Compare and Contrast 'reactive' and 'proactive' approaches to police investigation and to determine whether there are any potential ethical or legal problems in adopting a proactive approach.

Authors Avatar

Criminal Justice Process Essay

Introduction

It is required to “Compare and Contrast ‘reactive’ and ‘proactive’ approaches to police investigation and to determine whether there are any potential ethical or legal problems in adopting a proactive approach”.

To answer this question numerous sources will be consulted to help understand exactly what reactive and proactive approaches to policing entail and examples of them, therefore being able to compare and contrast them.  The proactive approach to policing will be examined to find out whether any ethical/legal problems may arise due to this approach and why.  Evidence will also be given in order to backup arguments made.

In society, police are responsible for maintaining public order, preventing and detecting crime.  Police investigations are initiated by using two different approaches; reactive and proactive, however, a reactive approach has generally been adopted when investigating crimes rather than a proactive approach.

Reactive policing also known as ‘fire brigade policing’ is where police respond to calls from the public; attend the scene of the crime, interview victims and witnesses, establish whether a crime has been committed and if so what crime, discover offenders if any identified and complete the ensuing paperwork.  This may result in conviction or may not depending on the information and evidence found by the police if undertook the investigation, which would have been undertaken depending on the seriousness of the crime.  If the result is not conviction then a warning may be issued instead or no formal warning whatsoever.  An example of when police have undertaken reactive policing was in the case of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman where they were reported missing by their parents and the police reacted to the call and undertook an investigation into their disappearance.

Join now!

Proactive policing also known as ‘intelligence lead policing’ is where the police manage secret operations i.e. go undercover, exploit CCTV, tap peoples phones and use informants for information.  This also may or may not result in convictions depending on information officers receive and evidence found.  According to Sanders (2002) police who adopt proactive policing are usually specialist drug units, vice and serious crime squads, etc. Normal police officers don’t tend to adopt this approach, therefore they are unable to take their own initiative or the lead, this can be de-motivating to a police officer and so no eagerness or ...

This is a preview of the whole essay