Criminal Justice System: Crime + Punishment

The film, Crime + Punishment was produced by Stephen Maing in 2018, highlighting the working and operations of the New York Police Department (NYPD) (Henderson, 2018). The documentary, secretly shot from 2014 to 2017, highlighted the flawed and malicious justice system employed by the New York state government in maintaining law and order.  According to the show, the NYPD’s operations are against the tenets and guidelines of the criminal justice system. Despite New York City outlawing policing based on quotas in 2010, the film exposes the city’s underhand methods to use the quota system in making arrests (Henderson, 2018). According to the film, security officers did not work to prevent crimes but rather attain quotas set by the City authority. Such quotas were used as a source of government revenue through the fines and penalties paid by the arrested people. For instance, in the film, a 12-year veteran named Sandy Hernandez is penalized for failure to reach quota targets in terms of arrests (Henderson, 2018). According to the film, the most affected are the low-income minority communities such as African Americans and Latinos.   

The film’s depiction of crime control highlights the inequalities in New York City’s criminal justice system. In my view, there are no problems regarding how the documentary depicts crime control in the state. The film helps to better the city’s crime control by highlighting the loopholes and inconsistencies in the system. Mainly, highlighting the existence of implicit bias in New York City’s justice system helps make the citizens aware of the unjust methods used to fight crime (Nevins, 2018). In the short term, such expose may trigger anarchy and lawlessness among citizens upon realizing the criminal system is hellbent on targeting low-income minority communities. However, such expose helps to fight such ills, hence promoting better policing in the future.

In my view, the show provided a realistic image of the NYPD. That is because the film is based on real situations in the city’s criminal justice system. Despite the film arising from real happenings in NYPD, it does not reflect the overall situation across the country’s criminal justice system. There are many agencies where arrests are made on probable cause and not based on some quotas. However, such a film exposes the many underlying issues across the justice system, such as racism and selfish economic interests.