Police versus Media

Throughout history, police brutality has been reported in not just the United States but also other countries globally. However, the term police brutality first appeared during 1833 when it was first written by the London Paper termed ‘The Poor Man’s Guardian' (Lawrence, 2000). From that period on, the media has always sought to highlight cases of police brutality in the respective countries and on other countries as well. As a result, this raised the awareness which eventually led to strategies aimed at combating the brutality to be taken. With regards to this, this paper will begin by understanding what police brutality entails. After that, it will seek to evaluate using statistical evidence whether indeed police brutality exists in the contemporary society, or it is only but a creation of the media. As such, this will paint a clear picture of the potential problem which might arise as a result of the brutality, and then propose the proposed solutions by scholars. 

What is Police Brutality 

Notably, police brutality is understood as the abuse of authority by the police through using excessive force which is not warranted while they are in a line of duty (Lawrence, 2000). Not only is it relatable to the public, but also at correctional facilities whereby the officers in charge exercise excessive force while dealing with the inmates. A point to not further is that police brutality applies in both the physical context as well as the psychological context. That is, police can cause physical harm which can lead to physical pain which often leads to hospitalization of the victim or eventually lead to their death. In most cases, police use paper sprays, nerve gas, batons, as well as guns to inflict pain in the body of the individual or threaten them. Psychologically, police might use intimidation tactics which is beyond the official sanction of police procedures. 

Apart from psychological intimidation, police brutality may take another form such as false arrest (Lawrence, 2000). Evidently, there have been many cases of arrests where the person arrested innocent of all the accusation. In cases where a thorough investigation was not done, this resulted in some of the people being convicted of wrong crimes. In addition to this, police have been known to use verbal abuse while dealing with the public. Others take it a mile further by sexually abusing the people they have been assigned to help. Racial profiling has also taken a center of what is termed as police brutality with many police being sued for the same. Moreover, police brutality can take the form of political repression as well as the improper use of police Tasers. 

Causes of Police Brutality 

Subsequently, there are some factors attributed to propagate police brutality. To begin with, factors such as the institutionalization of police training have been at the forefront of perpetuating these acts of violence. This is coupled with the management systems and the general policing culture which have all laid a platform to encourage the acts of police brutality. Additionally, the criminal justice units for some time has also been known for discouraging prosecutors from making follow up on police misconducts. Other causes have been cited to be the separation of power, federalism, and burden of proof which have fragmented the judiciary in pursuit of police misconduct. 

The Media 

As noted by Lawrence, (2000), events are the raw materials upon which the daily news content is built upon. As such, the journalists are primarily tasked with reporting the events as they happen. Nonetheless, the journalist does not simply report these events; they ensure that they have imbued events with certain meaning as they convert the information to the news. She notes that there are various sorts of news that fall into the category of routine or accidental news. The routine news is mainly the ones who dominate the news in various media bodies. They are organized by politicians and another official to maintain communication with the public. However, the accidental news is unexpected and unplanned. As such, they often violate the standard assumption of the way things should be and hardly come to the journalist in a predefined form. An example of such as a case is a terrorist attack or a plane crash. If managed properly by necessary officials, it hardly becomes a public crisis. 

However, in the case of police brutality, this is often an unexpected event which the media has not been programmed to report on it (Lawrence, 2000). As such, they are not in a place whereby they can develop insinuations as they report as the event is happening. In this case, therefore, it needs right to stay that the media is certainly not creating a problem where none exists. Furthermore, this fact is supported by the statistical release of the number of people who suffer due to police brutality. Some of these cases hardly get the attention of the media due to the form in which they happen. 

Statistical Evidence 

To substantiate that indeed police brutality has been a social issue, there has been statics released by various bodies. According to the Washington Post of 2016, (BBC News, 2017), over the 1023 people who have died in the hands of the police, 908 of the cases has been as a result of police shooting and killing them. Notably, this statics is almost similar to the one recorded in 2017 whereby 492 have already been killed as a result of police brutality within the first half of the year. More statics has indicated that racial profiling has made some police take on Africa American as compared to the Whites. Evidently, 215 African Americans have been killed by police in this year alone. Research has shown that African Americans are at a risk of police brutality as compared to whites. This is following the fact that 26% of them were killed last year regardless of the fact that only constitute 13% of the entire population in the US. 

Moreover, in 2015, according to the Wall Street Journal highlighted the highlighted some police convictions which were as a result of police officers killing people while on duty (BBC News, 2017). During this year there were over 1200 people who died as a result of the brutality of the police. Police brutality has mainly taken the form of physical abuse as reported in the Cato Institute’s National Police Misconduct Reporting Project. According to the report contained therein, 57% of cases of police brutality involved police officer excessive force such as baton strikes, chokehold, tasers and other physical attacks. What is even worse is the fact that for every 1000 individuals killed by police, only one police officer gets reported and convicted. As such, this shows how serious the issue in the society as pointed out by media. 

Analysis of the Issue 

Impact of Media Reporting On Police Brutality 

During the recent times, the media has been at the forefront of exposing police brutality. This has been with the aid of mobile phone been able to take video coverage of the events which are then given to the media to expose the incident to the public. For instance, the video of police officers harassing the public has led to the identification of the fact that a particular race has for a while become their target (Dowler, 2003). In the United States, for instance, the African American people have had tough experiences from the police officers as compared to their counterparts. The media has focused on such related incidents. As a result of this, a majority of police officers are scared of manhandling people regardless of their race, sex or socioeconomic status as they can be easily identified. Consequently, the number of cases of police brutality has declined significantly over the course of time. 

Subsequently, by the media reporting cases of police brutality, this has led to the disintegration of the police culture whereby hey would easily use excessive force without fear of being pursued. In addition to this, several bodies are formed to look into matters concerning police brutality. In the past, prosecutors were advised against pursuing police brutality in the courts. Therefore, this created a conducive environment upon which people would easily continue with their brutality. However, with media coverage of incidents involving them, this puts the judiciary in a tight position thus making them convict the offenders accordingly to their crime. 

On the other hand, as portrayed by the media, in the contemporary society, the rate at which the police are likely to harass African Americans has reduced considerably (Dowler, 2003). Nonetheless, the media continues to portray them as the target of the police in the USA. The national review from the Police-Public Contact Survey, commonly abbreviated as the PPCS, the African Americans are no longer at a high risk of police brutality as portrayed by the media. The Bureau of Justice Statistics which conducts this survey on a regular basis and uses a sample of 70000 people in the US of different race, class, and sex (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2017). This ensures that the information which they provide is reliable and reflects accurately what happens in the society. The report they released this year showed that there is a 17.5% likelihood of an African American individual to have contact with a police officer for any reason annually. Additionally, only 20.7% African Americans come into contact with police officers as a result of them calling the officers to intervene. Moreover, there is only a 1.5% chance that an African American would have more than three encounters with police officers (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2017). With regards to this statistics, therefore, the rate at which police brutality is shown to be directed at a specific race is exaggerated by the media causing public fear when there is none. 

Moreover, the media has not been at the forefront in showing ways through which some policing has revolutionized over time. As a result, this has continued to portray the police units as operating in the same manner that they did in the previous years. In turn, this has continued to decrease people’s trust in the police. According to the data released by the Police-Public Contact Survey, the rate at which police violence is exercised by a police officer on duty has dropped significantly. It states that of the 313, 910,0000 of individuals who come into contact with the police officers for any reason whatsoever, only 1.4% of the cases has a police officer using excessive force while dealing with them. As such, the way the media depicts the police offers has increased fear among the people that they might be confronted for reasons which they innocent of (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2017). 

Consequently, lack of trust in the police units creates a platform for crimes to thrive as the criminals are assured that the victims will not report the cases (Dowler, 2003). This is because a majority of them have fears of reporting some incidences to the police force as they are afraid that no action will be taken against the police officers. Hence this propagates lawlessness in the society which in turn affects the security of the people. In light of these, exposing police brutality to the public by the media is beneficial, but at the same time, it creates potential problems in future. 

Proposed Solutions 

There are various strategies which have been proposed for dealing with police brutality to ensure that such actions are minimized or dealt away with completely. As such, when such cases occur, the media can understand and report the events accurately as they transpired. 

Body Camera 

Essentially, the body cameras are required to be worn by a police officer all the time as long as they are on duty. This ensures that their actions are being monitored, thereby, making it difficult for them to use excessive force while dealing with the suspects (Dowler, 2003). This projected was taken up by the US government and showed that police officers engaged less in excessive force while dealing with the public. In addition to reducing the rate at which police brutality occurs, the body cameras were helpful in recording and storing data which could be used by the police officers during investigations. This saved the government a lot of money which could have been used to collect the evidence had the cameras not been used. 

Civilian Review Bodies 

In addition to the above, the civilian review bodies were also proposed as measures to decreasing police brutality (Dowler, 2003). The civilian review bodies ensure that the police are efficient in performing their jobs as well as maintaining a proper relationship with the mass. Nonetheless, these bodies have faced a couple of challenges which have made them be less effective. For instance, they have lacked funds to take pursue of the cases. Furthermore, they have been denied the authority to order a critical investigation into some of the police department. Thus among other challenges have hindered their effective, but if addressed the civilian review body can be an essential tool in dealing with police brutality. 

Improved Training for Police 

Over the centuries, police training has not been as comprehensive as it ought to be due to limited budgets. However, as proposed by (Miller, 2004), police training can be improved to integrate essential aspects that can help them to deal with the public more efficiently. For example, the training can integrate the dangers of racial profiling, corruption, and use of excessive force. Moreover, they can be taught in better ways to form a healthy relationship with the public which would, in turn, win the collaboration of the public with them. Better training will ensure that police officer are educated on how to handle pepper sprays, how to handle suspects who are mentally challenged and also how to effectively engage in post-chase arrests. Thus, the training should ensure that it utilizes new ways of dealing with gadgets used by police. 

Background Checks Conducted While Hiring New Police Recruits 

While hiring individuals to join the police force, background checks should be conducted to ensure that the person is not violent (Dowler, 2003). In conjunction with conducting background checks, a tracking system should be installed to ensure that police officers who were previously terminated in one place for brutality are not rehired elsewhere. The police department is inclined to provide the bodies with necessary information pertain officers involved in human rights abuse. From this, the recruiter can be able to identify an accurate background of the police officer prior hiring them. By large this ensures that the police officers are of high moral standards and able to interact well with the public without abusing their powers. 

Personal Reflection on the issue 

In my personal opinion, police brutality is a problem which has emanated from the culture of policing which date back to the 1980s (Miller, 2004). It a tool which people in power have used as a means of dealing with the public to make them do as they wish. The people in authority can be the leaders in the policing units or the politicians. By deploying police officers and having them use excessive force with the mass, this instills fear in public and makes them have power over the public. For example in the United States, after the 9/11 attack, there “War on Terror” propagated a lot of police impunity and brutality. Perceptively, the use of excessive force was to instill fear in people to prevent such cases from happening again. 

However, this approach is not justifiable in dealing with such matters as it infringes on human rights. Many people who fall victim to such cases are in essence innocent as the perpetrators get away and leave the public suffering at the hands of the police. As such, I would propose the best way of minimizing police brutality is making use of the technological advancements which have been made over the years. In addition to this, the police officers should develop a better community relation. This two moves can be effective in helping them to identify the wrong doors without using brutal force. Moreover, it would earn the police public respect and trust which is vital in curbing criminal cases (Dowler, 2003). With a better community relationship, the police cannot be used by political figures for their selfish gains. A point to note is that, with a decline in police brutality and better community relation, the media will be able to report events related to police with a lot of positivity as compared to how it does currently. This will help to do away with the potential problem that might arise in the future. 

Conclusion 

In summary, we can affirm that in reality police brutality is a phenomenon which has been in existence for a significant period. However, the media has been able to make coverage of cases of police brutality thus exposing them to the public. This, in turn, has been beneficial in reducing the rate of police brutality but has also resulted in problems such as lack of trust by the public. There have been several proposals made of during police brutality such as body cameras, better training and conducting thorough background checks before hiring the police officers. In my personal opinion, use of technological equipment and better community relations can help to reduce the rate of police brutality. 

References  

BBC News. (2017). US police shootings: How many die each year? . BBC News . Retrieved 11 November 2017, from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36826297

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2017). Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) - Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS) . Bjs.gov . Retrieved 11 November 2017, from https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=251

Dowler, K. (2003). Media consumption and public attitudes toward crime and justice: The relationship between fear of crime, punitive attitudes, and perceived police effectiveness. Journal of criminal justice and popular culture , 10 (2), 109-126. 

Lawrence, R. G. (2000). The politics of force: Media and the construction of police brutality . Univ of California Press. 

Miller, J., Davis, R. C., Henderson, N. J., Markovic, J., & Ortiz, C. W. (2004). Public opinions of the police: The influence of friends, family and news media . New York: Vera Institute of Justice.