Police Role Description in the Media

Essay by lovetofishhUniversity, Bachelor'sA, May 2008

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This paper is going to discuss four different police role descriptions from the media: (a) the Crime Fighter, (b) Social Servant, (c) Order Maintainer, and (d) Crime Preventer. From these four roles we will discuss whether they are a "real" or "image" depicted, and then conclude with good media relation strategies.

The first story is of a Crime Fighter. In Tampa, Florida a deputy sheriff was fired, and all of his pending cases might be tainted after an internal investigation showed he might have wrongfully arrested drivers. An internal review showed that he might have falsified reports to portray innocent people as impaired drivers. He arrested more than 300 motorists on impaired driving charges from October 2005 to October 2006 (Associated, 2007). He did not record the incidents on his in car video camera for 40 percent of those cases. In other cases, the video evidence does not match his reports.

Prosecutors already have dropped charges in 65 of those cases. The officials said he failed to follow standard procedures after DUI arrests. He relied on his memory to write reports and conducted DUI investigations with suspects in his patrol car. This story to me fits the real life role of a police officer who was doing what he was supposed to be doing, but got caught not following the proper procedures for doing so. (Associated, 2007)The second story relates to that of a Social Servant. Police officers are being trained to deal with homeless people exhibiting unstable behavior. Instead of dragging a homeless person to jail or calling an ambulance, police officers are learning how to identify signs of mental illness and ask a series of questions that allow them to connect them to more appropriate services. The police say hundreds could be directed to the right assistance to...