Week 4 (Policing in US Society)

[Week 4 (Policing in US Society)

LP4 Discussion

LP4.1: The Critical Role

In the recent past, police chiefs, and sheriffs across the country have realized the role of local law enforcement agencies in protecting America from keeping the hometowns protected from terrorism. The officers have to preserve more alertness of suspicious acts, having more pressure on patrol duties. They need to have more operational tactics to respond to potential organic, chemical, and radiological assaults. For this reason the local police officers require increased trainings to respond to emergencies, special weapons, bomb detection, and criminal laboratory procedures. Ordinary citizens are more prone to attacks from terrorists, and the need for providing them with greater security lies with the local police officers. Using more technology to monitor potential terrorist activities has also increased the need for more local police officers. Local police officers need the intelligence information to be shared with them, because it is essential to have information beforehand. The officers can be more proactive to the potential threats that could stem from a terrorist activity. Public safety is the number one priority of any law enforcement agency. The government needs to allocate funds to equip the officers with better resources to be able to execute their duties in the most efficient manner; this puts an additional burden on the state's resources. Managing emergencies is one of the key challenges for the law enforcement agents, and they have to be on their toes to be able to foresee the threats, and deploy strategies that deal with managing any attacks.

LP4.2: Desired Qualities

The 10 vital traits of high achieving police officers are (Valluzzi, 2005, pp.13):

Objective oriented: Officers have goals such as getting a promotion or getting an award for bravery

Scoreboard custodians: Officers not only set goals, but they also keep record of their achievements and works.

Perpetual learners: They take responsibility for their self learning; don't expect others to teach them things.

Systematic Planning: They plan things in order

Positive Self Determination

They upkeep the positive environment

Action-oriented qualities

They take failures positively

Effective managers of time

They are willing to sacrifice their comfort zone for the sake of the public

Citizens have different views on what qualities the officers should posses, and are desirable in the police officers. They would want them to be able to do their duties under pressure, to have a goal, and be able to express them. They should have self-respect, and the capability to demand respect from others. They should possess positive judgments, and have personality traits such compassion, honesty, humbleness, and intelligence. In addition to this, the society is made up of diverse individuals that need the officers to execute their duties without any biasness, or discrimination for member of a particular class (Hess et.al, 2011, pp.439).

Officers need to have a combination of all the traits that are mentioned because every officer has to be open to change. The duties and roles keep evolving with the needs of the public and officers need to be flexible to those ...