Custom essays on Police, Mistake and Identity

Traditionally, the police perform the function of the law enforcement agency which maintains the existing social order and protects citizens from the violation of their rights and liberties. At the same time, the work of police often raises heat criticism from the part of the public because of mistakes committed by police officers and difficulties with the identification of suspects. In such a situation, the police become a powerful body that sometimes fails to protect citizens’ rights and liberties but, instead, violate rights and liberties of people. In such a situation, the police and police officers should perform their job carefully to avoid mistakes and to prevent the violation of rights and liberties of citizens to prevent negative effects of police mistakes.
In actuality, it proves beyond a doubt that the police work is imperfect. As the matter of fact, cases of mistakes and improper behavior of police offers have always occurred and such cases still occur. In this respect, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that the police play an important part in the maintenance of the social order. At the same time, the police often fail to perform its functions properly. In this regard, police officers often fail to perform their duties and functions respectively to the code of conduct either because of their poor training or because of other reasons. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the poor performance of the police and the imperfect work of police officers leads to the violation of rights and liberties of citizens. In fact, the imperfect work of the police is closely intertwined with numerous errors that may occur in the course of the work of police officers.
On the other hand, mistakes committed by police officers are often determined by objective factors which influence their work. In this regard, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that there are several factors that influence the police’s mistakes. First of all, it is worth mentioning the fact that the risk of mistakes results from the high psychological tension police officers are vulnerable to because of their workplace environment (Hayward, 2004). They work in the extremely stressful environment and naturally, in such environment, they can commit mistakes being unable to afford the psychological tension of their work.

They confront criminals in their regular work and naturally they change their behavior that makes their attitude to average citizens vulnerable to the impact of their experience of the communication with criminals. As a result, mistakes can occur, when police officers take an average citizen for a criminal for instance.
In addition, the rhythm of work of police officers and pressure from the part of the public, which demand the observation of legal norms and standards and protection of the existing social order. Naturally, police officers cannot work all the time perfectly well and mistakes occur in the course of their work because of fatigue, lack of attention and other factors determined by the rhythm of their work. Therefore, there are objective factors that lead to the police mistakes.
On the other hand, there are subjective factors which lead to the police mistakes. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the poor training and low qualification level of police officers. In addition, some police officers tend to misuse their power that leads to the police mistakes. In such a way, the police mistakes derive from subjective factors which may be eliminated through the effective recruitment of police officers and their training. In addition, it is worth mentioning the fact that police officers may face substantial difficulties to identify suspects because it is a difficult task. In this regard, the police mistakes concerning the identification of individuals may be the result of the difficulties with identification. At this point, it is worth mentioning some cases, which reveal the full extent to which the police can make mistakes. For instance, a motorist, Anthony Brown, 71 suffering from diabetes, was wrongly arrested for the drink driving because the police officer mistook his diabetic symptoms for drunkenness. As a result, he died in the police custody because of the heart attack (Diabetec, 2009). Another example of the police mistake is the failure of the police officer to identify Alicia Rodriguez spent 16 hours in custody because the police officer mistook her for an illegal immigrant with the same name and birthday. She was freed only after a police officer checked her birth certificate and social security number (Texas, 2007).
Effects of police mistakes are extremely harmful because the public loses confidence in the police. People feel insecure because they can become victims of the police mistakes. In such a situation, the effectiveness of the work of police officers decreases because people become unwilling to cooperate with police officers, who are inclined to mistakes. Therefore, the prevention of mistakes in the police is crucial for the effective work of the police and for the maintenance of the positive attitude of the public to police officers.

References
Brantingham, P. J. and Brantingham, P. L. (1991). Environmental Criminology. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
“Diabetic Pensioner Dies in Custody after Police Mistake Him for a Drink Driver.” (2007). MailOnline. Retrieved on August 12, 2010
Hayward, K. J. (2004). City Limits: Crime, Consumerism and the Urban Experience. New York: Routledge,
Siegel, L. J. (2003). Criminology, 8th edition. New York: Thomson-Wadsworth.
“Texas Native Threatened with Deportation after Police Mistake Her for Illegal Immigrant.” (2007). Associated Press. Retrieved on August 12, 2010 from