assignment

Week 6 - Assignment: - Assignment: Develop an articulate response in a Department website blog 

Instructions 

Our readings this week painted with a large brush the idea that you can indeed provide meaningful instruction to police within the narrow role that they fill right down to a hands-on demonstration of conflict management at the precinct level. Daily stationhouse interaction or routine correctional observation is as local as group behavior gets at that level. Understanding the intricate dimensions of conflict is quite difficult. Hopefully, these articles shed light on some practical applications of theory – some that were useful for what you might encounter for this week’s assignment.

Assignment Directions: 

You are a police chief in a very large city where half of the population is minority. Yet, more than 80 percent of your agency is White. Last year, one of your officers (a White officer) responded to a disturbance in a minority neighborhood. When he located who he thought to be the suspect (a Black male) running through the area with a handgun and who matched the description given to him, without the opportunity to give a warning, the officer shot and killed the suspect as he turned toward him with the handgun. The suspect turned out to be an undercover police officer in pursuit of a drug suspect. Even though an internal investigation cleared the officer, stating that his response was reasonable based upon what he described and the body camera footage, the media uncovered a previous complaint on the shooting officer where he used a racial slur to refer to a minority citizen. The minority community was outraged and began public protests calling for greater transparency. As a result of this incident, you have decided to publish all completed internal affairs complaints, founded or unfounded, on the Department’s website. Whether or not these records can be published varies from state to state (see https://project.wnyc.org/disciplinary-records/ ) Even though it is legal to publish these records in this instance, the police union has threatened to sue you claiming that doing so is a change in working conditions and that the matter must be negotiated. The city’s counsel agrees with the police union’s assessment that it is a change in working conditions and begins to negotiate. Leaks from these negotiations reveal that union members are asking for benefits and salary increases as a result of these changes in working conditions. The city is seriously considering conceding to the benefit and wage increase to gain the ability to publish the internal affairs complaints. Word of this reaches the community.

In the blog area of the Department’s website, a respected minority activist recounted the aforementioned story and opined that the criminal justice system was systemically racist and that this encounter, along with others in the past were proof. Furthermore, the activist claims that the police union is extorting the city and especially the tax payers. Transparency is not negotiable, he writes. Remembering that people who read blogs require focus, your response must be cogent. The employees of your organization will read your response as well; so, be mindful of the conflict it might produce internally. 

Develop an articulate response to a recent critique on the Department’s blog by a local civil rights activist (following a local incident involving one of your officers) who claimed that 1) the criminal justice system was systemically racist citing many instances by your Department; 2) that the police union was extorting them through the collective bargaining law; and, 3) that transparency should not be for sale when it comes to public trust. Take a position about this matter in your blog, and then explain to the community and the employees of the organization what the position means for the future including strategies to address liability issues. Also, discuss how this perceived conflict might have some positive aspects and prospects for mutual trust, social cohesion, and civic engagement.

Length: 700 words 

Your proposal should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts that are presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect graduate-level writing and APA standards.