Commenting on 2 classmate discussions on Identifying Patterns and Future Direction | Quick Homework Help

I don’t understand this Law question and need help to study.

In responding to your peers’ posts, suggest what you anticipate criminal justice professions will need to research in the next one to three years, in order to address the pattern identified.Classmate # 1 Abbie

It seems to me that there is a constant flow of news stories and articles on a daily basis that are about police brutality. It’s important to make sure that the information within the articles is accurate. When the information appears to be true, then that’s when we can truly start understanding the issues at hand. There is an ever-growing push for the presence of body cameras on every police officer in the United States because people think that they will help control the way police force is used. However, according to an article from the National Police Station about a study conducted, “…body cameras have no statistically significant impact on police officers’ use of force” (Honig & Johnson). These types of studies often beg the question of if implementing mandatory body cameras on all law enforcement officers is worth the time and funding required. And even though body cameras haven’t been proven as having an impact on a police officers use of force, I think that they are a good thing to have so that we are able to see what happened during the situation and what the officer did to proceed. Having video recordings of situations will help future officers see what to do and what not to do.

I’ve noticed that every time there is an incident concerning police force somewhere in the United States, there’s people who are pushing for more and more ways to help prevent it from happening. Although, before anybody should say anthing about police force, they need to understand the level of the situation. They also need to understand that there are no two situations or officers that are the same. This article from the National Insitute of Justice makes the same point, but builds off of it by saying, “Situational awareness is essential, and officers are trained to judge when a crisis requires the use of force to regain control of a situation” (2019).

The overall common theme that I see when it comes to these kinds of sitationsare ordinary citizens not fully understanding the situation, yet trying to push for a solution that doesn’t fit. I think there need to be some other ideas proposed to the criminal justice community, as well as ordinary citizens, so that we are able to come to a compromise when it comes to police force.

Classmate # 2 Ben

Use of force by law enforcement officers is obviously a contentious topic. I feel strongly that folks on both sides of the issue, being those who believe that excessive use of force is commonplace and those who believe that it almost never occurs, both feel that they are certain that their view is fact, and that any information to the contrary is a function of media bias. Personally, as a public safety professional, I am inclined to trust my compatriots in law enforcement, and I believe that the mainstream media highlights instances of excessive use of force, making it seem more common than it is. I think that media sensationalizing use of force incidents is and will continue to be a common pattern in today’s society. Additionally, I believe that law enforcement agencies will continue taking steps to further enhance officer and suspect accountability through the use of body-worn cameras and the like. I can say with absolute certainty that body-worn cameras go a long way towards ameliorating erroneous use-of-force complaints, at least in the area that I serve. The United States Commission on Civil Rights Use-of-Force Report seems to agree with my anecdotal observations (Lhamon, 2018). Additionally, the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police release an article in 2018 the suggests that many instances of excessive use of force are typically not a function of malice on the part of the officer (Ranalli, 2018), although there is clearly a bias in this case.

References: