LAW ENFORCEMENT TODAY
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, students should:
1. List the four basic responsibilities of the police.
2. Explain how intelligence-led policing works and how it benefits modern police departments.
3. Identify the differences between the police academy and field training as learning tools for recruits.
4. Describe some of the benefits that female police officers bring to law enforcement.
5. Identify the main advantage of a racially and ethnically diverse police force.
6. Indicate some of the most important law enforcement agencies under the control of the Department of Homeland Security.
7. Identify the duties of the FBI.
8. Analyze the importance of private security today.
Lesson Plan
Correlated to PowerPoints
I. The Responsibilities of the Police
Learning Objective 1: List the four basic responsibilities of the police.
A. Enforcing Laws
i. The police officer’s role as a “crime fighter”
ii. Clear mandate to seek out and apprehend those who have violated the law
iii. Research shows that police officers only spend about half of their time enforcing the law or dealing with crimes. The rest of their time is spent on order maintenance, and service provision.
B. Providing Services
i. A duty “to serve the community”
ii. Numerous services performed, including directing traffic, performing emergency medical procedures, counseling those involved in domestic disputes, providing directions for tourists, and finding lost children
iii. Often among the first to arrive at disaster scenes to conduct search and rescue operations
| Media Tool
“Law Enforcement Partnership with Domestic Violence Prevention” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO5nIi0etsg · A short clip about a partnership between police and domestic violence prevention agencies
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C. Preventing Crime
i. Possibly the most controversial responsibility of the police
ii. Two predictable responses when crime rates begin to rise in a community
a. Punish convicted criminals with stricter laws and more severe penalties
b. Demand that the police “do something” to prevent crimes from occurring in the first place
iii. Police can prevent crime on a limited basis through a deterrent effect
D. Preserving the Peace
i. Related to preventing crime
ii. Have legal authority to use power of arrest, or even force, in situations in which no crime has occurred, but might occur in the immediate future