Chapter 5

A suspect has barricaded himself in a home that police have surrounded. What technology would be of great use to the police in determining if there are other suspects and/or hostages in the house?

A thermal imager is a device that detects radiation in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum and is used in law enforcement to detect variations in temperature. Thermal imaging helps law enforcement officials detect everything from marijuana-growing operations to suspects hiding from officers during foot pursuits.

How does technology benefit police in a time of uncertain budgets?

Budget realities demand that police leaders make the most effective use of their forces, and technology seems to be one method of increasing productivity at a relatively low cost.

Which of the following would typically involve Customs and Border Protection (CBP)?

CBP patrols and protects the country's borders and points of entry, such as airports and seaports, to prevent terrorism, human and drug smuggling, illegal immigration, and agricultural pests from entering the United States, while improving the flow of legitimate trade and travel.

What primarily fueled tensions between the police and the public in the 1960s?

Civil unrest produced a growing tension between police and the public. African Americans, who were battling for increased rights and freedoms in the civil rights movement, found themselves confronting police lines, and when students across the nation began marching in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, local police departments were called on to keep order.

The central idea of community policing is to __________.

Community policing is a law enforcement program that seeks to integrate officers into the local community to reduce crime and gain good community relations. It typically involves personalized service and decentralized policing, citizen empowerment, and an effort to reduce community fear of crime, disorder, and decay.

In which scenario can crime mapping benefit police?

Computer mapping programs that can translate addresses into map coordinates allow departments to identify problem areas for particular crimes, such as drug dealing. Computer maps allow police to identify the location, time of day, and linkage among criminal events and to concentrate their forces accordingly.

Data mining is __________.

Data mining is when sophisticated computer software is used to conduct analysis of behavior patterns in an effort to identify crime patterns and link them to suspects.

What could have alleviated the problems faced by early municipal police forces in the United States?

Early police agencies were corrupt, brutal, and inefficient. The average officer had little training, no education in the law, and a minimum of supervision, yet the police became virtual judges of law and fact, with the ability to exercise unlimited discretion.

What was one purpose of the Wickersham Commission?

Formally known as the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, the Wickersham Commission, created in 1929 by President Herbert Hoover, was to study the U.S. criminal justice system, including the police, and make recommendations for improvement.

Which agency falls under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security?

ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is responsible for identifying and shutting down vulnerabilities in the nation's border, and for economic, transportation, and infrastructure security.

Over which of the following would the Secret Service typically have jurisdiction?

In addition to protecting high-level officials, the Secret Service is tasked with investigating counterfeiting and other financial crimes, including financial institution fraud, identity theft, computer fraud, and computer-based attacks on our nation's financial, banking, and telecommunications infrastructure.

Private police who conduct surveillance and search for information on behalf of a client are typically engaged in __________.

Intelligence policing is private detection. Private detectives' and investigators' work comes in a variety of forms, but they primarily collect information for a client. Most often this will involve interviewing individuals, conducting surveillance, and conducting searches for information.

The majority of the authorized law enforcement personnel in this country are:

Local police make up the majority of the nation's authorized law enforcement personnel. Today, local police departments have more than 477,000 sworn personnel.

What is helping to fuel the rise of private policing in some areas once handled by the federal government?

Private policing has become a multibillion-dollar industry, with well in excess of 10,000 firms and more than 2 million employees. Even some federal police services have been privatized to cut expenses.

This scenario would be more typically seen in a small, rural police department rather than the police department of a large metropolis?

Researchers have found, in fact, that rural policing relies heavily on informal mechanisms, rather than arrest, for dealing with unwanted behaviors. They have also found that officers engage citizens more informally and personably in such towns.

At what level of law enforcement does the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operate?

The ATF is a federal law enforcement agency that helps to control sales of untaxed liquor and cigarettes and has jurisdiction over the illegal sale, importation, and criminal misuse of firearms and explosives.

In what way did the Rodney King case force a reevaluation of police in America?

The King case prompted an era of reform. Several police experts decreed that the nation's police forces should be evaluated not on their crime-fighting ability but on their courteousness, behavior, and helpfulness. Police departments began to embrace new forms of policing that stressed cooperation with the community and problem solving; this is referred to as the community policing model.

What gave rise to the development of municipal police forces in the nineteenth century in the United States?

The modern police department was born out of widespread urban unrest and mob violence that wracked the nation's cities in the nineteenth century.

As private security companies expand and more come onto the market, why will there be increased legal scrutiny of them?

There will be more legal scrutiny as the private security business blossoms. A number of questions remain to be answered. One important issue is whether security guards are subject to the same search and seizure standards as police officers.