Law Enforcement officers Role

The major issue affecting our community in the San Francisco County is the manner of how law enforcement officials are performing their duties. Are our police officer’s using excessive force needed to apply towards arresting or apprehending a suspect or suspects? This question seems to be the major issues that surround our police department. Sworn police officers not following their responsibilities and duties. Why I chose this field of expertise as a functional role in our society, because of the negativity the local newspaper and news media have implied towards certain police officers in the San Francisco Police Department. The major issue involved is why the police department is cracking down on police abuse (Gordon 2006). Unfortunately, the Chronicle Series on the San Francisco Police Department is keeping a watch list of officers who employ force three or more times in a calendar year quarter, but the system is old and outdated. Over a nine year period beginning in 1996, about five percent of the officers in the 2,200 member department were responsible for 25 percent of the logged cases of force, for examples, incidents that covered everything from physical control to the use of a firearm used to subdue suspects (Gordon 2006).

One needs to keep in mind that although there are accusations against these police officer’s there is also a possibility that the use of force was inappropriate (Gordon 2006). A police officer’s role is important to our society and if he or she does not uphold the responsibility of a respectable officer they should not be in this field or position. According to Captain Charles Keohane who is employed by the San Francisco Police Department made available to these problem officers are keeping them from getting field training assignments. In the past, it has cost the city of San Francisco $1.2 million dollars in lawsuits against 29 officers in training. If part of a police officer’s duty is to go out into the field to patrol and observe the events or activities that take place in his/her immediate surroundings. How can an officer determine how much force to use if it entails an individual who is hysterical after the consumption of drugs and alcohol? It would be hard to determine this factor, because there would have to be some extra force to detain the suspect. However, in the case of two officer’s with the SFPD, Officers Marcus Bronfeld and Jesse Serna these officers are noted as the two heavy users of force (Sward, Wallace, and Hernandez 2006). In the case of Officer Serna, the Chronicle states that he was reported using force so frequently that four times he made the department’s watch list of officers who may need counseling. He had reported injuring 11 people (Sward, Wallace, and Hernandez 2006). The citizens of San Francisco should not have to tolerate such officers and should at least reprimand them from their duties. Although, Serna was listed as the highest of force user in the law enforcement he continued to perform his duties as a police officer (Sward, Wallace, and Hernandez 2006). It is costing the city of San Francisco millions of dollars for such officers. Why has Officer Serna remained in the law enforcement field? Obviously, the Chief of Police