Deck 3: The Contemporary Law Enforcement Industry

Question 1

The distinction between a law enforcement agency's approved allotment of officers and the number of officers currently employed is known as

A)endorsed strength.
B)authorized strength.
C)personnel strength.
D)sworn strength.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The authors list two major remedies for issues associated with fragmentation. They are

A)consolidation and contracting.
B)increased protection and crime reduction.
C)higher arrests and prosecutions.
D)effectiveness and efficiency.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What is the most common administrative arrangement concerning the police agencies of Indian tribes?

A)The tribes exercise self-governance.
B)The Bureau of Indian Affairs assumes policing responsibility.
C)Agencies are created under the Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act.
D)Agencies employ the assistance of nearby local police departments.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Sheriffs have a unique role in that they serve all three components of the criminal justice system

A)executive, legislative, and judicial.
B)protection, service, and commitment.
C)management, efficiency, and quality.
D)law enforcement, courts, and corrections.

Question 5

What act is responsible for launching the largest government reorganization at the federal level in recent decades?

A)the Violent Crime Control Act
B)the Homeland Security Act
C)the Social Security Act
D)the Civil Liberties Act

Question 6

Why are most departments below their authorized strength?

A)Police budgets are not large enough to cover the hiring of more officers.
B)Nationwide, police have high turnover.
C)Most police departments have a hard time retaining officers.
D)This is due to retirements, resignations, and terminations.

Question 7

The office of Coroner/Medical Examiner is considered a law enforcement agency because the office has the responsibility to

A)investigate crimes.
B)autopsy dead bodies.
C)investigate cause of death.
D)assist police in murder investigations.

Question 8

Why is it important to take an industry perspective on policing?

A)The approach provides an understanding of police accountability.
B)The approach serves to compare police services to other professions.
C)The approach provides a comprehensive picture of all the different producers of police services.
D)The approach provides minimum standards to compare various police services.

Question 9

The standard measure for the level of police protection in a community, usually expressed as the number of sworn officers per thousand residents, is called the

A)community-police ratio.
B)police-population ratio.
C)police-protection ratio.
D)crime-police ratio.

Question 10

What does most of a police agency's budget go toward?

A)insurance
B)personnel costs
C)litigation fees
D)technological advances

Question 11

County police departments involve

A)police who only have detainment authority and no law responsibility.
B)departments who engage in continuous evaluations of municipal police.
C)municipal police that operate on a countywide basis.
D)all of the above

Question 12

The annual average attrition rate for police is about five percent.Why, then, is hiring often delayed?

A)Crime rates do not necessitate need for more services.
B)Delays allow the city or county to cope with budget shortfalls.
C)There is often low turnover within municipal departments.
D)Police would rather the city spend the budget on pay raises or benefits than the acquisition of new officers.

Question 13

Why are civilians often utilized in police work?

A)Civilians are less expensive than sworn officers.
B)They implement community policing programs.
C)Police often feel certain jobs should not be done by them.
D)It leads to improved community relations.

Question 14

What is generally considered the most important component in American law enforcement?

A)federal officials
B)state courts
C)county sheriffs
D)municipal police

Question 15

There is no formal, centralized system for coordinating or regulating all of the different law enforcement agencies. This decentralization is known as

A)fragmentation.
B)decentralization.
C)industrial perspective.
D)dispersed employment.

Question 16

The agency having statewide police powers for traffic regulation and criminal investigation is known as

A)highway patrol.
B)state police.
C)Department of Transportation.
D)Department of Criminal Justice.

Question 17

City police are the most important component of the law enforcement system as they

A)receive the most money from allotted budgets.
B)are the most obvious component in any city.
C)represent the majority of all law enforcement agencies.
D)train for all potential situations in residential life.

Question 18

The primary responsibility for police protection rests with which level of government?
A)federal

A)state and local
B)cities and counties
C)municipalities and corporations

Question 19

What is the most important feature of the law enforcement industry?

A)the tradition of local political control
B)the idea of self-governance
C)the need for strong police presence
D)the necessity of police accountability

Question 20

The process of replacing sworn officers with non-sworn personnel for certain positions is known as

A)authorization.
B)cost management.
C)effective utilization.
D)civilianization.

Question 21

What does the emphasis on decentralized policing under the community policing policy suggest about small local law enforcement agencies?

A)They might be preferable to large consolidated agencies.
B)They should be consolidated.
C)They are less desirable than large consolidated agencies.
D)They are less productive than consolidated agencies.

Question 22

Regarding the private security industry, what are the minimum training standards required by most states for private security personnel?

A)They are required to have firearms training and certification.
B)They are trained in complex legal issues.
C)They are required to be fully sworn officers.
D)They are required to be fully trained.

Question 23

What is the major problem concerning the law enforcement fragmentation issue?

A)budgeting shortcuts due to high demand
B)A decline in citizen satisfaction with law enforcements efforts.
C)A rise in overall crime rate and low crime prevention capabilities.
D)A lack of communication between agencies in the same geographic area.

Question 24

Why does relying on the Supreme Court to define minimum standards for police have serious limitations?

A)It is unconstitutional.
B)Most aspects of policing do not raise issues of constitutional law.
C)The Supreme Court cannot impose sanctions on departmental violations.
D)The Supreme Court is too partisan to make unbiased decisions concerning law enforcement.

Question 25

In what way do sheriffs have a unique role?

A)They are involved in most community policing programs.
B)They serve all three components of the criminal justice system.
C)They do not participate in index crimes reporting.
D)They are not accountable to the public.

Question 26

What is the most important law Congress has passed that applies directly to state and local enforcement agencies?

A)the Social Security Act
B)the Gun Control Act
C)the Violent Crime Control Act
D)the 1964 Civil Rights Act

Question 27

What are the most important set of national standards related to police procedures?

A)the decisions of the U.S.Supreme Court
B)the decisions of the appellate court
C)the CALEA standards
D)the Standards on National Policing

Question 28

What is the most important role of state governments regarding law enforcement?

A)to require that agencies be accredited
B)to require the licensing or certification of all sworn officers
C)to insist on high attrition rates
D)to enforce sanctions on police with poor performance indicators

Question 29

Why is there no agreement about the nature of federal law enforcement activities?

A)Many federal agencies have enforcement or regulatory powers.
B)Most are general service agencies.
C)Most provide protection services but not criminal investigations.
D)Most provide criminal investigation services but not protection.

Question 30

What is the difference between federal and municipal agencies?

A)Federal agencies have a much more complex role.
B)Federal agencies are not as accountable for their actions.
C)Federal agencies do not have the order maintenance responsibilities.
D)Federal agencies are obligated to handle vague disturbance calls.

Question 31

What authority do most campus police in large universities have?

A)They are essentially security.
B)They have general arrest powers.
C)They are non-sworn officers but have detainment authority.
D)Their authority is dependent on the dean's authority.

Question 32

Which are the largest federal law enforcement agencies?

A)the I.N.S.and A.T.F.Departments
B)the D.E.A.and U.S.Forest Services
C)the U.S.Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Bureau of Prisons
D)the F.B.I.and U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service

Question 33

How is the role of each federal agency specified?

A)by the federal budget
B)by federal statute
C)by Congress
D)by the electoral process

Question 34

What is the difference between state police and highway patrol?

A)They are the same.
B)Highway patrols have traffic authority only.
C)State police work for the sheriff's department.
D)State police have statewide police powers for traffic and criminal investigations.

Question 35

U.S.Department of Justice SMART Policing Initiative grants are designed to encourage

A)local agencies to show reduced crime statistics.
B)covering extraordinary policing expenses.
C)local police to focus their resources on places and people that are most responsible for crime and violence.
D)the local agency must have a disproportionate level of violent crime

Question 36

The idea of consolidating several smaller agencies into larger ones is an effort to solve which problem?

A)budget costs
B)fragmentation
C)low attrition rates
D)merging

Question 37

Which of the following is not a category of state law enforcement?

A)state police
B)highway patrol
C)state guards
D)state investigative agencies

Question 38

Why is the office of the coroner or medical examiner often considered a law enforcement agency?

A)They are appointed by government officials.
B)They work closely with law enforcement agencies.
C)They have the responsibility to investigate crimes.
D)They have detainment authority.

Question 39

What factors have contributed to the eradication of most of a constable's function?

A)budget cuts and lack of public interest
B)community policing developments and crime growth
C)the development of the criminal justice system
D)urbanization and growth of city departments

Question 40

Why is the legal status of the sheriff unique?

A)In most states it is a constitutional office.
B)They are almost always appointed by the governor.
C)They are not involved in partisan politics.
D)They have more authority than city departments.

Question 41

On some reservations, Native Americas have their own separate criminal justice system.

Question 42

Sixty percent of all sworn officers work for

A)the federal government.
B)the state government.
C)the county government.
D)the city government.

Question 43

Police services are provided by four different levels of government.

Question 44

The text considers federal police to be the most important component of American law enforcement.

Question 45

The second largest police department in the country is

A)Chicago.
B)Los Angeles.
C)New York.
D)Atlanta.
E)Houston.

Question 46

Suspicious death investigations are usually conducted by a coroner or a medical examiner.

Question 47

Federal law establishes a minimum police-population ratio for the country.

Question 48

Which of the following is not a model of a sheriff department, as identified by Lee Brown?

A)full-service model
B)law-enforcement model
C)civil-judicial model
D)correctional-civil model

Question 49

The number of civilian employees continues to increase in city police departments.

Question 50

There are currently more city officers than federal officers employed.

Question 51

What is the major weakness with accreditation?

A)Accreditation is mandatory and the process is long.
B)he standards are too high.
C)The standards are not universally applicable.
D)There is no penalty for not being accredited.

Question 52

England has _____ police departments.

A)2,354
B)653
C)435
D)127
E)43

Question 53

College police officers are not real police officers; they are more like security guards.

Question 54

The national average of the police-population ratio is

A)1.5.
B)2.3
C)3.5.
D)4.5.
E)5.5.

Question 55

The county jail is usually maintained by

A)the sheriff.
B)the police chief.
C)the county court.
D)the state department of corrections.

Question 56

There are over _____________ federal law enforcement officers.

A)10,000
B)15,000
C)45,000
D)71,000
E)93,000

Question 57

A police department's list of currently employed officers usually exceeds its authorized strength.

Question 58

The office of police chief is usually more political than the office of sheriff.

Question 59

There is a clear relationship between the police-population ratio and the crime rate.

Question 60

The United States has ___________ sheriff's departments.

A)988
B)1,254
C)3,063
D)5,756
E)8,904

Question 61

Private security is an important part of American law enforcement.

Question 62

The constable is an office whose roots can be traced back to the early 1900s.

Question 63

Private security officers are bound by legal decisions such as Miranda.

Question 64

What are the ten priorities of the FBI since the attack on the World Trade Center?

Question 65

Private police organizations display four characteristics that differentiate them from public police.What are those characteristics?

Question 66

What are some reasons for using civilians in police work?

Question 67

Explain the three different types of state law enforcement agencies.

Question 68

List the six largest federal law enforcement departments within the Department of Homeland Security.

Question 69

The standard measure for the level of police protection in a community is the sworn officer-citizen ratio.

Question 70

What are the differences between a coroner and a medical examiner?