¶ … Policing Action Plan for Mountain View, New Mexico Police forces have to handle various operations and incidents, which are often resolved by the assignation of available resources. However, in certain operations or instances, a different police response strategy is required. Further, a specialized command structure may be needed. Control and command refers to an organization's capacity and power to guide its staff's actions and put its resources to use. Control and command standards are scalable and may be applied in operations and cases of different scope and size, right from the supervising of any local community occasion to a serious crime investigation (e.g., a multi-seated terror attack) that necessitates extensive police force mobilization (College of Policing, 2013).

In this paper, a novel action plan will be described, which may be utilized for the purpose of dealing with the growing crime rate of New Mexico's Mountain View (MV). In view of this alarming rise in crime rates in the area, the recommended action plan must be pre-emptive, giving greater emphasis on crime prevention, than to detention and correction. Therefore, two approaches will be put forward here.

Emphasize Prevention

While it is usually rather imperative that police capture criminals and ensure they are penalized for their offenses as well as comfort and provide aid to crime victims, another equally crucial aspect is for the police and other law enforcers to collaborate and aim at preventing chaos and crime from occurring. A reactive approach is practically costlier, in the long run, than a proactive one. Law enforcers need to try not to waste time in discourse, regarding crime's root causes. Though local governments assume partial responsibility in remediating a few social factors (e.g., unemployment, poverty, racism, homelessness, class conflict, and deficits in education) playing a role in chaos and crime; they must understand that such factors might be indirect contributors to chaos and crime. Furthermore, most reasons behind crime, intrinsic to criminals' character (like avarice, laziness, anger, hatred, and lust) are not easy for local governmental authorities to change. Hence, their emphasis should be on crime's near or direct causes, normally the environmental and situational conditions influencing potential criminals for perpetrating (or deciding against perpetrating) a particular crime at a certain place and time. By giving greater consideration to such factors, governmental officials, police and other law enforcers can make great progress in chaos and crime prevention (Plant & Scott, 2009).

Situational Crime Prevention

The strategy of preventing situational crime was originally a scientific, rather than law enforcement, tactic. This approach concentrates on crime rate lowering through the creation of securer consumer goods and environments. It brought about a transition in the emphasis of crime prevention from only striving to discourage lawbreakers, by means of penalty and rehabilitation, making them see that perpetrating a certain crime at any given time and place is just useless. This, it does, by the following key means:

1. Intensifying the effort required for committing an offense

1. Heightening criminals' risk of being caught for a crime

1. Decreasing the rewards linked to offending

1. Lowering incitements or motivation to commit an offense

1. Eliminating excuses for perpetrating crime

The implications of this approach transcend mere police function. Local government leaders have considerable say in planning/designing safer environments by means of planning, zoning, and formulating land-use laws, and may possibly have some degree of influence over certain consumer goods' (having greater likelihood of being stolen or employed as an instrument in crime) design as well as sale of some consumer products. The approach of situational offense prevention is popularly regarded as being consistent with problem-focused policing (Plant & Scott, 2009).

Legal and Policy Framework

When adopting any strategy from the aforementioned two strategies, it is essential to take into account relevant common law and statutory obligations and powers, as well as policies available for helping with threat resolution. Action plans should invariably exhibit police powers' proportionate implementation. When outlining strategic aims, policy and power considerations should include:

1. Human rights responsibilities

1. Duties of the police, as well as other common/statutory law obligations

1. Legal grounds for police behavior

1. Implications of using force

1. Relevant Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) policy, force policy, Approved Professional Practice (APP), or appropriate practice code(s)

1. Whether the police operation necessitates compliance with authorization processes (for instance, some stop-and-search or surveillance powers).

Every commander needs to have thorough knowledge of the 1998 Human Rights Act, and must take into consideration acquiring specialist advisers' recommendation (i.e., tactical, legal, etc.) while making decisions. Inconsistent and poor employment of force policies, procedures, and protocols forms a key cause for the occurrence of critical incidents (College of Policing, 2013).

Establishing Partners and Stakeholders

The environment for modern policing is increasingly...

Associates should be able to participate in planning and resolving operations and incidents as appropriate. In instances with partner agencies' participation, commanders must take care, making sure suitable command protocols exist for clearly delineating and aligning the powers, procedures, and jurisdiction of individual participants. Mountain View local government leaders and county leaders are key partners. Local executives must be involved in every governmental aspect, including policing, and not only taxes, but finance, budgets, public transport, physical infrastructure, legislation, air and water quality, labor negotiations, economic development, personnel matters, political relations, and public relations. They may be tempted to totally delegate the duty of handling the safety of citizens to the local police force -- this course of totally entrusting public safety duty to police is erroneous. Policing can only be effective and efficient with adequate local governmental support and appropriate leadership (Plant & Scott, 2009).
Strategic Objective Setting

The action plan's aim is establishing a fixed series of goals suitable to Mountain View's situation, ensuing from an assessment of risks posed. The plan has to be dynamic as well as open to revision, in view of continuous threat examination and evaluation. The objectives proposed are as follows;

1. Protecting the property and lives of residents of Mountain View by making sure surveillance is increased, and employing novel policing practices

1. Conducting policing operations in accordance with public approval

1. Incorporating increased public cooperation while conducting policing activities

1. Lowering Mountain View's crime rates to the level they were at in the year 2009

Policing Style

As mentioned previously, an approach to crime prevention that utilizes situational policing will be employed. Consequently, factors constituting this style of policing impact the perceptions of stakeholders and society and can include, for instance, officer visibility level and dress code. Based on operation type, there might be a need for concealing specialist resources from public view. Policing approach may be improved while responding to any threat, if needed; however, it must be de-escalated subsequently, as early as possible following elimination of the threat.

Assessing Risk and Impact of the Action Plan

The outcomes of suitable impact evaluation (e.g., community impact evaluation), must aid in establishing the likely effect of the recommended action plan on MV crime rate and people. The aim of impact assessment must be to ascertain;

1. Success feasibility measured against approach,

1. Risks accompanying the implementation of a specific approach or of an alternative approach, and

1. Tolerability of consequences.

Operational constraints should also be taken into account.

The director must consider whether;

1. A specific strategy or a collection of approaches will partly or absolutely help accomplish the working plan

1. There is any reduction in, or total elimination of, identified threats

1. Actions are in proportion to the likely threat

1. Actions lie within any established tactical parameters.

Community Impact Assessments (CIA)

Community denotes groups that include individuals, their families, businesses, other groups, and the overall community that might be impacted by any police response action. CIAs are employed for ascertaining the way an incident or issue affects a group/community. The information gleaned is applied in tactical and strategic decision-making and planning processes. The director defines the CIA's scope and depth. Potential issues comprising a CIA are:

1. Relevant history, applicable to a given community or police operation

1. Present and unique characteristics of assessed communities (for instance, vulnerabilities)

1. Inter-agency and police factors (for instance, partnership arrangements, media involvement, resources, etc.)

1. Potential issues in future, including when or how the incident can evolve, in addition to community views and effects.

CIAs represent dynamic documents, which must be reassessed and updated on an ongoing basis, by considering newly emerging issues. The assessment will be conducted in association with the appropriate local coordination and tasking commander. Collaboration with safer area units or specialist personnel in community engagement (i.e., prevent engagement personnel, faith officers, etc.) is also beneficial (College of Policing, 2013).

Staff Support

Providing personnel with welfare at the time of an operation or event can range from individuals' everyday routine requirements for performing procedures and tasks to detecting and managing emotional stress that may be sparked by the operation's/incident's nature. Welfare requirements should be ascertained as early as possible, and procedures must be instituted for reduction in potential individual damage, consistent with safety and health risk assessment. Such procedures must be applicable in case of all operations and incidents, irrespective of complexity. In case any likely long- or short- term welfare problems are identified, counsel, backing, and aid from the welfare department of the force must be…