Environmental Opportunities to Enhance the Provision of Law Enforcement Services - Research Paper Example

 Abstract It is important that law enforcement executives understand the internal and external environments in which law enforcement agencies operates. To realize the essence of understanding the internal and external environments in law enforcement, this paper seeks to provide a comparative analysis of agency core functions, as well as administrative, operational, and legal aspects relating to law enforcement agencies. In carrying out this analysis, there is a consideration of various factors: the type of enforcement duties, the kind of agency culture, the rates of crime for the year 2009 up to 2012, jurisdiction, and political influences. This paper focuses on Baltimore County as a case study for this analysis. The major goal was to pinpoint the environmental opportunities to enhance the provision of law enforcement services among other services factors for citizens of Baltimore and help reduce crime. Key Words: political forces, environmental opportunities, nature of enforcement duties, Baltimore County, crime rates, jurisdiction, agency culture, and enforcement executives Jurisdiction Baltimore County falls within the 24 principal jurisdictions of Maryland. Baltimore has its county seat in Towson. In contrast with other Maryland’s regions, this County does not have integrated municipalities. Baltimore has several counties but none of these counties has administrative structures (Zumbrun, 2009). All state services and taxes emanate from the county government of Baltimore and neither the federal government nor the government of the state of Maryland. These state services include public safety, state schools, libraries, and county parks. Baltimore County has three sections of government. The executive, legislative, and judiciary. The executive branch is headed by the county executive and its charged with the duties of implementing policies and managing the county government and it has refusal power over the legislation. The legislative branch is given the responsibility of formulating the legislation and composed of seven-member county council. The county council serves for four years and all the seven members are elected by the public from given districts. The judicial branch handles issues of divorce and marriage licenses in addition to criminal and civil cases. News and Political Forces Various protest cases and criminal incidences make headlines in the newsrooms of Baltimore County. For example, on 13/10/2011, a Baltimore pastor by the name of Jamal H. Bryant faced arrest in conjunction with clergymen in the event of a protest against police brutality and increased misconduct. Bryant and his counterparts were marching from a church to the police department in Ferguson, a town where unarmed teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by police officers two months ago. Currently, the political state of affairs in Baltimore County features many demonstrations from political groups. For example, the Baltimore Sun (29 0ct 2011) explains that the anti-gerrymandering advocates spent a year developing plans on their strategy and direction through the state of Maryland’s third congressional district that includes four counties. The weekend of September 21, those activists and their daring colleagues biked and ran all the way from Baltimore City to the County, and finished in Anne Arundel through Howard and Montgomery respectively (Arundel, & Carroll, 2013) The increased incidences of demonstrations by the locals and political activists indicate the need for some changes. Baltimore County vests all its powers attributed to the legislature on the executive. The danger this power distribution has is that most decisions might not be representative of the plight of the county. Demonstrations against the jury in addition to protests against the police indicate the existence of poor public safety. Politicians and power display The County provides essential services to its residents. The executive is the principal office of the county. An executive holds office for a four-year term. He/she works as the mayor of the city and carries out the roles of policy implementation, and administration of the county government. He/she has refusal powers in relation to the legislations enacted by the county council. The police, finance, the department of fire safety, permit approval, public works, and inspections among others fall in the docket of the executive. The judiciary handles cases on marriages, civil cases, and cases that touch on divorces issues (Carballo, 2007). The courts have four subdivisions. One of the subdivisions is the circuit court of the County, which performs the function of the trial court for general jurisdiction. It has complete equity power on common laws concerning civil, criminal cases, and juvenile cases. It has more authority and jurisdiction vested on it by the Maryland Constitution. This court is the only one mandated to carry out jury trials. Circuit courts hear critical matters like cases involving death penalty and civil disputes (Carballo, 2007). Another subdivision is orphan’s court, which has limited jurisdictions, specializing in disputes involving wills and administration of estates as well offering guardianship and protection of assets left to minors. The state’s attorney prosecutes juvenile cases, misdemeanors, and cases of felony. The legislative consists of seven members that form part of the county council. The legislature has the responsibility of making laws as the Charter General Assembly (Maryland) provides. The seven members represent the seven districts that elect them. One council member representative represents approximately 107,000 residents of a district. The council holds its meetings on the first and the third Mondays of every month and these meetings are free for the public to attend. Current seating members include, Cathy, Marks, Olszeweski, Huff, Quirk, Almond, and Oliver (Carballo, 2007). Law enforcement The county police officers guarantees the implementation of the law. A commissioner heads the police department. Three assistants under the commissioner are in charge of the Intelligence division and Investigation, the section of Neighborhood Patrol, that of Professional Standards, and Accountability division. A leading financial captain (civilian person) manages the running of service divisions. A full-service department of the police serves the county. Mergers within the departments characterize the police department. The department employs workers under an oath to serve in different positions; the post of the police commissioner, the position of the deputy police commissioner, the rank of colonel, lieutenant colonel position, the post of a major, captain rank, a lieutenant position, and the post of a sergeant. Members receive promotion for working for a minimum duration of three consecutive years (Gary, 2007). In addition, the police department is subdivided into several departments that are under different unions like Baltimore county FOP, Fraternal Order of Police, Maryland Natural Resource FOP, and greenbelt FOP among others (Gary, 2007). Law enforcement structures within police departments The police department has the following divisions mandated with various duties to offer services in law enforcement: 1) the police commissioner office, which has the chief of staff, the section on media relations, a section on government affairs, a specialty unit on executive protection, and a section on the legal affairs of the police. 2) Bureau of Neighborhood, which has the chief patrol for night operations, the overall commander and area one to three commanders. 3) Investigations and homicide bureau, which has chief detectives, the unit for homicide cases, and the unit for special investigations 4) Other chief subdivisions are those of professional accountability, section of standards bureau, and the division of management service (Caraballo, 2007) Public satisfaction The Baltimore county police department is charged with the responsibility of enforcing order and law of the County and the state, protects property and life, detect and prevent crime, safeguard the peace and rights of all citizens. However, the department faces reproach from the media, elected government officials, and the public. Police face accusations for increased crime rates, inappropriate arrests, and failure to help minority victims of crime. Increased rates of demonstrations against police actions indicates poor public satisfaction. Crime trend and data year& crime 2009 2010 2011 2012 Four-year average % improvement total homicide 30 31 20 23 26 11 total rape 151 126 142 145 141 -2 total robbery 1,471 1,335 1,451 1,336 1,398.25 5 total aggravated assault 2,879 2,824 2,627 2,611 2,735.25 5 total burglary 4,282 4,089 4,269 4,061 3,175.25 -27 total theft 19,258 17,817 17,840 17,704 18,154.75 3 total arson 257 220 235 252 183.00 -37 The police department avails crime updates to the residents every two weeks as the special detectives determine. The updates base on geographical areas. For example, for the period between 2009 and 2013, there was a drop in total homicide crime by 11% in comparison to the four-year average. Crime on aggravated assaults dropped by 5%, total robbery offenses dropped by 5%, and there was an overall crime reduction of 6.7% in comparison to the mean crime statistics of the four years (Arundel & Carroll, 2013, October 29). From the table above, theft and burglary crimes are the most prevalent offenses. Unresolved issues Several matters attributed to the enforcement of law need additional information. For instance, the number of people under the protection of one police officer, the relationship between the executive and the department of police, the fundamental causes of theft crime in the county. Information on these issues is essential for the police department to improve its functions (Arundel & Carroll 2013). Conclusion There exist loopholes in the enforcement of law in Baltimore that require urgent attention. It is evident that numerous opportunities are available for consideration by the law enforcers of this county. First, the political structure of administration needs overhaul in terms of executive powers. The executive branch has veto powers over the activities of the legislative council. The decisions made are likely to be out of touch with the nation’s interests. Such powers should be vested to the legislative representatives. Secondly, the high incidences of demonstrations by activists indicate the public dissatisfaction in administrative structures and how service are being offered. Currently, most of the demonstrations are against police brutality and jury verdicts on some cases. For efficient law enforcement, the government should consider consolidating the police branches to increase collaboration on crime reduction. References Arundel, Carroll, (2013, october 29) “Baltimore counties suffer.." The Baltimore Sun pp 3-9. Print. Carballo K. (2007). Model policies for law enforcement in Maryland. Sykesville, Md.: Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions]. Gary J. (2007). The rights of crime victims in Maryland the role and responsibilities of law enforcement. Baltimore, Md.: Governor's Office of Crime Control & Prevention Zumbrun, A. J. (2009). Maryland: A Law-Enforcement Dilemma. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 347(1), 58-66. Read More