In the height of all the negative media attention for police involved shootings, there has been a lack of confidence in the police. Gallup Poll from June 19, 2015 “In U.S., Confidence in Police Lowest in 22 Years” shows that since 2013 there is a 5% drop in confidence in Police. 1 Groups like “black lives matter” have emerged and they hold rallies and protest against what they believe is police misconduct. Many people believe it is how police have been trained; that has led to all the recent officer involved shootings.
Police officers have for years been taught and trained to have the warrior mindset. The warrior mindset is the situation in which Rookie officers are taken through what is widely referred to as the “first rule of the enforcement of the law”: The daily overriding objective of an officer at the end of his shift is to go home. However, cops live in an environment that is hostile. They get to know that every person in an encounter is a potential threat. They always have to guard themselves because, as cops often say, “complacency kills. The mindset of the warrior also means the attitude and the tenacity of the mind that police officers are trained to adopt during a struggle that threatens their lives. In such a context, the mindset of the warrior is the bone-deep dedication to survive a worse situation regardless of the difficulties or the odds surrounding the situation. A police officer is not expected to give in even if it is physically and mentally easier to quit” 2 “On the other hand, the behavior of the warrior cop leads to the perception of an occupying force that is separated and detached from the community.”.
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In the recent years with all the police officer involved shootings and the attention of the media on police abusing their authority, the world of enforcement of the law is in transition to move from a warrior mindset toward a guardian role/mindset. “The guardian mindset emphasizes communication over commands, cooperation over compliance and legitimacy over authority. And in the use-of-force context, the Guardian emphasizes patience and restraint over control, stability over action.” 3 “The guardian operates as part of the community, demonstrating empathy and employing procedural justice principles during interactions.” 4
You have to always be on guard and ready for anything that gets thrown at you. From day one in the academy, police officers are trained to always have hands up ready to defend themselves. The environment of the police academy is modeled in the same manner as the boot camp of the military which is a model that is meant to produce an officer who is ready for war. It is the responsibility of the drill instructors to ensure that officers in training are changed and “rebuilt” as per the “ways of the academy.” The officers are instructed to follow the rules and orders of the instructors and not to ask any questions. Additionally, the trainees are instructed not to look into the eyes of the staff instructors or engage in conversation. Drill instructors yell at the student officers “show me your hands.” As such, there is the need to consider reinforcing the guardian mindset. Stoughton writes in his article that the warrior mindset comes about as a result of the trainers locking the officers in unpredictable and intermittent combat with the unknown but highly dangerous enemies. 5 As such, the officers learn not to be courageous, but rather afraid. Attentive, observant, alert, cautious, and vigilant have the terms that mostly feature in police publications. It is very important to note that police officers are not taught to be observant, alert, cautious, attentive, and vigilant because it is interesting, but they learn all that because they are scared. Fear is ubiquitous in the enforcement of law just like officers are regularly barraged with the information that their survival depends on their fear 6 . Officers on training hear of such information in formal training, and also informally from the elderly officers as well as their supervisors. Police officers observe fear in publications of law enforcements as well as in police forums. The officers are told from the first day of their training that everyone is a possible danger and that they should not trust anyone apart from their fellow officers.
Any publications by the police force especially the ones that are authored for and by the police always have pages that are filled with exhortations to hold close the warrior mentality. Such the idea is to give confidence to the police officers to ready themselves to face any challenge that can arise during the fight against criminal activities. Police academies continue to emphasize similar ideas.
Sue Rahr and Stephen Rice write in their article about community policing and the present transition it makes in the enforcement of the law. Their reference is to the “friendly neighborhood beat cop – community guardian” and how the urban warrior has replaced community policing, trained for battle, and equipped with the weaponry and accouterments of modern warfare.” The two authors state later in their article that most leaders who are responsible for enforcing the law recognize that the creation of community engagement and stronger human connections will result in an enhanced safety of the public and more efficient fighting of crimes.”
In his article, Blake narrates that the badge of the police symbolizes the old knights who were both warriors and guardians . The badge that the police officers wear on their chest is a representation of the historical coat of knight of arms which recognized the knight and its loyalty much as the badge represents the sworn oath by police officers to serve and protect (guardian). The badge that is worn on the left chest is a representation of the knights of old who wore their coat of arms on the left arm so as to protect their heart while leaving their dominant hand to fight (warrior). Law enforcement officers are servants of the servants by design. “A cop is a servant who protects the public from evils (guardian) while also having the skill and courage to fight in battles (warrior).” 7 As such, police officers are both guardians and warriors.
This change affects society as whole. The stakeholders are the public, the police, judicial systems, local governments, and society as a whole. If nothing is done to help change this than the problem, it will continue to get worse, and the divide will strengthen between police officers and the public. There will be more police officers killed, as these rallies and riots continue with groups like “blacks lives matter” that promote violence and killing of police officers. The media plays a big role in this change. Historically the media only shows the negative side of police encounters.
In the article, "Racially Biased Policing: Determinants of Citizen Perceptions," by Ronald and Tuch, f requent disclosure to reports of the media of police corruption or abuse is a robust analyst of misconduct perceptions and supports the belief that such practices are common. 8 If a person is shot by police during some type of incident, the media immediately gets the story on the news without telling the whole story as to what led to the shooting. The media is currently pushing the attention to the race of the person killed by the police. Washington Post broke down the stats of the race of people killed by police in 2015. The statistics show that “ four hundred and ninety-four Whites, two hundred and fifty-eight Blacks, one hundred and seventy-two Hispanics, thirty-eight, and twenty-eight unknown people have been killed in the shootings that involve the police. 9 On the other hand, it is always strange that when a person turns on the television, the news he only sees is the black shooting victims and never the white. This leads to public outcry for police misuse of force which results in more mistrust of police and leads to further violence 10 .
Police officers need to be both warriors and guardians; every situation is different which calls for a certain role. By structuring academies differently and incorporating the guardian mindset, this can be part of the initial academy curriculum it will train the officers to think differently and not go toward the warrior mindset 11 . By having the diverse training of guardian and warrior in the academies, it will not cost communities any additional money to retrain police officers.
The culture of enforcing the law should embrace a guardian mindset but not a mindset of the warrior so as to develop legitimacy and trust both with the public and within organizations. In regard to that, the agencies that are responsible for enforcing the law should take on a procedural justice as the principle that guides them on external and internal policies as well as practices 12 . By doing so, the agencies will be in a position to guide their relations with the people whom they serve, the rank, as well as the file officers.
The agencies that deal with law enforcement should also come up with a culture of accountability and transparency so as to develop legitimacy and trust with the citizens. Such a culture is important as it ensures that decision making is understood and in agreement with the policy that is stated. To assist community and the law enforcement realize the pillar two elements, the Unites States Justice Department via the Community Oriented Policing Service office, and the Justice Program’s office should offer technical incentive and assistance financial support to the jurisdictions with small agencies of police 13 . Such a financial support will help the small agencies as they take steps toward the shared services, a collaboration between agencies, and regional training. They should also make a partnership with the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) with the intention of expanding its National Decertification Index. Such an expansion should be in a manner that works as the National Register of Decertified Officers whose objective is to cover the organizations in America as well as its territories.
Police officers are trained with the view of making them warriors who can face any skirmishes, and also engage almost any danger. Police officers stand on a blue line that is very narrow so as to protect the members of the community 14 . It is imperative to note that the blue line is normally that of a battle line that exists between the citizens who abide by the law and the criminals who pose serious threats to such citizens. The individuals who intend to join the law enforcement field must know that it is a job that is dangerous. There is no doubt that there is the need for police officers to be prepared to instantly access their warrior. However, some of them recommend that the present training model as well as culture, among the departments of the police, is setting the enforcement of the law up for a course of collision with the people who should get protection from the officers. Concerns have been raised in some of the books and articles written by Radley such as “Rise of the Warrior Cop” about what the perceived police militarization means for the citizens and enforcement of the law 15 .
Scrutiny of the practices of the police by the public has gone a notch higher in the contemporary policing history. Such happens because the relationship between the public and the law enforcers has never been strong. Radley discusses in his article that Sir Robert Peel of Britain was highly criticized during the early 1800s when he came up with a concept of having a police that is uniformed 16 . People feared that the police would be like a standing army in the streets of the city. People viewed such a police force as a state-certified occupying force. Problems normally arise on how law enforcement should be conducted while preserving the rights of the citizens.
Scrutiny of the departments of police as well as their officers has been rising steadily due to the advancements in technology. Officers are expected to highly uphold the standards of ethics presently than it was in the past. Radley notes that the tragedy of the Rodney King that took place in the early 1990s was not highly captured in the global news because of the scarce outlets of the media as well as the inferior methods of recording that were accessible at the time. Moving forward to the era of the Internet and immediate access to almost everything, people can instantly and readily expose the misconduct of a police officer to million of people around the world. Additionally, there are lots of people with the intention of purposefully prodding officers to the extent possible as they remain within the constraints of the law. All that is done with the objective of revealing the police’s ignorance concerning the laws that hey should enforce and the people’s rights that they swore to uphold.
The most unsettling issue is the study by Weitzer, the Professor of Sociology at George Washington University, among other researchers that find out that the trust of the public in the enforcement of the law is importantly and pessimistically impacted when police misconduct incidents of the high profile are mad public 17 . There are lots of opportunities in which the poor actions of the police can be put in records as people have desire than ever to make sure that police officers carry out themselves at all times with lots of diligence. Failure to do may result in the loss of public trust in the police force and its departments to the extent that officers can never carry out their duties effectively.
Some of the stakeholders in regard to law enforcement include the local government, police departments, police force, the public, police unions, and the judicial systems. Police officers are the main stakeholders. They are always watched and judged by the public and the media. The good things that they do usually go unnoticed, but if something negative happens because of their poor conduct, then the public becomes the first to make a scene about it. An Officer's primary interest throughout his daily routine and career is to make it home safe everyday. They want to feel that they are supported by the local government 18 . Officers have to work within their departments’ budget for their advanced training. They also have to worry about legal actions against them for any action they take during a day’s work.
The public’s perception about the police over the years especially as of recently has been negative. They could be the victim or the witness to a situation where law enforcement is involved. They could have good or bad interactions with an officer though they would always want to see effective law enforcement so as to have a more community friendly attitude toward situations.
The local governments of towns or cities could face law suits because of the public’s negative interactions with police officers and excessive use of force. They could also have the opposite interactions where there are commendations for the interactions with officers. Though important to note is that the local governments will be in need of sufficient money for proper training of officers to be in the guardian mindset.
Police Departments have to worry about the actions of the officers. They have to develop policies and procedures for their officers to follow. Also, the departments have to work within a strict budget set by the local government. Departments face the negative criticism from public and media for not taking actions against their own officers in situations that the public feel they could have done better. They open themselves to lawsuits from the general public for their officers’ actions. The police department has the interest to technologically advance and be effective with body cameras, but they are under strict budgets with the local government and not enough funding for the advancements. Another interest for a department would be to have a specific officer assigned for community relations and to keep up with social media with the public.
The Police Union is also vital stakeholders when it comes to changing the officers’ mindset from warrior to guardian. Officers pay into a union fund for them to have the support of their union in cases when needed if their department or the public bring charges against them. The interest of the union is to assist with hiring an attorney or assist with the cost of attorneys for the officers who have cases regarding their misconduct.
With the recent events, the judicial system is seeing more and more cases against police officers, police departments, and towns/cities. These are all being brought on board because of public relations with officers during interactions. The time and money being held up in the judicial system for all these law suits are costing everyone money down to the tax payers/public. The interest of the judicial system is to ensure that cases are handled with fairness and to ensure that the public has trust in law enforcers.
There is a great advancement in technology especially the internet. Terror attacks are on the rise as terrorists can easily communicate and recruit new members because of the existence of the cyberspace and the Internet technology. Such a development has made the gathering of intelligence the sole responsibility of the federal government. On the contrary, the new developments in terror attacks need a strong, intelligence-gathering machine that is decentralized and which reaches beyond the federal government’s scope and associate with the intelligence organizations that enforce the law. Police need to be given the power and the machinery to fight terror attacks and protect the public.
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