Criminal Justice. Essay

Criminal Justice. Essay

When asking yourself why there is so much mistrust between the public and today’s police system, first you have to look at the public as a whole. A large amount of these people are uneducated, and an even larger portion is that come in regular contact with police. For the most part these people see how the police look and act like in movies and television shows, and they expect actual police officers to behave in a similar way. This image of police is called the “crime fighter”, and it is a common misconception the public has.
In a perfect world the police would behave in the crime fighter persona. They would charge in and take complete control of a situation, take out the bad guy in dramatic fashion and top it off with a catchy line while placing him in cuffs. However, this is the real world and the police have to take precaution when dealing with a rough situation. In the real world a rational decision made by a cop, as often seen on television, could end up with the criminal being let off due to a technicality. It is extremely important that officers use precaution when dealing with a dangerous situation, and not the crime fighter approach.
When people see police taking care of a problem in a way different than how cops from the movies do it, they begin to question if they are doing anything at all. When people get pulled over for something minor such as a speeding ticket and the cop acts in a rude and suspicious manner it hurts their reputation. People begin to think “don’t they have anything more important to do?” Small things like this have a huge effect on how the general public views the police as a whole. They think that cops should be out looking for bad guys like they see on television, when in reality the majority of what they do is traffic violations and different things of that nature.
In my opinion the biggest factor in why there is so much mistrust in the police system has got to be the media. So many times I have seen the police being...

Similar Essays