Police culture

Police Culture
Name
Institutional Affiliation

Police Culture
Like any other profession, police officers have a police culture that allows new members to enter and learn the methods of survival in this highly stressing but essential role in society. The officers also form a subculture, which refers to the behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes exhibited by police officers that reflect an ‘us-versus-them’ mentality. Whereas a police culture affects a law enforcement agency positively by helping recruits to learn the means of survival in the force, police subculture affects an agency negatively (Peak, 2015). It makes police officers misuse their discretion by allowing their colleagues to abuse their power at the expense of the public’s welfare.
Police subculture may frustrate the justice system, and as such, it is essential to develop a means of combating it to ensure that society can guarantee justice. Police officers form a subculture because they work in a closed social system (Pollock, 2010). The best way of weakening a police subculture is allowing police officers to integrate with members of the society frequently. This will help to make the civilians and police officers understand each other deeply, which would weaken a police subculture, as the police officers would learn that other people care for them.
I understand what makes police officer form a subculture. Sometimes I feel that I have to live up to the cultural rules of my peer group to avoid being ostracized. For example, I feel that I have to defend my friend if he is arguing with someone who is not my friend.

This happens even when deep down I know that my friend is wrong because I fear to do things that would risk my being excluded from my peer group.

References
Peak, K. (2015). Introduction to criminal justice (4th ed.) Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Pollock, J. (2010). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.