Professional Police Organization Case Study

American law enforcement organizations is hierarchal and it is a bureaucratic structure adopting ways of the military. The quasi-military structure found in police departments will emphasize the importance of specializations in task, duties, objectives, and responsibilities. Each level in the chain of command has specific authority and tasks to carry out. Historically speaking, Peel’s principles of a professional police organization can be seen in today’s philosophy of community-oriented policing (COP). Peel’s principles emphasized the following guidelines for a professional police organization: (1) a police mission statement and core values; (2) crime prevention; (3) respect or citizenry; (4) respect for the law; (5) minimizing the use of
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brought suit against Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in August of 2005. The EEOC stated Red Robin had refused to offer their employee, Edward Rangel, a server at the restaurant, with any accommodations to freely express his Egyptian faith by exposing tattoos of ‘Ra’ the Egyptian sun god (Garnett, 2010). However, studies from Hazen and Syrdahl (2010) indicate that “all tattoos are not created equal in the eyes of the courts” (p. 2). Secular tattoos may be accommodated under Title VII; however, if an employee’s tattoo is considered offensive or construes sexual harassment or racist symbols, then the employer has every right to require the worker to conceal his or her tattoos. An illustration of “all tattoos are not created equal in the eyes of the courts”, could be found in the case of Swartzentruber v. Gunite Corporation. Gunite is a manufacturing company that produces truck wheels, brake drums, and rotors. Mr. Swartzentruber is an employee at Gunite Corp. and publicly displays a tattoo of a hooded figure standing in front of a burning cross on his forearm. By exposing this particular tattoo at his place of employment, Mr. Swartzentruber had offended all of his black co-workers. All of the black employees at Gunite Corp stated they felt harassed and find the image of a burning cross on Swartzentruber’s arm very offensive. Swartzentruber’s supervisors
In the Houston Police Department, no officer will have tattoos or body art that cannot be covered by the official uniform and or plain clothes attire. If you have tattoos or body art that cannot be covered by the official HPD uniform and you are not willing to have them removed, you will not be considered for employment (Houston Police Department General Orders, 2012). A recommendation that police administrators could utilize in preventing officers like Officer Newton, is to heavily emphasize the restrictions of tattoos and body art during the preliminaries of the recruiting phase. Police administrators need to educate their subordinates on the meaning of police professionalism, and also demand professionalism from individuals whom they employ. HPD’s directives regarding body art and tattoos were previously mentioned, and by addressing this issue to interested police candidates in the early phases of their recruitment would be crucial. Supervisors have a responsibility to address their subordinates about tattoos if they observe any of their officers exposing them (derogatory or not). Peak (2012) states, “Professionalism will make police officers readily recognizable to the members of public or a desire to maintain the esprit de corps ‘morale’ of the organization” (p. 49). Professionalism in a quasi-military police organization is geared towards uniformity and slight alterations such as exposing body