Key Terms 6 Flashcards
(43 cards)
What is Ballistics?
The study of firearms, including the firing of the weapon and the flight of the bullet
What does the term Blue Curtain refer to?
A metaphorical term used to refer to the value placed on secrecy and the general mistrust of the outside world shared by many police officers
What is Body Armor?
Protective covering that is worn under a police officer’s clothing and designed to minimize injury from being hit by a fired bullet
Define Broken Windows Theory
Wilson and Kelling’s theory that a neighborhood in disrepair signals that criminal activity is tolerated in the area
What is Bureaucracy?
A hierarchally structured administrative organization that carries out specific functions
What is Burnout?
A mental state that occurs when a person suffers from exhaustion and has difficulty functioning normally as a result of overwork and stress
What is Citizen Oversight?
The process by which citizens review complaints brought against individual police officers or police departments
Define Civil Liability
The potential responsibility of police officers, police departments, or municipalities to defend themselves against civil lawsuits
What is a Civil Rights Violation?
Any interference with a citizen’s constitutional rights by a civil servant such as a police officer
What does Clearance Rate measure?
A comparison of the number of crimes cleared by arrest and prosecution with the number of crimes reported during any given time period
What is a Cold Case?
A criminal investigation that has not been solved after a certain amount of time
Define Cold Hit
The establishment of a connection between a suspect and a crime, often through the use of DNA evidence, in the absence of an ongoing criminal investigation
What is Community Policing?
A policing philosophy that emphasizes community support for and cooperation with the police in preventing crime
What does Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) do?
A method of dispatching police patrol units to the site of 911 emergencies with the assistance of a computer program
Define Conducted Energy Device (CED)
A less lethal weapon designed to disrupt a target’s central nervous system, by means of a charge of electrical energy
What is a Confidential Informant (CI)?
A human source for police who provides information concerning illegal activity in which he or she is involved
What is Crime Mapping?
Technology that allows crime analysts to identify trends and patterns of criminal behavior within a given area
What is Deadly Force?
Force applied by a police officer that is likely or intended to cause death
Define Delegation of Authority
The principles of command on which most police departments are based, in which personnel take orders from and are responsible to those in positions of power directly above them
What is a Detective?
The primary police investigator of crimes
Define Differential Response
A strategy for answering calls for service in which response time is adapted to the seriousness of the call
What is Directed Patrol?
A patrol strategy that is designed to focus on a specific time of criminal activity in a specific geographic area
What is DNA Fingerprinting?
The identification of a person based on a sample of her or his DNA, the genetic material found in the cells of all living things
Define Duty in the context of policing
The moral sense of a police officer that she or he should behave in a certain manner
