Question 1

Which activity most often brings police officers into face-to-face contact with citizens?&#10;A) Traffic duties&#10;B) Criminal investigation&#10;C) Answering calls for service&#10;D) Foot patrol

Accepted Answer

Traffic duties&#10;

Question 2

What would happen if the police attempted to enforce all the laws?&#10;A) The mass of cases would obscure the most serious offenders.&#10;B) The workload would swamp the criminal justice system.&#10;C) All of the above&#10;D) None of the above

Accepted Answer

Attempting to enforce every single law would lead to an overwhelming workload for the criminal justice system, resulting in the most serious offenders being lost in a sea of cases. Therefore, both A and B are accurate responses.

Question 3

This concept describes the decisions that police officers make about which laws to enforce, how much to enforce them, when to let some offenses slide, and when to devote attention to truly significant offenses.

A) Discretion
B) Policing style
C) Authority
D) Visibility

Discretion

Accepted Answer

The concept described is discretion, which refers to the decision-making power that police officers have in enforcing the law. Policing style, authority, and visibility may be related, but they do not specifically describe the decision-making power of officers.

Question 4

This is suspicion based on facts or circumstances that justifies stopping and sometimes searching an individual thought to be involved in illegal activity.&#10;A) Reasonable suspicion&#10;B) Reasonable stop standard&#10;C) Probable cause&#10;D) All of the above

Accepted Answer

Reasonable suspicion is the legal standard that justifies a brief stop and frisk of a person by the police, based on specific and articulable facts that the person is involved in criminal activity. It is a lower standard than probable cause, which is required for a full arrest or search. The reasonable stop standard is not a recognized legal standard.

Question 5

There is an unstated understanding between the police and the public that a pattern of non-enforcement is permissible.

Accepted Answer

This is known as "selective enforcement" where the police prioritize certain laws over others and may choose to not enforce certain laws in certain situations. However, this can lead to controversy and criticism if it is perceived as unfair or biased.

Deck 4: Police Organization, Operation, and the Law