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Virtual City Police Department. Case Study

Nowadays the Virtual City Police Department face several significant problems. The point is that if the problems are not fixed, the Virtual City citizens will suffer because the level of crimes will increase. This report is aimed at outlining four major problems and finding solutions on them.
The main problem of the Virtual City Police Department is unqualified personnel. The point is that until the mid-1990s every person who had graduated from school and got a certificate could become a police officer in the Virtual City Police Department. However, in the 1990s the situation has changed a bit: college education became a desirable requirement for obtaining the job. Indeed, the reality is so that only one out of ten police officers has more than two years of college education.
The other problem is that chief of the Virtue City Police Department is changed together with the mayor of the city. In turn, every new chief of the police department prefers to look for new police officers. Hence, there are only few officers, who stay longer than five years.
The third problem rises the third one. Police chief is appointed by the mayor. County executive and governor have different political points of view. Such behavior is not beneficial either for the Virtual City Police Department or the country and state governments. The problem is that state police, county sheriff and the chief of the Virtual City Police Department rarely interrogate and communicate. This causes different problems, e. g., in investigating a case.
Virtual is not a big city with a middle sized police department. Hence, there is a possibility that police officers are friends with many of people in the city. The problem is that police officers do not even strive to hold the code of silence, even supervisors. This is one of the most significant problems of the Virtue City Police Department.

Historical Background

The problems did not rise in one day. The history of the development of the Virtue City Police Department has contributed greatly in this. When speaking about the first problem (unqualified personnel), I should admit that this is the problem that occurred long ago. From the very beginning, the main strategy of large outmigration of retiring officers. The point is that while some police officers serve, younger citizens are trained. When the training is over, they become sworn police officers whereas older ones are retired. Hence, each cycle takes up to seven years. As a result, police officers became less skilled and experienced. Moreover, such practice of changing police officers every five to seven years resulted that commanders and supervisors were unqualified, as well. The point is that they did not have any experience in administrating and commanding people. Besides, when addressing the second and the third problems, it is easy to see that they raised because the mayor allowed it. When the Virtue City Police Department was to be created, there was almost no professional police officers. Hence, the mayor and the City Council decided to appoint their friends and relatives to serve in the department and obtain the highest positions. Such practice did not change with time. Hence, nowadays, most of the highest positions in the Virtual City Police Department are taken by the mayor’s friends and relatives. The last problem is connected with the second and the third ones. The point is that people trust their friends. In the Virtual City Police Department, there are no secrets from each other; police officers used to share everything with their colleagues. In some cases, this can be dangerous and even violate the law.
There are four commands in the Virtual City Police Department: patrol, investigation, special operations and support services. Every command is headed by a commanders. Police officers are appointed to departments according to their background, skills and talents. The largest commands is the Patrol. However, there is the tendency to change the amount of police officers in commands with a new chief of the Virtual City Police Department. Obviously, this harms the productivity of the department. The district organization of the Virtual City Police Department has contributed into the development of the four problems mentioned above. The first problem is unqualified personnel. However, if a person is appointed to a new department every five to seven years, there is no chance that such a police officer become skilled and experienced in the field of one’s work. The point is that to become skilled, a person should work for several decades to know all the peculiarities of the work. However, if a police officer changes commands, he or she will know a lot but not be skilled. Another problem that arose from the district organization is the fourth problem: the problem of the code of silence. The point is that, if a police officer changes the command, he or she will want to share everything that he or she found out when working in another command. Obviously, the district organization should be changed. The main demand is to choose high quality workers who will not violate the law and break the code of silence. Besides, it is necessary to determine the sizes of every command appoint commanders and remain it unchangeable. This can be the first step in solving the four major problems that has been outlined above.

Demographics of the Virtual City Police Department

The Virtual City Police Department consists mostly of white American males. However, there is the tendency to increase the amount of non-white Americans, especially sworn personnel. The good thing is that there is almost equal amount of men and women in the Virtual City Police Department. This means that there is no sex discrimination in the department. The demographic situation can contribute the first problem of unqualified personnel, as well. The point is that since 2000, the amount of children rose. Hence, nowadays, there are many teenagers in the City of Virtue. In this case, it is reasonable to order every police officer have at least a full college education. Besides, the Virtual City Police Department should initiate the propaganda to serve in the department. In such a case, the youth will be willing to serve as police officers. This will help reduce the amount of low qualified and unskilled personnel. Obviously, new comers will not be experienced and know everything they should to work as police officers. However, I suggest leaving some of the most skilled officers, who will train new comers. The point is that after training, new comers will not know everything they should to become skilled police officers. Old members of the Virtual City Police Department can teach them something new and share their experience. Besides, new comers will be taught on a new scheme. Hence, they will know much about the code of silence and the new policy of the department.

Culture of the Department

I have already mentioned that the fourth problem is the most significant to solve. Police officers have access to secret information and federal databases. Nowadays, the police officers of the Virtual City Police Department do not follow the code of silence and tend to tell all the secrets to each other. Besides, the personnel is chosen by their background, talents and skills. There history of the criminal law knows many cases when criminals were helping in investigating several crimes. If such a criminal appears to help the Virtual City Police Department, he or she will find out all the secrets. This can harm not only city or state safety; the safety of the entire country may suffer.
It is not as easy to change the culture poof the police department, as it may seem. The point is that such culture has been existing in the police department since the times of its creation. The very first police officers used to share their secrets, as well as modern police officers do. In such a situation, the simple policy change will not help. Hence, I propose to change the entire personnel. The point is that new comers will obey the laws. Police officers should follow all the laws of the country and the state. The code of silence is one of such laws. In this situation, it will not be easy to change the culture. However, new policy of the department and new personnel should change it.
Moreover, the culture of the Virtual City Police Department determines one more problem. As I have already mentioned, one of the problems is that chiefs are appointed by the mayor. Hence, there is no good communication between the county and state police departments and the Virtual City Police Department. This is the matter of culture, as well. The point is that the chief of the police department used to be a shadow of every new mayor. In this situation, I propose to change the method of choosing the chief of the Virtual City Police Department. Chief of the department should be elected by police officers every five years. This can help limit the dependence of the chief of the Virtual City Police Department from the mayor.

Crime Statistics

As it is seen from the table presented above, the amount of some of the crimes (burglary, agg assault, vandalism, drug violations, etc.) has increased in the past several years. On the contrary, the amount of arrests has decreased. This means that police officers do not work hard to investigate crimes. However, there may be several strategies implemented to reduce the amount of crimes. The first thing to do is to monitor all those who has at least once committed a crime. The easiest and most effective way to monitor them is to use modern technologies, such as tracking systems. Obviously, this can be rather expensive. However, such tracking devices have proved this effectiveness. If the chief of the police department will not want to spend federal money, there is one more strategy to reduce the amount of crimes. Community policing is implemented all over the country. According to some statistical data, the community policing can help reduce the amount of crimes. The chief of the police department should advertise the intake of volunteers to serve in the police department. Volunteers are not paid hence the chief of the police officer should not worry about federal funds. On the contrary, the quality of their job is rather high.

Solutions

In the report, I outlined the main problems of the Virtual City Police Department. The first problem can be solved by coaching new personnel. The point is that they should graduate from at least a college. They will be trained not only by federal militaries, but also by older police officers from the Virtual City Police Department. This will help them get to know all the peculiarities of work in the Virtual City Police Department. The second and the third problems can be solved by changing the procedure of electing the chief of the department. I stated that police officers should elect their chiefs alone, because they know what person the department needs. The fourth problem is the most significant and urgent to solve. The code of secret is to be overseen. In such case, I proposed to train new comers so they obey the law and do not break the code of silence. Besides, in the report I proposed several ways of reducing the amount of crimes in the City of Virtue.

Resources:

n. a. (2003) Crime Reduction Basics. Home office Crime reduction center.
Smith A. M. (2011) Law Enforcement use of global positioning devices to monitor motor vehicles: the fourth Amendment considerations. CRS Report for Congress
n. a. (n. d.) Community Policing defined. COPS