Criminal Justice Essay PDF

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Criminal justice essay about police officers' work and duty....

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Jackie Huang CRIMJ 100 9:00-10:20 am Fall 2019 Police Officer The job of becoming a police officer is one of the most important and tough career paths for men and women. Their main responsibilities focus on protecting people and properties away from criminals including respond to calls, enforce laws, make arrest, issue jurisdictions, and sometimes required to testify in court cases. While police officers often encounter people when they’re at their worst, they can help people make better life decisions. I decided to interview Officer Kennelly, one of the Penn State school police officers, in his own office. To gain a better understanding of how police officers work, Officer Kennelly provides a thorough and detailed explanation and process from his own police experience. To begin with, Kennelly provided his background and the process of becoming a police officer. Kennelly went to college for four years and graduate in Pennsylvania. In fact, he did not intend to become a police officer. He went out and explored a variety of interest including engineering and other IT related field. However, he became a fireman when he was fifteen so public safety was his main interest. He had a slight interest in being an engineer at first, but he does not enjoy sitting around at a desk. He dislikes doing stuff and working in an office building. He prefers to hold a career that is more physical. Ultimately, he became a police officer when he was twentyyear-old.

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The requirements for police officer applications vary from state to state. When Kennelly first applied for police officer in South Carolina, a high school diploma or G.E.D would be needed, and the federal law requires the applicant to be 21 years or older. They would run a background check and do a psychological test on the applicant. He also mentioned that one of the requirements for becoming a police officer today is having some college experience; not necessarily a bachelor but some type of associate degree. Simultaneously, Kennelly provided his experience on police patrol duty and the everyday life of his job. According to his statement, there are six of them in the department, plus two supervisors which make it eight. There are eight police officers in the department because of campus size. They spend most of their time patrolling around the school. Everyone has his or her own responsibilities and does things differently. Before Kennelly moved to Penn State police department, he did not have his own office. He was based out of patrol car because it was issued to him on his first day of work. He literally had to live out of the car unless he needed to go to the station to do certain types of paperwork and to print out some documents. This type of work is telling me the police duties are not as simple as people think. When he mentioned that he had to live in a patrol car overnight on his first day of work, I knew the work would be very tough for him especially when he did not have his own office. Furthermore, Kennelly gave his perspective and observation about law enforcement in the U.S compared to other countries. According to his perspective, other countries have laws that function differently than the one in the U.S. For example, in Britain, they literally have unarmed officers. They may have a baton, but they don’t carry guns around. He stated that it is a good mix here when compared to other impoverished countries. He couldn’t imagine driving around without a gun or other armed weapons just because the law forbids him to do so. However, he

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implied that sometimes using less lethal equipment like taser and pepper spray may be the best option when guns are not necessary. Innocent people can get hurt or even killed by guns, and that can cause many problems in the police department. Taser is the best equipment to use in many situations. I learned that many countries have different types of gun control than we do and people in the U.S may not be familiar with it. Additionally, Kennelly feels that he has the same reaction as other people about the phrases “Black lives matter.” He feels that the community is being underrepresented in a lot of ways. The problem is, a lot of places where these things happened, the big cities, the minority officers tend to outweigh the white officers. He was pointing out that in a black community, the whole police department is white. They showed programs where they tried to get minorities to come to join, but nobody went to work there because of two possible reasons: the pay wasn’t good, or because, according to Kennelly, “a lot of black officers will tell you that the black community is not owned by black officers because they feel like they're being betrayed by sergeant.” One of the guys he worked with on a regular basis was black, yet he was exiled from the rest of the black community. Also, Kennelly mentioned that the crime rate will be a lot higher in a poorer neighborhood: “Does it matter whether white, black, blue, purple? It doesn't matter what color the criminal or what race they are. That is the truth, because, you know, when you're poor, you are more desperate for whatever reason.” I agree with this statement because the problem is, especially in this country, the black population is the most impoverished population among all other races because of socio-economic issues. Kennelly used to work in the area in a white and black community. There is very little money in that whole community, and it is segregated as well. It was just this neighborhood was specifically white and black, and it was all poor. And they had

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the same amount of crime in both communities. It was not like the black population was coming over stealing from the white or the white population coming to see on black. It was just all the same. He also pointed out that the problem with the movement “Black lives matter” is they sometimes turn into an anti-police movement. The movement would put down the police officers all over the media and in public during the protest. The problem is people watch TV, and they watch the news. Since the news only shows sensational things, they will view all police officers as a threat of the community because the news mostly shows the negative images of them. Whenever the police officers want to get involved, it turns into chaos. By the end of the day, everyone’s lives matter. The main problem of the community is not because of race. Poverty tends to be the driving factor for the crime. In general, police officers are not trying to ruin people’s life. Their job is to protect everybody. They may be harsh from time to time because that is one of their responsibilities. Most of the time, they put themselves in a dangerous position. Officer Kennelly changed my perspective on police officers. They should be presented with honor and respect because they are serving the community and changing for the best....