Week 4 Paper. Tyler Christensen. Southwestern College Professional Studies. CJUS430 Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration & Management

Transcription

1 Tyler Christensen 1 Week 4 Paper Tyler Christensen Southwestern College Professional Studies CJUS430 Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration & Management Week 4 Paper Affiliate Instructor Peter J. Herdt October 20, 2012

2 Tyler Christensen 2 Abstract In this paper you will read several different things, first you will read about political behavior and how it is too much involved in criminal justice organizations and its decision making. Then you will read about an article on the Dallas Police Department and a conflict the organization had with three officers and how the department s power and political behavior were involved. Last you will briefly read the effective types of power used by leadership in a criminal justice organization, the crucial role conflict plays within an organization and ethical decisions being made within a criminal justice organization.

3 Tyler Christensen 3 Chapter 10 For Discussion question 5: Is political behavior too pervasive within criminal justice organizations: Do legislatures, public interests, and private interests have too much influence on the organizations of criminal justice? If so, what would you recommend to alter such a situation? Provide some suggestions. I believe that political behavior is too much involved with criminal justice. From what I read in the paper, see on the news and have experienced in the past, our political system plays a big role in how our criminal justice organizations work. Too many times I have seen what our textbook calls illegitimately, when criminal justice resources are used for personal use or gains. I started out in law enforcement at 19 years old at the state capitol of Iowa as a state trooper. I quickly saw the political process and how it became involved in our agency, especially during legislation when our state senate and House of Representatives came in. This was a very stressful time as all our state leaders were together and would seek out the local troopers for assistance with certain tasks. How are you to say no to the individuals who approve our budget and establish our salary? Even on occasion they would get pulled over by one of the troopers and would be expected to get out of the ticket. My whole idea on it is that as peace officers we enforce the law and therefore must obey it. Our political officials don t enforce the law, they establish and pass the law. They are the individuals who say, hey we need this law to protect our communities. Then they do not obey the law, that very law they put into our system. My suggestion to this is, that the criminal justice administrator of that department should clearly state to political officials do not use my department for your own resources and if you violate the law, then accept the consequences. This however, would not go over well with the political officials. If you did say something like this to your political officials then there goes your job and maybe even some funding for your department. This is what makes it hard to

4 Tyler Christensen 4 establish a clear cut guide on politics in criminal justice. So where does political involvement start and end? I chose an article from policeone.com titled Dallas cop punished over Chick-fil-A sandwich incident for two reasons; one this deals with chapter ten we covered this week of power and political behavior and two this article just irks me. Obviously there might be more to the story than just the sergeant brought the sandwich in and was automatically punished by being moved to midnights. As far as I know from reading the article a shift supervisor brought a Chikfil-A sandwich to roll call prior to a shift starting. Two officers were offended by this because this was around the time Chik-fil-A made its stance on traditional marriage. Because the officers were offended by the bag and sandwich they initiated a conversation of how offensive that was to them. This lead to the investigation and the supervisor being transferred. In my eyes this is absolutely ridiculous. I do not know the full story behind this issue, but I think that it was something that could have been absolutely nothing. The one rule I was taught when I worked in law enforcement was not to bring your personal issues to work. The department I worked for we were not allowed when on duty in uniform to discuss personal issues or our stance on politics or religion when interacting with the public. This article shows me possibly two things about this department, they misused their power in transferring the supervisor before the investigation was over and they are trying to distinguish their department s political stance to the public. Because Dallas has become a more liberal city, the department has to show that they support the liberals and accept them. This whole issue is nothing but a political joke where the department is trying to save face. Once

5 Tyler Christensen 5 again, this is an issue that could have been avoided if the supervisor just ate his sandwich and nobody would have said anything about it. Chapter 10 The key point I want to talk about here from chapter 10 is the effective types of power used by leadership in a criminal justice organization and which type I think is the most effective. Our textbook discusses the five types that are the most effective: charismatic, expert, legitimate, coercive and reward. Now to me the most one of the most important things about a supervisor is that he/she looks after and takes care of their people. If the supervisor is just out for themselves, they will not have respect from their subordinates and they will not be an effective leader. To me charismatic and expert are the ones that I think would be the most effective. Charismatic deals with the personal attributes of an individual, so I am drawn to their personality and character. While expert deals with an individual who is very knowledgeable in the work environment and is somebody I could turn to for help and advice. Being an expert is something that is expected in a supervisor, if your officers need help with a certain task or don t know how find an answer. The supervisor should have the expertise and experience to help them with that. Chapter 11 I believe that conflict plays a crucial role within criminal justice organizations. If there is no conflict within an organization then you do not know where your department needs to improve or make changes. We are in a constantly changing world, criminals are always changing and trying new strategies and the public s attitude on law enforcement is constantly changing. With the overload of information nowadays when the public sees or hears about police officers that are corrupt or abusing his or her authority, to the public they think all cops are like that. That is the unfortunate thing about the media, they only portray the bad, not the good. So when the

6 Tyler Christensen 6 public s attitude changes on law enforcement officials, this will affect community policing within an organization. The public maybe more hostile or less cooperative with their local law enforcement and this will create a conflict for the organization. The organization will then have to adapt to this change, or maybe there is something they could do to change the public s attitude about their organization. This is the importance of conflict within an organization, it is basically a feedback to the department letting them know how they are doing. Without conflict, things would never change. Chapter 12 Are decisions within criminal justice organizations being made ethically? It depends on the department and its leadership. There are multiple factors that come into play when making decisions within an organization, the information on the topic is it clear and reliable, is the decision being made within the organizations mission statement and policies, is it adhering to a certain set of ethics. Now everybody has a different set of ethics that they go by, some more strict than others and some just plain do not have any ethics. To them it s fair game. From this chapter I really liked, Close and Meier (1995) pose four questions that provide an ethical checklist for decision makers to follow to ensure ethical decisions. (Stojkovic, Kalinich, & Klofas, 2012) This provides a good basis for making ethical decisions, no matter who is making the decisions and their personal ethics. I do not know if there is a standard guide that is followed by criminal justice administrators when making decisions, but I think there should be some sort of guide like this. Obviously the organization has their mission and vision statement as well as their core values to use as a guide when making decisions. But I think that there should be something a little more in stone for them to use as a guide when making decisions.

7 Tyler Christensen 7 Reference Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D., & Klofas, J. (2012). Criminal Justice Organizations Administration and Management. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth