Change How Would Needed Changes Be Determined

Change

How would needed changes be determined in today's big city police departments? What approaches could be use to implement changes? Write a reflection.

Needed changes in a large, urban police department would have to focus on crime prevention, enforcement, interdepartmental relations between officers, and community relations and community policing. Thus, what would first need to take place would be close evaluation of police department problems with enforcement. What communities were being underserved by the police forces? Where were crime rates the highest? How prevalent were violent crime in particular areas compared to others areas, and how could enforcement better remedy these deficits?

Secondly, an internal audit should be conducted, regarding police officer's own perceptions of morale deficits in the force. Did officers feel as if their superiors were deaf to their stated needs and desires? Was there a problem of unity amongst minority, female, police officers and the dominant group ethnic members of the force? Such one-on-one surveys must be conducted in a way that was anonymous, perhaps by an outside authority, and in a format that fostered debate and open discussion, rather than encouraged office silence regarding their perceived loyalty, fears of incurring insubordination, or creating the appearance or reality of potential breaches of confidentiality between interviewer and interviewee.