Criminal Justice - Risk Management Thesis

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Other specific risks to patrol officers, including those operating in pairs, include standard procedures suggested by past studies of the circumstances in which attacks on officers have occurred. For example, interviews with prisoners who assaulted officers during their arrests disclosed that many such attacks were initiated by the subject upon realization that their arrest was imminent. In many cases, it was the radio transmission alerting the officers of the subject's wanted status that was overheard by the subject.

Effective risk management in this regard led to the use of police codes, both for the officer to alert dispatch that the subject was in hearing range, and also for police dispatchers to advise officers as to the subject's status without alerting the offender simultaneously (Sweeney, 2005).

Likewise, other specific risks associated with the policing and correctional environment are effectively reduced by the application of risk management principles, including the prohibition of firearms within the section of police facilities where officers and prisoners are within close physical proximity. The specific comparative risks associated with the inability of an individual officer to defend himself against an unexpected attack by prisoners is much better managed by alternative means (such as the through the use of video surveillance throughout the facility) than through reliance of firearms.
Whereas officers are exposed to greater risks without access to their sidearms, the comparatively much greater risks are those associated with a violator's successfully disarming an officer. For this specific reason, effective risk management within police stations and correctional facilities generally require that officers secure their sidearms in lockers located outside of the prisoner intake and holding areas (Buerger & Levin, 2005).

Similar concerns apply in court facilities, except that the multiple roles of court officers generally requires them to be armed at all times to properly perform their vocational responsibilities of protecting judges, juries, court employees, and members of the public. Accordingly, instead of instituting the same mandatory disarming policies that are appropriate within police stations, court security managers generally manage the specific risk of offenders possibly attacking a lone officer by requiring that court officers always escort lone prisoners in pairs, with corresponding ratios of officers to offenders as necessitated by risk management planning scenarios (Sweeney, 2005). In principle, risk management within the criminal justice environment requires anticipating potential risk scenarios and establishing procedures for minimizing those risks through policy and procedure......

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"Criminal Justice - Risk Management", 05 October 2008, Accessed.29 April. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/criminal-justice-risk-management-27823