Important Challenges And Opportunities For The Police Criminology Essay

Important Ch aloneenges And Opportunities For The constabulary Criminology EssayPolicing is an chief(prenominal) practice which has been around for comfortably-nigh eras. In England a system of sheriffs, reeves, and investigative juries had developed under the Anglo-Saxons to provide basic security and law of nature en fiercenessment. In 1829, the metropolitan Police Act had been passed by Parliament, This promoted the preventive role of law as a deterrent to urban plague and dis ordinance. Since then policing has get a vital part in society. As it is now the 21st century, the Police is faced with saucy important ch everyenges and opportunities.This essay is going to look at what the most important challenges and opportunities of the practice of law in the 21st century be. The briny topics which will be rivet on will be creation perceptions and community relations of the law of nature, jurisprudence equality and diversity, the egress of technical surveillance, the i mpact of world-wideisation and the war on terror. These are the most important challenges and opportunities faced by the police and it is es directial to see wherefore they are important and this essay will seek to explore this. unity of the most important challenges and opportunities for the police in the 21st century is the public perception of the police. It has been seen as a concern by Metropolitan Police Commissi one(a)r Sir Ian Blair who has voiced his concerns about the publics perception of the role of the police in todays society (Source No Author, 2008 bbc.co.uk)The media plays a huge part in community relations as they confirm the power to enforce ideas in raft through all types of media, e.g. films, newlys and TV programmes. The medias portrayal of policing is pose with both positive and negative representations. A complex relationship exists amongst media consumption and public attitudes towards the police.Police on routine foot patrol have been posture in plac e so that it makes the public feel safe knowing that on that point are some authority to keep things in order should the need arise, and alike allows the police an opportunity to be able to engage with the public by damages trust from them. An experiment was conducted The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment and the results had shown that while foot patrol may non have reduced a huge matter of crimes, however it did reduce citizens fear of crime, the residents matt-up safer and felt like it was a better place to live and were contented with police services. (Source policefoundation.org) A hand-picked team from CO19, the Metropolitan Polices elite firearms unit, will walk in gun crime hotspots where armed gangs have turned correct estates into no go zones, this organismness a huge challenge for the police in order to get it on down gang crime etc they have been placed there for routine foot patrol this being an important opportunity for the police to tackle this issue of gang crime and any other crimes on the streets in the 21st century. (Source Moore M, 2009. www.telegraph.co.uk)As the public perception is vital and is an important challenge to tackle, it has been seen however, in 2009 a Policing Pledge was introduced by every police force. The Pledge is a set of promises made by the police where they reflect on what the public have said they most unavoidableness from their policing services, a set of requests, for fashion model this scheme has promised that emergency 999 calls will be answered withinten seconds, and that help will be sent immediately (Source homeoffice.gov.uk 2009). Also an independent Police Complaints Commission Police Reform Act 2002 had been put in place in case of police having done something which the public are not entirely satisfied with.The shoes office states that Diversity is defined as difference, everyone is different in cost of quicken, gender, disability, sexual orientation, reliance and age, plenty have varied and eq ually valuable skills, knowledge and experience to put forward. Gender and race have been a challenge for the police in the 21st century, not only in terms of crime but also within the policing institute for example employment for the police. After the uproar of Stephen Lawrences outrage in 1993, police have found themselves with many opportunities to rectify their mistakes by tackling Racism as one of the police forces main priority. Quite a few members of the general public have lost all faith in the police, the police are challenged to change this and have the opportunity to help people when dealing with racist crimes. The human rights commission delineate highlighted that there was a disproportionate number of Black people and Asian people being stopped and searched. Figures in 2007/08 shows 1,035,438 stop and searches were carried out by the police and of the people that had been stopped and searched, figures indicate that 13% were Black, 8% were Asian and 3% mixed ethnicity . (Source Statistics on Race and the woeful Justice System 2007/8)Gender and racism within the policing institution are major challenges for the police as there is quite a difference between male and female police officers and also between white and ethnic minority police officers. One of the concerns that had been highlighted in the Equality and Human Rights Commission report showed high resignation rates and dismissals within ethnic minority psyches than white officers within the first 6 months of service, showing that there is an inequality here. 36,187 of the 144,274 officers in England and Wales were female, representing 25.1 per cent of the total, compared with 24.2 per cent in March 2008. Compared to male officers this is a small figure. The proportion of women in the more senior ranks of Chief Inspector and above was 13.0 per cent. As at 31 March 2009, there were 6,310 minority ethnic police officers in England and Wales, accounting for 4.4 per cent of all officers compare d with 4.1 per cent in March 2008. (Source Mulchandani Sigurdsson 2009 Pg. 5). in that respects a sense of a canteen culture amongst the police force, this is where there are negative perceptions on the part of police against women and minorities, This term is generally applied to describe the attitudes of some of the lower ranks of the British police force who resist change and are comfortable with what the inquiry into the send off of Stephen Lawrence called the Metropolitan Polices institutional racism.As it is now the 21st century, the police have been trying to tackle this challenge. A huge recruitment campaign was carried out by the police to increase the diversity of the police force. There has been an increase on recruitment with ethnic minorities wanting to be recruited to the forces figure had risen to 12.3 Percent in 2007/08 compared to the 8.4 Percent in 2003/04. (Source Police and Racism Report Pg 13)Globalisation has become an important challenge and also has made a huge impact for policing, The majority of police functions and practices pertain to local and regionally specialized matters of crime and order, However a large number of globalisation developments have crossed the boundaries of theme borders. As the nature of crime has become wide, it shows that crime has no limitations and the September 11th 2001 terrorist flaming in the united States is a good example of this. September 11th attacks isnt simply the main occurrence to the globalisation of policing, it was well underway due to many other forces which had occurred before. However since the September 11th attacks, the globalisation of policing did change. Although these attacks happened in the join States it shocked the whole world making the unite Kingdom also a prime purpose (Ritzer, G Pg 380). This fear further emerged even more so later on the July 7th 2005 bombings in London. This didnt become just an issue for individual nations but it became a Global issue. The polici ng agencies are facing these challenges with the criminal judge and policing systems which are made to police the citizens in a national context.Police institutions are legitimated in the national states context. As a result, there is a persistence of nationality in international policing in at least three ways. Police institutions rather engage unilaterally in international activities without assistance from police of other nations. The 20th century mostly focuse on fugitives from justice who had committed violent and property crimes. otherwise periods later saw the important shift towards the policing of drugs crimes and the control of illegal immigration. From 21st century and with extreme force since the events of September 11, 2001, international terrorism and technologically advanced crimes, such as cyber crimes and international money wash schemes, have become the leading focus in international policing. (Source Deflem, M Pg 972) The need to deal with the global issues rel ating to terrorism has come into conflict with keeping open borders to facilitate international economic transactions. The national glide slope to these challenges faced in the UK had revolved around security services in policing, expanded the use of projection screen policing activities, setting up agreements like bi-lateral and international teams with the UK and USA. The challenge faced by the police would be secure that international laws are abided to and being able to apply new laws that could help deal with other countries.The Home Office are responsive to the challenges the police have to meet in the 21st century and want to build our ability to fight global threats such as drugs, trafficking, illegal immigration and the growth of globalisation of crime and terrorism which produced a real security threat to its growth. Global crime control is change to an extent in various ways, however one challenge that the police face is that there is a great fear of threats to civil and human rights posed by these policing methods such as more meddling surveillance technologies. (Source Ritzer, G Pg 380).Due to the growth of technological surveillance it has given the police an opportunity to fleck crime and this has aided them to achieve this. Surveillance is the monitoring of the behaviour, activities, or other changing information. Its an observation of individuals or groups by government organizations. Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) is an example of this. CCTV is seen as a vital part of the policing toolkit. Its prophylactic device power, allowing officers to pre-empt trouble, its use as an extra pair of eyes or for intelligence gathering and the deterrent centre were all seen as benefits by the police. Many officers spoke about the measure-saving power of CCTV. The reported high number of arrests in CCTV-related incidents points to the efficiency in the use of CCTV, if police are able to make arrests quickly this saves time in investigating an incid ent. (Source Levesley T Martin A 2005 Pg. 11)One of the challenges faced by the police is that CCTV cameras are a controversial issue, and that people feel as though they have no privacy as they are being constantly watched like big brother. The growth of technological surveillance is an important opportunity for the police in the 21st century as it has given them the chance to develop new ways to bit crime, for example terrorism, it is to help members of the public feel safer.CCTV isnt the only form of technological surveillance which has helped the police in combating crime. There are also audio surveillance technologies, these are used to monitor a room, an individual person, or a telephone conversation. Electronic eavesdropping may be defined as intercepting conversations without the knowledge or consent of the participants. The most commonly used form is wiretapping, the interception of telephone or telegraph messages this is a new form of surveillance technology used a lot i n the 21st century which is a important opportunity for the police, audio surveillance technologies in 21st century are mainly used as a tool for counter terrorism.The War on Terror is the campaign that was launched by the United States of America, and was supported by United Kingdom, NATO and other countries. The campaign had started in answerion to the September 11th, 2001 attacks and had stated that the main objective was to abolish international terrorism. (Source Deflem, M Pg 972).The war on terror is probably the most important challenge that the police have faced in the 21st century so far, especially after September 11th attacks and the July 7th bombings in London. These attacks shocked the nation by the significant number of controls, checks and regulations that were put in place. Terrorist activity can come from a range of sources and counter terrorist policing has been a huge priority. act of terrorism involves extraordinary violence. It is intentional and it is to creat e massive fear which involves a planned attack for a purpose. That is why terrorism is one of the most important challenges for police as like September 11th which 2,973 victims and the 19 hijackers died as a result of the attacks. Also the July 7th bombing in London has made a huge priority for the police to ensure that people in the U.K are safe and to prevent such destruction from occurring again a counter terrorism strategy has been put in place.The globalisation of crime and terrorism has produced a growing threat. In order to respond to these threats, the UK came up with a Counter terrorism strategy known as CONTEST. CONTEST main focus over the next 5 days is about reducing all threats and vulnerability in the UK. What Global terrorism has demonstrated in the retiring(a) few years is that it is unlikely to consider that all security efforts will deny every attack every time. Thus the most practical approach is to cheer cities as far as potential in doing so by reducing safe ty and security threats, risks and vulnerabilities. If an incident were to occur, then the mission is to react effectively, this being a huge challenge for the police in 21st century. (Source security.homeoffice.gov.uk)One of the future challenges the police will have to face is the 2012 Olympic Paralympic Games in London. Its a challenge of security whereby they need to protect London and its guests over the 90 or so days of the Games from all types of threats including potential terrorist attacks.To conclude it is liberate to see that the police face many important challenges and opportunities in the 21st century. One of the prime aspects being the topic of terrorism and this is because it is a huge threat and has the ability to cause major destruction. It is a new challenge which has emerged in the 21st century for the police whereas the other factors mentioned in this essay have existed as challenges for the police industry before the 21st Century. From this essay it is eviden t to see that there is a growth of technological surveillance which has been put into practice in order to control threats like terrorism. Having said this, all the challenges and opportunities mentioned in this essay are important for the police in the 21st century and should be seen as opportunities in which to regain public favour and trust.