Critical Policy Issues

PMAP 3311: Critical Policy Issues Fall 2014 Instructor: Dr. Reynold Galope FINAL EXAMINATION December 15, 2014 Your Name: ___________________________________________________________________________ Deadline: December 15, 2014 at 5 PM. Please submit through D2L Dropbox. Application of Policy Analytic Skills to a Current Policy Issue [40 points] Let us see how well you apply fundamental public policy concepts and analytic skills to a current policy issue. This final exam is worth 20 percent of your course grade. Modern governments, with their military and police as instruments, have a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force (Weber, 1919). The difference between the police and other citizens is that we authorize the former (i.e. the police) to use coercive force when they believe that the situation requires it (Klockars, 1996). The standard for the deployment of coercive force by the police is called “objective reasonableness,” which was defined in 1989 by the Supreme Court in Graham v. Connor: "The 'reasonableness' of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight… The calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments—in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving—about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation." This standard provides the police officer wide latitude for the deployment of force. While the use of force by the police, whether excessive or not, is an infrequent event (i.e. when the average citizen calls the police to respond to a problem, the probability that the police will resort to force is low), when force is actually used, there is significant chance that it will be viewed as excessive (Adams, 1996). In some cases, the result could be deadly. 1. The recent tragic events in Ferguson (MO), Staten Island (NY), and Cleveland (OH) have thrust the use of

excessive force1 by the police back into the national spotlight.

For your final exam I want you to tackle this issue. One proposal that can potentially reduce the police use of excessive force is requiring police officers to wear lapel-mounted body cameras. President Obama has already announced a $75 million federal program to subsidize the acquisition of military-grade body cameras by local police departments. Using the public policy approach, analyze this proposed policy solution. Will it be effective? Why will it be effective? How effective will it be? Will it be an efficient use of taxpayers’ money? Note that all public programs (including this program) have opportunity costs. Do you foresee any distributional or equity issues? How about concerns about individual rights and privacy? Do you project that its benefits to society will outweigh its costs? Finally, will it be easy to implement? What obstacles to implementation do you foresee? Overall, do you want your local police department (e.g. Atlanta Police Department) to take advantage of the program and acquire body cameras for its police officers? Be sure to support your position and arguments. [Use 2-4 single-paced pages] [25 points]

2. Let’s reframe the policy issue as the growing distrust between police departments and local

communities. That is, this time, tackle the issue of improving trust between local police departments

1 Klockars (1996) defined excessive force as “the use of more force than a highly skilled police officer would find necessary to use in that particular situation”.

and communities as a mechanism to reduce the use of excessive force by the police. Framing the issue this way, think of other policy solution(s) that may be superior to the use of body cameras in reducing the use of excessive and sometime deadly force by the police? Why is it a better option? You can use the same set of criteria used in [1] to analyze this new policy alternative. [Use 1.5 - 3 single-spaced pages] [15 points]

Version: 12/12/2014 8:08 PM