Fixing the Image

Fixing the image

Over the past few years the Police have becoming more militaristic and generally disliked among the public. Many officers believe that the isolated incidents that happen across the nation are the sole reason for this but they are sadly mistaken. The police forces as a whole need to fix their image in a major way, not only for the people’s safety but for their own as well.

Many officers believe that the militarization of the police forces should be encouraged but it is one of the most dangerous things modern law enforcement is doing. According to Karl Bickel, “Police chiefs and sheriffs may want to ask themselves—if after hiring officers in the spirit of adventure, who have been exposed to action oriented police dramas since their youth, and sending them to an academy patterned after a military boot camp, then dressing them in black battle dress uniforms and turning them loose in a subculture steeped in an “us versus them” outlook toward those they serve and protect, while prosecuting the war on crime, war on drugs, and now a war on terrorism—is there any realistic hope of institutionalizing community policing as an operational philosophy?”(Will the Growing Militarization of Our Police Doom Community Policing?). Being ready for the worst case scenario is the military’s task and having the uniform actually put many more people on edge than calms down.

The lack of trust between the police and citizen is another factor in the poor image of the system. Over the past several years many police stations have done at best questionable things. Even though earning trust is a difficult thing to do, and must be done. The Department of Justice states “Community trust is an established and highly honored relationship between an agency and the citizens it has been entrusted to serve. It is the key to effective policing, and law

Enforcement executives bear the primary responsibility for their departments’ honesty, integrity,...