NCJ Number
79764
Date Published
Unknown
Length
0 pages
Annotation
A panel discussion moderated by Charles Rogovin focuses on problems of the criminal justice system in general, with special attention devoted to various aspects of the crime problem from the police perspective.
Abstract
Participants include Chief Rocky Pomerance of Miami Beach, Fla., who is president of the International Association of the Chiefs of Police; Patrick V. Murphy, president of the Police Foundation; and Chief James Parsons of Birmingham, Ala. The panel members begin with a consideration of the public perception of police and their effectiveness in stopping crime. Members maintain that the whole society must accept responsibility for the crime problem. Furthermore, data show that even though police make arrests, most of those arrested are out on bond, out on appeal, out on probation, or out on parole. The discussion then turns to more specific issues: police allocation of limited resources, differing definitions of what constitutes victimless crimes, and the controversial issue of handgun control. Patrick Murphy argues that only the police and the military should have handguns and that the United States could learn some important lessons from countries such as Japan and Great Britain, both of which have very strong handgun controls. Chief Parsons notes that police departments contribute to the handgun problem by often auctioning off confiscated handguns. Chief Parsons advocates that anyone committing a crime with a handgun should receive a minimum of a 10-year jail sentence with no discretion allowed. He further argues that all gun permits allowing people to carry handguns should be abolished. On the subject of police corruption, Chief Pomerance states that police administrators are much more open about investigating and dealing with the problem than in the past. In conclusion, Chief Parsons observes that police will have less resources in the future than they had in the past, so it will be necessary to focus much more on productivity and resource allocation.