Criminal Justice. Reactive Policing Nationwide. Law

Criminal Justice Name  Institutional Affiliation 
Criminal Justice Reactive Policing Nationwide Reactive policing is a type of patrol that involves police responding to requests from specific persons or groups, and it encompasses immediate response to calls, follow-up investigations and routine patrols (Mark et al., 1988). Reactive policing offers help in a way to ensure that police officers respond to emergency calls immediately and in an effective and timely manner. Moreover, reactive policing encompasses the follow-up investigations that are aimed at obtaining additional information to prosecute the offender. Unlike proactive patrol that basically involves preventing crime from occurring, reactive policing is applied in instances where the crime is or has already been committed or reported (Mark et al., 1988). Reactive policing tactics have some virtues because police officers only go to crime scenes when they are summoned by the people in the community. Otherwise they normally do not intrude. They keep distance from the society and thus, they retain their impartiality. In this type of patrol, police officers do not develop any kind of relationship with citizens that may result in bias in their responses to crime events. They maintain such virtues in their duties to protect people from too much intrusion, subsequently preventing them from becoming too familiar with police. However, the reactive tactics have some sort of preventive effect, at least in theory (Mark et al., 1988). For instance, police officers may respond to calls of crime in progress and arrive at the crime scene to prevent them from occurring further. Moreover, police successfully prosecuting offenders after conducting a retrospective investigation may be termed as a preventive tactic as it deters crimes from occurring further. Although it does not prevent, a successfully prosecuted investigation debilitates criminals who would otherwise commit further crimes. A study by the Department of Justice indicates that about 51% of police officers perform both reactive and proactive duties (The US Department of Justice, 2015). A considerable number of police officers confirmed that they may respond to calls in a reactive manner, but when possible, they try to resolve the incident in a proactive manner. Only 40% of the police officers participating in this research indicated that they mostly respond to crime calls reactively. Most of police officers under this category are likely to be either in GIS or patrol. However, it does not mean that police in this category do not engage in proactive activities but merely reflect the fact that the majority of their activities entail the use of reactive tactics. Effectiveness of Reactive PolicingIn comparison with the proactive patrol, reactive policing is less effective as far as detecting and deterring crime is concerned and the police do not depend on the public in the fight against crime (The US Department of Justice, 2015). Using reactive tactics, police officers are able to respond to crimes happening in many private areas including people’s homes and businesses. If such crime incidents are not reported by members of the community, it would be impossible for police officers to know the time and place whe...