Police System in the United States

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Police System in the United States

Policing in the United States is responsibility of federal state and local agencies.

Law enforcement agencies employed approximately 800,459 people in 1990, nearly half the total number of people employed in the nation's criminal justice system. Private security and citizen crime prevention programs are now an important part of the system.

The smallest police departments in the United States are bureaucracies. They function largely along the lines of a military command structure, with military ranks, and insignia. Patrol officers are responsible to their sergeants, sergeants to lieutenants, lieutenants to captains, captains to inspectors, inspectors to their chief or director. A sergeant's span of control might consist of six to ten patrol officers. The unity of command principle dictates that each officer take orders only from the sergeant. There will always be officers of equal rank. For example, all section heads may be captains, while all unit heads may be lieutenants.

Within a police department organization, the division of labour is based on needs, expertise, and experience; it is reflected in responsibilities, assigned to various bureaus such as operations bureau services, bureau of internal affairs. The operations bureau of a department performs the functions associated with the primary enforcement mission of the department. These are referred to as line functions, and the police involved in them are called line officers. Nearly three - quarters (73,4%) of all police personnel in large municipal departments work in 'operations'.

In large forces, line activities are assigned to bureaus or divisions, which typically include patrol, traffic, detective, juvenile, and vice units. The patrol division is the largest, it delivers the bulk of crime prevention and law enforcement services.

Specialized training and expertise are required for work in detective bureaus of larger municipal departments, such as homicide, burglary and theft.

The services bureau (or bureaus) provide technical services to assist in the execution of line functions, such as keeping records and maintaining a crime laboratory services provided in the administration bureau include those that relate to the running of the department as an organization: personnel, finance, and research and development.The internal affairs is responsible for receiving and investigating charges against the police.

Among the most frequent complaints are those of police brutality and abuse of power. The internal investigation (internal affairs) unit is responsible for investigating complaints filed by citizens and incidents reported by police officers themselves.

The Bureau of Community Services establishes better relations between police and community. Many departments established a special division for this purpose.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-11