Changes in policing

Write a 5-page paper. Students will be expected to adhere to the style guidelines posted below. Failure to
follow these guidelines will drastically impact students’ grades on the assignment. Students will be expected to
include 10 different sources in their papers. Five of these sources can be journalistic sources (i.e., newspapers,
magazines, other digital news sources) and at least five need to come from peer-reviewed journal articles from
journals in criminology and
criminal justice. If you do not know what this means, you will need to make an appointment with a librarian to
learn more. Textbooks are not an acceptable source. Students may substitute law review articles for the
journalistic sources but not the peer-reviewed sources. Each source must be appropriately cited in the text
according to the APA 7th Edition style guidelines.
Given the renewed attention to policing in the United States (and around the world, but let’s focus on the
United States to make our lives easier), a public discussion has been reinvigorated about the potential need for
changes in the police. The first thing that you need to do is summarize both sides of the debate. For the sake
of simplicity think of these sides as the status quo and reform the police. Be sure to specify what the central
tenets of each side is. Then, and this should be the bulk of the paper, students are expected to advocate for
specific changes that could be made (by the police, the community, or other groups—just make sure you are
highlighting these in your problem statement). Be sure to consider why specific changes or solutions may or
may not be desirable.
At the end of the day, students are being asked to give policymakers and the public a road map to move
forward. These documents should be written in such a way that there is enough information for a practitioner
and an informed person to seek out more information, but not in such a technical or arcane manner that it is
unapproachable to
anyone other than an expert.
Please note, this topic is sure to evoke strong emotions from many students (that is the intent). However,
students’ grades will likely suffer greatly if they become entrenched in their ideological beliefs (regardless of
what they are). Suffice it to say, there is enough information here to suggest that taking an extreme position
(again, regardless of what side of the debate) will make your task more difficult.