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The Unnecessary Use Of Force In Policing Essay

737 Words3 Pages

Throughout history the role of power, specifically in the police institution has been a controversial topic. Police work started as an institution purely based on personal and community judgment, often leading to wrongful verdicts. Specifically policing in the 1970’s through the 1990’s experienced a significant amount of change. In order to diminish or reduce corruption the Knapp commission, and Blue Ribbon Panels were put into place. However, throughout time police policies, and state laws evolved into a new institution devoted to “ service and professionalism, and responsibility for public safety and ethical conduct”(Dodge, Rennison, 120). Nevertheless this does not mean police corruption and questionable acts do not still plague the institution. Due to the elevated …show more content…

In this sense the news reports weekly cases involving unnecessary force especially involving minority and at risk groups. The Trayvon Martin case comes to mind along with the Stop & Frisk program started in New York. In this way power bears bad in this institution. Especially with today’s technology, videos and voice recordings are used as evidence with police using wrongful force. For example the officer that tackled a girl at a birthday party was caught on video about a couple of months ago. It streamed on social networks and news stations across the country, terrifying and angering people over wrongful police force. The question comes up whether discretion turns into discrimination and is this discrimination racially fueled? In the textbook it talked about how police can give warnings depending on the interaction with the victim, however when does this discretion turn into discrimination based on race and gender. It is wrongful to say the entire institution is motivated to use unnecessary force; most are right in knowing the legalistic limit. It is the few that ruin how Americans see cops and police in relation to the

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