Ethical Dilemmas

A ongoing issue is racial stereotyping. Are officers stopping and arresting more people based on what race they are? This question is difficult to answer, especially since we can't review every single situation where a police officer stops someone. We also can't always fully understand every situation. So it is my belief that yes racial stereotyping does exist and happens but for most of the time officers are using other factors to asses each situation.

Police have more experience in knowing criminal activity and who is a criminal then a normal person. It is their job to decide who is criminal, it is what they are trained to do. They know what to look for and it may be in some situations to be certain race and may be subject to more searches but not necessarily because of their race. Police are held to the standard that you stop and arrest someone based on if the person is doing something wrong not because of race and that is something that may seem like it isn't happening but there are factors to consider. You have to understand that neighborhoods differ on who lives there and that certain neighborhoods can be dominated by whites, African Americans, Somalian's, really any race. In a certain area that is dominated by a certain race, it makes sense that there will be more arrests for that race than some other race that is in the minority. .

Racial stereotyping does occur though and part of the problem is that the diversity in the police force can very different. White males tend to dominate the law enforcement field, though not necessarily because of discrimination. An example of racial profiling is drug use. It has been surveyed that African Americans use marijuana about the same as white Caucasian people do but African Americans are more likely to be arrested and this has been argued that it could be racial profiling but more likely the different policies of departments and their enforcement policies of drug crimes.

I believe that the law enforcement isn't perfect and that racial profiling does happen but it is not as rampant as people may suspect. Police are the experts on how to tell what is criminal behavior an what is not and I say it leave it up to the experts to do their jobs.

Police Brutality

Police brutality is an issue in law enforcement that always is an issue and as well is a problem.  To give a recent example There is a story form the WGN news station that reports on a recent incidence of police brutality.  A Skokie office pushed a woman so hard into her cell that she hit her face and cut her cheek and loosened her teeth. Now the woman was drunk making the policeman's job slightly more difficult but there was no reason to use such excessive force. Stories like this one give police officers a bad name and changes the public view of the police in a negative way that can cause less cooperation by the public. http://wgntv.com/2013/10/10/woman-sues-skokie-officer-alleging-brutality/

What I want to point out in this post is that yes, there are police officers who use excessive force but it doesn't mean that police brutality is rampant. News stations cover these stories and make them seem like police brutality is more of a common occurrence than it really is. The officers that brutalize these people are just a few people in comparison to the vast amount of good officers out there. Most officers are decent people and that is something that the public needs to remember.

Law enforcement is a field where you have to deal with people when they are at their worst. Police are never called to come over to a barbeque to have fun, the call would be "please come to this barbecue because a few people got to drunk and are being rowdy" and it is because of this strain that some officer explode and brutalize people. I am not defending these officers actions but merely expressing a reason why police officers might use excessive force.

Every job has its problems and stresses specific to that job and police are no different. So the next time you do something stupid and get pulled over or arrested just remember what law enforcement officers have to deal with on a day to day basis and then be as cooperative as you can to make the officers job easier. Chances are that most police officers will not beat you up but why take the chance of meeting a bad officer, don't be rude, and  quite so there is not that possibility of  getting beaten or something. So really just be considerate of what officers and the job they do.

Tasers

Over the years police have acquired technology that allows them to do there jobs more effectively. Such technology includes the two way radio, the patrol car, and recently the Taser. Now there has been some debate on this piece of technology and whether or not it is a humane weapon to use on someone because it could cause someone to have a heart attack. In some cases this is may happen to be true, but would  rather be tased instead of a Taser  or be shot, beat across the head or pepper sprayed?

Tasers were introduced as a way to incapacitate someone while protecting the officer and citizens. Before the Tasers the officer had the option to either use deadly force or physically try to restrain them, which could be dangerous. So really Tasers were adopted to protect lives.

A police officer I know was the first to use a Taser for a that particular city. A crazed man was breaking into a house and the owners were inside scared for their lives. The officer responded to the call and told ordered the man to stop what he was doing but the man, not quite sane at the time, ran at the officer and the quick thinking officer Tased the man rather then shooting him, which would have been the only other reasonable solution.

The example was one of many where Tasers can be properly used as a safer alternative than a firearm or police baton. The Taser shoots out and hits the person from a safe distance away from the officer and quickly incapacitates them. Other methods such as pepper spray might blind the person but not fully stop them as well as possibly irritating the officer and others standing around.

In conclusion Tasers are a great tool that police can be used to quickly end a situation that might turn violent or is violent and do so in a relatively safe matter that. Yes there may be incidences where the person getting Tased dies or is injured but you have to think, they are the ones offending and putting peoples lives in danger, better they get hurt and no one else then some other alternative.

Explanation of Criminal Justice field

The criminal justice system has a vast amount of different jobs and careers that I could pursue. I am sure that everyone has some knowledge of what police do and what the FBI does, but there are also jobs that deal with fraud, guns, border patrol, natural resources. All of these jobs deal with some kind of potential crime that has to be either deterred or dealt with. The easiest way to explain my field is to talk about the people that the public interacts with the most, and that is police officers.

Police officers jobs are a conglomeration of almost all criminal justice fields, because they deal with drugs, illegal firearms, alcohol, prostitution, and of course traffic violations. The point is that police officers are out there to deter crime, catch the people that break the law and serve the general public. They do this because they are interested in the publics safety, which their motto best describes "Protect and to Serve". Especially as more studies are done about crime control and what works and what doesn't, police are being more proactive in the field and there is less of just waiting for 911 calls to come in so they have something to do.

People think sometimes that this is not always the case and police are just a bunch of party poopers when they break up a party and hand out minors, but really they just want to make sure people are ok and not getting hurt and cooperating with the police so they may not get minors, and this is coming from a conversation I had with a Fargo Police officer.

Another phrase that you might have heard that goes along with police is that that they "Clean up the street" though this phrase is meant to mean that they clean the streets of crime, policemen actually do clean up the streets. Order maintenance is part of law enforcement which involves making sure stores keep their store front clean or getting rid of a bunch of old tires in an alley that gangs are hanging around and in a rare case even having the city bulldoze a house that is vacant and is attracting homeless people.

These are just a few examples of what police officers do. For the most part officers share the same values, keep the community and their families safe, make a difference, and help people when they need it, what ever the situation. Having these values I believe is a must if someone wanted to in law enforcement because these values are an everyday aspect of law enforcement.