Police Applicants: What Types Questions Police Applicants

Police Applicants: What types questions police applicants interview phase determine possessed racist bigoted ideologies? 2. Religious Beliefs: 1. Should police officers pro-life forced provide security pro-choice demonstrators clashes religious beliefs? 2.

Police applicants: What types of questions would you ask police applicants during the interview phase to determine if they possessed racist or bigoted ideologies?

When interviewing a police applicant, it is possible to ask direct questions regarding his or her legal beliefs, such as "do you believe that all persons are entitled to equal treatment under the law" and "do you believe that the U.S. Constitution applies to all citizens, regardless of their race, creed, or color?" More personal questions are also valid such as: "do you believe that people of similar backgrounds should 'stick together' or not" and "do you believe that certain types of people are more likely to commit crimes and why?"

While such direct questions may be important to ask to indicate to the candidate that bigotry has no place on the force, it is equally important to ask less obvious questions to understand the candidate's thinking processes, to make sure the candidate is not hiding his or her true beliefs. Presenting various scenarios is one way of doing so. For example: "you are on a routine patrol and see an African-American male standing on a street corner. What are the thoughts that go through your mind? Do you stop and speak to him?" It is also valid to ask more general philosophical questions such as "are the rights of individuals more important than the duty of the officer to investigate crime?" This question often arises when an officer attempts to defend racial profiling as a way to 'protect' the community (Williams 2013). Or: "is racial profiling valid in any forms of daily police work? What is the difference between racial profiling and looking for a suspect, based upon a victim description?"

Q2. Religious beliefs: Should police officers who are pro-life be forced to provide security for pro-choice demonstrators if it clashes with their religious beliefs? Should they be excused from such duty, or assigned to different duty that would not conflict with their beliefs? Explain your answer in detail and provide an example if necessary.

If these officers are needed to defend the pro-choice protestors at the clinic and to prevent violence and civic unrest, yes. It must be stressed that the officers are not defending 'abortion' per se, but rather are enforcing the law. Officers do not have the ability to cherry pick which laws they wish to defend and those which they do not: rather, they are asked to enforce all of the laws uniformly as part of their job description. Under the law, it is legal for women to obtain abortions without being harassed or abused in front of a clinic. It is also the right of groups to protest, provided they do so within the parameters of the law. Officers may even be called upon to protect racist or otherwise unpopular demonstrators as part of their duties. An officer providing protection is not condoning the speech itself.