Text d Municipal Police

Task: study the information on the municipal police and get ready to discuss its main points.

A municipal police department has basically two types of functions to perform: line functions (operations bureau) and nonline functions (administration and service bureaus). Line functions include patrol duties, investigation, traffic control, and various specialized services (juvenile, vice, domestic dispute). Most officers are assigned to patrol duties. The nonline functions include the staff duties that one finds in most large organizations, public or private, such as planning, research, administration and training, budgeting, purchasing, public relations, inspections. Nonline functions also increasingly include the complex tasks of supporting line functions with high-tech services in communications, identification, laboratory work, and data processing, as well as such routine services as building and grounds maintenance, repair services, supply provisioning, and jail administration.

Police departments are not democratic organizations. 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. The structure of operational units is similar to that of other governmental departments. A bureau is at the highest level; divisions (such as a criminal investigation division) are at the next lower level; and sections are at the lowest level (the art theft section, for example). The goal of this type of organization is efficient performance. The day-to-day and night-to-night operations of line officers are carried out in shifts or watches, usually of eight consecutive hours but often lasting longer.

Patrol officers are usually the first law enforcement persons on the scene of a crime. They conduct the initial search, block off the crime scene for later investigation, interview victims and witnesses, and make a report of the facts. Small police agencies may have only patrol officers. In larger agencies, the patrol unit constitutes about two-thirds of the officers. The function of this unit is to deter crime by the presence of officers on the street, to check on suspicious activities, to respond to calls for aid, to enforce laws, and to maintain order. The public is more familiar with patrol officers than with officer of other units because they are the ones who walk or cruise the neighborhoods, constantly coming into contact with the resident. For this reason the patrol officer is very important to the relations between the police and the community.

Most detectives are trained in modern techniques of investigation and in the laws of evidence and procedure. They interact with many other individuals or police units, such as the traffic, vice, juvenile, and homicide divisions. And they spend most of their time on rather routine chores involving quite a bit of paperwork. Detectives, however, occupy a more prestigious position in a police department than do patrol officers. They receive better salaries, they have more flexible hours, they do not wear uniforms, and they can act more independently.

After a crime is reported, detectives investigate the facts in order to determine whether a crime has been committed and whether they have enough information to indicate that the case warrants further investigation. This information may come from patrol officers or members of the public. If a full-scale investigation is undertaken, detectives begin the process of reinterviewing witnesses, contacting informants, checking crime files, and so on. Modern detective work sometimes includes sting operations, which are undercover operations in which police pretend to involve themselves in illegal acts to trap a suspect. They may pose as fences in order to capture thieves or as wealthy businesspeople offering money to those suspected of taking bribes.

Metropolitan police departments have specialized units to deal with specific kinds of problems. The traffic unit, for example, is responsible for investigation of accidents, control of traffic, and enforcement of parking and traffic laws. Since police departments have neither the resources to enforce all traffic laws nor the desire to punish all violators, they have a policy of selective enforcement: they target specific problem intersections or highways with high accident or violation rates for stiffer enforcement. Traffic law enforcement has an important influence on community relations because of the large amount of contact with the public that this task requires.

Most large city departments have a vice squad. It enforces laws against such activities as gambling, drug dealing, and prostitution. This type of work requires undercover agents, informants, and training in the legal procedures that govern their duties, including the law on entrapment, which forbids law enforcement officers to induce others to commit crimes.

Every department also needs administrators to recruit officers, to plan, to run the budget, to keep records, and to teach.