DSST Introduction to Law Enforcement Practice Questions Answer Key

1. B: is the best answer. Many firsts in police history sprang up in England, which was always on the forefront of legal invention. The first code of police practice, the Statute of Winchester, was created in England. The first police force that would be recognizable to a modern-day citizen was put together in London in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel. The London Metropolitan Police Force was created by an act of Parliament called the Metropolitan Police Act. The force was comprised of about one thousand men who went on to be called “bobbies” in honor of Sir Robert.
2. D: Sir Robert Peel enacted many of the practices that today would be recognized as modern police work. His Metropolitan Police patrolled the streets in beats to deter crime. Previously, police had only waited at posts for crimes to be reported. Uniforms were worn as a further indicator of police presence and authority. His force also had a military-style hierarchy.
3. C: August Vollmer was the former police chief of Los Angeles who got the University of California to offer courses in criminal justice to create a more professional police force for the 20th century. The classes were a form of hands-on training that was largely practice oriented. Organizational efficiency was seen as the key to improvement of the police force, so administration was a key component of the classes. Later trends in criminal justice education skewed toward a dependence on social-science research to point to ways to improve policing.
4. D: The results of the Kansas City experiment were published in 1974. The city had been subdivided into fifteen beats. These beats were treated to three experimental forms of patrolling. Some maintained their typical patrol profile. Others were treated to double the patrol activity as before. The third group ceased patrolling altogether. Police merely answered calls in these beats. So-called preventable crime statistics remained virtually unchanged across the spectrum. In addition, surveyed citizens seemed to be unaware of the changes in police presence on the streets.
5. B: The era of Prohibition in the United States lasted from 1920 to the repeal of the amendment in 1933. The Wickersham Commission, also known as the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, found that the massive wealth gained by bootleggers allowed them to run their businesses with complicity from law enforcement. Corruption became endemic. This was one of the main reasons that the commission concluded that laws like Prohibition was unenforceable.
6. A: Comes stabuli refers to the law enforcement officers of medieval England, from which we get the word constable. A night watch is a later development in law enforcement. Bailiffs would stand posts at night in towns to prevent crime, as well as performing the more important task of alerting citizens to fire. In directed patrols, a modern law enforcement technique, officers patrol for specific crimes. Vigilantism is when citizens take law enforcement into their own hands. The American frontier lacked any sort of organized government that could provide law enforcement services.
7. C: Defendants must be offered an initial appearance within forty-eight hours of their arrest according to the 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision McNabb v. U.S. If they are not, then any confession offered by the defendant becomes inadmissible. During the first appearance, charges are formally given to the defendant and they are advised of their rights, including the right to counsel. In addition, the magistrate or judge decides whether the defendant will be offered bail or pretrial release.
8. B: The determination of a defendant’s guilt is established through the adversarial system in which an advocate for the state faces off against the advocate for the defendant. This advocacy model ensures that both sides will fight as hard as possible to convince a judge or a jury that the evidence weighs on the side of their client. The alternative is the inquisitorial system. In this system, judges will question witnesses and defendants themselves to ascertain the truth.
9. A: The five basic purposes of the police are as follows: enforce the law, apprehend offenders and investigate, prevent crime, preserve the peace and tranquility of the community, and provide related services. Preserving the peace means policing so-called quality-of-life crimes, such as graffiti and vandalism, which lead to a devaluation of property and community standards.
10. A: Strategic policing is a supplement to standard policing practice used to deal with a litany of crimes that are not effectively managed using traditional methods. Crimes that involve the organization of criminal parties require more hours and communication than those perpetrated by individual offenders. Drug trafficking, gang crime and computer malfeasance all require special techniques for gathering evidence and ensuring successful prosecution.