Assessing your Program of Study & Recommendations - Essay Example

PROGRAM 2 Part A Respecting diversity and multiculturalism means that the police need to work with integral communities. Looking at the social aspects of policing and law enforcement, it is important to differentiate law enforcement attitudes between community oriented policing (COP) and traditional law enforcement practice. Reaching out to the community and respecting diversity and socio-economic difference, is a way of policing that has been expanding functionally and organizationally since its first inception and popularization during the mid-twentieth century.

During this era, interaction between the community and the police force was seen to be improved by community programs which focused on expanding a positive relationship between the community and the police that had previously been tarnished. Lines of communication were opened and police organizational structures began to change to support a more involved approach in terms of community relations. “Goldstein believed that in recognition of the reality of American policing… line officers (would be given) the freedom to develop creative solutions to community problems beyond simply making arrests or doing nothing” (Kane, 2000).

Prison populations are increasing not only because of an increase in media attention in regards to all crimes being violent, but also that in terms of a set of parameters for recidivism of violent crimes, the state and federal prisons are receiving less violent criminals and more parole violators and drug users. “Reversing a 20-year trend toward ever-tougher criminal laws, a number of states this year have quietly rolled back some of their most stringent anticrime measures, including those imposing mandatory minimum sentences and forbidding early parole” (Butterfield, 2001).

Law enforcement workers can help these inmates get the services they need like rehabilitation. They can work as advocates for these incarcerated individuals, and be proactive in their advocacy. Part B I am happy with the program generally. However, if I am to make a recommendation, it is that the courses focus more on ethics. The society in which the debate over police ethics, political and otherwise since politics is a reflection, sets the ethical code, in a sense, since it is at least theoretically there to determine a positive relationship between the individual and the society through models of good behavior that does not bring harm upon others, or socially positive behavior.

The specific concept of noble case corruption refers to the tendency of police misconduct to have its origins in circumstances where the behavior in question may be justifiable, but only in the context of the means. Training in ethics, to many commentators, may be compared to some arguments about training in art—some argue that one either has artistic talent or doesn’t, and if one doesn’t, no amount of art classes are going to make them a talented successful artist. However, I don’t subscribe to this idea, and I think that ethics training should be a part of the curriculum.

Ethics has interstices with both policing in general and specific concepts. “A triangle of integrity in the domains of recruitment, selection and training represents only one of the prongs that help create the three agencies of high integrity. There are other aspects that these police agencies emphasize as well, from the investigation of misconduct… to the establishment of official rules and control of the code of silence” (Klockars et al., 2006). REFERENCEButterfield, Fox (2003, June 12).

States Easing Stringent Laws on Prison Time. The New York Times, p. B7. Kane, Robert J. (2000). Permanent beat assignments in association with community policing: Assessing the impact on police officers’ field activity. Justice Quarterly. Klockars, Ivkovic, and Haberfield (2006). Enhancing Police Integrity. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.