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Police and Probable Cause

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Police and Probable Cause
FOUNDATIONS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM (AXIA) Christine Levesque 10/14/2011

• What is the role of police in society? What would happen if the role of the police were lessened as it applies to the theory and practice of community policing?

The role of the police is to protect the community. Policing is depicted as a way of crime control,Policing refers to organized forms of order maintenance, peace keeping, rule or law enforcement, crime investigation, and other forms of investigations and information brokering? Other meaning is it the governmental department charged with the regulation and control of the affairs of a community, now chiefly the department established to maintain order, enforce the law, and prevent and detect crime. Various changes within the police organization are considered necessary to achieve a new style of policing at the neighborhood level. Among these are: (1) changes in organizational structure, decentralizing, flattening, creating teams, and civilianizing, (2) changes in management, a mission statement that reflects new policing values, strategic planning, supervisory coaching and mentoring, and empowering of officers, (3) changes in information management to establish new systems for evaluating personnel, units, and programs, and new systems for crime analysis, mapping, and resource deployment.

• How do daily issues such as probable cause affect police from a legal standpoint? How can these issues be improved to aid police organizations in combating crime?

Probable cause is a stronger standard of evidence than a reasonable suspicion, but weaker then what is required to secure a criminal conviction. Even hearsay can supply probable cause if it is from a reliable source or supported by other evidence. To combat criminal activity police departments can use the hard data provided by the UCR to most effectively deploy their

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