Policing Culture Research Paper

Policing Culture
Learning Team A
CJA/214

Policing Culture
Throughout the history of the United States, the ranks of police officers have been dominated by white males. As a result, the underrepresentation of minorities and women has long been a problem in policing. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act made discriminating against any individual based upon their color, sex, religion or national origin illegal, thus paving the way for more minorities and women to become police officers. Before the implementation and enforcement of these acts, it was extremely difficult for minorities and women to get a job in policing. Experts in the field of law enforcement maintain that diversity in
Due to the concept of affirmative action, which simply states that when a minority group is found to be underrepresented within an organization that organization must take steps to hire more individuals within that minority group, and the use of hiring quotas, African Americans represent a higher number of police officers in today’s society. Hispanic and Latino officers have increased significantly in recent years. Spanish speaking officers are in high demand because of the growing number of communities in which Spanish is the primary language. For many agencies, especially those that serve in communities with large immigrant populations, the need for police diversity extends far beyond traditional groups. With the hiring of Alice Stebbins Wells in 1910, women joined the ranks of police officers (O 'Connor, 2012). In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s roles for women within the police force began to change; due partly to the before mentioned Civil Rights Act but also because of individual efforts of policewomen. An increase in the number of policewomen has improved relations between police and the community. This is partly due to the fact that policewomen are less likely to use excessive force and because these officers are better able to diffuse violent
An officer may choose to write a warning, make an arrest, or just let it pass; this is a huge part of what a police officer must learn to do. A few factors involved in this decision making process range from crime factors, victim factors, environmental factors, departmental factors, and peer factors. Other factors that can attribute to the decision making process are the suspects behavior, or the officer characteristics. The views of one officer related to crime may vary widely from that of another officer, allowing for a different response depending on the responding officers. While some may view a kid smoking a joint as just a nuisance and confiscate the drugs, others will actually see this as a more serious offense, leading to an arrest, or a citation being served to the individual. Who the victim is plays a role also, such as in domestic violence. While the victims are known associates, or relatives/family, the officers tend to use more discretion on making an arrest, and when trying to deescalate the situation, whereas if the incident involves complete strangers, the event tends to be taking more