1500 WORD Min. at least 4 scholarly sources due 2/6!
Course overview
Homeland Security
Problem-oriented policing (POP) concept works by police and community coming to join efforts to analyze the community's problems and develop a customized response to handle them(Hinkle, J.C., Weisburd, Telep, and Petersen, 2020). It includes identifying a particular issue, exhaustive investigation to comprehend the issue, the development of a customized reaction, and an assessment of the impacts of the reaction. By and large, it is the essential technique of Community Oriented Policing of diagnosing and taking care of issues that are expanding crime risks, normally in regions that are experiencing many crimes, crime hot spot areas. The methodology is developed for targeted interventions instead of an intercession itself.
POP differs from Community Oriented Policing (COP) in that COP works towards fulfilling the police mission of systematically following proactive problem solving of issues that emerge within the community. The police are after resolving crimes that occur within the community and dealing with life issues that are good for the community. However, POP analyzes are concerned with analyzing causes of crimes in communities with high levels of crime. Both POP and COP concepts relate to Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) in that all are after using tactical decisions to solve crime issues and enforce the law.
If I were the top executive in my agency, I would use the ILP concept to address both homeland security issues and crime problems rather than COP. I would choose ILP because, unlike COP, where one has only to work towards fulfilling police mission, "ILP has to gather, organize, examine, and use intelligence to guide tactical and law enforcement operational decisions" (Burcher, and Whelan, 2019).
Rapid and Differential Response to Calls for Service
Every citizen would wish his/her case to be handled with seriousness regardless of how small it sounds. The differential response makes citizens feel neglected and bitter because they also need help. People call the police because they are offended or another, so their grievances need to be considered. Although some cases may sound of low priority to police, they also need to affirm to the citizens in a concerned manner that they are going to handle their matters with a lot of seriousness and provide a solution to their complaints.
I believe citizens see it better to report to the police through phone calls when an immediate response to the scene is impossible. Sometimes the scenes may happen when one cannot report the complaint immediately, so a phone report becomes more appropriate for such an incident. For example, in a situation where someone has snatched your bag/handbag, there is no way you are going to stand there until the police come. All one can do is call the police and give an account of what has happened, and with the information provided by the complaint, police can take necessary action. Making a report by phone also saves the police time and resources.
I think citizens should understand that law enforcers cannot be everywhere in this country. So responding to every citizen's call in-person, including even the low priority cases like restaurants closing earlier, will be impossible. Some instances have alternatives, and the complainants can always look for other suitable needs to meet their needs. Severe cases like theft, murder among others of such category should be taken with a lot of seriousness to bring the culprits to book (Morris, 2014)
Diversity in Recruiting and Hiring
Diversity is crucial in law enforcement because it helps us understand that all sorts of human beings are needed in that job. Police serve the community, and it is essential for every community to feel represented in law enforcement jobs. Diversity also helps to balance the demand for employment in different communities. The police department also benefits from the expertise and outstanding creativity due to variety. People from different backgrounds usually have other ideas to share, including culture, resulting in better interaction and exchange of beneficial ideas. Diversity helps in building trust between police and residents. Residents will have great confidence with police departments because different tribes and races are included in police recruitment. Diversity can also relieve communal tensions and enable people to interact and live freely with the police. However, there has been a big issue when it comes to minority recruitment in police departments. A significant number of these minority groups don't show up during tests. The best solution for handling this issue is creating awareness and diverse advertisements on different platforms and channels to ensure everyone gets the information. This will help significantly in solving minority recruitment issues. Highlighting diversity in the recruitment process will encourage many people from different races to participate in the recruitment process. Some people may shy away from participating in the recruitment process because they think coming from other races will disadvantage them from being recruited to the position (Rice, 2011). Teaching recruiters how to avoid biasness during the recruitment process will encourage many people to live for the advertised positions. Many people fail to appear in police recruitment exercise to fear being discriminated against one thing or the other.
Command and Control
The chain of command is a system in the military where information flows from one person to another. A chain of command is critical for law enforcement because it helps people know where they can get assistance when in need. A deep-rooted chain of commands creates efficiency because everyone in law enforcement knows his/her role. It also offers proper avenues of communication as members can receive information and orders from their seniors. Effective communication through the chain of command helps in eliminating wastage of time, confusion, and resources in the event law enforcement is needed. The chain of command also defines obligations and ascertains accountability for every member in law enforcement, and this offers good direction in the assignment of duties.
Chain of command alludes to the order wherein authority inside an organization's positions gets orders starting with one individual then onto the next. In contrast, unity of command implies that all people in an organization have an assigned boss to whom they report at the scene of the event. The two ideas cooperate for the better conveyance of administrations to the individuals they serve. Supervisors and commanders give instructions to the fellow members of law enforcement depending on their ability to ensure that they deliver the best services to the people (Welle, 2010)
The two concepts ensure that every member of the law enforcement organization is accountable for the duties delegated by their fellow instructors. The chain of command and unity of command facilitate smooth and effective communication to the military officers to ensure all assignments given are well delivered.
Political Influence on Police Departments
Police departments should serve as an independent body without any form of political influence. The influence of politicians on police departments and how they offer their services to the citizen may result in conflicts of interests and cropping of serious injustices among citizens of various backgrounds. Political influence on police departments will also lead to loss f trust from the citizens because people will believe that decisions are made depending on the will of politicians and most times politicians defer from each other from time to time. However, most police departments attempt to withdraw themselves from the changes of legislative issues as much as possible (Wilson, 2010).
Sometimes it is hard for police departments to avoid political influence because the elected leaders appoint police administrators and have the power to dismiss them from various positions. In this case, the police administrators might do the will of the elected officials to safeguard their positions. Therefore, police departments can be heavily influenced by local politics hence hindering fair and impartial services to the community. Connecting police departments and politics may help in serving the communities as required by the law. This is because the police administrators and other officials appointed by the elected officials will work without any pressure of being fired for the failure of not doing what the official wants (Muir, 2013).
However, the political influence should be limited in a way that the police departments can operate as independent bodies so that they can discharge their duties accordingly. Strong policies should be formulated to safeguard and ensure that police departments are operating without much political influence. This will ensure better delivery of services to the common citizen.