What Role Should Politics Play In Policing

The police are a legitimate government body which is given legal authority to maintain law and order, enforce governmental laws and prevent criminal acts. The agency is there to ensure the government remains to be a respectable and stable entity in the society. Its job does not in any way exclude anybody from abiding by the law (Emsley57) Resources state that debates have argued Politics in reality, however, has not realized the theory of non-influence to the police force. Politics is the sense or art of exerting power over the government or over public affairs. Political action can be in a form of exerting one's interests within leadership in government, in holding a government office or in control over some resources. As, the question states, Should politics play a role in police administration decision making? Yes, I believe that they should because politics is capable of influencing who will be in charge of various criminal justice positions such as police chief, sheriff, prosecutor, judge and correctional executive. …show more content…
As a result of this, it happens many times that the focus of these officials surrounds only on appeasing those who put them in power and not necessarily maintaining law and order as required of them. Political control over the police leads to a redefinition of police agency as a governmental body with the authority to maintain law and order over political enemies and non-complying element, to prevent crimes of politicians and to enforce government laws on everyone with an except politicians which is wrong (Emsley40). The product of political control over the police force is therefore corruption. This presents a question on if the political regime should be in control of the police or