Constitutional Police Brutality

In Law Enforcement and enforcing the law there is six areas in which police departments have been found to be defective or deficient. This is a very difficult topic for me to agree with because police officers are put in to very stressful and unknown circumstances on a daily bases. In many cases these scenarios require a decision to be made in a split second or it could be life or death. This split second decision has months and months to be twisted and picked apart by lawyers, jury, and mostly the media. Another reason police receive such attention is because it is their job to be in the view of the public at all times and today’s technology is making it even more difficult for them to effectively and efficiently do their jobs.

Constitutional

African-Americans in the South took the blunt of these brutalities. In 1965, blacks were beaten with batons and cattle prods as they attempted to vote at a court house located in Selma, Alabama (Allen, 1989). Non-violent and unarmed demonstrators that wanted to vote at the local court house were beaten into submission and retreat by police (Allen, 1989). The attacks did not stop there. The police continued to attack the unarmed and non-violent demonstrators as they attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama (Allen, 1989). The rules of deadly force have continued to change since the inception of the Constitution. At one point, police were given the authority to fire on a fleeing felon even if they were not armed with a weapon. Today 's police officers receive significantly more training so that civil act violations and excessive uses of force may be prevented, but even with the extra training, police officers still act in this unruly manner. Every police department in America has experienced some type of misconduct, but not all have experienced a civil rights or police brutality violation. In my opinion, many of these incidents took place because of the lack of training that was provided to these officers. Most officers probably acted off instinct and others assumed that their actions were in accordance with policy

There have been many attempts to put an end to police corruption, with no real success. An attempt to eliminate corruption, by increasing salaries, more training, incentive for education, and the development of policies that focus directly on factors leading to corruption. Despite many efforts by the police departments to control corruption, it still exists. Police corruption has a very long standing history. Controlling corruption has to come from both the police department and the assistance and support of local community members. Community members should be educated about the negative effects of corruption within the police agency and that offering money to change a decision is the most common form of police corruption. Controlling corruption from the departmental level requires an organization with strong leadership. Corruption can take place at any level in the police department, from the patrol officer, to the chief of police. Controlling begins with the chief of police and his attitude. The chief has to make it clear that corruption will not be tolerated. Establishing rules and regulations within the department to insure that all officers conform to certain behavior will help.

I don’t believe that there could ever be a solution to these problems they can only be prevented by having in depth annual training on topics that appear to be of issue within a department. Another prevention method is to have a very diverse work force so that everyone can relate to one another