The Role of Police in Society

            It is widely regarded that the police in any given society have a difficult job to fulfill. Dealing with criminals and placing themselves in harms way on a day to day basis is indeed, an admirable calling. Although seen as difficult, there is an underlying sentiment in the general public that the job of law enforcement officers is relatively strightforward. Simply put, their job is to arrest the "bad guys". This is true to a point, a large part of their job is to arrest these so called "bad guys" however it is not as straightforward and simple as people would believe it to be. Police are faced with tough moral decisions on a day to day basis. They are to decide when and how to act when presented with violations of the law. They are given the use of force as a means of crime prevention but often times the very usage of this force is questioned and sometimes, deemed unnecessary or excessive. They are also faced with the possibility of conflict of interest cases. Moral dilemmas are also a large part of policing. How they are dealt with is ultimately up to the individual officers but the ramifications of their decisions can be extremely damaging to both themselves and the community at large. There are however certain measures and procedures put into place that try to minimalize the variability of choices an officer has, thus making the proper course of action more apparent.
             Police are equipped in many ways to enforce there law. They are given weapons that enable them to effectively deal with those they find in violation, specific training as to how they are to carry out their enforcements and the laws themselves, which are guidelines as to how the members of any given society are expected to conduct themselves. Ultimately the burden rests upon the shoulders of the individual officer to use his or her discretion to recognize what constitutes a breach of law and the appropriate response that this actions warrants.