Police Officers

Police officers receive extensive training, and police administrators usually bring advanced formal education to the job. However, there are times where the police must react to events outside their control. This occurs on the day-to-day level of the patrol officer as well as at the leadership level. This week's discussion will examine this concept, on both the tactical and strategic levels.

• Consider the example of a patrol officer responding to a fight between two men outside a bar. Such a situation could have many outcomes, and the officer will be faced with several choices, including whether or not to charge either of the men with a crime and whether to use force. Using proper terminology wherever possible, analyze and explain the factors that would influence the officer as he or she decides how to act in this situation. Be sure to consider factors outside the officer's control, including the actions of other people at the scene.
• On a larger scale, police departments have had to react to factors outside their control. Some factors present a positive change, while others present severe challenges. Analyze and discuss the ways in which police departments were affected by these developments:
  • 1940s and 1950s: The automobile becomes widely used in America.
  • 1960 and 1970s: The civil rights movement progresses and women enter the workforce in far greater numbers than previously.
  • 1970s to present day: The economy goes into recession or depression.
  • Early 1980s: Crack cocaine is invented.
  • 2001: Terrorists kill nearly 3000 Americans on 9/11.