Capstone wk5 Michael Smith

Literature Review

Rashieda NasifDavis

Argosy University

Literature Review

Introduction

Police in the society are necessary to help maintain law and order in the society and ensure that the welfare of the community is enhanced. The police are therefore organized to manage any criminal issues facing the community effectively. The criminal activities in the community occur in many forms such as organized gang crimes, petty crimes, reckless driving, drug trafficking, and terrorism among other forms of crime. Due to the many forms of crime existing in the community, the police force has been organized in many different specialized units with each tasked and trained to deal with a particular form of crime optimally (Mijares, 2008). Some of the specialized units in the police force include the traffic police, SWAT police, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement agencies among others. Each of the specialized units has been trained to handle specific crimes optimally and provided with technology and tools that are efficient for their role. The discussion below aims at providing information on the importance of police organization into various specialized units by highlighting various article findings.

The paper below is guided by the question, what is the importance of police organization into various specialized units? The importance of the topic is to help the society understand the need for having various units in the police force dealing with various forms of crime and not just having any police officer handle any crime occurring in the community. The discussion will help to justify the resource allocation to different police units by indicating the vital importance of these units in the community. Additionally, the topic is of importance to the policy makers in the criminal justice system to ensure that they have a deeper understanding of the need for the units and thus make policies that will help improve the efficiency of the units.

Literature Review

Training

According to an article by the Victoria Police (2017), police training only equips the officers with general duty skills and further training is required to helps the police acquire specialized skills to handle more complex issues. Specialized units require further training of and some experience of between 2-4 years to effectively handle cases arising. The information provided is that specialized units which are listed as detectives, dog units, crowd control, highway patrol, and prosecutors. The article highlights that the specialized units require special training inferring the importance of the specialized units in the police force.

Queensland Police (2017) provides that a police needs to serve for a minimum of three years in general police duties before applying for a specialized training course. The article backs up what is provide by the Victoria Police indicating the specialized police training is taken as an important and crucial training for the police. General police duties and roles provide a police officer with skills that are important for advancing to special unit officer where one is trained further on various special skills. The fact that the special units require more experience and skills than the general police units indicate that the special units in the police force are important and more effective as they use police officers that are more experienced and trained compared to the normal police.

Blaney (2009) highlights that the need for specialized police units in the society is caused by the changing practices and organization of the community. The author provides that in 2005 Muriel McQueen Center for Family Violence Research worked with Fredericton Police Force to create a training program for police officers that will be responding to family violence calls. The training was developed as a result of the changing social practices where gamily violence are increasing creating the need for a special force to deal with the issue. Using focus groups for evaluating the impact of the training program developed, Blaney provides that the training helped the police to rethink their approach to family violence crime and improve their efficiency in handling the case. Blaney also provides that partnerships or support helps to make the police training successful and to have more impact on law enforcement.

Need for Efficiency

Weisel (2011) raises the idea that specialized gang units in the society help to increase the efficiency of dealing with gang crimes in the community. In reference to community policing, the author argues that the specialized gang units complement community policing in managing gang crimes. In fact, specialized gang units help to provide data that is used in dealing with gang crimes in the society thus helping to solve and identify the various crimes that are perpetrated by gangs in the society. The authors argues that contrary to the society fears that creation of many police units makes coordination of the units difficult and hampers policing functions, the specialized gang units helped the community in dealing with gangs more effectively and efficiently than when the special units was not created.

Supporting Weisel (2011) argument, Katz (2001) argues that the creation of specialized gang units in the society has benefitted the society by improving the ability of the police to combat gang crime. The author further provides that the specialized units in the police force are formed as a result of community pressure on the police to indicate its legitimacy and rationalize its ability of dealing with crime. Katz (2001) provides that the specialized gang units are created to improve the efficiency of the police in curbing gang crimes in the community since the specialized units have special skills and resource to handle gang crimes.

Causes of forming Police Units

The police structure and organization has changed in many aspects according to Kraska (2007). The police change in structure and organization began in the 20th century and continues to take place even in the 21st modern society. Like Katz (2001), Kraska point out the fact that the police force has changed to increase the efficiency of the police in handling crime providing one of the changes as militarization of the police. The police are increasingly borrowing their tactics and practices from the military and creating police units that are founded on the military models. For example, the US SWAT team is primarily based on the military approaches except that it is regulated to avoid killing indiscriminately or unnecessarily. Kraska points that. Although the creation of the special units aims at improving the efficiency of the police it also serves to respond to the changing times and society.

Katz, Maguire, & Roncek (2002) provide three theories that explain the need for the creation of the specialized police units taking the belief by Blaney (20090 that the specialized units are formed as a response to certain social changes. The contingency theory asserts that the specialized units are formed to help the police function more efficiently and effectively. The special units in this case are argued to be formed to respond to increasing gang crimes in the society. Social threat theory on the hand asserts that the police units are formed due to emerging threats in the community while resource dependency theorists claim that the units are formed to sustain resources.

Partnerships in Special units

Hails & Borum (2003) argue that the special units in the police force are formed at times due to partnerships that help to manage various police functions. The authors argue that the police in the modern society receive numerous call that involve person with psychiatric problems therefore the need for a specialized police unit to handle such people. 325 of police agencies have units for dealing with people with mental problems which has resulted to creating partnership with psychiatrists to help respond to cases involving the mental ill people. Deane et al (1999) support the creation of partnership with the medical professionals to help the police deal with the mentally ill people. According to Deane et al. (1999) alliances between the police special units and medical personnel improves the efficiency of the police in handling the people with mental illness issues.

Conclusion

The finding from the various articles reviewed above indicate that various police units are formed to help improve the efficiency of the police force, respond to pressures from society changes, and to take advantage of partnerships to improve the performance of the police. The training of the special units is often through and detailed to ensure that the trained police are reliable in managing the criminal activities they have been trained to handle. The findings emphasis on the papers research question on why it is important to have various police units in the police force.

References

Blaney, E. (2010). Police officers' views of specialized intimate partner violence training. Policing: an international journal of police strategies & management, 33(2), 354-375.

Deane, M. W., Steadman, H. J., Borum, R., Veysey, B. M., & Morrissey, J. P. (1999). Emerging partnerships between mental health and law enforcement. Psychiatric services, 50(1), 99-101.

Hails, J., & Borum, R. (2003). Police training and specialized approaches to respond to people with mental illnesses. NCCD news, 49(1), 52-61.

Katz, C. M. (2001). The establishment of a police gang unit: An examination of organizational and environmental factors. Criminology, 39(1), 37-74.

Katz, C. M., Maguire, E. R., & Roncek, D. W. (2002). The creation of specialized police gang units: A macro-level analysis of contingency, social threat and resource dependency explanations. Policing: an international journal of police strategies & management, 25(3), 472-506.

Kraska, P. B. (2007). Militarization and policing—Its relevance to 21st century police. Policing: a journal of policy and practice, 1(4), 501-513.

Mijares, T. C. (2008). The management of police specialized tactical units. Charles C Thomas Publisher.

Queensland Police. (2017). Specialised Areas. Retrieved from http://www.policerecruit.qld.gov.au/whatWeOffer/Specialised-Areas.htm

Victoria Police. (2017). Specialist Roles | About the Role | Police Members | Victoria Police. Retrieved from http://www.policecareer.vic.gov.au/police/about-the-role/specialist-roles1

Weisel, D. L. (2011). Specialized gang units: Form and function in community policing. DIANE Publishing.