5.2.5 Law Enforcement
Law enforcement functions include the keeping of order, crime prevention, crime detection, arrest, and preparing prosecutions.
Laws must be enforceable if they are to protect people. The resources and capabilities of the enforcement agencies, including the police and prosecution services, can become a constraint in the formulation of new laws. The capacities of each element of the legal system must be in balance. It is a pipeline: law-makers must avoid overloading the law-enforcement agencies, the courts, and the penal system. Political decisions determine both how much capacity is needed and how much is available for each function.
Factors affecting law-enforcement capacity
● The budget is typically set as part of the annual decision-making on government spend (3.2.3). There are competing demands for the available funds.
● The effective capacity depends on efficiency. Subsidiarity is important. Some functions are best carried out at local level, whereas others should be more centralised – as illustrated earlier (2.8.5).
● Technology can make a big contribution. Closed-circuit television cameras, finger-print and facial recognition databases, and artificial intelligence can all improve efficiency – although there may be privacy issues.
● Public self-protection can lighten the load, as described in a later chapter (7.2.3), but the existence of alternative forces reduces people’s reliance upon, and undermines the authority of, a country’s national police force.
● Military assistance can be drafted in, typically to prevent a collapse of law and order, though this can be problematic as explained later (7.2.6). US President Donald Trump’s decision to to deploy the National Guard in Washington D.C. was widely criticised, as crime rates were actually falling. It might have just been an attempt to distract attention from other issues but, as Robert Reich noted, it might have been The trial run to test reactions in preparation for an authoritarian seizure of power.
Pressures for change in law enforcement
The context in which services must be provided is changing, as new types of crime and new types of criminal emerge. There are several areas of concern about police methods, as explored in the following sub-sections:
● The policing of terrorism is a politically sensitive issue (5.2.5.1). There is an increasing role for gathering intelligence, which needs to be shared with other countries, but there is public concern about intrusion on personal privacy.
● Public pressure for more effective policing can lead to inappropriate political responses (5.2.5.2). The publicity given to ‘zero tolerance’ is an example of this pattern.
● There have been public demands for fairer policing (5.2.5.3). Police have been accused of being overzealous, discriminatory, and of using excessive force. The Black Lives Matter movement, and protests against the behaviour of Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE) agents, are examples.
This page is intended to form part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. An archived copy of it is held at https://www.patternsofpower.org/edition04/525b.htm.