Interview With A Criminal Justice Practitioner

LAWS1110-The Criminal Justice System

Purpose of the paper

This paper is intended to provide a detailed narrative report of an interview conducted on the perception of an individual on the framework of the criminal justice. The interview aims to establish/ ascertain the perception of individuals who work in the criminal justice system. In other words, the interview encompasses their experience as personnel in the criminal justice system, what inspired them to join the system, the things they expected in the field, challenges faced during the course of profession, the weaknesses of the system, pitfalls or the gaps that exist in the system, and there recommendations among many others.

In regard to the purpose of the paper, a retired investigator of police/ a retired CID and the author of police procedure and investigation was interviewed. He has played a series of roles as in the criminal justice department, which among others include; police officer, an investigator, crime preventer and policy formulations. During his tie as a criminal justice personnel, he managed to successfully complete several tasks which included solving of cases relating to homicides, murder-for=hire and robbery. He has also consulted for spike TV, the slate magazine. Besides, he also appeared on the CNN, BBC. NPR. In the interview with him, he…

When I asked him how he began or joined the law enforcement department, he told me that he began as a police officer who played an ordinary role of observing law and order in areas of deployment and the country as a whole. in the course of his career, he was selected to lead and serve as a supervisor to manage operation of security inmates in the state prison. From the good reputation displayed, he was promoted to be a police detective, responsible for handling cases such as narcotics, murder, rape, and robbery among others. He also served as a k-9 officer, police academy instructor, undercover narcotics officer, and supervisor of street crime units (Justice & Meares, 2014).

He describes his thrills and mystery as fascinating and puzzle solving which moves hand in hand with the challenging criminal cases. In other words, he often met situations that involves ethical dilemma, of what decision to take in a given context. Ethical dilemma may be used to imply a situation that calls for a decision making process concerned with two contradicting and satisfying solutions or needs. He describes being a detective as one of the most challenging careers. However, he insists that the established framework of the law and order were in most cases his points of references for any decision taken. About the things that surprised him on joining police/ what he did not expect are the chunks of ongoing in-service trainings that take place in the police. He also says the ever-changing amendments in the law surprised him (Young et al., 2011).

Background information of the selected person

I also asked him how important it was to advance one’s career as a law enforcement officer or personnel. Mr. Lee refers to the economy as changing one and therefore for one to be maintained in the field, they must have the relevant skills applicable to the new error. Given the fact there are many upcoming, energetic, and competent young people willing to join the police, it is substantially necessary for the individuals who are already in the system to take an advancement in their educational profession o enable them maintain their positions or even be promoted to a better position (Chandler et al., 2009). Besides job maintenance and promotion, he signifies the importance of advancing one’s education as a strategy of acquiring more diverse skills to help in uncertain circumstances. He justifies that working in the criminal justice system requires a prior understanding of social and economic structures, the law, organizational behaviors, and human psychology among others. The ability to use psychology cognitive theories in digging or interrogating information from the appellants and crime committers can only be attained by personnel who has undergone the training of such skills. In other words, he tried to imply that for an individual to qualify as a detective he must have studied psychology and this still takes us back to the point of holding the position (King & Murphy, 2014).

According to him, people and the community as whole hold a lot of misconception of the law enforcement system. In most cases, the media plays the worst role in generating or imparting a negative attitude about the system. The media writers on some occasions make the readers believe that the roles of police officers is gunplay around every street corners. People also strongly believe that being in the low enforcement systems renders an individual prone to death. He however admits that the misperceptions of the individuals tend to come true for some reasons. In other words, he says handling a high profile criminal is like playing with electricity naked wires (Chandler et al., 2009)

His most frustrating and embarrassing thing about the police is how children understand or perceive the police officers / law enforcement personnel. He says any time the children see a police car stopping at the neighbor’s apartment, they all run away. In other words, according to him, children perceive the police officers as very bad and dangerous people who do not deserve any sort of association (Binswanger et al., 2012). 

Interview

Because the children and the community understand the police from a negative perspective, MR. Lee recommends that the government should direct more emphasis on the on the issue of community policing. Campaigns should be held to sensitize the community about the help or assistance that can be offered by the police to its community rather than the perception held by the community. He says as the children group, they form the integral part of the community or society implying that their continuous fear and negative perception towards the police will have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the services offered (Murray et al., 2012).

When I asked him what inspired him to write “the police procedure and investigations”, he says that he had begun writing a novel titled “the thriller” but when he was approached by mystery writers asking him the real life of robbers and the police officer, he changed the topic to “police procedures and investigation. He was inspired to rather inform the public rather by creating the manuals instead of writing the novel book. He also advices the new recruits into the system to be very careful, loyal, honest and vigilant about all that they do and say. Something very slight can leading to the ruining of the entire career (Cashmore, 2010).

Weather the criminal justice works.

According to him, the criminal justice system works typically well despite few challenges faced and he says the challenges are normal for any organization. Since time immemorial, the criminal justice body have played a leading role in maintaining low and order, protecting the citizens and their properties, offering of community based services and campaigns for peace (Hawkins, 2009)

The level of trainings offered to the recruits of the system are viable enough to demonstrate its effectiveness. During training, criminal justice employees are equipped with skills of empathy, integrity, courage, discernment, common sense and financial skills among others depending on the field of specialization. The recruitment also emphasizes individuals with strong interpersonal communication, good mental and physical condition (DeLisi & Vaughn, 2014). We can therefore draw an insight from the qualities considered that the system is fully packed with competent staff that offers the best services possible. This is an indication of the amount of efforts offered by the system (Taxman et al., 2009).

According to Mr. Lee Lofland, there are inevitable cases cases that occur in the criminal justice system, which the public regards them as failure and yet they are simply challenges faced by the system. Among others may include the selfish interest of some officers who may use the ammunitions of the criminal justice to satisfy their personal interests. Such cases have been registered on different occasions for example a police officer using the gun for robbery, killing their rivals, among others. However, such circumstances have  on high priorities been condemned by the system, in which case, if an individual falls victim of such, they are held liable to such actions and recommended punishments are imposed on them (Talbot, 2008).

Weather the criminal justice works.

Mr. Lee says there is a considerable consistent change in the operations of the criminal justice system. With the dynamic changes in, globalization, and technology, there are increasing cases of cyber-crimes and threats. This calls for changes in the type of knowledge needed by the personnel operating in the system. They should be well trained and equipped with technological skills to be able to handle the cases involved (Fast & Conry, 2009).

Mr. Lee recommends the justice system to adopt community-policing, sensitization of the community on the relevance of criminal justice system and promoting associative working of the community with the system. Criminal justice system also ought to adapt new technologies and staff retraining which will in turn respond to the changing world of technology 

References

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