Budget Cuts for County Commissioners

Explain and illustrate where officer well-being should stand on the priority list for spending resources

The well-being of officers should be at the top of the priority list. In the past years, the economy of the U.S. has been experiencing challenges that translated into significant changes in ways the agencies of law enforcement provide their services (Fiedler, 2012). Cuts in the budget for a remarkable number of these agencies have led to furloughs, layoffs, hiring freezes, operation elimination or consolidation, and retirement incentives. In an attempt to preserve the strength of the officers, other agencies have cut their budgets by getting rid of health prevention programs and in-service training.

While agencies tend to determine ways to manage best their limited budgets where the changes have been affecting officers in a variety of ways like the creation of larger areas of the patrol to cover, a decrease in backup officers’ number, and a stress increase resulting from a myriad of factors that have been experienced in this field (Fiedler, 2012). More essentially, these changes have affected the safety, health, and wellness of the officers. At a period when the essential resource of the agency is its personnel, the public expects the officers to keep on providing efficient and quality services under those difficult circumstances of declining training opportunities, as well as wellness, and health programs—every vital factor that contributes to the maintenance of the welfare and safety of officers.

Data that was recorded by Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) shows that fifty-seven thousand two hundred and sixty-eight officers were assaulted while they were in the line of duty in 2009 with eighteen thousand six hundred and seventy-two of these events occurring in the regions where the officers got disturbance calls (Kempa, 2016). Later on, eight thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven officers were also assaulted in the attempt to perform an arrest, and seven thousand two hundred and seventy-four assaults were sustained in the event of handling, supervising, and transporting prisoners.

From the year 2000 to the year 2009, a total of seven hundred and twenty-eight officers were killed in an accident because of events like motorcycle, automobile and aircraft accidents; shooting accidents, falling or drowning; or electrocution or explosion accidents. National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s data states that the total number of police officers that were killed while on duty from the 1^st of January to the 14^th of September the year 2011 was one hundred and twenty-four, a four percent increase as compared to the previous year. Enhancing an environment that is safe to work in, the protecting of officers’ safety, and supporting wellness and health priorities are widely defined under four categories:

◾Leadership and Management

Leadership and management happen to be the cornerstone of ensuring the safety, wellness, and health of officers as an organizational practice and value (Fiedler, 2012). Setting organizational tone starts with walking the walk. Leadership is supposed to maintain their fitness and health, hence setting the example for everyone.

◾Operational and Emergency Responses

Often, incidents go wrong when least expected by the officers and the unpredictable nature of the actions of a suspect increases the safety risk of an officer (Fiedler, 2012). Any measures implemented by an agency proactively to improve such risks are worth the time and resources.

◾Training

Another significant factor for the wellness, health, and safety of officers is training, and thus it is not the docket to cut costs and corners (Fiedler, 2012). Training is supposed to be a major investment made by an agency. Yet, when the budget is tightened by the tough economy, training is often among the first to be eradicated. The majority of the agencies have yearly hours committed to in-service training, but usually, the advanced or additional opportunities in training are what improve the knowledge of the officers, mitigate mistakes or risks, and help in honing duty-specific knowledge, skills, and abilities.

◾Mental and Physical Health Wellness

Maintenance of physical health, encouraging of healthy sleeping patterns and eating, as well as supporting the mental well-being of officers is essential for the wellness of the officers. Physical health involves proper nutrition and regular exercise. Maintaining a conditioned level of fitness tend to protect officers while on duty. Another benefit includes counteracting depression and stress.

Determine if you would consider cutting crime prevention programs

As a criminal justice scholar, one would consider cutting crime prevention programs. The Justice Department of the United States analyses of approximately four hundred types of crime prevention programs throughout the U.S. (Parliamentary Secretary for Justice, 2016). Out of those, only eighty are regarded as being specifically effective. Most of these programs, however, are not run by the police department by schools, social services, and in other cases the sector of health.

Agencies of health, not the police, always get appropriate information concerning hidden violence, it means, frequencies, and locations—and are well positioned to mobilize police, counselling, and outreach of employment to address the abuse of substances and provide means out of situations that are abusive. An analysis of a hospital emergency program in Wales, Cardiff, by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded savings of around eighty dollars for every dollar that the program costs.

These programs to Cardiff from Ontario have managed to prevent crime by more than twenty-five percent as compared to typical policing (Kempa, 2016). Also, they are at par with the opinion of the public which has constantly been shown to prefer controlling the rate of crime via investing in crime prevention and education instead of police, jails, and lawyers.

According to Impact evaluation studies, some of the crime prevention programs, irrespective of their degree of effectiveness, have failed to achieve the desired outcome. Challenges that have been encountered during the implementation of programs are mostly the reason for the mixed results. Below are the instances of frequent and concrete situations which affect the achievement of a program’s results;

Lack of fidelity in a program
Difficulties in the recruitment of target group participants and maintenance of their participation
Shortage and turnover of qualified staff for the program
Lack of training and technical assistance

Multiple factors that have affected a program’s implementation and to some extent, the achievement of the desired outcome are; external factors, for instance, policy and socio-economic situation, resource availability, and partners’ engagement, among others. Internal factors include; the organization’s style of management, organizational values, and staff, and factors connected to the program itself for example delivery complexity, training, technical assistance, and educational requirements. Due to these factors’ multiplicity, implementing these programs requires being keen on ways of selecting and implementing these programs.

Implementation of programs and achieving the desired outcomes must not be regarded as two separate processes; instead, they must be considered a complementary mechanism (Gilchrist, 2016). For instance, a promising crime prevention program that is implemented in a favourable condition with access to efficient strategies of implementation is more likely to attain significant and positive statistical outcomes compared to a program that encounters several challenges during implementation.

Interpret the impact your choice would have on the effectiveness of the police department

According to the guidelines of the United Nations, in order to prevent crimes partnerships and cooperation must be implemented by the police in order to effectively prevent crime (INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRIME, 2018). Due to the broad nature of crime cases, the police will need to improve their skills and knowledge to tackle this issue.

The police would have to adopt the increased methods based on knowledge to prevent crimes; that is intelligent-based policing, problem-oriented policing, hot-spot policing, and mobilizing the community. The cutting of crime prevention programs by the police department would also force them to re-examine their role as well as their level of contribution to larger community safety partnerships. This action would also bring about an array of challenges regarding the sharing of information, opening up of expertise to private actors and the development of new evaluative strategies in assessing the effectiveness of the police models.

Predict how the community would perceive your decisions

Crime prevention programs in the community target transformation in the culture, infrastructure, and physical environment of a community so that crimes can be reduced. Cutting of these programs by the police agencies implies that the interest and safety of the community is not a priority to the police department (BLACKSTONE, 2014). There are diverse approaches involved in these programs including a neighbouring watch, physical or urban design, community policing and multi-disciplinary or comprehensive efforts. All that is difficult to perform in the absence of the police and the desired results might not be achieved. The engagement of residents and community organizations is not enough to fight crime in the community. The legal use of coercion and authority is a technique in preventing crime and settlement of disputes should be the police’s primary concern because a dispute can result in a violent crime. Other examined facets of preventing crime include access control, research and development, intelligence analysis and collection, and more importantly, the participation of the police in crime prevention programs in the community and a multiagency effort of preventing crime, community policing, and problem-solving.

References

BLACKSTONE, J. (2014, September 8th). A change of tune for LAPD as community policing makes gains. Retrieved from cbsnews.com: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-change-of-tune-for-lapd-as-community-policing-makes-gains/

Fiedler, M. L. (2012). Officer Safety and Wellness: An Overview of the Issues. COPS: U.S DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

Gilchrist, G. M. (2016). Trial Bargaining. Iowa L. Rev. 609, 101 (2).

INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRIME. (2018). The Role of the Police in Crime Prevention. Retrieved from crime-prevention-intl.org: http://www.crime-prevention-intl.org/en/events/event/article/le-role-de-la-police-dans-la-prevention-de-la-criminalite.html

Kempa, I. W. (2016, March 8th). Simply increasing police budgets won’t reduce crime. Retrieved from tvo.org: https://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/simply-increasing-police-budgets-wont-reduce-crime

Parliamentary Secretary for Justice. (2016). Community Crime Prevention Program. Retrieved from http://youthlaw.asn.au: http://youthlaw.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Community-Crime-Prevention-Program-Review-3.pdf

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Question

Budget Cuts for County Commissioners

Instructions

Due to the recent recession, almost every law enforcement agency globally and throughout the United States has experienced budget cuts. Law enforcement executives must make difficult decisions about where to spend their budget allocations without jeopardizing the safety of the community.

As a scholar in criminal justice, you are asked to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for the county commissioners of your county. For your upcoming meeting, use your presentation to explain how you would respond to the following:

Explain and illustrate where officer well-being should stand in the priority list for spending resources.
Determine if you would consider cutting crime prevention programs, officer training, equipment, or employment assistance programs (detection and treatment of officers’ personal problems). Evaluate the programs and provide two reasons based on your readings and research.
Interpret the impact your choice would have on the effectiveness of the police department.
Predict how the community would perceive your decisions.

Provide examples where appropriate. Incorporate appropriate animations, transitions, and graphics as well as speaker notes for each slide. The speaker notes may be comprised of brief paragraphs or bulleted lists.

Support your presentation with at least three scholarly or professional resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources may be included.

Budget Cuts for County Commissioners