Literature Review on "Police Officers Are Faced With the Possibility"

Literature Review 4 pages (1160 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

police officers are faced with the possibility of encountering life-and-death decisions that require split-second decisions every time they respond to a call or encounter a crime in progress. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of police officers in the United States exercise the training and best judgment in admirable ways to avoid using lethal force, even if the situation might justify it. In some isolated cases, though, police officers have used excessive force and these incidents typically receive a great deal of media attention. For example, the well publicized police treatment of Rodney King in 1991 that was broadcast repeatedly on national television brought the issue of police brutality to the forefront of the debate over what levels of physical force should be allowed to be used by law enforcement authorities in the United States as well as the role of the media in covering these types of events (Sigelman, Welch, Bledsoe & Combs, 1997). In this regard, Lawrence (2001) emphasizes that, "Police use of physical force is a particularly controversial issue in American crime fighting. Given the considerable ambiguity that surrounds the issue, whether police use of force is presented as police brutality and whether brutality is understood as a problem depend greatly upon which voices and views the media emphasize" (p. 18).

This observation suggests that the manner in which the media portrays an alleged case of police brutality will go a long way in shaping public opinion about the event, whether or not the police officer or officers that were involved were actually guilty of using excessive force or not. These are vital issues because public support for the police is an important part of community police work, and to the extent that local citizens view their police force in the negative light that high-profile instances of police brutality create is likely the extent to which such support will not be forthcoming. For example, according to Ross, "Individuals who have never had an unsatisfactory encounter with the police are generally supportive of the police or at least ambivalent and if we believe that public perceptions that excessive use of force is common are inaccurate, then efforts are needed to educate the public about the realities of police work and the infrequency of abuse of force" (2000, p. 5).

The definition provided by Devine, Hansen, Wilde and Poole (1999) indicate that broad scope of behaviors that can be characterized as being police brutality: "Police brutality occurs whenever police officers abuse their power by using excessive force against civilians. The category encompasses acts of violence and acts that violate human dignity, including unjustified police shootings of civilians, beatings and chokings of suspects in custody, and methods of inflicting physical or psychological suffering on detainees" (1999, p. 263). Clearly, these types of behaviors and actions on the part of law enforcement authority constitute violations of basic human rights as well as the fundamental constitutional protections afforded all Americans by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment, but this definition of police brutality has frequently been expanded by the media to include the use of lethal force by police, even when that force was later found to be justified (Lawrence, 2001).

Despite the relatively isolated and infrequent nature of police brutality in the United States, these events continue to receive an enormous amount of attention from the mainstream media. For example, Mayer emphasizes that, "Recent incidents of police brutality have kept the issue prominent in national news. In November [2007], Sean Bell, a… READ MORE

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