Police Brutality Culture

The use of excessive force on civilians whether innocent or suspected is deemed as Police brutality. And everyone can attest to the fact that police brutality is ever on the rise. We see it every other day in the news, on the internet and some of us have even witnessed it just around the corners in our neighborhoods. Even if it is plastered all over the media, those officers seem to still remain in the lines of duties. Why? Do the Police Chiefs not know of the brutality? Or they are simply trying to ignore the issue by giving them light punishments? I believe the solution lies with Police chiefs and management as a whole thus in my research paper, I will be looking into the managerial procedures and measures such as training in the police academy, how officers ought to be kept in check while on the job, and what kind of repercussions takes place when acts of police brutality are committed.

Regular officer training programs is a managerial procedure that can help a great deal in curbing their ruthlessness. Being that the sole rule for training is to ensure safety; officers tend to take advantage of that and being very harsh on culprits. The new recruits are told by field trainers that what they learn in the academy the academy has nothing to match the reality in the street so what they do when out the academy needs to ensure their safety. The kind of teaching affects the psychology of officers, therefore, tending to view almost everyone as a potential threat. As they would put it ‘best or beat beaten’. The management knowing that officers are naturally violent needs to have a stern Internal Affairs Investigation department to look into any misconduct and take appropriate action against the offenders. Special training officers are also needed because when consistent and frequent pieces of training are conducted the officers get refreshed and adapt to the academy training thus they tend to be more gentle.

Again, the decision making within the police is of vital concerns and the police chiefs need to set positive motives in the arrest forms they issue so that the police do not go overboard and brush shoulders with the civilians. For instance, looking at a scenario in Baltimore where a police commander issued an arrest form for people loitering in public building. With a racist motive, the form had no space for race or gender but specifically meant for the black male. This attitude made the Baltimore police to be more bias and brutal to the black males. Black males were stopped couples of times when they never had a criminal charge or intention. In this case, if the management had written an appropriate form in accordance with the constitution, there would not be wrangles between the police and the African American men (Carbado, 2015)

Corruption within the police department also needs to be dealt with to reduce cases of brutality. We find out that the police almost always falsify evidence to uncover crimes. This mostly happens with suspected gangs and drug dealers. Instances of unlawful and forceful arrest have been committed on Americans who know nothing of the purported crimes. Some rogue chiefs tend to try profiting from drug dealing other than stopping the trade and this leads to unruliness whereby there are constant fights between the drug dealers and the police force. Corrupt officers usually operate in small groups where they organize their dirty deals and plots and these groups need to be investigated before spreading to the whole department. There chiefs who promise incentives for officers who arrest many drug loads and plant false evidence on suspects. These arrests add to their achievement profile so no matter what comes may, they do not care. Such actions encourage brutality because no one will take investigative actions to correct the situation. Well stipulated policies, as well as oversight committees, should be formed to weed out such kind of officers.

Disciplinary systems that deal with civilian grievances hold a high place in reducing brutality and keep police officer in check. Departments like Bureau of Internal Affairs that is the Police Board and Independent Police Review Authority need to be more thorough in dealing with incidents of brutality. Laying down all the consequences and imposing them when officers defy the rules will make them more responsible. Unlike the cases whereby there are rules but they are not being observed by the officers. Some officers might not heed to consequential threats but will embrace soft implementation there using educational based disciplining system can be better. At this point an educator or motivator conveys touching messages to the ones who have broken the law, it is more of constructive criticism and often appeals to emotions. Again, management should embrace supervisory techniques to keep rogue officers in check thus preventing their misconduct. This technique involves implementing a patrol system, establishing a supervisor evaluation and mentoring program (Bennett, and Hess, 2004).

Precaution is another managerial technique that can improve the relationship between civilians and police. The adoption of detailed discipline guides helps to solve internal conflicts. Stipulated rules that discharge an officer who involves in silence code could also make the officers remain gentle because when one officer breaks the law and his counterparts remain silent they are at risk of being discharged from service. When discipline is heightened internally the police will automatically be responsible and gentle when dealing with civilians.

Increasing the number of officers in a certain metrological area has proven to not only reduce crime rates but also police brutality. Their more officers in an area reduce the levels of frustration in that one officer gets some task off their shoulder. As a result, they get specific responsibility which they handle with passion. Research shows that more responsibility an officer has the more stressed and frustrate they are. When they do not tackle an issue they tend to release their frustrations to civilians whom they suspect.

Technological techniques like equipping the police officers with body camera can help reduce police brutality. With the cameras worn the police will be more cautious as they know are on the watch. Again the relationship between the police and the public tend to improve while the officers wear the cameras because they feel more like civilians (Lin, 2016). Despite the privacy concerns that come with cameras, the feasibility of the methods needs to be looked into because it can be the greatest solution to the brutality problem.

Psychological measures ought to be employed in dealing with brutality misconducts. Currently, the screening of police officers only happen in the level of clinical interviews and psychological test but need be that the process should embrace determining also the problem-solving and decision-making skills of the candidate with that they can know how fit to serve they are (Coutts, Schneider, and Tenuta, 2004). Creating profiles that relate to psychological reactions help to know how some officers will react to a problem. Stress management, counseling, and evaluation are the key processes; psychologists state that aggressive behavior not only come from individual behaviors but also the organizational influences. Factors such as strict or lenient administrative policies can attribute to brutality. Therefore, frequent thorough psychological tests need to be taken to determine if the officer is still mentally in shape thus enhancing a humane relationship between police and the public (Wolfe, and Piquero, 2011).

In a nutshell, despite, police brutality being a major problem in the police department, it can be prevented and control when the above managerial procedures, techniques, and tests are well implemented. Aside from that, transparency and uniformity should be the anchor of the implementation process. When all these are observed the police and civilians will have a smooth relationship.

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