Law Enforcement's Public Relations Hypocrisy

           Law enforcers have created many types of programs and community events that are supposed to have the public view them in a different light other than professionals who simply arrest, prosecute, and imprison citizens.  Some of these programs have been around longer than other ones, some are pilot projects that come and go, and there are some programs that are generated to produce positive results for the legal professionals.  The intent of the people who create and participate in these programs is typically good and some of the results are positive, yet there is an enormous problem that arises when one takes a step back and views the actions of laws enforcers in its entirety.  Explaining further, the significant amount of biased arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration rates makes many of the programs that law enforcers participate in look phony and simply engaging in public relations work so that they do not appear to be completely prejudiced or ill willed in their actions. 

The above-mentioned statement is not suggesting that these programs are set up for these purposes only, but the actions by law enforcers does make these programs look useless and not credible at times.  For example, across the United States there are youth programs that are set up by local police departments in minority neighborhoods.  These youth programs are usually afterschool youth centers that implement recreational activities with intentions of building a bond between the children and local police officers.  The suggested results are that if a positive bond can be made early, then negative thoughts about law enforcers and future criminality can be eliminated.  Given the current disproportionate number of minority offenders – in both the adult and juvenile justice systems – this makes police departments and other law enforcers look foolish and fraudulent in these youth programs in minority neighborhoods.  

             Another public relations effort by law enforcement agencies that appears to be hypocritical are probationary and reentry courts.  These programs are not only unnecessary because of probation and parole offices, but also make the police officers, judges, and prosecutors look silly as they stand there and act concerned about an offender who was arrested or prosecuted and sentenced in the same jurisdiction.  Where was the care and concern prior to the legal intervention?  Helping offenders without arresting them and prosecuting them seems more reasonable and would allow the law enforcers to focus on something more important rather than trying to play social worker after legal interjections.  Again, this is where the idea that these programs are created to make legal professionals look good to themselves and to the community arises.  The results of many of these probationary and reentry courts does not supersede the millions of people who have been arrested, convicted, imprisoned, and given civic death because of the same system that these professionals operate in.

             As aforementioned, some pilot projects have been known to be very successful.  For example, Operation Ceasefire and the alike programs have demonstrated that preemptive tactics that entail care for individuals and the community decreases criminal activities and, in turn, increases positive benefits for offenders and non-offending civilians.  Funding for programs like these fades in-and-out, and usually after a program is no longer running the previous unlawful behaviors return and, at times, increase and worsen.  The question that needs to be asked is this:  If programs like Operation Ceasefire and other projects with similar practices work so well as they are running, and when crime rates rise when the programs are no longer being operated, why are these programs not fully maintained or not becoming the day-to-day procedures for the criminal justice system?  The real answer is because society would not need as many police officers, courtroom professionals, and corrections personnel.

             In summation, many of the programs and daily activities of practitioners in the criminal justice system are set up for good reasons.  Yet, when the behaviors of the practitioners are observed in its full realm then the hypocrisy of these programs can be easily noticed.  The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world, a disproportionate number of minority offenders involved in the system, and when a program works that instills proper obedience to the law and collective efficacy it appears that these programs are underfunded and not fully implemented in a longitudinal manner.  Crazy, America!  Fuckin’ crazy!  We have a legal system that thrives on not changing for the better.