Civic Scholars: Law Enforcement
Most Americans don’t interact with the police on a daily basis, but they do live in the neighborhoods where police presence may make a difference. Given the impact law enforcement and the justice system can have on society, the issues they face can also affect society.
Amanda Trent, the department chair for criminal justice, served in law enforcement for 24 years. She defined the differences between law enforcement and the justice system.
“Based on my experience, I consider law enforcement (to be) the actual police departments … or sheriff offices that are out on the road managing crime scenes and responding to calls for service,” Trent said. “The justice system is more the courts and the jails and the kind of more formal part of it.”
According to Trent, the primary issue facing both of these systems is staffing. More criminal justice professionals are retiring than are being recruited. In addition, the negative attention that law enforcement receives discourages people from wanting to work in the field.
Another issue facing the justice system is the management of mentally ill offenders. Most criminal justice personnel are not properly equipped to work with mentally ill individuals, though jails now bear the responsibility of managing mentally ill offenders, according to Trent.
To help with the issue of mentally ill offenders, criminal justice personnel should be more extensively trained in mental health or the responsibility for these offenders should be taken out of the “public safety net” and put back in the “department of behavioral health.”
“Even though the state code … says that mental health hospitals are the bed of last resort, the jails have become the bed of last resort,” Trent said. “That’s just really, really difficult for the staff and the facility because they’re not trained to manage mentally ill offenders and they’re certainly not clinicians. It’s hard on the offender population as well because they’re not getting treatment; they’re getting jail.”
As law enforcement and the justice system work to solve these problems, Trent encourages others to remember that not everything they see on television is accurate. Many of the technology and tools that Hollywood law enforcement uses do not exist in the real world, which can explain why a case takes a lot more than just an hour — the average episode time — to solve.
Trent also described the negative attention that law enforcement and the justice system receive. According to Trent, some political powers and institutions facilitate bias and hatred toward the police. She reminds others that there shouldn’t be an “us versus them” mentality.
“People get into law enforcement because they genuinely love to serve others and help people,” Trent said. “There’s this huge perception that it’s us versus them. With the exception of probably less than 10 my entire career, I’ve never run into people (who) were in law enforcement to be bullies or do anything nefarious. … They loved their community and they loved to help others.”
Anyone can help alleviate some of the burden on law enforcement by cooperating with officers if the situation ever arises, according to Trent. In addition, anyone can show their appreciation. For example, elementary students at Liberty Christian Academy write thank-you notes for police officers every year at their annual law enforcement luncheon.
Trent encouraged more Christians to get involved in the field of criminal justice.
“Police run into people on their very worst day,” Trent said. “As a Christian, you get that. You get that God calls you to comfort and feed and clothe and do all the things for somebody who is in their worst moment. The more Christians we can get … the more ethical … and the more caring and compassionate people will be.”
Bear is the leaving editor-in-chief for the Liberty Champion