Police Role in the Media

The role of social servant is a compassion filled empathetic role, police chaplains are not usually the focus of the media’s attention. Police chaplains provide emotional support and assistance to not only the police officers but victims as well during crisis. When an accident or crime occurs the police officers that respond need to use their skills and resources to figure out the crime scene and collect evidence and write reports. Police chaplains help notify family members and act as emotional support during the initial grief of hearing a loved one has lost their life or even taken their own life. "If we can help that family within the first hour, it helps with the grief process," Petty said. ""Even if they've had another death, they're facing something at that moment they've never faced before. On average, chaplains respond to anywhere between 50 and 75 calls a year for the department. That's more than one call per week. (Hansen, 2009)
It takes a special individual to become a social servant; the role itself can take an emotional toll on the individual. Chaplains respond to a variety of different emotional situations at any given hour of the night. Sometimes the officers responding to the scene even need to borrow the strength of the chaplain if the scene touches a personal area for the officer. I believe that chaplains are valuable tools for law enforcement officers regardless of religious preference or even preferring no religion at all the chaplain can provide a soft friendly shoulder to lean on in a time of crisis.
Order maintainers are ones who uphold and maintain, regarding law enforcement the order maintainer brings to mind the “sheriff of the land” in my mind. There is one man that readily comes to mind for me, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of my own area in Maricopa county Arizona. Arpaio has been called the toughest sheriff in the U.S. but he is not exactly winning popularity polls. Civil libertarians throughout the whole country have some sort of bone to pick with Arpaio mainly due to his tough stance on cutting costs while effectively incapacitating criminals. Sheriff Joe presides over the largest county in the U.S. and does not apologize for his efforts to maintain order. Our dear sheriff does not want inmates to enjoy anything while incarcerated, he is somewhat famous for his tent city where he has the inmates stored in tents versus a traditional jail cell.
The sheriff lives the old adage, "If you don’t want to do the time…don’t do the crime" which coincidentally can be seen in his office behind his desk. I think it is wonderful and if America had more order maintainers similar to Sheriff Joe Arpaio we would be far better off. Arpaio knows it is his job to maintain order and most efficiently carry out the sentences that his inmates were handed for crimes they were already convicted of. Arpaio is a tough guy interested in carrying out justice. I believe he is doing a great job, inmates have basic rights and Sheriff Joe meets those rights just fine. (24seven, 2005)



A crime fighter is a person who as a law enforcement official or government employee works to prevent crime and enforce laws. The gender equality in police forces has been an issue for years. Can women be just as good as men in the arena of crime fighting? I believe the answer to that is yes. The obvious disadvantages are height and weight and lacking upper body strength for women, but women are tough in their own ways. “Before we go any further with this issue let us get the ridiculousness out of the way. Whether you believe these studies or not, the truth is that whatever your naturally assigned gender, it absolutely doesn’t limit you as an individual from growing and learning and overcoming and adapting.” (Gennon, 2006)
Women have fought hard to have the right to occupy certain roles within law enforcement and I believe that woman is a great asset to police force as a crime fighter. Women bring many things to the table, a softer side to relate to as well. Communication is at times easier for women. One of the areas where the biggest differences have been found lies in what scientists call "spacial ability", which is the ability to picture things, their proportion, shape, position, and geography in the mind's eye. While the male brain gives men the edge in creating three dimensional objects out of drawings, reading maps, and finding their way around a neighborhood, the female brain tends to be organized in order to respond more sensitively to all sensory stimuli. This is very interesting to me and suggests that women as just as capable as men to be crime fighters.
A crime preventer is law enforcement, government employee or even active community member that takes an active role in minimizing victimization and crime from occurring. A great approach to crime prevention is to see a problem, come up with a solution that will in effect prevent more of that same crime to occur. Arizona has been the primary entry point for illegal immigrants from Mexico for at least a decade. Federal officials plan to start construction within weeks on a new "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border that they say could almost completely cover the nearly 2,000-mile frontier within five years. (Rotstein , 2009)
This is a great way to proactively fight crime and possibly prevent it. While I do agree that illegal immigration is not the worst crime that we could focus on the impact of illegal aliens in substantial. The Federal government spent $1.43 billion to incarcerate criminal aliens in fiscal 2004. This total includes $280 million of reimbursements made to state and local governments under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program [SCAAP]. But SCAAP funds cover less than 25 percent of the full cost of incarcerating criminal aliens in state and local correctional facilities, according to the GAO. The average criminal alien was arrested for 13 prior offenses. (Rubenstein, 2005)