Essay Example on Police Task Forces: Changes, Challenges & Strategies

Over the years, there have been changes in various police task forces in different countries globally. Different countries have new guidelines and regulations that oversee the police force's overall performance toward the implementation of different law enforcement strategies, as stated in the constitution that oversee the security of individuals in every society. With the introduction of new changes in the police force, there are emergences of various challenges that make it hard for police officers to effectively carry out their duties of ensuring strictness in law enforcement within the society or the whole country in general. The changes introduced, especially in the United States, pose various challenges in the overall management of the police force, thus making it hard to meet the police task force's intended goals and objectives. These changes affect how police officers' recruiting is carried out in various police task forces in different countries and cause the alteration of the constitutional rights of officers in various departments within the police force that function to ensure that there is security for all members of the society.

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There are currently changes in various police hiring agencies that dictate how the hiring of police candidates is carried out to fill the gap of officers needed for a complete police task force ready for the intended security purpose. In the United States, there has been an introduction of new qualification requirements for one to qualify to be a candidate for recruitment into the [police task force. In the past 50 years, joining the police task force in the United States was easy because the recruitment process was done based on facts on family how an individual had influence in the society, and how an individual had a built body that seemed energetic and able to carry out heavy load tasks that required much strength (Ermasova rt al., 2020). The current qualifications have introduced educational changes to the existing qualifications to join the police force. A police candidate has to have a diploma in the final high school examination or a GED grade that shows an individual has attained a particular grade in a specific field or profession of study. Police recruiting agencies prefer recruiting candidates with an associate's degree, bachelor's degree, or a certain number of credits from post-secondary school education. It has led to a reduction in the overall number of candidates seeking employment in the police force, thus making it hard for law enforcement organizations such as the police force and law courts to carry out their law enforcement responsibilities effectively. With a limited number of candidates in the police force due to the introduction of strict educational requirements, it is difficult for law enforcement organizations to effectively involve themselves in the law enforcement process (Bauer, 2020).

The introduction of an individual's educational requirements to qualify as a candidate ready for recruitment into the police task force is a good idea. Education is essential since it ensures that an individual can make informed decisions before doing anything that can negatively affect the end. The current educational requirement for individuals to qualify to become a police candidate in countries such as the United States is reasonable since it ensures that people from all academic levels can be eligible to serve the country in the police force and help in the law enforcement process (Schafer, 2019). Educational requirement is essential in the recruitment process since it ensures that the candidate recruited into the law enforcement organizations can behave well and be responsible for the tasks assigned to them in the law enforcement process. Recruiting candidates who do not have any educational achievement is challenging because it makes it hard to gauge their intelligence to determine whether they can make informed decisions in the law enforcement process. Apart from introducing new requirements for candidates to qualify for recruitment into the police force to help in law enforcement, law courts put in place restrictions on the constitutional rights of police officers that help in the law enforcement process in various states (Bauer, 2020). In the United States, the Constitution allows officers to use their power to punish wrongdoers after being arrested. Still, the federal courts do not allow officers to punish those who do wrong after being arrested during law enforcement. In countries such as the United States, federal courts deny officers the right to use public resources. In most cases, offices from the government use public resources to benefit themselves without considering the possible consequences of the things they do instead of actively participating in the law enforcement process (Bauer, 2020). The new educational requirements help ensure that recruiting organizations that select candidates to join the police force are the ones that are able to make wise decisions in the field of operation in the process of law enforcement (Bauer, 2020).

In law enforcement in various countries, some constraints hinder the law enforcement process's effectiveness due to the various challenges that the constraints bring. These constraints include the limit of using force in law enforcement, detaining officers who violate state laws, and the annual discharging of law enforcers. The limit on the use of force in law enforcement is a significant challenge for law enforcement by police officers since most wrongdoers end up injuring law enforcers while they are at work because they know that the police are not allowed to use force in the law enforcement process. The constraints on the detention of law enforcers who go against state laws are a challenge that makes law enforcement operations to effectively take place due to fear among law enforcers that they might be detained for not adhering to state laws in the law enforcement process. While conducting law enforcement operations, officers work hard so that they can be able to get promotions to higher levels. In the United States, the constraint about the annual discharging of officers from their duties makes it hard for officers in law enforcement departments to work hard towards the success of law enforcement because, at the end of the day, they are not sure whether they will survive not losing their jobs (Bauer, 2020). The newly introduced constraints make it hard for officers to carry out various activities that define how they have to relate with the public in the law enforcement process (Schafer, 2019). It is hard for officers who carry out law enforcement to effectively carry out some activities since federal courts want them to behave under certain guidelines that give restrictions on the kind of activities they can participate in (Schafer, 2019).

Some conduct by junior police officers makes those in higher positions liable for such happenings, making them responsible and answerable to the state over law enforcement (Schafer, 2019). In the United States, the misconduct by the officer who led to the death of a black American, George Floyd, made the supervisors of the police officers who were responsible for the death answerable to why the officers had such misconduct to the extent of mishandling a suspect. The supervisors of the officers who killed George Floyd were answerable for the officers' transgression under their jurisdiction (Jarrell and Perman, 2020). Supervisors are responsible for any misconduct by junior officers because they are the ones who give orders on the kind of force they have to use in law enforcement. In the United States, recently, there has been a recent occurrence of an event where some junior officers were shooting at a gang of robbers who had robbed a wholesale shop in Texas and ended up shooting an innocent pedestrian walking along the street where the shooting was taking place. The supervisors were answerable for the happening since they are the ones who give instructions to the junior officers on what to do, especially when handling critical conditions in the law enforcement process (Schafer, 2019). Supervisors in the field of law enforcement face challenges when junior officers carrying out law enforcement misbehave in their respective fields of operation. The case on the death of George Floyd and the shooting in Texas are an indication of how junior officers destroy the reputation of their supervisors by doing acts that are against the guidelines that oversee the overall law enforcement process within a state (Schafer, 2019). In summary, the current changes in the recruitment process for candidates in the law enforcement process have gone through changes that seek to ensure effectiveness in law enforcement. Supervisors in law enforcement have to ensure that they can caution junior officers from misconduct since they are the ones who are held responsible in case of such happenings.

References

Bauer, N. M. (2020). The Qualifications Gap: Why Women Must be Better Than Men to Win Political Office. Cambridge University Press.

Ermasova, N., Cross, A. D., & Ermasova, E. (2020). Perceived Stress and Coping Among Law Enforcement Officers: an Empirical Analysis of Patrol Versus Non-patrol Officers in Illinois, USA. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 1-16.

Jarrell, B. E., & Perman, J. A. (2020). Statements on the Death of George Floyd.

Schafer, J. (2019). Police Leadership in the United States. In Police Leadership (pp. 231-254). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.