Police Studies Essay

Submitted By ms2000yani
Words: 1897
Pages: 8

Question 1 - Three principles put forward by Sir Robert Peel

The first principle i will address is the basic mission of the police is to prevent crime and disorder , from this statement is shows that part of the police's duty is to prevent crime. Ideally is what it should be , but because the police themselves have absolutely no control over some of the peoples behaviour and therefore it becomes very difficult to “prevent” crime. With that being said the police however is always ready to take action when called and also with general everyday patrols give people the reassurance that someone is looking after them and they are protected.
The second point is The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it- this statement is very difficult to dig into it, to me i agree and disagree with it at the same time. I disagree with it because i feel police work can not be tested especially that they do not perform just one duty therefore its immeasurable. I agree with the statement in the sense that if the police is doing their job and crime is being solved, it means that the criminals are behind bars and thus crime rates should reduce and in turn we see less of them actually dealing with crime issues, this is where the significance of the statement comes in. However i go back to a statement aforementioned that the citizens behaviour is beyond the police’s control and so we can not measure if they are doing a good or not by looking at crime rates levels or rather the absence of crime.
The third point is the police should maintain a relationship with the public that is based on the fact that the police are the public and the public are the police. To me this is the most important and true fact of all the principles. The emphasis here is not about the crime but on the public in general. For police to conduct their work effectively they need to be in good relations with the public and vise versa. This statement gives responsibility to both the police and the public and by everyone looking out for each other and playing their role crime is somewhat less committed ( not erased , just a reduction). If everyone took responsibility even the smaller crimes could be solved by just regular citizens before anything fatal happens. But today with the world becoming more individualized, people are only out there looking out for themselves and don't involve themselves in anything that does not affect them. The other side to this statement is that the police and the public actually depend on each other to solve crime , in ,most cases the public being the witness and the reporters and the police taking action. In short for crimes to be solved the police needs the public the cooperate and the public needs the police to take action.

Although some of the points are not practical for the world we live in today , they surely lay down the basic idea of what police work is about.

A good example which explains my second point , The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it is of the Boko Haram happening in Nigeria presently. The police force is at work on this issue daily 24/7 , this does not show the efficiency of the police. What will show their efficiency is when girls are not being kidnapped anymore because the men have been caught, which is the absence of the crime.

Question 2 - Four misconceptions that surround policing in Canada

The police force is definitely one of the most misunderstood professions because how it is portrayed especially in movies and t.v shows. People have a painted picture in their head already from this.

One of the many misconceptions is Police work is dangerous , it is important for us to recognise and appreciate that at times the police put their life on the line and some have lost their lives doing so. It is certainly a more dangerous occupation that