The American police force has the capacity to do most anything, but there is currently much controversy about what exactly they should be doing. Given the police’s almost boundless authority, defining their job is imperative to maintaining our constitutional rights while keeping everyone as safe as possible.
To be re-envisioned
Rather than act as disciplinary and punitive forces, the police could act as rehabilitators.
Police could be reimagined as enforcers of “transit prisons.”
Rather than lock people away from society, police could let them live in a society with appropriate limits in a broadening of the institution of probation.
More police presence equals safer communities because the police are better able to enforce laws. This enforcement of laws is their main task, as they do the footwork of the judiciary.
The police function as emissaries of the judiciary
Our legal system in America comprises prisons, the police, and courts. The police’s role in this triad is to carry out the footwork of the judiciary as its agents.
Our society is a more hostile place than were the sleepy villages of centuries past. Therefore, our modern society needs police to make our towns safe.
Police serve and protect
This twofold phrase accurately conveys that police must balance protecting citizens and apprehending criminals. In doing so, they help everyone in their community live in peace while letting the justice system handle law-breakers.
The police serve no purpose other than perpetuating a system of brutality and oppression.
The police enforce a racist agenda
In the early 1700s, emergent systems of localised American patrols and service groups were tasked with the prevention of slave revolts. An active agenda to protect the interests of white supremacy was and is prevalent, considering the lack of reform in current national police departments.
The police in America only serve themselves. Rather than protect the public, they protect themselves and hide their unethical behavior behind a veil of silence.
