police use of force

Description

For this week’s activity we will be exploring two separate topics in police work, the topics are as follows: Police use of force and gratuities. The topic of police use of force is an extremely complex issue, especially in our current times. The police have over two million police-citizen encounters yearly across the United States and less than two (2) percent of these encounters ever results in the police using force. This two percent includes all use of force including the use of deadly force. Yet, these are the calls that are covered the most by the media and citizens, no one ever mentions the other 98% of police-citizen encounters. This week we will explore a little about police use of force.

Another topic that is high on citizens complaint list and is one of those topics that operates on the fringes is that of gratuities. You will need to read about gratuities to understand what they are and how they can be used. Not all gratuities are corruption. Gratuities are used in all professions, from those in retail industry, law profession, medical profession, restaurant industry, and even our political leaders in Washington and the local state and county level. We will look at gratuities a little closer this week and you decide.

This week’s activity is dealing with police use of force and gratuities in the criminal justice system. You will complete three short activities related to these topics; the instructions are as follows:

Police use of force. You will be the Internal Affairs officer conducting an investigation into a complaint of officer misconduct in a call that the officer used force. You will determine if the force was within policy. You are to conduct a search on the use of force, you will find a use of force policy to an actual police department (can be anywhere in the United States), many agencies have their policies online and can be accessed by the public. Once you obtain the policy to whatever agency you choose, you will research a police use of force incident in that state and apply the policy to the incident. Remember that you must provide the policy and the incident from the same state in your conclusion.
Police gratuities. Research your local police agencies gratuity policy (you can look online or contact the agency). What does the policy state? Do you agree or disagree with the policy? Why do you agree or disagree with this policy? You will need to be very specific and provide examples of why you agree and disagree based on facts not solely your opinion.

Acceptable gratuities? Indicate which of the following – if offered freely with no apparent exchange expected – would be ethically acceptable.
Free coffee

only on duty

on or off duty

Free gum or candy

only on duty

on or off duty

Half-price meal

only on duty

on or off duty

Free meal

only on duty

on or off duty

Free dry cleaning

only for uniform

unrestricted

Free admission to clubs

n/a

off duty

Free lottery tickets

only on duty

on or off duty

Expensive merchandise

only on duty

on or off duty

Would any of the above gratuities be acceptable if they were offered to the police department as a whole?