Law Enforcement in the 21st Century 4th Edition By Grant - Test Bank

Law Enforcement in the 21st Century 4th Edition By Grant – Test Bank

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CHAPTER 1

Law Enforcement in a Democratic Society

OVERVIEW

Chapter 1 introduces the concept of linkage blindness. Linkage blindness is a central theme which will be revisited throughout the text. This term refers to the lack of communication between different agencies or even within agencies. The terrorist attacks on September 11 were largely a result of linkage blindness since various law enforcement agencies or divisions of agencies had information on the known terrorist cells, but they did not share the information with the correct recipients. Federal legislation known as the United States of America Patriot Act of 2001 was enacted following 9/11, and subsequently reinforced with the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act in 2005. The Patriot Act widened the investigative authority of law enforcement agencies across the country.

The primary duty of the police is to maintain social control within the community. What distinguishes the police from other individuals is their ability to use coercive force if necessary to control a situation.

Discretion, the freedom for an individual to make a decision based on his or her personal judgment, is a necessary aspect of policing. Though police officers must respond to situations within the parameter of the law, they should have the freedom to make a decision based on the circumstances of a particular case. Also, an officer would find it impossible to respond to every violation of the law; therefore, discretion is a necessary component of law enforcement.

The rule of law refers to the ideal that equality and justice are inseparable, and that laws are applied equally to everyone. The rule of law is a standard that is used to guide decision making throughout the criminal justice system.

All of the agencies within the criminal justice system are interlocked and must work together to ensure justice. The three components of the criminal justice system are the police, courts, and corrections. The police are the first agents within the criminal justice process; and once a crime occurs, they are in charge of taking a report, investigating the crime, arresting a suspect, and booking the suspect. The methods by which they investigate crimes will have an impact on whether and how the case proceeds through the criminal justice system and often whether a conviction ensues in the case.

The crime control model emphasizes support for law enforcement over individual rights. Advocates of this approach emphasize extensive police powers, limited rights for suspects, and a quick and speedy process. The due process model emphasizes individual rights with restrictions on police power. It focuses on civil liberties and quality of arrests over quantity.

Six levels of law enforcement are present in this country: federal, state, county, municipal, township, and tribal. The largest level is municipal, with over 40,000 municipal jurisdictions. As a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, several government agencies have been restructured. The biggest change is the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. This agency coordinates intelligence and law enforcement resources in the war on terrorism.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the conclusion of the instruction for Chapter 1, the student will be able to:

• Describe the concept of linkage blindness and its importance in the criminal justice system.
• Understand the police role in maintaining social control.
• Explain why discretion is a necessary aspect of policing.
• Explain what is meant by the rule of law.
• Understand the role of law enforcement in the criminal justice system.
• Contrast the crime control and due process models.
• List the different levels of law enforcement.
• Explain how the events of September 11 changed the structure of law enforcement jurisdictions.

LECTURE OUTLINE

1. The Police Function: Social Control and the Use of Force
   1. Teaching Tip:  As most students have had some experience with police in their own neighborhoods, you should ask them how they might change the way in which law enforcement officers control society.
2. Policing within the Rule of Law: The Challenges of Discretion
3. The Delicate Balance: Crime Control versus Due Process
   1. Teaching Tip: There are a number of pertinent questions that you can bring up here that reflect concerns your students will be able to relate to in their own experience but that also illustrate the difficulty of striking the balance between controlling and punishing crime and granting civil liberties and due process.  You might ask students whether they believe the crime rate a direct result of the policy of due process, how they might feel about law enforcement agencies’ searching their homes and belongings, and how airport security measures impact them.  Your students may also have heard of the Patriot Act and have feelings regarding it.  This is also a good place to explore your students sense of punitiveness versus clemency, asking, for instance, whether plea bargains should be allow in the case of violent crimes, whether convicts should be able to serve their sentences at home rather than in correctional facilities, and how they might punish offenders for violent crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, burglary and robbery.
4. The Levels of Law Enforcement
   1. Municipal Agencies

1. Teaching Tip: Here, it is often helpful to have looked up and be able to present some pictures and information of the local agencies in your institutions jurisdiction. You should be able to identify municipal, county, and relevant state and transit agencies, as well as any federal agency field offices in your jurisdiction and any recognized tribes.

1. 1. County Agencies
   2. State Agencies
   3. Federal Agencies
   4. Tribal Agencies
   5. Transit Police Agencies
2. Linkages in Law Enforcement: An Introduction to the Linkage-Blindness Phenomenon
   1. Teaching Tip: Here you might ask your students why they believe a law enforcement agency might not fully share information within and across organizational lines.
3. Linkages in Law Enforcement: Coordination and Information Sharing Between Enforcement and the Rest of the Criminal Justice System
4. Linkages in Law Enforcement: School Police

LIST OF CHANGES/TRANSITION GUIDE

The authors added a discussion about police legitimacy to the whole text, with a focus on defining legitimacy in Chapter 1. Setting up the concept for the rest of the text, the authors explain legitimacy in the following way:

When the government is seen as operating fairly and justly by the majority of citizens, it is said to have legitimacy.  The rule enforcing environment, or legal context, can include such factors as the fair enforcement of rules, the legitimacy of rules, and the role of authority (Grant, 2006).  The important work of Tyler (1990) sets the stage for understanding the importance of the legitimacy concept to policing in the 21^st century.  Voluntary compliance with the law may itself be tied to the degree to which the criminal justice system and its respective components are viewed as legitimate and deserving of compliance (Tyler, 1990).  Such perceptions of fair treatment, or procedural justice, are the product of the day to day decisions that individual officers make during their interactions with citizens.

Other changes include updating references, noting new Acts (e.g., the PATRIOT Sunsets Extension Act of 2011), and updating names of officials (e.g., Loretta Lynch replacing Eric Holder as Attorney General).

ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS AND CLASS ACTIVITIES

Describe the role of discretion in Stop, Question and Frisk (SQF) policing activities in New York City.  As the instructor, you should summarize the SQF presented by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) at www.nyc.gov/html/nypd.  Once there, you simply scroll down to “Reports & Information,” scrolling down here until you reach the “Stop Question and Frisk Database” link, where you can find data as far back to 2003.  You might ask here, “What do the patterns in the data suggest about the role of discretion in such policing strategies?”

SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO END-OF-CHAPTER ASSIGNMENTS

1. What are the benefits of the government’s reorganization of departmental agencies within the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of the Treasury? Are there any drawbacks?

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the reorganization of these agencies was approved in order to prevent linkage blindness and ensure that agencies could better coordinate the intelligence and law enforcement resources of the U.S. government. However, potential drawbacks are the diminishment of personal freedoms and a slippery slope of giving expansive powers to law enforcement.

2. Should the police be bound by due process constraints when investigating terrorism?

Due process constraints were put into place in order to ensure the least amount of governmental intrusion possible. Once these constraints are weakened or removed, civil rights are placed in jeopardy and very difficult to re-establish or reinstate.

3. What role does the police’s ability to use force play in their interactions with the community?

The use of force, justified or not, may alienate members of the community. While officers may attempt to become part of the community, the lawful authority to use force to deprive a community member of his or her liberty still serves to isolate the officer from the community.

4. Do the police curtail their discretion according to the ideal of the rule of law? Explain.

Officer discretion is an individual action. While all officers exercise discretion, some are more vigilant concerning the “ideal of law” than others. However, all officers are governed by certain departmental guidelines.

5. How might information sharing be enhanced within and across law enforcement jurisdictions? With the rest of the criminal justice system?

Information entered into a shared common database would allow all members of the organization to retrieve common material. Restricted or sensitive information could still be shared, but password protected at different levels. Critical information could only be accessed by top tier administrative personnel.