According to Barker (2005), an agency, in the confines of sociology, is the ability of an individual or an organization to make choices and decisions on their free will. However, for the purpose of this paper, an agency will be defined as an organization or department set up to provide a particular service for a government or a similar organization. To be specific, agency in this case and point will refer to law enforcement. Law enforcement agency in its definition refers to an organization set up by the government to enforce the law, an example of such an agency is the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). Such an agency is mandated with powers to effect the law by; exempting one from the laws, legal deception, the constraint of liberty and use of force, overriding jurisdictions, and practicing their intrusive powers for searching, seizing and interpreting the law. In this paper, the traditional methods and approaches to problem-solving by law enforcement agencies will be discussed. Also, recommendations on how to change these traditional strategies will be discussed.
Traditional and Practical Approaches
Traditional policing probably may be the most common and still standardly known and applied style in law enforcement. This form of law enforcement is reactive rather than proactive. Elaborately, this essentially means that law enforcement agencies like the police react to crimes that have already taken place or that are in progress. Also, the police may respond to other calls of emergency or help while on their patrol routines. Essentially, the traditional approaches hinge on three strategies; first is the random routine patrol which involves the patrol officers moving around in a patrol car, motorcycle, on foot or even on horseback in a designated or assigned geographical area or location until his or her shift is over. A single patrol car carries two officers who are partnered-up by the department in fulfilling their duties. Secondly, the traditional method involves answering and responding to 911 emergency calls by the citizens. This method involves officers being dispatched or sent to the emergency area or origin of the call immediately regardless of the lack of information about the emergency or type of emergency or call. This phenomenon has at times proved to be detrimental to the officers while on other occasions they turn out to be pranks played by individuals. Lastly, retroactive investigations regarding past offenses and crimes by detectives and agents are also other characteristics of the traditional and reactive approach. The method involves a preliminary investigation carried out by the officer on the scene. However, the officer then refers the criminal case to a different investigator such as a detective who carries out subsequent investigations on the crime (Dempsey & Forst, 2009).
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Reasons for Reluctance to Change
Perhaps the most difficult challenge in changing the traditional strategies or approaches into more modern and effective ones is the conservativeness of the community and its expectations. As Docobo (2005) states, traditional local law enforcement is mainly concerned with dealing and curbing simple crimes and offenses like theft, burglary, and robbery. The author further asserts that these crimes have a significant immediate and visible impact to the community thereby affecting their way of life as well as security. Dempsey & Forst (2009) further support this argument by suggesting that traditional methods like increased police presence via foot or car patrols in the community exhume some confidence and sense of security to the community helping in eradicating most of these crimes. It is on this note that it is observed how reluctant law enforcement agencies may be in shifting away from the traditional approach. The method may not be effective in curbing or dealing with bigger and unknown or unpredictable threats such as terrorism but still, plays a fundamental role in community safety and security and by its rights, the method or approach works. As Dempsey & Forst (2009) further assert, a patrol officer is the representative or ambassador of the police department to the community. In addition, the officer faces and solves various problems through the day in his or her patrols, without which the neighborhoods will be very dangerous places to live. All these just go to show how important the traditional law enforcement is and why there has been a general reluctance to change.
Motivation Required
Regardless of the effectiveness of the traditional approach, there should be a general shift and change in strategies and approaches. In the current world of increased terrorism activities that are both devastating and unpredictable, more effective ways and methods of law enforcement should be adopted. Moreover, with the advancement of internet and technology in general including social networking, terrorists and their activities have gradually changed and have become very difficult to detect or monitor. Gathering intelligence is no longer the monopoly of both the federal and local law enforcers. Terrorists gather information on their targets as well as communicate and recruit more members into their organizations. Therefore, due to the boldness and robustness of the terror organizations, it is critical for the law enforcement agencies to develop and implement more rigorous strategies in comparison to the traditional methods. To further this purpose, law enforcement agencies should carry out awareness programs and address this issue in totality (Mayer & Erickson, 2011).
Additionally, a change from the traditional approach to law enforcement can be achieved through promoting best practices as well as adopting uniform standards and strategies through rigorous and comprehensive training of all newly recruited officers prior to going into the field. Moreover, law enforcement agencies can dedicate most of the federal resources to terrorism-related training programs to address the core needs. Incorporating both the state and local law enforcement agencies at the policy-making table to hear both of their ideas and thoughts on homeland security issues could play a crucial motivational role in enacting the change (Mayer & Erickson, 2011).
Conclusion
As much as the traditional method may not be the best in effectiveness in keeping up with the 21st-century terrorism and crimes, the method should not be entirely thrown out of the window so to say. There should be a gradual change from the approach into a more competent one. Furthermore, law enforcers should take what works from the traditional approach and improve on it as well as motivate the change towards this goal.
References
Barker, Chris. 2005. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice . London: Sage. ISBN 0-7619-4156-8 p448
Dempsey, J. S., & Forst, L. S. (2009). An introduction to policing . Australia: Delmar CengageLearning. https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=uajZhTYdmVsC&dq=traditional+policing+methods&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Docobo, J. M., & Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). (2005). Community policing as the primary prevention strategy for Homeland Security at the local law enforcement level . Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School. https://www.hsaj.org/articles/183
Mayer, M. A., Erickson, S. G., & Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.). (2011). Changing today's law enforcement culture to face 21st-century threats . Washington, D.C: Heritage Foundation. http://www.heritage.org/homeland-security/report/changing-todays-law-enforcement-culture-face-21st-century-threats
