answer 4

police use it as a resource, and call on it as a resource

Question 5

When police partake in public morality what does it reinforce?

Answer 5

it reinforces their role as ‘crime fighters’ and ‘agents of control’

Question 6

What can police do and not do about crime?

Answer 6

• they cannot eradicate it
• they regulate it
• they can manage it

Question 7

what is the police mandate?

Answer 7

prevent, control, deter, and punish crime

Question 8

The police are challenged in fulfilling their mandate due to:

Answer 8

• being dependent on the public for cooperation
• limited access to the private sphere
• the covert nature of much crime

Question 9

How does the public measure the police success?

Answer 9

they tether their success to arrest rates

Question 10

Western Police Culture

Answer 10

• Ethos of bravery, autonomy, and secrecy
• role calls: stay safe out there, never back down
• loner cop fighting a corrupt organization

Question 11

What is an example of western policing culture?

Answer 11

Robocop

Question 12

Western policing culture characterizes by:

Answer 12

• high degree of cohesiveness
• isolation from others in the community
• inherently suspicious of public (police feel like they don’t get enough recognition from the public)
• feelings of powerlessness
• problems of status

Question 13

What are the 6 basic values of police subculture

Answer 13

1. police are the only real crime fighters
2. no one else understands the real nature of police work
3. loyalty to colleagues counts above everything else (leads to noble cause corruption)
4. It is impossible to win the war against crime without bending the rules
5. members of the public are unsupportive and and unreasonably demanding
6. patrol work is the pits, but detective work is glamorous (not the case)

Question 14

What are the organizational aspects of Shielding Malpractice

Answer 14

• police usually come from the lower middle class
• young and impressionable officers with average intelligence
• solidarity and loyalty to their own force
• police ‘code of silence’
• don’t criticize other fellow officers
• “noble cause” corruption

Question 15

What is the reality of police work?

Answer 15

• more paperwork than anything else
• mundane and dirty work
• crime clearance rates are usually low
• detectives often assisted by patrol officers and victim disclosure
• work isnt just about reducing crime