Issues Facing the Virtual Police Department - Essay Example

The Virtual Police Department Introduction The virtual police department was created close to 63 years ago with a few police officers and a chief. The department was instituted by the city council. The unit has developed to be one of the main policing agencies in the state. It is now a modernized department with close to 155 sworn police officers (Kasper, 2011). The department also has about seventy civilian employees that are appointed to positions that range from correctional officers to crime scene investigators to clerical support (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). The department so far, in comparison to others in the state, is medium size. It has four commands with many divisions and units of an up to date police agency. The department is young in terms of its officers. It is so, because over 30% of its employees, civilian and sworn alike have been hired in the span of the past five years. Issues Facing the Virtual Police Department Other than the Virtual City Police department, several police departments are faced with numerous challenges. On this article, the challenges will be narrowed down to at least four of the main challenges they face (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). One of the challenges The Virtual City Police Department faces is that it is greatly understaffed. In most cases, police departments are, usually, understaffed, and this makes them fail to meet the recruitment quota (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). The Virtual City Department faces monetary issues. This also makes its officers want to pack and move to departments or areas where there is better pay. Working in a police department is a risky job. Having that in mind, several officers are unwilling to show up for recruitment (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). Usually, it is the need for money that moves multitudes to show up for police recruitment. Having this belief in mind, makes officers demand for better pay in their places of work. The shortage of funds makes the department fail to meet the expectations of its employees. This way, a department ends up losing a highly resourced officer, and makes it a major challenge in the Virtual City Department (Kasper, 2011). The Virtual City Department also has issues with its governance. The department, for instance, has confused roles among its staff. Considering the Virtual City Police Department has been on continuous growth, it should consider introducing better governance techniques for its staff (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). The leadership of the body does not perform its activities in the transparent means, which makes its employees distant to the leading employees (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). The structure of the governance needs amendments so that it can accommodate transparency. Poor governing at the police departments causes inefficient running of the activities taking place in the department (Kasper, 2011). There may be delays in the delivering of certain services such as on site investigations or emergencies due to improper allocation of duties and roles. If the governance is properly structured, then there will be a quicker way of working, and easier accountability of activities within the department (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). The progressive growth of the department requires that it demonstrate its efficiency. This makes the department feel pressured because of the same. This makes it face extra costs while trying to enhance the various sub-segments within the main department (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). This is a challenge considering that there are monetary issues within the department. The department should apply the principle of the department that shares the same activities being allocated similar resources (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). The final major issue that the Virtual City Department encounters is the ability to reduce crimes. Police departments are often assigned the duty to enhance security by reducing crime rates. Senior officers are often given targets, which they are supposed to meet on issues to do with security (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). In some instances, when the officers fail to meet the set targets, they tend to have failed confidence, which is negative at the workplace. While working, the officers may get serious injuries or even die. This becomes a major challenge in the Virtual City Police department, considering that the officers have to keep working, even in the poorest of surroundings in terms of security (Kasper, 2011). How the History of the Department Contributes to these Issues The department has a tendency to employ young workers. Younger workers are likely to be energetic with no doubt, but are short of experience in curbing crime. This causes increased complaints both from within and outside the department (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). From the way back, the department lacks proper supervision patterns, which leads to mishandling of roles within the department. A recent mass recruitment in the department led to numerous promotions, and this caused the loss of knowledge of the institution (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). The recruits in the department have less than fifteen years of experience, and considering the department has suffered budget cuts, it is impossible to ensure proper training of the recruits (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). In the past years, the city council members, as well as, the mayor, usually, recruited and empowered friends and relatives to the department (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). There might have been reduced claims of corruption in the department, but the level of nepotism was too high. Once, a former chief also said that hiring friends and family was a way of keeping off undesired staff among the police force (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). The department encouraged high education standards for its staff, but would rarely offer additional training once its employees started working. The department was also heavily reliant on whatever decision was made by the mayor. Out of the twelve chiefs that were in office since the start of the Virtual City Police Department, only one was sourced from outside the circle of friend and relatives (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). It is essential to have in mind that the chiefs would only stay in office for as long as the mayor recommended. The dependency on the mayor’s decisions caused a taint on administrative and operational departments (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). The chiefs and the mayor in the department, usually, varied in the decisions. The indifference between the two created a rift, and they would rarely discuss matters affecting the department together. This would lead to unequal recruitment in terms of gender and race. The department, for instance, had more whites as staff, and more to that, a greater number of them was male (Kasper, 2011). This makes the current file in the department to represent an unequal reflection of the minority rank. Worse, it does not reflect either on the diversity of the city leaders and administrators (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). Currently, the department is required to embrace a unique strategy in how it handles its activities. Its officers are expected to embrace higher educational standards, so that the public views them as professionals. Integrity in the department should be upheld the same way nepotism should be avoided, so that the public gets proper training and better chances of working at the department (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). Organization Management and Changes to be made so that the Department runs its Activities Better The VDP is partitioned into four commands, investigations, support services, patrol, and special services (Kasper, 2011). These commands are headed by a commander and widely differ in terms of responsibility and scale. Patrol, as expected, is the largest unit. Other departmental features are grouped under their respective commands based mainly on their personal skills, background, talents, and personal preferences of the commanders (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). Restructuring to smaller or larger units happens with the appointment of each chief or promotion of the commander. The reorganization or restructuring of the department upon recruitment of a new chief, or promotion of the commander may cause instability among the staff or units (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). One unit, for instance, might have developed cohesion among themselves, and might have a better ability to achieve certain goals when together. Restructuring can cause ties among the persons in various units (The Virtual City Police Department Report (n.d). Beginning to learn new work mates may be a little issue in the work place, and definitely leads to lower performance. The Leaders who should observe their teams better should recommend persons who are compatible when added to certain units. Secondly, it is important that the authorities demand respect from their staff (Kasper, 2011). This, however, does not indicate that they do not listen to their juniors on certain decisions. Decisions on recruiting or adding new team members, for instance, require that all staff is involved. Basing the decisions on the commanders, ‘preferences may cause reduced morale among the staff. These changes should be made to the police department if harmony in the management of the workplace is to be achieved (Kasper, 2011). Demographic Differences in the Community and Police Department Males Females Caucasian African American Hispanic Asian Other Caucasian African American Hispanic Asian Other SwornPersonnel (70%) (9.8%) (2.1%) (1.3) ( Read More