POLICE AND SOCIETY

CRJ 167-03/04

Fall 2003

Faculty: Timothy A. Capron

Office: Alpine 112

Phone: 916-278-5157

Email:

Office hours: T/TH 0800-0900 or by appointment at any time.

REQUIRED TEXT: Policing in America: A Balance of Forces by Langworthy and

Travis, 3rd edition, Prentice Hall, 2003.

SUPPLEMENTAL TEXT: The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove: An analysis of the U.S. Police by the Center for Research on Criminal Justice, Anthony Plat et al., any edition. This will be available in the bookstore and is available on Amazon.com as well.

RECOMMENDED: Policing the Poor: From Slave Plantation to Public Housing. Neil Websdale, Northeastern University Press, 2001.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course examines the history and evolution of policing in the United States with an emphasis on the political, social, cultural, legal and organizational forces that have molded that history. Various roles and functions of police in America are examined in detail with an emphasis on community policing, the current model in favor. The course also considers such factors as ethics, values, race, social class, and gender as crucial ones that impact police organizations. This is not a course on techniques of policing or police administration, but one that considers why and how we ended up with the police organizations we have as well as the future of policing. The course will focus on the evolution of law, history, culture, and tradition, as well as policing. The course will examine the difficult issues of controlling police, police brutality and police corruption.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:

  1. To provide the student with an understanding of the complex inter-relationship between our history, economics, culture and politics and our form of policing.
  1. To provide students with the capacity to identify ethical issues in policing and to

identify the complex origins of these issues.

  1. To develop the student’s capacity for analytical thinking.
  1. To develop the student’s capacity to apply theory to complex social phenomenon.
  1. To develop the student’s capacity to write coherent explanatory essays.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  1. Capacity to describe the antecedents that shaped policing in the U.S. and link these to the intervening processes which shaped policing.
  1. Ability to describe the historical evolution of the policing process and explain the key influences on this process.
  1. Capacity to explain the nature and origins of moral issues inherent in policing.
  1. Capacity to explain the influence of race, class and gender on the history of policing.
  1. Ability to explain the role of discretion and ambiguity in the policing process and to explain the interaction of these two components.
  1. Ability to explain the conditions and influences that foster police misconduct and the nature of potential responses.
  1. Demonstrate familiarity with technology to express one’s findings and observations using the appropriate software programs, such a Power Point and MS Word or similar programs.

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION:

This course explores the topics required to meet the learning objectives using a combination of lectures, videos (LAPD Blue, The Man Who Knew Too Much, History of Policing and American Porn), discussions, and especially readings available on the CSUS Library Databases and Periodical Indexes. These assignments will usually cover current events that illustrate issues covered in the text. For these you must know how to find them. This means that you must have a library pin (you can also use your SacLink account and create a proxy server for remote access) and have been to the library to understand how to get on the CSUS Database system and master it. This is $400,000 worth of databases and it is worth every cent. If you think you understand the CSUS database system, then go read the December 16, 2002, San Francisco Chronicle editorial by Clarence Johnson entitled “The wayward ‘Riders’” using LexisNexis, and then use Dow Jones Interactive to find and read the article entitled, “In the Wild: As Crime Spreads in National Parks, Rangers Face Risk” by John J. Fialka, that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, January 22, 2003.

I do expect students to complete reading assignments before the lecture dates and to participate in discussions. There are times when I ask students to form groups and teach sections of assigned text material or even additional readings. Be prepared to do this. I do invite guest lecturers, usually from the California Highway Patrol or someone with a different point of view. Please note that video material and guest lecturer topics are likely to appear on exams.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Regular Attendance: I start on time and take attendance. Failure to attend may negatively impact your grade. For example, a student ended up with a 77 percent average for the course last semester. The student argued that the grade should have been rounded up to a B-. After reviewing attendance sheets and determining that the student missed 8 classes, any hope of that happening vanished completely.

Participation: Again, I expect you to have read all assignments before we cover them in class, to respond to questions and discuss the reading assignments, being able to summarize and analyze their content. If you have special needs, please meet with me privately to discuss these. No cell phones or pagers are allowed in class.

Exams and assignments: There will be a Mid-term on October 30th and a Final exam on dates established by the University, with the Final not comprehensive. They will be short answer essay. An example of the type of question that I may ask is as follows: Why and what types of services are provided by private security organizations in the United States? To answer this correctly, I would expect you to list the three major areas that they police or service, briefly explain what each of these is composed of and tell me why private security is so adept at providing these. I expect you to do so with complete sentences with few or no spelling or grammatical errors. If you manage that you receive complete credit. Review questions are provided in this syllabus. I strongly recommend that you take these seriously and answer each review question fully. I also encourage working as a group or a team tackling these review questions. I find that students often work harder for each other than they sometimes do for their professor. When I teach criminal justice planning, I emphasize backwards planning. It is a useful concept. Examine the date an assignment is due, or an exam will occur, plan backwards estimating the amount of time you need to devote daily to review or work on an assignment to complete it and get it in on time. Remember the adage: no one plans to fail they fail to plan. I follow the guidelines from the University in the matter of cheating and plagiarism. Both are addressed at length in the University Policy Manual. If you are uncertain about either of these, please see me after you have read the policy and we will discuss them.

There are two additional assignments. The first is a writing assignment (4-6 pages, 12 font, double spaced) due on September 25. This first assignment is simply a book review of your supplemental text: The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove: An analysis of the U.S. Police by the Center for Research on Criminal Justice. After providing the name, authors, and publishing details, I want you to tell me how the book is organized, provide the main thesis of the book, summarize the major sections and reach a conclusion about why you think this is a valuable book, or not. I also expect you to answer the following questions:

1. Why did they write this book?

  1. What is their definition of crime?
  2. How does their history of policing in the United States differ from that of your primary text?
  3. What do they have to say about police as an institution?
  4. What do they think should be done to stem the increasing involvement of policing in our lives?
  5. Could this book be written today or updated?

The second assignment is both a written summary (4-6 pages, double spaced, size twelve font) of an interview with a police officer and a ten-minute presentation-using power point or similar software. Presentations and due dates for this assignment will begin on October 23rd and I will have a sign up sheet available in class by the third week of the semester. I allowed individuals arrested to write up that experience as an assignment but I do not plan to allow that this time, though they were interesting papers. Plan for your interviews well ahead of time. I encourage you to make appointments. Details on the first assignment and second assignments are provided in this syllabus, and I will discuss them in class. With regard to your interview of a police officer, be prepared to share your experience with the class. Finally, I need to explain to you that I suffer from color blindness. I will at times wear what my wife calls “bizarre” outfits and I often cannot read emails with special color fonts and backgrounds sent to me by students. Please stay with black and white when emailing me.

GRADING:

The mid-term and final are each worth 100 points. The two assignments are worth 50 points each. Your grade will be based on a summary of all points earned, with a maximum score of 300 points. Grades will be based on the following percentages of the total possible numerical score: 90% and above = A, 89-80% = B, 79-70% = C, 69-60% = D, below 60% =F. Plus and Minus grades are given. For example, if out of the 300 points possible, you have 270 points based on grades of 90, 90, 45,and 45 you receive an A-. I do assign minus and plus grades, as set forth by the University. I will only allow for the makeup of an exam when you have notified me in advance that you will miss the exam for a reasonable excuse. From time to time I do give quizzes, usually simply to see if you are keeping up with the reading. Other than embarrassment, these are not part of the grading scheme, but are certainly telling. I may also ask you to read something using the CSUS Database and quiz you on that, again to ensure you read it.

Work Item /

Total Possible Points

Mid-Term / 100
Final Exam / 100
Book Review / 50
Interview Summary and Presentation / 50

READINGS, ASSIGNMENTS AND SCHEDULE:

Week 1: Introduction to the course, to me, orientation, assignments. Complete and submit by the end of the first week, a typed biography that answers the following: 1) Who are you? 2) Why are you here? 3) What will you do when you graduate? 4) What will you be doing five years after you graduate and where will you be doing it? 5) Any special needs or concerns I should know about, such as a disability and/or accommodation? Purchase texts and scan both of them, then read from your Text, Ch. 1, Introduction and understanding the police. Ensure that you have mastered a definition of police, police discretion, know the varieties of police and the basic functions of policing, as well as what constitutes social control. Read the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution and be prepared to discuss what it means and the erosion of the amendment as well. Are we headed for a National Police Force? Finally, print out and read the articles mentioned in my method of instruction section and bring to class.

Week 2: Text Ch. 2 History of policing. Read this carefully and ensure you understand how policing in France differs from that of the United States.

Week 3: Text Ch. 3, English roots of policing in America. Read through p. 74 of the Iron Fist and Velvet Glove. Compare the different versions of history. Sign up sheet for presentations will be passed out this week.

Week 4: Text Ch. 4, the Evolution of Policing in America. We will view a film on the History of Policing. Complete the reading of the Iron Fist and Velvet Glove and be prepared to discuss their viewpoint. Book report due.

Week 5: Text Ch. 5, Federal and State Police. Visit the FBI and the CHP websites and review their history. Try to determine the number of different Federal law enforcement agencies. We will view a film on the FBI and its attempts to reorganize

Week 6: Text Ch. 6, Private and Special Police or what I call the Future of policing. Ask yourself how many private security personnel you see daily versus local police officers. Also, read Text Ch, 7, Municipal and Local Police. Pay attention to the organizational chart on P. 165, and compare it with the organizational chart of your hometown.

Week 7: In preparation for the next chapter, we will view films on Domestic Violence and pornography. Think about what the law enforcement response to these issues has been and should be. This is an excellent week to complete your review for the mid-term.

Week 8: Text Ch. 8, Police Organizations and Text, Ch. 9, Individuals in Policing: Officers and Supervisors. Presentations begin this week.

Week 9: Text, Ch. 10, Police Officers. Are police different? Mid-term this week.

Week 10: Text Ch. 11, Police and Community. Students will teach this chapter. It really is beneficial if you read it before class.

Week 11: Text Ch. 12, Law Enforcement and Police and a discussion of the following:

James Q. Wilson and George Kelling, “Broken Windows” Atlantic Monthly article:

D. W. Miller, “Poking Holes in the Theory of ‘Broken Windows’ Chronicle of Higher Education article: and you can always find these on the CSUS Databases and Periodical Indexes as well.

Week 12: Text Ch. 13, Service and Police. We will discuss what police do about the homeless and the HUD database. Students will teach this chapter.

Week 13: Text Ch. 14, Order and Police. What is order and who defines it? What do police do about domestic violence?

Week 14: Text Ch. 15, Community Policing. Is it really happening?

Week 15: Text, Ch. 16, Controlling Police. We will view the film called LAPD Blue and discuss police corruption; misconduct, early warning systems and police review boards and Text, Ch. 17, the Future of Policing and current trends. We will view a film called the Man Who Knew Too Much, a film that foretells the emphasis on security, a new function for police.

Suggested Websites/Articles:

Police Executive Research Forum:

Federal Bureau of Investigation:

US Department of Justice:

Office of Community Oriented Policing:

Police Accreditation:

Federal Law Enforcement Training Guide:

Additional readings/texts: The field of policing has produced a wealth of writing and research. For example, I personally reviewed over ten textbooks for this particular course. If you have an interest in a particular area of policing, please meet with me and I will guide you in finding works of interest. The following are general texts that can supplement the one I require:

Gaines, L., Kappeler, V. and J. Vaughn (1999). Policing in America. (3rd ed.) Anderson Publishing Co.

Lagrange, R. L. (1998). Policing American Society. Nelson Hall, Inc.

Carter, David L. (2002). The Police and the Community. (7th ed.) Prentice-Hall.

Assignment 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

The following interview questions are designed to get students started in their quest to interview a police officer. These are questions that should serve as a beginning to a questionnaire. I ask that you develop your own, adding those questions that interest you. Please remember that the officer you interview is doing you a favor, so be polite and thankful for their time. I expect the interview to last approximately one hour. I would like you to type your interview questions, leaving space for answers, and then conduct the interview, taking notes. I then want the interview summarized with the length approximately five pages (12 font, double spaced). The interviews should be conducted with the understanding that the identity of the officer will not be included in your summary and none of this information will be used in any manner, except to fulfill course requirements. I do want some information, such as approximate age of the officer (guess, don’t ask), department or agency, number of years as an officer, rank, current assignment and anything else you deem important. Again, these questions are a starting point. Ask some of your own. If you are uncertain if you are asking a relevant or valid question, ask me first. Only ask questions that you would voluntarily answer. I recommend that you write a thank you note to the officer or his superior. I want a thoughtful summary of your interview with an analysis of the interview and a summary of your thoughts on what type of a police officer this individual happens to be.

  1. Why did you become a police officer?
  2. What route did you pursue to become an officer?
  3. What was the quality of the training or the academy attended?
  4. Are you satisfied with your career choice?
  5. Would you want your son or daughter to be a police officer?
  6. Would you describe a typical workday?
  7. Do you believe that having a college degree is helpful for police officers?
  8. Would you describe your department as emphasizing law enforcement, maintenance of order or as a service oriented department?
  9. Do you believe that policing is a profession?
  10. Do you have the equipment and training you need to be a successful officer?
  11. How technologically advanced is your department?
  12. Did you have a field-training officer and if so, was that a good experience?
  13. Do other agencies cooperate well with your department, for example the FBI or CHP?
  14. If you could change one thing about your department, what would it be?
  15. Would you describe the ideal police officer?
  16. Has policing changed for you after 9/11?
  17. Have you participated in any task forces? Was this a good experience?
  18. How would you prevent an LAPD Rampart scandal?

Again, I recommend a polite, written thank you note!