Running head: REFLECTION ON MODERN CRIMINOLOGY/CRIMINAL JUSTICE ISSUES

Reflection on Modern Criminology and Criminal Justice Issues

LEPS 599

Juan C. Espinoza

University of San Diego

Weebly Link:

https://jcespinoza.weebly.com/
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The profession of law enforcement is a mirrored reflection of the civilizations it serves.

As the moral and ethical standards, expectations, and technologies of society evolve, so too must

the policies, procedures, and tactics of law enforcement to meet them. Over the course of the past

century, law enforcement has seen the introduction of new technologies, such as the automobile

becoming the primary mode of transportation for most Americans, changes in the moral

standards of the public as a whole such as the social acceptance of racial integration, and the

requirement that police officers tend to a multitude of problems that were previously intended for

social workers, mental health practitioners, and counselors. Due in large part to its paramilitary

structure and governmental organization, which is rife with bureaucracy, changes within the field

of law enforcement are traditionally made very slowly and are often struggling to merely keep

pace with the rapidly evolving nature of the world around it.

The University of San Diego has attempted to address the ever-present need of

law enforcement and public safety to adapt to the developing challenges it faces by presenting a

curriculum that is centered in practical application and contemporary issues. This requires a

multi-disciplinary approach, similar to the manner in which law enforcement requires the use of

multiple different skill sets for continued success of law enforcement professionals and agencies

alike.

The thematic program learning objective of critical understanding of modern criminology

and criminal justice issues is reflected in my work through the modern and contemporary issues

that it involves and explores. The following selected works have been chosen as an example of

the many various and changing requirements, expectations, technologies, or attitudes that

confront law enforcement on a regular basis. Furthermore, these works reflect upon my career as

a professional in the field of law enforcement by being demonstrative of the multi-faceted

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methodology which I have had to learn and apply because it is required of leaders in the field

today.

The first work is authored in the style of a memorandum addressed to my then Chief of

police, advising him on what actions to take and how to take them in the wake of a unjustified

use of force by one of our officers. The memorandum emphasizes the need to dominate the

narrative and present the public with our story on the incident, which will invariably be the most

accurate and truthful. It also speaks to the need for the department to provide transparency with

the public as much as possible, within the constraints of law and policy, to include advising the

public that the officer has been placed on unpaid leave, showing available video of the incident

as soon as possible, and discussing the incident in a public forum, allowing for questions.

The second work, titled Cell Site Location Information, is expository of exactly how law

enforcement must stay abreast with the fluctuating and often contradictory precedents set by case

law. In the work an argument is presented counter to the decision rendered by Chief Justice

Roberts in Carpenter v. United States (2018). The work assumes the position that the proprietary

location data collected by telecommunication companies is not subject to fourth amendment

restrictions, similar to the ruling applied to bank records under United States v. Miller 1976.

The final work addresses the modern and contemporary practice of using statistics

accumulated over time in order to analyze and explain crime trends within a given area. This

particular work helps to bring understanding to why the City of Soledad continued to see a high

rate of violent crime and homicides in periods where the rest of the country was experiencing a

sharp decline in said crimes. This gives credence to using gathered practical knowledge and

statistics to create intelligence, rather than simply relying upon numerical statistics, which can

fail to explain the reasons behind a particular wave in a certain type of crime.