William Muir's Four Policing Styles

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William Muir William Muir wrote about what he believed were four distinct “styles” that law enforcement officers developed. Their “style” is how they operate, how they work, and to a certain extent, what they believe. The officers’ style, said Muir, was based on whether the officers had two specific attitudes. Muir calls the first attitude, passion, which he meant to describe whether the officers felt the need to use coercion and used it to further their job-related objected. The second attitude, perspective, Muir said was the willingness of officers to empathize with the citizens and the situation which caused the officers to be involved with these particular people. He came up with a…show more content…
Police officers with the professional style will carefully evaluate the situation even before they do anything about it, and will be very reluctant to use force, except when absolutely necessary. These officers look at their jobs as being both difficult and complicated. The professional understands and agree with the idea that there are limits on police. Professionals usually have high levels of job satisfaction. Enforcers, on the other hand, tend to have a cynical perspective to their position and they often develop an ”us versus them” attitude. From their perspective, there are good people and then there are the criminals that break the law. Enforcers see police work as strictly enforcing the law. They usually do not care about why an offender committed a crime or if there are any special circumstances that could explain the situation. These police officers often become frustrated with not having enough time to “fight crime” and want to get out and chase down offenders every

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