Introduction
Law enforcement agencies, as Hendrix et al. (53) define, refer to governmental organizations that ensure and oversee the enforcement of the territories’ laws. In the United States, the police force primarily ensures law and order among the members of the public and enforces the law. According to Reynolds et al. (1412), the United States, however, still experiences police misconduct largely. Police misconduct is described as any unnecessary and illegal acts performed by the police regarding their official mandates as assigned. In their positions as overseers of the law, law enforcement agencies can prevent and mitigate police misconduct in diverse ways. The subsequent parts of this paper explain the roles of law enforcement agencies in overcoming police misconduct.
The Roles of Law Enforcement Agencies in Overcoming Police Misconduct
Law enforcement agencies can take initiatives in designing and offering educative programs and trainings to police officers regarding ethical practice at work. Through educative programs and officer trainings, law enforcement agencies are able to disseminate information on applicable measures of conduct to police officers. The officers, subsequently, get to learn of their profession’s work ethics and improve their relation with the members of the public in efforts to fight avoid and mitigate adversities arising from police misconduct. As Di Nota et al. (1797) explain, strategic education measures are the bases of higher levels of self-control improved critical thinking, analyses and decision-making, better attitudes and improved relations between officers and the public.
Law enforcement agencies can also overcome police misconduct through effective policing and the application of early intervention strategies against actions of misconduct. Through policing, law enforcement agencies are able to research into police activities, define the ethical and unethical practices in police duties clearly, define laws acting as barriers against police misconduct, and define the consequences of police misconduct. In this way, police officers will be obliged to adhere by the set laws and – resultantly – avoid indulgence in unprofessional conducts. Through the early intervention strategies, law enforcement agencies will ensure that instances of police misconduct are identified early enough and that the victims receive justice.
Conclusion
By and large, police misconduct is visible in several regions in the United States. There is need, consequently, for law enforcement agencies to act fast in developing strategies to curb the vice and to ensure officer accountability within the force. As this paper describes, law enforcement agencies can designing and applying educational and training programs to officers to ensure they have concise masteries of the profession’s ethics. Law enforcement agencies can also overcome police misconduct by researching on police work, developing appropriate policing and designing effective early intervention strategies that help to avoid and mitigate police misconduct.
References
Di Nota, Paula Maria, and Juha-Matti Huhta. “Complex motor learning and police training: applied, cognitive, and clinical perspectives.” Frontiers in psychology 10 (2019): 1797.
Hendrix, Josh A., et al. “The eyes of law enforcement in the new panopticon: Police-community racial asymmetry and the use of surveillance technology.” Surveillance & Society 16.1 (2018): 53-68.
Reynolds, Paul D., and Richard C. Helfers. “Organizational injustice and police misconduct: Predicting organizational defiance among police officers.” Actual Probs. Econ. & L. (2019): 1412.
Law Enforcement
