Law enforcement
Law enforcementWhen I was a young child, I can remember that a lot of shows and movies were based on the exciting lives of police officers. Both shows and movies often portrayed police work as exciting with a new adventure everyday. For this reason I think a lot of children, such as me, had a desire at one point or another to be a police officer. The TV shows and movies focus only on the exciting parts of police work; the truth is that most police work is done without any excitement whatsoever. In all reality paper work and patrolling the streets are what takes up most of the work for police officers.
According to the book, The Career Discovery Encyclopedia, Police officers are responsible for protecting the lives and property of citizens by upholding and enforcing the laws of the country. They must pursue the peace, prevent criminal acts and arrest those who break the law. Their jobs are dangerous and they are trained to carry and use weapons(76). Police officers go to work each day not knowing what to expect. Each day is different and new and different things are occurring all the time. One day a police officer may be having a shoot out with an armed bank robber, the next day the police officer may be looking for a possum in the bushes outside the local post office, for fear that it may have rabies and try and bite someone. Each day is different and surprising to each individual officer(Knudson).
According to the book, Opportunities in law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Careers, The Peelion Act of 150 years ago set forth principals that are still pertinent today. They are set down here because they remain A basic tenet of the law enforcement profession. The police must be stable, efficient, and organized along military lines, the police must be under control of the government, the absence of crime will best prove the efficiency of police, the distribution of crime news is essential, the deployment of police strength, both by time and area, is essential. No quality is more indispensable to a police officer than a perfect command of temper; a quiet, determined police officer has more effect than a violent one does, good appearance commands respect, the securing and training of proper persons is at the root of efficiency, police head quarters should be centrally located and easily accessible, police should be hired on a probation basis, police records are necessary for the correct distribution of police strenght(2).
According to the book, Opportunities in Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Careers, American colonists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries brought to America the law enforcement structure with which they were familiar in England. The transfer of the offices of constable and sheriff to rural American areas, which included most colonial territory, was accomplished with little change in...
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