A Day in the Life of a Police Officer
For my ethnographic essay I chose to study the life of police officers who work in the City of Saginaw. Today’s society is consumed by false statements and false social media articles. There are thousands of articles, television commercials, and websites about police brutality, race problems, and rarely seeing anything good about police officers. Lately it seems as though society is more concerned about police brutality than actual positive affects police officers have on society. With all of the things you hear on social media, and fake Facebook articles there are many different things that need to be taken into consideration. What are the positive affects police officers have on the world and in your
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I focused on the conference room located on the first floor behind the front entrance desk. In general the conference room is a very big room with many tables, chairs, whiteboards, and a couple computers. The walls that enclose the conference room are all white and have picture frames holding pictures of retired Saginaw police officers. The upper floors which include the gym, evidence rooms, file rooms, and detective offices. The majority of one side of the Saginaw City Police Department are windows. The inside structure is made of white cement blocks. But for the most part the Saginaw City Police Department is a very open space. In the upper half of the police department several offices fill up the floors, although they are all for the Saginaw City Police Detectives. The ratio of men and women police officers definitely are not the same. There are more male police officers than female police …show more content…
You inform the dispatcher that you’re en-route to the location responding in code three which is lights and sirens. When you arrive on the scene, you can see two seriously damaged vehicles and all you see is chaos. The two vehicles appear to be stuck together because they hit each other so hard. The coolant and oil is splattered all over the road and burning and boiling off of the still hot engines. You’re trained to give first aid and basic life support, you are silently thankful that an ambulance is already on the scene. You see a paramedic talking with a driver who is pinned inside the vehicle trying to keep them awake. You notice that the driver is covered in blood and has severe cuts all over his or her body. Firefighters arrive on the scene to use Jaws of Life to cut out the pinned in driver. The other driver in the other vehicle appears to be unresponsive and you see paramedics pulling the driver out of the vehicle to conduct CPR on the driver. The paramedics dispatch that they need flight care to pick up one of the seriously injured drivers. The ambulance takes the other driver to the hospital after being cut out of the vehicle. Flight care arrives on scene to pick up the severely injured driver. One of your main duties is to guard flight care from people and vehicles. Flight care
Police brutality and office involved shootings have sparked national debate and created a strain between police officers and citizens. Recently, there have been more home videos that display acts of aggression by police officers. These police officers often use excessive forces or a condescending tone towards people of color which is why there needs to be a better way to mend police and civilian relationship. People should be able to trust the police in their communities rather than fear them.
A great deal of society views law enforcement officers as heroic and honorable individuals, whose main purpose is to protect and serve the community. For many officers, this description is accurate, however for others; violence and brutality against innocent citizens is the key to getting the job done. For years, minorities have fallen victim to police brutality based on racial profiling, stereotypes and other unjustifiable reasons that has cost several innocent lives. The involvement of officers in police brutality against minority social groups causes tainted and negative views on policing and their overall duty to protect, when they are ultimately the aggressors in this case. Police brutality is a violent incident involving an officer and a victim, usually including excessive force, unnecessary violence and sometimes resulting in a senseless fatality. Minority groups such as African Americans and Hispanics have often been the victims of this form of abuse by officers, however little justice has been done in order to protect these individuals from this form of cruelty by the hands of those with the most power.
In every group of people there is always likely to be a select few that represent the group as a whole in a negative way. Before I begin this essay I think it 's important to acknowledge that not all cops are bad. When police brutality is discussed it seems like one side chooses to address all law enforcement with negative blanket statements and broad indictments that aren 't fair to those who do their job fairly and responsibly, while the other side almost doesn 't seem to acknowledge or address the fact that there is a problem at all. No, not all police officers are bad, but yes, police brutality is real and just because someone is anti police brutality doesn 't make them anti police. If anything is going to change both sides need to
The role of police officers is very significant to American history. Police work toward protecting citizens’ rights and helping America become the land of the free. The United States of America is built from the U.S. Constitution Bill of Rights and police play a major role in making sure American rights are met. Evolution has changed many of American history for the better; policing is part of those changes. As new issues in society arise, police must change and adapt to protect and serve the public.
This essay is not attempting to push the ideology that the main issue isn’t because of them. However, the fear and hatred that is driven behind everyone on both positions is being perpetuated by the amount of negative coverage that this issue is receiving. In psychology, there is a term called confirmation bias, which is used to describe a mindset where people will only seek out information that conforms to their preconceived notions about something they believe to be true. (Fontinelle) Because of this, those who are in that mindset will be unlikely to be convinced otherwise that they are wrong. The fact that police are generally only talked about negatively in the news will almost force an individual who keeps up with mainstream media to see only negative things about police officers, and start to believe that police officers are not as trustworthy as they should be. This creates an immediate confirmation bias in people’s mind, which is a problem when the issue is already heated. Statistically speaking, the majority of officers are not the same as those being covered in the news. Good officers, alongside bad officers, have been seen as problematic because of the excess police brutality coverage, which in return negatively affects the entire police
The organization I selected for my research paper is the Chicago Police Department, also known as CPD. This organization interests me because it directly affects me, not only as a member of the communities who seem to interact most with CPD, but also as someone who was born and raised in the city of Chicago. The Chicago Police Department’s mission is to serve and protect citizens of the city, yet this organization has been in the news for doing just the opposite. Recently, the CPD has been in the media for a number of unethical issues and their lack of diversity on the force. Thus I would like to explore how these areas affect the work of CPD and their relationship with various communities. With recent protests and the Black Lives Matter movement
Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like to become a police officer. Becoming a police officer isn’t an easy take because they have to risk their life everyday to protect and serve the community. They have to go through the dangers of arresting criminals when there is a chance that they could die. However, in today’s society only a small amount of the police officers actually serves their community and protect citizens from danger. Right now, most police officers abuse their power to the point where they don’t seem to care for the safety of the community. They would usually arrest innocent people, make accusations, and even use their power as a source to show their dominance. If you think about, whenever you are stuck in traffic
Have you ever thought about what happens if a person breaks a law? What if this individual breaks a minor law and creates a larger problem? A strong topic is upon our society when it comes to law enforcement and the tough physical and verbal oppression that they have the potential to put on people when it comes to breaking the law. Police officers are supposed to be society 's saviors, guardians, and our friends. However, when things do not go quite right, and when someone breaks the law, there will always be that chance that things could escalate. These officers are supposed to deescalate situations and solve problems. That is what society relies on them at any given moment. Sometimes it takes an escalation of force to deescalate a criminal situation. This is why society sees the men and women in uniform with weapons capable of hindering life to the fullest. However, when this force is used and abused, it creates problems. The public eye becomes weary of the police in many different ways for using excessive force to deescalate a situation. Excessive force and police brutality are often caused by depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, as well as other mental disorders; due to the way they are portrayed by the media, excessive force and police brutality have a direct effect on the American society as well as fellow officers in all branches of law enforcement.
A great deal of society views law enforcement officers as heroic and honorable individuals, whose main purpose is to protect and serve the community. For many officers, this description is accurate, however for others; violence and brutality against innocent citizens is part of getting the job done. For years, minorities have fallen victim to police brutality based on racial profiling, stereotypes and other
For the final project for this American Policing course I’ve created a research paper on Policing in America. Throughout the contents of this paper I have identified whether the current policing philosophies have a positive or negative impact on the communities and how I’ve arrived at this conclusion. I have provided this critical assessment and recommendation based on text readings, scholarly research, and personal experience, in and out of the bonds of this course.
In this current period of time, police men and women have an even bigger target on their backs compared to times of the past. In the past year, we as students have had a very unique opportunity as criminal justice majors to see some interesting events unfold, such as the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, a number of allegedly wrongful deaths done by the police’s hands, to the riots in Baltimore. With all of this happening, I feel that the use of technology and militarization is beneficial to the men and women across America who serve as police officers. Along with this, not only is it more beneficial to police, but it could be more beneficial to civilians as well.
The emergency scene(s) that EMT’s and Paramedics respond to can often be chaotic; a scene that can be unsafe and/or have multiple patients. Upon arrival the first priority for each provider will always be the safety of the responder and then that of bystanders. An injured responder can be detrimental to a successful resolution to the incident.
Law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every time he or she puts on their uniform. For instance, it is quite emotional for the family of any law enforcement officer to see their loved one go to work and not know what their shift will entail. One way that a family could endure the emotions is to pray for their loved one who is in law enforcement. Whereas the officers’ job stress is at high levels so could their personal lives. Some studies in particular, show how family, friends, and the community treated by the officers could depend on the officers’ level of stress and how well positive adaptation occurs (Hille, 2009). Understanding that the law enforcement officers’ job is stressful enough, their home lives should not be. As of 2000, police officers were seven times more likely to commit suicide than other Americans. In addition, police officers had the third highest suicide rate among 130 U. S. occupations. According to the National Association of Police Chiefs, twice as many police officers took their own lives each year as have killed in the line of duty (“World of Criminal Justice, Gale Research,” 2002). This outcome stems from the outward show of how the officers deal with their job stress. For instance, some of the ways officers handle their stress could be drinking, physically abusing their wives or children, or acting carelessly on vacation or on a family outing. Although particular law enforcement officers put on the persona
Society has come to see the police as the ones to go to when they are in trouble. Children are taught to look for a police officer if they need help, and the police are the first ones that most people call when they are in trouble. This must mean that they are seen as a necessity in today’s society. Whether they are seen as good or evil, they are vital. Although they are many times depicted as feeling entitled, they are governed by the same laws as everyone else, and they remain an essential part of the social order.
What they do or fail to do can affect seriously the span of the damage to life, property, and community spirit. Police officers are required to take an oath when they first join their department. The police oath is a code of ethics. The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics establishes the basic responsibility of a police officer is and I quote: “As a Law Enforcement Officer, my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality and justice. I will constantly strive to achieve these objectives and ideals, dedicating myself before God to my chosen profession…law enforcement.” These are the expectations of the citizens, and when they are abused it threatens the faith of all. The most recent case raising unethical questions may be the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, an unarmed black male shot down by police officers. Another reason might be the rise in reports of suspicious deaths of inmates in custody making headlines across the country. These type of situations bring up difficult questions regarding the limits of police authority, are there some inequalities in the way that law enforcement officers treat certain racial, socioeconomic, or cultural groups? Are the factors, such as whether a citizen is ethnic or white, poor or Middle class, making a difference in the type of treatment one is likely to receive from the