Abstract
The issues involving peace and order are often relegated to the hands of law enforcement agencies. Recent developments in the conduct of law enforcement show signs of a shift from being reactionary to a more preventive means of policing. This is seen in the implementation of individual police regiments of the community-oriented policing and problem solving (COPPS). The following discussion will provide a presentation of a report submitted to the Chief of Police regarding a proposal in dealing with the underage drinking and street racing in the Westwood community. The report will be presented using the SARA method, using accounts from both academic and scholarly journals focusing on COPPS, underage drinking and street racing.
Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving Method
In dealing with the tasks taken in this assignment, it is important to relay first an understanding of the COPPS philosophy before laying down a proposed plan in addressing issues like street racing and underage drinking in Westwood. This will serve as a basic introduction that will slay the foundation of the subsequent plan discussed below.
Basically, the COPPS philosophy establishes a set of crime prevention activities that allows the law enforcement personnel on more hands-on strategies son policing. For instance, it has been indicated in the works regarding the paradigm that establishing a partnership between the police service and the community is of its utmost objective. To a certain extent, this is possibly the core of the paradigm as crime prevention is seen as a collaborative effort of both the law enforcement agencies and the general public.
To a certain point, the principles surrounding the philosophy seem to manifest some extent of sociological interpretation of crime as a product of the environment. Thus, COPPS intends to carry out crime prevention imperatives through the consideration of the environment. In this mode of prevention, the possibility that a criminal activity of taking place is considerably taken away as the available material in the existing environment is taken away or at least controlled by law enforcement.
Other views of the philosophy indicate some critical claims on COPPS. For instance, it is branded as an offender-based perspective of crime prevention. This means that in the said paradigm, specific people or groups of people are ostracized and branded as “undesirable.” To this end, the police force and the community as a whole has considerable influence in branding a person based on preconceived notion and possible prejudices. It is thus the job of the former to keep the implementation of COPPS in a responsible and equitable manner, absent from any indication of discrimination.
Plan in Addressing the Problem
The following is a presentation of a proposed plan pertaining to the dealing with the issues of underage drinking and street racing in Westwood. The discussions will be using the SARA model of analyzing the situation. In the same time, the proposed courses of action pertaining to underage drinking and street racing are to be based on articles on the said activities.
Scanning of the Problem
The issue of underage drinking tends to be a universal problem for police and other law enforcement agencies. In the United States, the legal drinking age is 21. However, it is claimed that almost 47% of young individuals aged 14-20 consumes alcoholic drinks far greater than that of those of legal age. (2006,) This shows that implementing the laws of legal drinking has been rather useless in the past years.
On the other hand, the combination of speed and recklessness tends to categorize the street racing or drag racing as a dangerous-game. (1997) Seen in the American pop culture as a “cool” and “rebellious,” the high rate of injuries and death as a result of massive car crashes are overshadowed by this image. In any case, illegal street races tend to pose a problem of safety not only with those behind the steering wheel but also to the unsuspecting general public.
Analysis of the Issues
The problem of underage drinking and street racing tends is not difficult to address. In using the COPPS philosophy, the recurrence of the said criminal activities could be minimized or even totally prevented. In seeing the needed improvements in the existing situation in Westwood, the people engaging in underage drinking and street racing tends to carry out such acts just because the environment offers them possibilities that allows these acts left unpunished.
In the case of underage drinking, social access and commercial access are considerably the prevalent reasons for underage drinking. (2002) This means that underage individuals are able to consume alcohol because commercial providers, regardless of the policies indicating the illegal nature of selling alcohol to the youth, makes alcohol available to these adolescents. Moreover, the context of social access tends to highlight the involvement of adults in the provision of alcoholic drinks to adolescents.
In the case of street racing, it appeals to the reckless behavior of the individuals because it offers some form of unsupervised activity. ( 2000) On this regard, one must realize that street races could only take place with the availability of unsupervised environment. The lack of visibility of officers and other points of authority in Westwood has been the prevailing issue on street racing.
Response to the Problem
In dealing with the issue of underage drinking, the collaboration of the entire community of Westwood is required. (2002) This basically intends to deal with the commercial access and the social access of alcohol to minors in a preventive manner. Basically, an information drive will be given to the general public of Westwood regarding the policies on underage drinking along with the liabilities of the commercial distributors and even those giving alcohol to minors for free. The police service will be the ones to take implement this information drive.
The issue involving street races and drag racing also involves a degree of cooperation with the community. However, the focus will be controlling the environment to which these races take place. In order to minimize the occurrence of street races into the populated areas of Westwood, a proposal to install additional street bumps will be forwarded by the police force in the local officers. In this manner, extremely fast cars would not pose a threat to the residents of Westwood. This also helps the law enforcement authorities to limit the number of places to supervise in preventing street races. Police visibility and patrolling will thus be limited to nearby industrial areas and vast areas within the limits of the locality.
In considering the two courses of action, it is anticipated that these will establish an improvement on the existing situation regarding underage drinking and street racing. It is also anticipated that an increase in the safety of the public is at hand.
Assessment of the Plan
In assessing the outcome of these courses of action, specific grievances will be the main measure of the police in determining the effectiveness of these activities. For instance in the context of underage drinking, a reduced incidence in of alcohol related criminal activities like alarms and scandal will ensue. Moreover, a reduction of phone calls reporting unruly parties and related incidents will ensue. In the case of street racing, a reduction of offences like speeding and others related to street racing are anticipated. In the same manner, calls reporting incidents of street racing is also expected to decline.
Conclusion
The discussions above have specifically presented certain courses of action that the police force could implement in order to prevent certain incidents of underage drinking and street racing. However, it must be emphasized that the results will not immediately be observable. In the same manner, it must be stressed that the collaboration and assistance of the community itself would be the key in the success of such courses of action.
Unit 2 DB Police, Courts, and Prisons
June , 2007
Upon doing a web search on the topic of police misconduct, I discovered that several news articles have popped up. One of these is a news article made by (2004). They noted police officers in the state of Florida using a taser gun to subdue a civilian. Based on the article, the victim was apparently on his way to his home but he apparently went over some police barricades. In my opinion, using a taser gun to incapacitate a person may be highly excessive especially if the police officers obviously outnumbered the victim. In this situation, the police officers failed to display discretion and apparently lack of regard on the person being a civilian unconvicted of any crime. Using force (in this case hitting a person with a taser shot) should always be the taken when everything else fails, and not as an initial means of pacifying an individual.
Another news article in the website of the claimed that police officers harass minorities was considered a norm in New York City, especially among the young minorities. (2007) Personally, this is rather disturbing considering that police officers should not be bothering these individuals based on race or ethnicity. It has been noted in the article that it was the “normal” routine in those parts of town. In some cultures, that type of action is considered discrimination. Officers should realize that doing such acts of harassment is unusual for public servants. It is my position that police officers must always act only if there is a sufficient amount of probable cause to pursue these minorities.
Another article that I have found sill involve New York City. In this article, an officer is accused of tampering with the evidence in a crime scene. (2007) This still shows that the police force have the power to manipulate information about crimes as the courts indicate that the police officer did the tampering to protect a relative. This constitutes a complete breach of public trust and obstruction of justice. Based on the discussed articles above, one comes to realize that the police force holds a lot of influence and wields a considerable amount of authority in society. It is in this reality that abuses and indiscretion do result on the part of the law enforcers. On my own observation, courts should completely provide the full power of the law in punishing erring police officers, that is, given that due process and an equitable trial is provided as well. This will serve as a deterrent for other officers who are thinking of using their access to firearms, sensitive information, criminal evidence, and the like to wrong use.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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