Introduction
All the police personnel have the right of legitimate use of force when carrying out their duty of enforcing the law. Compelling an individual to cooperate happens especially when the suspect resists an arrest. Use of force might be verbal, physical, lethal, or less lethal. The law states that any police officer should only resort to the use of force when controlling an incident, initiating an arrest, and protecting their interests, as well as those of the public. However, if the application of force results in injuries, the law provides that the police officer should ensure the affected receives medical aid and their families are notified in time.
The use of force varies from one country to the other because no universal law exists. However, the police department across Australia has been accused on various occasions for using excessive force leading to serious injuries, as well as deaths. The case of Kevin Spratt serves as an example as far as use of force in handling the culprit is concerned.
Research Focus
How did the use of force by the police affect trust in police based on Kevin Spratt taser affair and how Kevin Spratt taser affair was perceived within the discipline and within the wider community?
Public Perception on Aggressive Policing of Kevin Spratt Taser Affair
The use of force among police officers destroys public trust. Many people prefer hiring private investigators and sharing their information with other agencies, including lawyers, because they have no faith in the police. The case of Kevin Spratt intensified public hatred towards the police department because the rights of the accused were violated. This prompted the courts to intervene by sentencing two police officers even though the sentence did not restore public trust. The two theories explain why the members of the public loss belief in law enforcement agencies given the issues surrounding Kevin Spratt’s case due to his indigenous of lower social group in the society.
Causation and Correlation of Aggressive Policing as a Discipline Problem
A police officer may have many reasons to apply force in arresting suspected criminal, extracting information from a culprit, and compelling an individual to follow the law. First, any officer is legally allowed to employ minimum force in obtaining information from a suspect, as well as protecting the public interests. However, if a criminal is armed and poses a threat to other innocent citizens, the police officer has to do anything under his or her power to protect the populace, including injuring the aggressor. Several other factors that might cause deadly use of force in the course of policing include the emotional status of the officer and the prevailing conditions at that time.
Marxist Theory
Karl Marx talked about the class system, which influences the way the police officers deal with criminals in society. Marx went ahead to categorize criminals naming some as white-collar criminals. In his analysis, he observed that the higher the social status of an individual, the lower is its chances of being arrested by the police. It means that the law enforcers will always go for the less fortunate since it is suspected that they destabilize the social order.
For Marx, the social classes are always in conflict with the ruling class, also referred to as the owners of means of production. He also claimed that the poor, otherwise known as the proletariats, are the main cause of instabilities in the society because they engage in various forms of crime, such as mugging, smuggling of items, drug trafficking, carjacking, and robberies. On the other hand, the proletariat is always of the view that the rich hamper their life chances because they are paid lowly, something that does not allow them to enjoy their lives.
Labeling theory
Criminologists effectively apply the labeling theory in explaining crime because law enforcers believe that the lower classes in society as well as the members of certain races are prone to committing offences. For instance, the black race in the United States and other countries in Europe are accused of drug abuse and human trafficking while the Japanese are believed to be money launders. The Chinese are also associated with counterfeiting and duplication of products. All these notions affect their socialization and normal living. Whenever a crime is committed, the police rarely target the rich, as they often go for the indigenous and poor (Adams, Robertson, Gray – Ray, Ray 2003, p. 180).
Correlation between Marxist theory and the labeling theory
A very close relationship exists between the Marxist theory and the labeling theory. Both of them explain crime based on the social status. For Marxists, the criminals are the poor while the labeling theory suggests that the most suspected individuals are the poor and members of the low class.
Problem within the Wider Community
Although it is the duty of the police to handle the members of the public with care, the actions of some individuals in the community compel them to utilize force to ensure compliance. In some cases, people are focused on the issue of rights, but they forget that they have some responsibilities too. It is the duty of every citizen to comply with the law. One of the reasons for aggressive policing is insistence on the human rights. Secondly, the emergence of new crimes and new ways of perpetuating crime prompts the police to apply force. The law enforcers must apply all available tactics to deal with terrorists and hardcore criminals.
According to Ward, Krohn and Gibson, an individual is likely to engage in crime in the future in case force is applied in arresting him or her, which is consistent with the postulations of the labeling theory. In this regard, the use of force should be replaced with other information extraction techniques. In their study, Miller and Bryant K (1994) observed that police officers often become sensitive to the threats posed by criminals in an area and resort to the use of force to quelling such threats. Individuals residing in ghettos and those found in distressed localities are labeled as symbolic assailants.
Conclusion and Recommendations
One of the methods to assess the use of force in the police service is carrying out research by interviewing members of the public to express their views. In addition to that, an assessment of the situation by simply observing the problem for sometime before drawing conclusions can also help in making recommendations. It is concluded that the actions police officers affect public trust in the community.
People expect the police to handle them with care because they provide critical information, but this has never been the case. Through the Marxist and labeling theories, police officers apply the law selectively based on the living conditions of the community, the social status, and the prevailing conditions. The police would resolve the issue by applying other techniques in arresting and interrogating the suspects. For this to be successful, Johnson (2013, p. 229) suggests that formation of a department to deal with customer complaints would restore public confidence.
References
Adams, MS, Robertson, CT, Gray – Ray, P, Ray, MC 2003, “Labeling and delinquency,” Adolescence, Vol. 38, no. 149, pp 171-183.
Johnson, RR 2013, “An Examination of Police Department Uniform Color and Police–Citizen Aggression,” Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 40, no. 2, pp 228-244.
Miller, J & Bryant, K 1994, Predicting police behavior: Ecology, class, and autonomy. American Journal of Criminal Justice. Vol.18(1), pp.133-151.
Ward, JT, Krohn, MD, & Gibson, CL, 2014, “The Effects of Police Contact on Trajectories”, Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Vol. 29, no. 3, pp 440-475.