Police Accountability Essay

Police Officer Accountability is policy practice biggest thing. An officer is accountable for the community, the department, and themselves (Peak, 2012). An officer action is an accountability which can bring on more strain and concern that might get in the way of the officer’s split decision making when an officer is involved in a pursuit, the officer must keep in mind the public safety, as well as the safety of the suspect, and when he arrest the suspect he should make sure that he abide by the law and to make sure that the reason for the pursuit is but in the report for court. The ramifications would be making sure his accountability is successful or take responsibility if something tragic happens. An example of a specific situation where officer accountability for his actions that would affect his decision making in enforcing the law would be: An officer is sitting in a store parking lot and he sees a car speeding through the parking lot heading in the direction of people who are going in and out of the store. The car runs over one of the people and keeps going. The officer takes off behind the car and pulls it over. The officer gets of his car and walk to the driver side of the car, as he approach the car and starts to ask the driver for his license and registration he notice that it is one of his fellow officer and he is extremely intoxicated. The off duty officer asks him to let him go with a warning not realizing that the reason he was pulled over was because he just ran someone over. If the officer who is on duty lets him go he would be held accountable because he would taking a risk by letting him continue to drive and risk him harming someone else or himself. The officer arrests his fellow officer so he can be held accountable for his unlawful actions.