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Law Enforcement In Today's Society

1758 Words8 Pages

Ryan Hooper
Mrs. Muto
English 4
30 September 2017
The Role of Law Enforcement in Today’s Society Many people in today’s society question the actions of law enforcement officers. However, there is a reason as to why they act the way they do. Law enforcement has changed over the years to better protect the way officers serve their communities. How they do so is based upon several factors including reading and reviewing crime statistics in their area, calls for reform, and community-oriented policing. All these factors have shaped the way the police agencies serve their cities, towns, and states. Law enforcement exists to reduce crime and maintain civil order. In 2013 the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) examined 9,894 cities in America. …show more content…

Many people believe that the police have a racial bias towards minorities. Although these claims are made most are simply not true. One example of this is the “blue summonses” policy. “Blue summonses” was a policy adopted by the Newark Police Department in New Jersey. The main goal of this policy was to hand out citations for minor offenses with the intent to “curb crime.” Officers who racked up high tallies were rewarded with better assignments and more overtime hours. Eventually both the Newark Police Department and Newark residents stated that the policy damaged the police’s relationship with the minority communities. The policy did little to “curb crime” and eventually led to federal intervention for the department in 2015. Newark Police Department’s blue summonses policy was adopted and modified by an older policy called broken windows (Childress). What is broken windows? Broken windows is a policing strategy that was created in 1982 in a seminal article written by Wilson and Kelling. The strategy is based on the idea that minor disorder leads to major crime. For example, a broken window that is not repaired could mean that the neighborhood is unstable and linked to serious crime. Although disorder is not directly linked to serious crime, disorder leads residence living in fear and eventually moving out. This allows more serious crime to move into the neighborhood and affect the residents still living there …show more content…

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