Police Officers Acting Under Their Community Caretaking Function As They Protect And Serve The Public limits
... Government April 1, 2002 Police Officers Acting Under Their “Community Caretaking” Function As They “Protect And Serve” The Public limits Individuals fourth amendment rights I. INTRODUCTION Police officers serve the public in a variety of ways. The officer’s primary function is law enforcement. Police identify and arrest persons suspected of crimes. Police officers also engage in other public services such as assisting private citizens having domestic difficulties. Officers often help the public when there are emergencies or pay visits to the elderly or infirmed who are without family support to check on their well-being. Police officers provide essential help and assistance to individuals many times when law enforcement is not the primary purpose. A police officer’s responsibilities are far-reaching. These responsibilities are often described as a function, to “protect and serve” the public. The broad reach of the officer’s role within the public sphere brings into question his obligations when he is functioning with law enforcement objectives verses functioning as a “community caretaker.” These functions can often times overlap and become a combination of both law enforcement and community caretaker Police Officers Acting Under Their “Community Caretaking” Function As They “Protect And Serve” The Public limits Individuals Fourth Amendment Rights objectives. What happens when an officer, under the guise of community caretaker, infringes on the privacy of an individual? ... The activities of the police can take place in compliance with the rule of law or actions can be noncompliant and undermine the rule of law. The community caretaking function undertaken by the police often slips between the two parameters because the interplay between helping citizens and law enforcement become entwined. ... Policing must be designed to increase police effectiveness while at the same time refine the use of police authority to ensure protection of individual rights. It is important is define what “community caretaking” is. The police community caretaking function defined: A community is located within a specific geographic area served by a police department and the individuals, organizations and agencies within that area. Caretaking functions are everything that the police officer does when he is interacting with the community without a law enforcement motive. There is a core set of community caretaking activities that have a longstanding tradition. These fundamental activities are relatively unquestioned and accepted by the public. Thus, the responsibility of the police officer to mediate disputes, to look for missing children, to aid the injured or ill and to go into private spaces to abate loud noises are readily accepted by the community and not subject to serious debate regarding privacy violations. When the police officer’s work involves an overlap of activities, private citizens may question the legality of the officer’s action. Many police departments do not have written policy or procedures regarding the way in which care taking activities are to be carried out to comply with the Fourth Amendment protections. The lack of procedures in place often leaves the decision as to how to handle a particular situation up to the discretion of the individual police officer on a case-by-case basis. ... The result of the interaction between police and citizen can sometimes lead to an arrest and then a dispute in court regarding the evidence seized. ... HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The model for the American police officer in many ways dates to England and the British model. General George Washington during the American Revolution met in New York to discuss the enforcement of the law and assistance to American citizens by a public patrol. ... American law enforcement under a “Watch System” was established in New York City. This was the genesis of the now New York Police Department. In the beginning the police precincts were small often located in a storefront. ... The combination of inhabitants patrolling under the “Watch System” and the providing for citizens in need was the birth of the modern police department, which provides law enforcement and community caretaking services. The concept of community policing is a common generic term for police officers providing services to the community as well and law enforcement. For example, by creating a partnership between officers and the public community policing assists police officers when they are enforcing the law because they have a personal relationship with local citizens. Citizens can be engaged to promote assistance when necessary and are willing to do so when they see police officers as an ally instead of a threat. The community partnership goes beyond the traditional role of law enforcement. The nontraditional services provided by the police promote orderliness and well being within the neighborhood. ... Police officers facilitate resolution in family disputes, neighborhood disputes and landlord/tenant disputes. Officers work with local residents to improve neighborhood conditions, such as an unsafe pedestrian crossing that needs a stoplight. Many time officers provide citizens with appropriate social services referrals for runaways, homeless, mentally ill or alcohol and drug abusers. Community-based policing seeks to humanize police and citizens to one another and to broaden the roles that police play in a community. Although community policing is a more modern term, its origins come from the community caretaking function that began in the 1700’s. Historically the use of mounted police during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries provides services such as crowd and traffic control at community events, such as hockey and baseball games, concerts and bar closings. Because of the Mounties’s community service the selection for mounted police was and is very specific. ... The mounted police often provide the nontraditional function of the police officer to provide services to the public in a caretaker role.