Forensic Psychologist and Psychological Aspects Related to Policing

Policing in America
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

Policing in America
Answer 1
Although police officers and law enforcement agencies are entitled to maintain law and order, they should be careful when dealing with mentally ill individuals. Notably, mental illness encompasses mind conditions that affect a person’s behavior, mood, and thinking. Some well-known examples of mental sicknesses are schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety disorders. In some cases, mental illnesses make people engage in crime or illegal activities. As such, one of the primary roles of law enforcers when dealing with mentally sick people is to recognize that an individual has mind problems (Lamb, Weinberger, & DeCuir, 2014). If police officers come across a person who is not behaving in an ordinary way, they should not rush to harass such kind of an individual even if he or she has engaged in a crime. Insults or harassment of a mentally ill person can deteriorate his or her behavior, which might cause injuries. Second, police officers have the role of getting the mentally sick individual to a hospital to get appropriate treatment before they press charges if any crime was committed. Finally, law enforcers should help mentally ill individuals to calm down even if it involves taking them home.  
Answer 2
Police officers have the discretion to determine what to do when they encounter various occurrences in the community. For example, they decide whether to take a mentally ill person to jail, hospital, or home. In other words, law enforcers are expected to behave well when handling individuals with mental illnesses. If police officers do not know how to treat mentally sick people, they create conflicts between themselves and citizens (Lamb, Weinberger, & DeCuir, 2014). For instance, people cannot allow law enforcers to harass individuals with mental problems without intervention. Hence, if that becomes the case, people lose their trust in police officers, which has an adverse effect on community policing. In contrast, if a law enforcer takes a mentally ill person to a hospital or home, citizens develop trust with the law enforcement officers. In that case, community members can inform police officers about gangs or criminal activities conducted in a specific region. Similarly, another way that law enforcers can create and maintain a good relationship with citizens is by calming down mentally ill people before apprehending them if they have engaged in criminal activities. 
Answer 3
The scenario at hand portrays how police officers, namely Russ Cameron and Eugene Smith, responded to a 911 call reporting a firearm discharge and domestic violence on Milk Street. Some of the stressors that these cops encountered are seeing an armed man in the upstairs window, a young male child about 3-years-old, and his mother who had a large laceration on her face in the front yard (“Policing in America,” n.d.). At this point, police officers were aware that the man was capable of using the firearm when provoked. Another stressor that la...