Introduction to Policing: The Pillar of Democracy, Second Edition by Horning Amber & Lieberman Charles & Haberfeld M.R. (Maki)

Author:Horning, Amber & Lieberman, Charles & Haberfeld, M.R. (Maki) [Horning, Amber]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
Published: 2017-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Tyumen, Russia — May 9, 2009: Parade of Victory Day in Tyumen. Company of traffic police officers.

Manageability

A very important aspect of the decision-making process related to the selection criteria of potential recruits has to do with the nature of police work that is very much based on the militaristic and rigid manner of desired performance. It also has a lot to do with the primarily reactive, rather than proactive, nature of policing, when split-second decisions need to be made and orders need to be followed without being challenged by more progressive thinking and critically inclined minds. Therefore, a graduate of an Ivy League institution, socialized over years of education to challenge and question facts and realities presented to him or her, might not necessarily be the ideal candidate to be managed by police organizations. Emergency situations, with which police work is replete, require obedient follow-up of lawful orders, as spelled out by the rank structured organizational leaders. It is imperative for police organizations to select applicants who can be managed in a way that will allow for obedient and non-challenging followership of the orders given by the supervisors. Such orders sometimes might clash and conflict with individual officers' assessment of a given situation. The more educated among the recruits might possibly be more prone to challenging the finality of following certain orders. The reactive nature of police work, its formal versus informal goals, cannot allow for too much of an individualistic interpretation of the rigid environments of policing.

Formal versus Informal Goals

As discussed in the history chapter, police organizations historically and nowadays reflect the status quo of the leaders of the community in which they police. During the last few decades of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century, the formal goal of policing can be touted in the mission statements police organizations create for public consumption. Words like “to serve and protect,” “professionalism,” “ethics,” and “safeguarding of constitutional rights” are imbedded in many mission statements of police organizations in the US and reflect the politically correct formal goal of policing in a democratic society. Nonetheless, the informal goal of protecting, first and foremost, the status quo desired by the politician in charge frequently clashes with the democratically oriented members of the public. For example, the exercise of the right of civil disobedience in the form of demonstration against a certain political decision, like sending the US troops to fight a war in Iraq, may and will generate a violent clash between the police and the public (Vitale, 2005). In this example, although the formal goal of policing is to allow a peaceful display of the democratic right of civil disobedience expressed in the form of a licensed demonstration, the informal goal would be to contain the demonstration in the most effective and speedy manner to minimize the possibility of spreading of such sentiments that could possibly escalate to physical violence.

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