The Leadership and Management Challenges - Case Study Example

? Case Study – Law Ethics Case Study – Law Ethics An Overview of the Leadership and Management Challenges Today police leaders face various issues that threaten to compromise the quality of their services to the community. Many of them head overstretched police divisions that do not have enough officers, arms and other support services to maintain security in all areas under their jurisdiction. This problem does not only cause certain areas of the community not to have adequate security, but also results in police officers engaging in corrupt practices. Police accountability has always been an issue that brings considerable challenges to police leaders. The police officers of every nation are empowered to ensure the safety of their communities and to arrest people that they suspect of being criminals. This level of power, for some officers, gives them the facility to abuse the authority accorded them by enaging in corrupt activities. The issue of ensuring police accountability is probably one of the hardest to achieve for police leaders (Miller, 2010). This is because police officers are in the first place empowered to use coercive tactics when enforcing the law. The law enforcement profession, in contrast to other proffesions, has numerous opportunities for acts of corruption. Corrupt acts in the police profession include taking bribes, giving false witness against a suspect, or pilfering itmes from a scene of crime. There have also been many cases in the past of police officers misusing physically battering suspects to get quick albeit wrong confessions. Such acts are then hidden by coworkers. These are just some of the problems that are faced by police leaders. The challenges that many police organizations face at present could be categorized into three groups; as administrative, operational, and political issues (Kaariainen, Lintonen, Laitinen and Pollock, 2008). Operational challenges are basically focused on order maintenance and crime control police operations. These operations include controlling drug-trafficking, prosecuting organized crime, and gangs, violent crime, and controlling social disorder. It is in these areas where most corrupt practices such as the use of brutality and bribe taking are prevalent. Administrative challenges have to do with allocating resources, engineering the transfer of officers, defining service quality, and handling daily administrative issues. Police leaders have in the past dealt with challenges in the officially prescribed manner. This can affect the induction of new regulations that will positively affect the police force. The hierarchical structure which stipulates that all direction flows from the top down can actually stifle any efforts of ordinary officers to improve their departments. Political challenges have to do with being affected by the community’s political environment. There have been many instances in the past when police actions were compromised by the influence of owerful political players who interfered criminal investigations. Such realities put a lot of pressure on police leaders because they know that they can be adversely affected by refusing to accede to the requests of powerful politicians operating within their jurisdictions. Reasons why these Challenges Need to be Addressed in Light of the Organization’s Mission, Values and Culture Police corruption basically refers to any acts that contravene the very rules that police officers are expected to uphold. Police officers, like all other members of communities, have basic needs and wants. Some police officers simply enter the force in order to earn a good living whle serving their communities. Morever, their idealistic views of what is right and what ois wrong might be negatively affected once they are exposed to the world of crime and discover that criminals actually make more money than they do. Once this point is reached, it takes an extremely dedicated officer to refuse the temptation of large bribes in order to allow criminal elements in the society to continue their operations. Once the police officers in any community are reputed to be corrupt, it takes considerable effort for them to recover or reinstate the trust that their community previously invested in them. An entire community can be ruined by the corruption of its police force because criminal elements are likely to take advantage of the situation to expand operations. Still, this type of ‘plain’ corruption is, in some instances, the easier variety to prosecute because of its obvious wrongness. There is another common type of corruption that undermines the true objectives of police operations in most communities worldwide. Law enforcement officers basically aim to arrest and prosecute all known criminals (Lambsdorff, 2007). Many times, when the criminal’s guilt is a recognized fact even though there is no evidence, overzealous officers will add false information or tamper with the evidence to ensure that the suspect is convicted. This type of corruption is especially hard to deal with since the society expects the police to do whatever is necessary to detain dangerous criminals even as the rest of the police officers will desire to support the actions of the officer in charge of the case. In such cases, the need for conviction gives an straightforward rationalization for corrupt operations when police are conducting arrests. This type of ‘noble cause corruption’ can be enacted when officers lie in court reports, or even fabricate evidence in order to convict a suspect. It is a fact that society in general, as well as police officers, feel that changing evidence to convict a known criminal is not as a big a problem as taking bribes for personal gain. In truth, what this does is to rationalize the violation of constitutional law. When such issues concerning corruption become an accepted part of police operaions, it means that behavioral aspects have to be corrected among the officers. Such ‘noble cause corruption’, for instance, is often the result of cynicism and a lack of morale among police officers. This calls for police leaders to constantly show faith in the criminal justice system and correct wrong attitudes that will foster such behaviours among police officers. Another reason why ‘noble cause corruption’ is so common among police officers is that it is easy to judge an individual based on his or her past. In the final analysis, engaging in such actions is likely to get officers in trouble for breaching the suspect’s rights. Ethical concerns not only affect the job of the police officer involved in corruption, but color the entire police organisation. Decisions about using ethical methods in practicing law enforcement actually shape a police officer’s disposition towards his or her occupation. When police officers engage in corrupt practices, whether for deviant or righteous reasons, their moral values are weakened, and they are drawn into further contraventions of the accepted regulations. Police officers can only be instructed about the importance of personal ethics when conducting their jobs; but choosing to be ethical is a personal decision. It remains a police officer’s personal choice whether to violate s criminals 'rights' or use their authoritative position unjustly. An Action Plan with Recommendations for the Change or Improvement to Sustain the Effectiveness of the Organization To deal with corruption, police administrators have to redefine the policing role of the officers with the help of their communities. Officers must be encouraged to engage community members and seek to acquire information not through physical coercion but through verbal skills. Officers should also be encouraged to learn the cultures of the people that they are policing so that they can better communicate with them. In addition, the selection procedures for police officers have to be altered to match the new functions as helpers in the community. Police leaders have to stress on the importance of acting as mediators and problem solvers replacing the use of physical strength to subdue undesirable elements in society. It would also be advantageous for police leaders to encourage the inclusion and training of recruits from minority groups. These officers are likely to get better reactions from their communities when sent there on police business. When cases of police corruption are exposed by media outlets, it is important for police leaders to show that they are completely supportive of such moves (Crank and Caldero, 2004). This is a particularly hard thing for them to do because of the culture within most police organizations that supports the premise that it is ‘us versus them’. One important way of fighting corruption is ensuring that police officers are awarded with salaries that are adequate. Many officers get discouraged when they are confronted with the realities of the fact that criminals actually earn much more than they do. When they are offered bribes, they are tempted to take them if only to supplement the meager incomes for which they risk their lives on a daily basis. Police officers are constantly exposed to dangerous situations, and may feel frustrated by the fact that they are not remunerated enough for the risks they constantly take to protect their societies. There are two basic ways through which police leaders can seek to ensure that police corruption is contained. They can effect measures to ensure that corruption does not occur, or they can ensure that they reduce instances of it once it is proved that it exists. From an internal perspective, police leaders can ensure that they strengthen their positions before publicly supporting the prosecution of any corrupt police officers. They can also create policies that seek to eliminate the practice of corruption from among police ranks. Such policies will not be successful unless police officers within the different departments of police administrations are empowered to oversee the necessary changes (Abed and Gupta, 2003). For instance, there should be increased supervisions of the actions of different officers while supervisors are accorded greater leeway to be able to punish any officers that do not observe the laws concerning corrupton. Sometimes, police leaders have to include their communities in efforts to eradicate police corruption. Citizens have to be asked to stop offering gifts and other offerings to officers for merely doing their work. The police leaders have to ensure that such requests come with public arrests of persons attempting to bribe officers. In addition, police leaders can campaign for the daily routines of officers to be made more public in an attempt to lessen the chances for misconduct. Police officers can be instructed to document their daily operations, for instance. They could also start a program for rewarding the officers who observe all the new regulations with increased pay or promotion. Police leaders should also be diligent in ensuring that they run background checks on new recruits in order to root out all potential problem cases. In instances where corruption is so widespread that it actually includes many police departments across many jurisdictions, it becomes essential to create special investigation committees in order to root out all the corrupt police officers. The people manning such conventions have to be from different precincts in oreder to ensure that they remain unbiased. This can be a particularly difficult process if they people elected to preside over such investigations are not police officers themelves because they may be unware of all the operations that policing involves. Still, they are often the best choice as fellow officers, even if from a different jurisdiction, tend to empathise with the officers under investigation. Sometimes it may even be necessary to expose entire political networks formed in league with corrupt officers in order to weed out extensive corruption within a jurisdiction. References Abed, G. T., & Gupta, S. (2003). Governance, corruption, and economic performance. Washington DC: International Monetary Fund. Crank, J., & Caldero, M. (2004). Police ethics: The corruption of noble cause. Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing. Kaariainen, J., Lintonen, T., Laitinen, A., & Pollock, J. (2008). The 'Code of Silence': Are Self Report Surveys a Viable Means for Studying Police Misconducts?. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 9 (2), 86-96. Lambsdorff, J. G. (2007). The institutional economics of corruption and reform: Theory, evidence and reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Miller, S. (2010). The moral foundations of social institutions: A philosophical study. New York: Cambridge University Press. Read More