Police

• Purpose of the police

  • To prevent crimes or stop them, keep citizens safe and to educate
• Role of the police

  • To educate e.g. stranger danger

  Deal with speeding offences or vehicle offences

  Riot police

  Armed police

  Arrest individuals

  Police presence at large events

  Police protection for key individuals e.g. prime ministers, Queen
• Reasons why the police have a negative stigma

  • Sarah Everard case - police officer raped a civilian

  Statistics present idea that the police are institutionally racist as more stop and searches are conducted on ethnic minorities and there are disproportionate amount of ethnic minorities are in prison

  There is an impression that the police don't really help you if you are in trouble, the most you will get is a police reference number
• Community policing


  Police officers in areas of high population of ethnic minorities where the police officers are of the same ethnic minorities which allows people trust the police more as they understand their culture and language - common in urban areas
• Zero tolerance policing


  Used in areas of high crimes. This means the police arrest people for the smallest crimes e.g. littering, parking fines. The theory is that arresting people for smaller crimes prevents more serious crimes from happening.
• Powers of the police

  • Tasers

  Baton

  Handcuffs

  Pepper spray

  Guns - armed police

  Right to stop and search if they suspect you
• Stop and account


  You are stopped and questioned by the police but they don't have the power to force you to stay with them
• Taser


  Uses an electrical current to shun a person - causes a person to lose muscle control and fall to the ground - introduced in 2004 for armed police but all officers were allowed to use it in 2007
• ity report - black and asian men are more likely to be stopped and searched which shows that the police is institutionally racist
• Functionalists


  • Believe police force is positive as they maintain order and prevents chaos
  • The police are an agency of formal social control with severe sanctions
• Marxists


  • See the police as having 'selective law enforcement' whereby the police focus more on working class areas and the judiciary system prosecutes the working class and underclass more so
  • The system largely ignores the crimes of the elite and the middle class even though they are just as likely to commit crime
  • They have also been branded as institutionally racist which can be reflected by the disproportionate amount of ethnic minority individuals in prison
• Interactionists


  • Believe the police has a stereotypical image of what a criminal looks like
  • Argue that the police interpret and label working class and middle class behaviour e.g. fighting in poor neighbourhoods would be seen as delinquent but in wealthy areas it is seen as lively and in high spirits
  • The police have the power to create labels such as delinquent and deviant
• Over 54% of prisoners will reoffend
• Only 19% of prisoners are helped to find a job
• Only 20% were helped to get resettled into society after being in prison
• Only 28% of prisoners were in paid employment
• 33% of prisoners started taking class A drugs after being released from prison