TITLE
The Mayor and Council shall discuss and possibly take action on approving the purchase for VirTral V-180 and portable building for the Maricopa Police Department. The total cost of these improvements, $300,000, will be funded from general funds that have been made available due to the AZCARES allocation. Discussion and Action.
AGENDA ITEM DESCRIPTION
The Honorable Mayor Price and members of the City Council,
The purpose of law enforcement in a free society is to promote public safety and uphold the rule of law so that individual liberty may flourish. Trust and accountability between law enforcement and the community they are sworn to protect is essential to advancing these goals. The government holds the power to exercise force in achieving its ends, but must do so in a way that protects the rights of community members and upholds the rule of law. Proper policing practices require that law enforcement build positive relationships with their community, respect civil liberties, and avoid tactics that encourage the use of excessive force against citizens.
Police, by present day expectation, must be more than a reactive force that responds to crimes already committed. Police are expected to be a proactive entity that deal with a broad variety of conditions that tend to disrupt the community peace or adversely affect the quality of life. These requirements give new meaning to the notion of a professional police officer in the modem era.
The changed strategy of policing alters in important ways the content of the police officer's job description. Police responsibilities expand beyond attempting to control criminal activity to preventing crime, promoting order, resolving disputes, and providing emergency assistance in social crises. The officer's methods and resources extend beyond arrests and citations. They now include mediation and negotiation, referrals to other municipal, county of state agencies, and community mobilization. As police activity focu...
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