An Analysis of State Statutes Regarding the Role of Law Enforcement

Police officer roles are typically divided into either crime control or peacekeeping/order maintenance functions. With the prevalence of community-oriented policing (COP), the majority of an officer’s duties are ostensibly more order maintenance in nature, but in the post-Ferguson world, the crime-f...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cortright, Carly E. (Author)
Contributors: McCann, Wesley S. ; Hemmens, Craig 1960- (Author) ; Stohr, Mary K. ; Willits, Dale
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2020
In: Criminal justice policy review
Year: 2020, Volume: 31, Issue: 1, Pages: 103-132
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Keywords:
Law Enforcement
Police
Role
Statute
Description
Summary:Police officer roles are typically divided into either crime control or peacekeeping/order maintenance functions. With the prevalence of community-oriented policing (COP), the majority of an officer’s duties are ostensibly more order maintenance in nature, but in the post-Ferguson world, the crime-fighting, warrior cop mentality still holds firm, which is in conflict with the tenets of COP. State statutes dictate the legal role of police officer and prior analyses demonstrated a shift over time toward including more order maintenance tasks following the emergence of COP. This analysis reexamines these statutes to determine if this shift continued. Our findings indicate a counterintuitive reversal in the trend, with more states removing order maintenance and peacekeeping duties from their statutes despite the wide dominance of COP.
ISSN:1552-3586
DOI:10.1177/0887403418806562