Explain why the following proposals is the most feasible to implement in American policing. Why? How? 

Police should focus their efforts, reforms, and resources on sentinel-like activities that prevent crime and thereby avert the need for arrests and their ensuing costs.Arrest serves two important functions: bringing perpetrators of crime to justice and reinforcing the capacity of the police to deter crime through the threat of apprehension. The legal authority to arrest is a defining and dominant feature of the policing function (Bittner 1970; Reiss 1971). It is institutionalized in deployment and investigations, training, performance metrics and rewards, and organizational characteristics. Less well recognized by police and politicians is that arrests are costly for society as a whole, the person arrested, and the police themselves. Thus, our first principle follows Beccaria's admonishment: by emphasizing crime prevention, we try to avert the need for arrest in the first place. Particularly for serious crimes with identifiable victims, prevention averts losses and suffering, avoids expense to society of the perpetrator's punishment, and reduces costs associated with offenders' reentry into society. Police, however, cannot prevent all crime, which makes some arrests inevitable. Even so, it is important to recognize that most arrests are not for serious crimes.

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The proposal to prioritize sentinellike activities for preventing crime and reducing reliance on arrests has strong arguments for being the most feasible and beneficial reform in American policing Her... View the full answer