Media Influence On Law Enforcement

“Frequent exposure to media reports of police abuse or corruption is a strong predictor of perceptions of misconduct and supports the belief that is common.” (France-Respers 1). But unfortunately, it also brings me disheartened feelings. Recently, I was on twitter and I stumbled across a video of a young white male who was roughly about twenty to twenty-five years of age who was being handled so aggressively by about six officers while he was NOT resisting.

Words with harsh connotations towards police officers are used to try and persuade the reader to think the same way. The evidence

Have you ever listened to a news story and thought it sounded one-sided? Or have you thought the news didn't seem to report the whole story or the most important aspect of a story? Journalists possess the power to influence a whole group of people with their work. When writers input their opinion, they generate bias. Consecutively, this influences a reader's reaction to a topic.

Furthermore, according to research conducted by the United States Department of Justice, communities with high levels of disorder possess a more negative outlook on the police (National Institute of Justice, 2003). With Flint being one of the more violent and dangerous towns in Michigan, this further decrease the trust in the police to act impartially and to protect them. This also reaffirms my changed perspective on the police in being appreciative for their incredible efforts and

Also other police methods are used such as increase of name checks. Media and the police have displayed common interests as the both share a symbolic relationship as media are reliant on the police to gain information and police use media to illustrate certain images. The media tend to provide dramatic images of crime and a defensive image of police and their activities. Cohen argues the media “exaggerated attention, exaggerated events, distortion, and stereotyping”, in other word; the media over exaggerate the event and create a greater amount of panic in the beginning of the moral panics. On the other hand, Thornton argues that objectives of moral panics like folk devils are not typically the passive victims of the media.

With the growing amount of police departments requiring officers to use body cameras in their line of work, this also in theory will increase transparency within the police department. According to James Carless, A survey was given out to an entire police department with over 4,300 people. 75% of the officers claimed that they joined the police to serve their communities. Despite the multiple issues being faced by today’s law enforcement officers, "Two-thirds of the police (66%) and an even larger share of the public (93%) favor the use of body cameras by police to record interactions between officers and the public. Half of officers and two-thirds of the public (66%) say a police officer would be more likely to act appropriately when wearing a body cam”

Police Body Cameras Should be Taken Into Consideration “ In Rialto, California, a police department has been using body mounted cameras and recording what happens between officers and the public. The use of force by officers declined 60% during the first year the cameras were introduced and citizen complaints against officers dropped by 88% (Safety vision). This statistic proves the debate of police body cameras or not.

At some point, cops were local heroes and real outstanding citizens in their communities. This lead me to question the sudden change in law enforcement stereotypes. The first thing I came across is that too many law enforcement officers have failed at maintaining a good public relation. What I mean by this is that, generally people want to feel comfortable speaking to police and trust isn’t given it is earned. When police officers fail to administer a friendship with their community, trust is never established.

According a study conducted by Chaney and Robertson, American’s attitudes about police officers have changed dramatically in the past ten years. Their study, which appeared in The Journal of African American Studies, suggests that instead of feeling safe and protected by police, many citizens actually feel animosity towards police officers, and are mistrustful and suspicious towards them (Chaney and Robertson 480). This situation seems almost impossible to rectify, especially since law enforcement is given the authority and the privilege to use force not only by the law, but also by society. In order to allow law enforcement officers this power, the public must completely trust those who are protecting them, and must believe that police are using force responsibly and ethically. People naturally assume that the police are well-trained to use force appropriately and fairly without prejudices.

Also that 40 percent of cop killers are black(Bandler, 2016). The media has dramatically affected the view of cops on our general population(Bandler, 2016). A large portion of people today rely solely on specific news stations for information, regardless of their history of credibility and honesty(Bandler, 2016). All news stations at some point have lied and manipulated stories to pull more viewers of a specific demographic(Bandler,

In the Criminal Justice System of the United States, there has been a disparity affecting African-American communities and minority groups. Minorities perceive themselves as the main targets of police use of force, racial profiling, and a bias culture within law enforcement. The central argument, is that such actions have an impact on the relationship between police officers and the African American community, causing problems in our society. But does history explain why law enforcement has developed a negative relationship with African-Americans? In our democratic era, police officers are considered a walking symbol of safety and protection.

The media makes the severity of the situation much worse. In some instances, a situation is represented in way that conveys a case as deceptive. Police misconduct, in this situation, is preposterously distorted. For example, the scene one sees on television may be completely inaccurate. In the article Unpacking Public Attitudes to the Police: Contrasting Perceptions of Misconduct with Traditional Measures of Satisfaction, Miller states, “…research found that people's fear of crime was related to crime content in the newspapers they read…”( 6).

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, departments that serve less than 2,500 people are 84.4% white and departments that serve millions are 53.4% white (as cited in Fifield, 2016). Notably, Over the years, a lack of diversity within law enforcement has become a pertinent issue. Notably, the underrepresentation of minorities within law enforcement influences the relationship between communities and law enforcement by engendering distrust with law enforcement. To say nothing of, underrepresentation of minorities have had many people question whether departments mirror a diverse community. Nevertheless, with that being said, underrepresentation of minorities have generated tension and distrust between communities and law enforcement and many believe that police department need to mirror the race composition within their cities.

Throughout this last year there has been mass news and social media coverage involving police officer 's use of deadly force in the United

This journal article examines whether a citizen’s individual perception of racial tension, or that of an entire community, leads to a negative attitude toward law enforcement (McNeeley & Grothoff, 2016). Telephone surveys were used in Seattle, Washington, in neighborhoods where there were large proportions of minority residents. These surveys asked various questions, which ranged from gauging overall happiness with police duties, to asking if racial profiling was an issue inside neighborhoods (McNeeley & Grothoff, 2016). The research conducted contributed greatly to current knowledge on the topic, but limitations were also noted, as questions were not asked that could have altered the survey’s