How Do Police Protect Us?

Figure 1: Officer Karen is here to protect and inform!

 Have you ever wondered about the life of a police officer? What do they do for their communities? How do they protect us and fight crime? What do they learn to help them do this? Luckily, Officer Karen (Figure 1) has come to tell us all about her experience as an officer of the law! Just like you have your chores to do at home, Officer Karen has her own list of responsibilities.

Upholding the Law

Police officers must uphold the law. Laws are rules put in place by a community to make sure everything runs smoothly and that everyone acts in a way that won't harm anyone else. Laws make our society happy and safe. There are two types of laws: criminal and civil. Criminal laws are made to prevent wrongful actions, and civil laws are made to help settle disagreements (1). Officer Karen works to help prevent criminal laws from being broken, and gives out punishments when they are. Certain criminal laws have harsher punishments than others, and these are called felonies (2). Felonies are very serious crimes and people who commit these crimes go to jail for a long time. It is Officer Karen's job to arrest these people and make sure they don't do it again. Many factors come into play with a criminals sentencing (the announcement of a person's punishment), but some of the harshest crimes can result in jail for the rest of a person's life! She also arrests people for misdemeanors, which are also serious, but can have less harsh punishments like short jail time or community service (2). These people may only have to go to jail for 1 or 2 years, and/or spend time picking up trash in their community. One of the most common parts of Officer Karen's job is to give out infractions, or violations of less serious crimes, and the punishment for these crimes are usually for the person to pay a fee (2). While your responsibilities may be to make sure that your room is clean and your bed is made, it is Officer Karen's responsibility to make sure that people who break the law are punished.

Why Do Officers Want to Protect and Serve?

Figure 2: Values are a person's moral principles

Police work should be done by a person with good values (Figure 2). This means that police officers are expected to do the right thing. Police officers must have integrity (3). A person with integrity is a person who is honest and moral. Police officers must have integrity because we are trusting them to protect us and make sure our communities are safe, and no one would want that responsibility to lie with an untrustworthy person. It's also important for Officer Karen to value human life (3). This is important because when she values the life of all people, even criminals, she will do her best to come out of dangerous situations without anyone getting hurt. Officer Karen is also expected to respect everyone's dignity. Dignity is the quality of being worthy of respect. All people are worthy of respect, and it's very important for an officer to treat everyone with respect. When Officer Karen talks to someone with respect, that person is more likely to respect her, too. This helps her do her job more effectively. Everyone has certain values that make them who they are and make them either good or bad people. Police officers are expected to hold values that make them very good people, because they hold a lot of responsibility and citizens want to be able to trust their police officers. Having integrity, valuing human life, and respecting the dignity of everyone are all traits that make an officer trustworthy.

How Do Officers Learn to Protect and Serve?

Officer Karen learned all of her skills for police work during her training. An officer's training is the foundation for everything they do. If police work is a skyscraper, training is the beams and walls that hold it up. During training, officers take classes and courses made to prepare them for their duties. One of Officer Karen's biggest duties is to arrest criminals. But before arresting a criminal, she must learn how to investigate a case. In her training, she learns how to open a case and use resources to find evidence to prove that her suspect actually did the crime (4). It is extremely important that Officer Karen makes sure she is not arresting an innocent person. You wouldn't want to be punished by your parents for breaking a plate if it was actually one of your siblings, would you? Just like that, no one wants to be arrested for a crime they didn't commit, and it's Officer Karen's job to make sure she only punishes guilty people. Another skill officers learn is how to protect themselves and others. Officer Karen is often put into dangerous situations, and she needs to know how to protect herself. Many people may see self-defense as a something where you only worry about protecting yourself, but Officer Karen's idea of self-defense is much more complicated. Police officers are tasked with protecting themselves without harming the person that is putting them in danger (5). Wow! That must be really hard. Could you imagine being hurt by a bully, but in order to protect yourself and restrain them, you had to do so without hurting them back? This is something Officer Karen has to consider almost every day. Police officers learn a variety of skills in their training, but making sure they only arrest the guilty and that they don't hurt anyone nor themselves are the most important skills they learn.


Thank Your Local Police Officers!

Police Officers put their communities first and live to protect and serve the citizens. They uphold the law and make sure that people who break the law are disciplined. Police departments are made up of people with integrity, dignity, and respect. They value all human life and work to make the safest community they can. They learn all the skills and qualities of a good police officer in their training, and this training is the key to their success. Your local police department works very hard to be the police force your community deserves, and to make your life safer and easier. Thank your Men (or Women!) in Blue today!



References

Officer Karen. [Photograph]. (2015). Retreived from http://rlv.zcache.com/future_police_officer_girl_cut_out-r6458bed58905471dbcd35265ad823b77_x7saw_8byvr_512.jpg

Values. [Photograph]. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.thecrewcoach.com/images/values_1.png

Officer. [Photograph]. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.clipartlord.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/policeman4.png

Badge. [Photograph]. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.foreign-trade.com/files/HS-029-S.jpg

(1) Commonwealth of Australia. (2011). Types of laws. Retrieved from http://www.civicsandcitizenship.edu.au/cce/pl_law_types,9538.html


(2) Nolo. (2015). Felonies, misdemeanors, and infractions: Classifying Crimes

(3) New York City Police Department. 2015. Mission. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/administration/mission.shtml

(4) New York City Police Department. 2015. Training bureau/police academy. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/police_academy/police_academy.shtml

(5) Lau, B. (2001). An introduction to police defensive tactics. Journal of Non-lethal Combatives. Retrieved from http://ejmas.com/jnc/