Police and the Public Study Assignment: Behind the Badge

Police and the Public
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Police and the Public
Police have encountered increasing hardships while executing their mandate. A new study “Behind the Badge” released on 11th January 2017 by Pew Research Centre confirms that police work has been made harder by the recent increasing numbers of high profile fatal encounters between the African American citizens and the police officers and a growing tension between the police and the blacks (Simon, O'Key, & Melanie Schuman, 2017). A research team led by Rich Morin, Kim Parker, Renee Stepler and Andrew Mercer considered a national sample of 8000 police drawn from departments with at least 100 police officers. The attitudes and the experiences of the police officers who participated in the study were recorded and later analyzed to come up with a comprehensive report that highlights key issues about the law enforcers.
The study shows that the police differ with the public on the incidences of the deaths of the black citizens attributed to brutal police murders (Simon, O'Key, & Melanie Schuman, 2017). While the public claims that the fatal police-black encounters are point to a bigger picture, the police hold that these are isolated cases. 67% of the police officers believe that these are isolated cases while 60% of the public insist that the incidences are a sign of the bigger problem (Simon, O'Key, & Melanie Schuman, 2017). Even when the number of black citizens dying during an encounter with police is increasing, more police officers (93%) are worried about their safety (Simon, O'Key, & Melanie Schuman, 2017). This was before the deadly attacks on police in Dallas that left eight officers dead.
The study also shows that 68% of the police doubt the protests that have resulted from the fatal encounters between the blacks and the police. 90% believes that the demonstrations are motivated by the anti-police bias while only 10% believe that the riots ar...