The essay “Appropriate Police Response”

Write a 4 page essay on Appropriate Police Response.

The essay “Appropriate Police Response” tackles and discusses some of the most pressing issues facing the police on any given day during their tour of duty. In addition to having one of the highest suicide rates of any profession, police force members face daily risks which put life and limb in danger.

Three major factors in police response are communications, use of force and professional community relations. Communications aspect is a very critical component of any police response to calls for help in emergency situations. This is because the responders have to judge correctly the situation before going in, such as a hostage situation. The point is that a police officer has to read the situation correctly in terms of its riskiness, analyze the threats to the public and to the police officer himself without resorting to unnecessary force. If the situation is diffused peacefully, then so much the better. Another case is when an officer sees a teenager carrying a knife in a dark and deserted alley but who has failed to respond when told to stop and drop the knife. This situation calls for a quick but critical thinking by asking a few questions: is the teenager a mentally-challenged youth who did not understand what he was doing, is the youth hearing-impaired and did not hear the police officer or is this a young man newly arrived in America and does not understand even a few simple, basic English words? If mishandled, this situation can escalate and perhaps even turn tragic if miscommunication occurs.