Morrison 1

Jacob Morrison
English 180
Professor chapman
19 April 2015

Thesis: the police force has always been a fluid and changing organization, and this is no
more apparent than in the patrol officers who have seen numerous changes to their role in
the community since the 1950s

Johnson, Kevin. USA Today. Battlefield gear hawked to police 10/29/2014.

This article is about the increasing militarization of the United States police force
and how it is seen by some as a necessity and by others as a dangerous escalation
of power. The reporter talks about the conference that he attended for the nations
largest association of police chiefs here there were startling examples of police
militarization like high-powered firearms and armored vehicles. They also talk
about the worries that arose from the violence in Ferguson Missouri and what
implications it has for police interaction in the future. While raising the question if
its the equipment or the people using the equipment that needs to be changed.
Along with this the article contains quotes from people ranging from an
equipment representative for a private arms dealer, to a New York police officer.
This source is credible as it comes from a respectable news outlet an focuses
heavily on the opinions of people intimately involved in this debate, like opinions
from Yost Zachery president of the chiefs group. This is also an appeal to ethos as

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it asks you to put faith into what these men are saying by citing there credentials.
There are also appeals to logos from quotes like But in today's society,
sometimes, you really need to look intimidating. The bad guys are getting
badder. You need the technology to combat the bad guys. It even appeals to ethos
in certain spots like when a veteran New York police officer says, "What are you
supposed to do? Dress up like Mickey Mouse? in response to claims that their
advanced weaponry is too intimidating.

Lemieux, Frederic. Theconversation.com Democratic policing: what it says about

America today. December 17 2014. Web
This article is about how policing has changed over the course of the twentieth
century. This article mention how policing has changed through the increasing
demographics of minorities and women in the police force. The article also talks
about the requirements to be an officer and how theyve changed. Citing how
there isnt a standard policy for policing in America for the over 18000 police
agencies. After this it goes into detail over the roles officers serve in different
setting such as an active role against the prevention and apprehension of criminals
in the more downtrodden regions and an approach that focuses much more around
being seen and making people feel safe in more well off communities. There is
then a bit on how policing dramatically changed in the 1980s as the war on crime
was called for and police forces started to get much more militarized. Lastly it
talks about how policing often reflects the views of the society its in talking about
the militarization in juxtaposition with Americas high rate of gun ownership. This

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is a credible source as it comes from a law enforcement professor from George
Washington University. They also put this next to the article as while as a
disclosure statement saying that Frederic Lemieux has no connection to any
organization that would benefit from this article, as a clear attempt at ethos. There
is also attempts at logos like when they give numbers for the amount of armed
vehicles and machine guns bought by individuals since 2006, as while as statistics
for the increase of cities with swat teams.

Clark, Mark. Policemag.com. 50 years after Miranda. May 21 2013. Web.

This article is about how the Miranda case changed the way cops act when
questioning a suspect and how it was interpreted over the years. This article talks
about how before the ruling cops never saw it as necessary to inform the people
they talked to of their rights. But after the case It became standard procedure to
tell every person that you would question of their rights. This is relevant to my
thesis as this decision not only changed how the average officer talked to the
people they interacted with but it also who the officers had to be. No longer could
agencies hire just any person the officer had to be literate in order to read the
information on the cards containing the Miranda rights. This was actually an
important issue as some officers werent literate at the time. This article also helps
to delve into police interactions with communities as officers went from being
allowed to assume a person knew their rights to actually having to say them to
them, which helps to give the officers a more professional appearance, as while as
fostering trust as the officer is assisting you in making sure you dont make a

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mistake youll regret. This article pulls in ethos by giving you the credentials of
the author, which are Mark Clark is a 27-year veteran police sergeant. He has
served as public information officer, training officer, and as supervisor for various
detective and patrol squad.