Article Reviews
Name
Institution
Outline
- Policing Terrorism by Waddington, J.
- Policing Under Fire by Kelling, G.
- Community Policing Is Homeland Security by Diamond, D. and Bucqueroux, B.
Waddington, Joseph. “Policing Terrorism.” Policing 1, no.1 (2007): 1-4.
This article was written by Waddington, a professor of social Policy at the University of Wolverhampton. His focus in this article was to distinguish between systems of policing in respect to terrorism. He observes that all police officers take pride in their work and particularly in making convictions. To drive his point home, he cites an article that related modern day policing to state requirements. He is of the argument that case-specific policing is focused on the outcome of court verdicts. Policing policy outcome, the author argues is split between two tasks. One of those is fighting crime and the other one is preventing crime.1
The author claims that security, terrorism and intelligence are higher aspects that shape policing. The article also claims that police serving the public is not an accurate assertion. Instead, police does more in serving the state and its institutions. He points out an incident in which the palace security was breached, and the commissioner of police reacted to this by tendering a resignation.
Waddington is of the opinion that the reason terrorism is accorded such high priority is because it is a direct threat to a state’s legitimacy and capacity. Terrorism also interlocks the roles of the military and that of the police. In addition, the author states that victims of terrorism are picked based on their allegiance to a state. Therefore, terrorism fits neither the decryption of warfare nor that of crime. Policing this vice, according to the author, relies more on surveillance and intelligence. This, sometimes, comes close to infringement of citizen’s privacy.
This article is an important correlation between policing and terrorism. However, the author fails to focus more on issues of policing terrorism and focuses more on policing.
Kelling, George. “Policing Under Fire.” The Wall Street Journal 1, no. 1(1999): 1-3
The author of this article explores policing facts in relation to a mistaken identity police shooting that happened in 1999. The shooting of the unarmed immigrant from Guinea caused a lot of uproar from various quarters. The author of the article is a research fellow at Harvard and a professor at Rutgers University. The author explores the facts from a philosophy of policing angle.
According to the author, the liberals claim the attack was racially motivated and they liken it to an earlier attack on a Haitian immigrant.2 He is of the opinion that while the Haitian’s attack may have been out rightly wrong, the Guinean’s case is still debatable. He claims that given the circumstances of the incident, the police officers involved can still mount a strong defence of their actions. The New York Police Department, he says, should improve their weapon’s training and engineer their policies to focus more on crime prevention rather than crime fighting.
The activism against the police could be motivated by the prevailing statistics according to the author. This is where violence among minorities is higher and incidences of police shootings are lower. The author also claims that politics focused on discrediting the mayor contribute to the condemnation.
The author concludes by saying that there cannot be public out roar every time there is a mishap in police operation. Policing philosophy should be accommodative of all opinions according to the author.
This article succeeds in using a practical situation to explore policing. The article also considers differing opinions.
Diamond, Drew and Bucqueroux, Bonnie. Community Policing Is Homeland Security
The authors of this article are active participators of policing reform forums. They are of the opinion that while police reforms have gained ground, the war on terror is threatening to reverse the gains. Their focus, though, is community policing.
The authors argue that community policing should not be abandoned at such a time when the threat of terrorism is rife. According to the authors, abandoning it will only make policing more tedious and increase the friction between the police and the public.
According to this article, community policing relies on effectiveness of police officers in infiltrating civilian ranks as well as their ability to gain public confidence. Civilians need to have the confidence to forward information to the police without fear of putting their wellbeing in jeopardy. They use an example of an incident that could have possibly averted the World Trade Centre attacks in which a citizen had called in with a tip for the police.
This article points out the main challenges that work against community policing. The first being lack of the capacity by the police force carry on with community policing.3 The other factor is that there is no evidence of its success. This makes the public less interested in this model of policing and more apprehensive of its aims.
This article is very informative on community policing issues. The article also offers workable solutions to its challenges. However, the article does not touch on important issues regarding the community policing like public opinions and phobias, incidences where it has worked against citizens and officers who misuse it.
Bibliography
Diamond, Drew and Bucqueroux, Bonnie. Community Policing Is Homeland Security. Web.
Kelling, George. “Policing Under Fire.” The Wall Street Journal 1, no. 1(1999): 1- 3. Web.
Waddington, Joseph. “Policing Terrorism.” Policing 1, no.1 (2007): 1-4.