Posted: September 9th, 2022

Law Questions and Answers

Law Questions and Answers

Question One
Law enforcement officers are expected to enforce the law and comply with the regulations that limit police power. Nonetheless, the officers will justify searches and seizures, claiming that criminals need to be brought to book regardless of the means taken. This raises the first ethical challenge on what comes first in terms of upholding the personal rights of this individual or achieving justice for the persons whose rights have been infringed by these criminals. Police officers are also known to selectively determine who will be stopped and frisked and who should not (La Vigne et al., 2012). In this case, the police will have signed himself or herself the duty of the court to prove one guilty of violations of the law. These kinds of police will state that the policy is focussed on maintaining social order and preventing crime ((La Vigne et al., 2012)). However, this will interfere with the privacy and freedom of that individual, undermining the law’s promise of upholding human rights.
Another ethical challenge in stop and frisks is determining the reasonable grounds to conduct the policy while not abusing their authority. The law enforcement agencies have the power to carry out stops and frisks on reasonable grounds. However, the many cases of stops and frisks based on racial profiling or any other physical characteristic have been on the rise. For instance, there have been cases of the New York Police, stopping the members of minority populations, especially those in low-class communities (Rudovsky & Harris, 2018). Therefore, law enforcement needs to prove reasonable grounds as to why they conducted a frisk.
Notably, for the longest time, there was no clarification on the scope of authority that was granted to the police. This would have helped in knowing the permissible conduct jor the conduct. It is the Terry V Ohio case that would set the legal precedent for similar cases that came after it. In Terry’s case, the Supreme Court affirmed that the police do have the authority to stop an individual based on reasonable suspicion. The reasonable grounds need to go beyond just being a mere hunch but can also have less evidence compared to the burden of proof required in probable cause.
The reasonable grounds allowed in stops and frisks entail the police having enough reason to believe that an individual is suspicious, armed, or dangerous for the officers and the other individuals (White & Fradella, 2016). The police officer needs to point out specific and articulable facts which, when brought together, would be reasonable grounds to warrant a stop and frisk. This is the narrowly drawn authority that allows the police to conduct a reasonable search. On the other hand, a probable cause is an absolute reason in which the police are confident that an individual is a suspect, armed and dangerous to others and the police (White & Fradella, 2016). The certainty needs to be affirmed in a way that a reasonably prudent man would also believe that the safety of others and himself was endangered. Nonetheless, the main question that arises from Terry’s case was the failure of the Supreme Court to define reasonable grounds specifically. The lack of specific definitions makes the issue ambiguous.
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References
White, M. D., & Fradella, H. F. (2016). Stop and frisk: The use and abuse of a controversial policing tactic. NYU Press.
La Vigne, N., Lachman, P., Matthews, A., & Neusteter, S. R. (2012). Key Issues in the Police Use of Pedestrian Stops and Searches. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.
Rudovsky, D., & Harris, D. A. (2018). Terry stops and frisks: The troubling use of common sense in a world of empirical data. Ohio St. LJ, 79, 501.
Question Two
Adequate strategies must be implemented to uphold ethical conduct among criminal justice professionals to prevent any forms of racial profiling and bias. To this effect, the following three strategies have proven to be effective.
First, the development of departmental policies and procedures that are guidelines to the professionals on how to act ethically with no forms of racial profiling and bias. The respective authorities need to come up with laws that clearly outline the prohibitions and racial profiling and prejudice (Dennis et al., 2008). The prohibitions need to include individual penalties in the case of violations. It is so important that the policies and procedures are aligned with all regulations and respective standards respective within the jurisdictions. For instance, in the Netherlands, they have enacted guidelines to prevent discrimination in control operations. The country’s Police Act 2012 requires the police to explain each control activity they carried out when arresting an individual concerning the latter’s conduct, and objective criteria (United Nations, 2019). The law enforcement officer should disregard any personal characteristics such as ethnicity and skin color.
Another example is the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department that evaluated the use of force and formulated a simple policy adjustment. The policy indicated that the pursuing officer should not be the one who handcuffs the suspect. This policy disturbed the strong emotions that could be between an officer and the suspect, which could lead to unnecessary violence. This policy alone was able to reduce the force incidents in the department by 23%. Different communities demand different strategies. It is essential to design policies and procedures depending on the groups to be protected from profiling while still ensuring everyone is involved (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2006).
The second strategy is raising awareness through proper training and recruitment.
The criminal justice professionals must be made aware of the groups of people they will be serving in respective communities and also comprehend the guiding laws and policies to their conduct (International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2006). The training should include all the issues based on racial profiling, such as the operational definitions, legal issues, accountability strategies, and the requirements in data collection. This training should be regularly done and address the different settings which these officials work in. One example is in the Bronx, New York City, whose police departments enforced extensive training for its officers (Dennis et al., 2008). Researchers indicated that the training was relevant to raising awareness of how the professionals are to conduct themselves. To this effect, the department had a reduction in the homicides and index crimes they handled during that period.
The third strategy is community policing, which involves structures and processes that encourage both community leaders and residents to participate in defining and finding solutions to their concerns (Dennis et al., 2008). It is in these structures and forums where the topic of race and ethnicity is to be discussed. Respective impacts and strategies and tactics to solve the challenges are enacted for both stakeholders to implement. For the law enforcement agency, a human relations approach could be adopted where the police and the community can easily communicate with each other. The Bronx police department indicated that the improvements they made in community relations helped in understanding the community’s concerns (Dennis et al., 2008)). To this effect, they formulated the right strategies and policies that would adequately handle these concerns. Over time, the number of citizens complaints decreased in the region.

Word Count = 576
References
Dennis, S., Jerry. M., Ashley, N., Judy, G., & Marc, M. (2008). Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System. The Sentencing Project. Retrieved from https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Reducing-Racial-Disparity-in-the-Criminal-Justice-System-A-Manual-for-Practitioners-and-Policymakers.pdf.
International Association of Chiefs of Police. (2006). Addressing Racial Profiling: Creating a Comprehensive Commitment to Bias-Free Policing.
United Nations. (2019). Preventing And Countering Racial Profiling Of People Of African Descent Good Practices And Challenges. Copy Preparation and Proofreading Units. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/preventracialprofiling-en.pdf

Question 3
One of the tasks of law enforcement officers is to use physical force to restrain persons who could cause harm to themselves, the police, and others. However, the series of high-profile shootings and deaths related to law enforcement ignited the debate on the extent of force that the police should use to ensure that they do not impede the personal liberty of each citizen while upholding law and order. In the case of Tennessee v. Garner, Judge White indicated that the use of deadly force should be reasonable enough to enforce the Fourth amendment provisions (Thompson, 2015). The cases Graham v. Connor and the case above of Garner set a legal precedent where courts need to assess an officer’s use of force in terms of whether the suspect was a threat to the safety of others and the police officers (Thompson, 2015).
Nonetheless, it is vital to implement effective strategies to redress the challenge. The first strategy is to implement policies and procedures that are aligned with international standards related to the use of force and policing in general (Kennedy, 2016). The regulations enforced must be clear on distinct matters such as what actions surpass the reasonable average level that a norm law enforcement officer is supposed to achieve. For instance, the United States is a signatory member of several human rights organizations, including the United Nations Charter, the Charter of the Organization of American States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”), among others (Kennedy, 2016). These organizations have set out rules and principles that will guide the operations of member states in ensuring they uphold human rights. The use of excessive force impeded the human rights of an individual, and it is only prudent that the set-out rules by these organizations are used in formulating individual regulations.
The second strategy is to have the police officers trained on the legal use of force and non-discrimination to members of minority groups. The training material should include the officers’ obligation to the states and the international standards they should m, et in their conduct. In terms of force, the concept should be clearly defined together with the parameters so that they do understand what circumstances are legal for them to use power. The Report, Police Use of Force in New York City: Findings and Recommendation on NYPD’s Policies and Practices, would highlight the importance of proper training sessions (Kennedy, 2016). They indicated that even though the training program was present, it was not efficient enough in matters of force. It is prudent that proper research and training methods are incorporated into the process to ensure a positive effect on the police officers.
The third strategy is the implementation of proper investigations and ensuring police officers take accountability for their actions (Kennedy, 2016). This strategy is useful when there are no limits to the sending and receipt of information at the police departments. When citizens are allowed to share information, especially when they see the use of force, it is prudent they share information. The department then works with the respective authorities in charge of investigation and accountability issues. The process needs to be streamlined to the last point. In this case, society should see proper rulings to these cases to deter any police officers from using force and increasing confidence among the public to share information.

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References
Kennedy, R. (2016). Excessive Use of Force by the Police against Black Americans in the United States. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Retrieved from https://rfkhumanrights.org/assets/documents/iachr_thematic_hearing_submission_-_excessive_use_of_force_by_police_against_black_americans.pdf
Thompson, R.M. (2015). Police Use of Force: Rules, Remedies, and Reforms. Congressional Research Service 7-5700. Retrieved from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44256.pdf
Question 4
The primary function of each judge is to uphold the rule of law regardless of the different systems. The differences in systems typically affect the exact nature of the judicial role and, to an extent, their judicial ethical integrity. Some of the ethical issues that a judge deals with re as discussed below.
The first issue arises with the independence that judges have, which is typically threatened in times of upholding the law when impartial decisions are made. There are two kinds of judicial independence: judicial and institutional (Ratner, 2016). Decisional independence entails making a ruling with no political pressure or personal bias. Institutional independence entails the structural autonomy of the judiciary. Nonetheless, judicial systems will struggle with judicial independence. While the judge is expected to be accountable, there are no set guidelines on what and to whom the judge is to be accountable to.
The second issue is competent-based, where there is a need for a base level in which the judge’s competency is joined with them being accountable for not meeting the minimal standards (Ratner, 2016). Normally judges will be expected to act above average in whatever they do to illustrate their competency levels. However, the varying degrees of skill determines the ethical integrity of a judge. It is vital that judicial incompetence is clearly defined and illustrated so that the judges could understand the least minimal standards.
The third issue relates to the extensive caseload that judges have to handle, which also keeps increasing steadily. While the number of judges does not increase tremendously, the other staff members are experiencing rapid increases (Kozinski, 2004). The judges are hence tempted to sin the essential pieces of their jobs to the other staff members. This specifically happens in small and routine cases. Most of the time, the staff attorneys are experienced and will usually get it right. However, this makes the judge confident of taking the work and presenting it as it is without doing any form of scrutiny. This will also happen in significant cases since writing opinions can be a process that is challenging and also consumes a lot of time. It becomes difficult for the judge to draft his own opinions in each big case; thus, the judge will direct attorneys on what to write on the opinions. After its presentation, he or she just reads it casually with the belief that everything is fine (Kozinski, 2004). To this effect, the drafted opinions circulated could be of an individual who has just finished law school a year ago with no supervision from the experienced individuals. This will beat the ethical integrity that the judge should uphold at most times.
To deal with these issues, the development of a centralized process focussed on recruiting and orienting the judges is appropriate (Ratner, 2016). This process will incorporate a more protracted and intensive review process for the new judges so that those with vast knowledge and skill levels are brought into the system. This ensures that those employed meet particular standards across the regions. The program must seek to increase the number of judges to reduce the caseloads they need to handle. The incoming and existing judges should undertake regular and intensive learning and training programs on ethical conduct and the standards that they should meet consistently. The third method is the provision of better remuneration and incentives for judges so that they are not lured into taking bribes.

Word Count = 570

References
Kozinski, A. (2004). The Real Issues of Judicial Ethics. Hofstra Law Review, 32(4), 1.
Ratner, M. A. (2016). Judicial ethical integrity: Challenges and solutions. Hastings Int’l & Comp. L. Rev., 39, 149.

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