Peak, Introduction to Criminal Justice Instructor Resource
Chapter 6
Police at Work: Patrolling and Investigating
When hiring patrol officers, agencies strive to get the most qualified and capable individuals.
Once chosen, these individuals go through an academy training as well as a field training. Once
through with the field training exercises, the individual is released to work on their own. There
are two important variables when considering the police role and police personality: danger and
authority. Traits that make a good officer are identified as: enthusiasm, good communication
skills, good judgment, sense of humor, creativity, self-motivation, etc. There are also four basic
tasks of the patrol officer: enforce the law, perform welfare tasks, prevent crime, and protect the
innocent. The three distinctive policing styles developed by James Q. Wilson are the watchman,
legalistic, and service oriented individuals. The perils of patrol are discussed and cover the
various stressors of police work, sources of stress, and mechanisms for how to cope with stress.
The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment found that the deterrent effect of policing is not
reduced when routine patrolling is reduced. Traffic detail is an essential function of patrol
officers and helps to reduce traffic deaths and injuries.
Police discretion is a controversial issue concerning the authority of officers to make decisions in
enforcing the law based on one’s observations and judgment rather than the letter of the law.
Two important decisions must be made when defining discretion: whether to intervene in a
situation and how to intervene. Law, officer attitude, and citizen attitude are all variables that
can change an officer’s decision in a situation. Community policing attempts to bring the police
and citizens together to work on the problem of crime in the area. The work of forensics and
detectives is broad, including corpus delicti, modus operandi, linking suspect with the victim,
linking a person to a crime scene, disproving or supporting a witness’s testimony, and
identification of a suspect. The steps of these investigations are as follows: preliminary
investigation, continuing investigation, reconstructing the crime, and focusing the investigation.
DNA analysis is the most sophisticated and reliable type of physical evidence and allowed
investigative personnel to exonerate people who were convicted in the past for crimes they did
not commit.
1. Introduction
Assess Your Awareness
2. From Citizen to Patrol Officer
Recruiting the Best
oRequire adequate pool of applicants
oPolice officers are solitary workers, mostly unsupervised
Want most qualified and capable
Recruit Training
oAcademy training
Police and corrections personnel are trained in the basic functions, laws,
and skills required for their positions
o“Sixth sense”
In policing, the notion that an officer can “sense” or feel when something
is not right, as in the way a person acts, talks, and so on