Hey guys,

Right now I am in my one of my last CJ classes of my college career. The class is titled police administration. For the class I have to write a 15 page paper on a topic that effects policing. It can literally be anything. Homeland sec., terrorism, ethics/integrity, diversity, sexual harassment, stress, performance measurement, community relationships - anything. It can really be anything that is effecting police.

To be clear, Im not looking for someone to do this for me. I just am not currently an LEO (someday, hopefully) and thusly am not privy to all the current issues and problems relating to the field.

Feel free to send me a message/email if you feel like you might be airing your departments dirty laundry.

Thanks for all the help guys, stay safe out there.

I'd say politics more than anything else IMO. Not a LEO though yet.

Prior to the economic collapse, law enforcement had a difficult time with retention and recruitment.  No one wanted to work for the wages and benefits we had, do shift work and deal with people.  Part of this issue currently facing law enforcement supervisors is how to deal with the newest generation of recruits.  I am part of the Gen X'ers club and we now getting people half my age (in my 40s).  Many supervisors I have spoken with, and others who have attended training, note the new generation of officers (many not all) have the attitude of what can my department do for me.  Some have their own view of what's required of them and have their own agenda.  The problem probably stems from the "me" generation and having everything handed to them as kids.  Again, this doesn't mean everyone was raised this way, however, how many kids you know have their own cell phones, gameboys, Xbox and even cars as teens.  

Part of the problem too was the fact that loyalty companies show their employees and vice versa is long gone.  Its hard to be dedicated to a company who doesn't foster any type of long term loyalty to the organization.  So, a lot of departments become training grounds for other large departments.  

Other issues facing law enforcement are the attitudes of the officers themselves.  Law enforcement officers were traditionally a law and order, conservative type of person.  Now we get liberal minded people who are more into being counselors than cops.  They have no familiarity with firearms or fighting and expect people to bow to the badge.  Law enforcement was typically a profession for military people because of the similarities between the military and law enforcement (e.g. paramilitary structure).  I attended a training last year with 200+ people in attendance.  The question was asked how many had been in the military and about 5 to 10 raised their hands.

media effect on policing and public perception.

Not too sure how you'd be able to find stats and references on how media effects our job. but there's tons of anecdotal (unsubstantiated) evidence.

Having the administration understand the officer's needs and providing them with the proper equipment/training.

Seems to still be an issue due to the fact that budgets are way down and now lay offs are coming down the pike in many departments.   Where it was hard to recruit people to fill the vacancies now it's next to impossible because the vacancies are no longer funded.  Departments everywhere are having to do the same job or even more with fewer officers.   With some of the budgets stressing departments the retention is becoming even more difficult as some areas start talking about changing safety retirement(my department is 3% at 50, a sister department is the same but is renegotiating a contract where first offer on table is 2.5% at 55).   Mass exodus will occur if this is looked at too closely, many older deputies/officers are thinking about a golden handshake if it were offered.   Instead of them holding on a year or two for that pension to max out a little more they are considering hoofing it early.    Younger deputies/officers have seen a loss in morale and drive as certain actions are taken to try to save the budget or even change classifications, younger deputies/officers not having seen a cyclic of "good v. bad" are now applying with other agencies as soon as they get 1 year of experience under their belts.

Biggest thing, inside and out, forever?....................people telling you how to do your job. From "why are you hassling me" to the politics on top, from "if I was in your department, I'd be at his desk each morning demanding" to leaders declaring that they don't want your troops so equipped after you've spent months and thousands of dollars training them for such because that was the mission given to you..............................it's enough to make you pull your hair out. Whether it was 20 years ago or now, it happens and it makes one wonder why they do a job which seems so thankless, so non appreciative of their efforts.

Other things? Well, really can't say about police recruits since that's not my area but things I generally see with young college students in CJ and related could come down to three things. First of all, an attitude of "give me what I need to know to pass the test." This can be both to telling them what they need to know for the test to them asking and wanting it all on power point. Conceptually, what's the problem with this? If they are police officers, then I may be putting people out in the field who don't have the ability to think on their feet. Secondly, there is a reluctance to engage in practical exercises although this has been true for decades. I didn't want to spend 3 hours in lab 20+ years ago and I have people now missing lab sessions. Point is, we learn by doing and it is the very rare person who can learn it all by reading a book.

Third, there is a vast difference between those who have no police experience and those who have some. Seen this in my classes such as CJ and abnormal psychology such as doing an investigation or matter on ethics. In the former, people don't know how to separate their assumptions from what is fact. In the latter, what they know about police work is from what they have seen on tv. TV shows cops who don't believe in ethics and they are declared  the heroes. Do that in reality and it is a lawsuit at least.

A further opinion about tv is the despite all violence and interesting crimes one sees on it, I do not believe that one really understands how bad and evil people can be until they come across it in reality. BUT..........is that a rite of passage or is it a problem?

Well, it might be the latter if one has someone who came to their department after going thru the academy and then deciding that maybe they didn't want to do police work after all............especially if the department has footed the bill for the  training. Unfortunally, that's an age old problem and though it may has happened over the years, it is still painful each time one has to spend more money to train a new person to replace someone who decided otherwise.

Now in all of those situations, hopefully that would be trained out of them at an intense academy......but as I myself come from a time where there was not an academy, one should at least recognize the possibility and be prepared to take steps to mold their officers so to get the job done.

Finally, what all did I have to do as Provost Marshal? Well, among other things: handle the budget, determine and effect training needed for the base, train my teams, hold drills, maintain their records, plan security evolutions, set department policy, review reports, handle complaints, etc..

but the biggest item of all was most certainly lead my troops. Lead them, train them, see to their advancement, correct them when needed, encourage them to call for help when they thought they needed it, keep their morale up, shield them from the politics, and more. One has to do many things in running a police unit but first and foremost is being the person they can turn to and draw their strength from.
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("I just don't understand why you can't just learn about it in a book."––EPA type who tried to shut down a fire fighting training facility
"Well, down the street, there's an adult book store. You can go in there and watch people doing sex.......but until you feel the heat, you really don't know what's going on. Same thing with FF."––Military SeaLift Command FF instructor, (wtte))

Mk II!

Something of a side point.

My Captain, now retired, asked me what I would have done at Abu Ghraib Prison had I been charge (if I had stayed in the Navy, it was a possibility). Simply said for here, it would not have happened on my watch.

But I bring it up here because in the past few years, we have seen at least a possibility of where people might be doing illegal things in one's sphere of influence without accountability to either one or for the actions done. Further, they might be doing things where one's troops end up holding the bag.

From the leadership/administration side, your people have got to know what your standards, your philosophies are, of what is acceptable and what is not. The orders to do so may come from above one's head, but one must know to themselves what it will mean to obey such orders, of what the world will do to you when it is discovered.

These standards must be issued proactively, not reactively. One's troops have to know that if they are given orders to the contrary, they are to refuse those orders because they know that you will protect them and that if they disobey, then there will be hell to pay. They need to know that they must report those who try to circumvent your standards.

Finally, one must be up to date with their organization so that if such things are happening in the lower ranks, they do not happen for long.
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("These men killed my father and brother. They're gonna get what's coming to 'em."––cowboy
"They're gonna get what the law says is coming to 'em."––Marshal Jed Cooper, (w,stte), "Hang 'Em High")

Its hard for me to think of any other topic besides race.  When I go on scene to an accident, and I see that one driver is white and the other is black, I pray that its clear cut.  



One of my co-workers pulled up on an accident where a black driver rear-ended a white driver.  Fairly clear cut, I say.  But, the white guy had an empty and crushed beer can in the bed of his pick-up.  The at fault driver demanded that the white guy be given a DUI test.  When it didn't happen, you can about predict the rest.



A guy I used to work with got sent on a disturbance.  When he arrived, he saw a man running from a house.  On the porch of the house, he saw another man shooting at him with a handgun.  The officer pulled out his handgun, and nailed him at 90 feet in the neck.  Pretty good shot, I think.  Anyway, you'd think something like this would be a fairly clear cut case, but no.  Despite the fact that both men (the running guy and the shooting guy) were black, it became a racial issue.



I arrived on a fight call once.  Two black guys fighting in the streets.  We determined that one was the aggressor, and the other was defending himself, so we took one to jail.  En route to jail, he accused us of racism.



Seriously, if you work in a major city, its always on your mind.

Biggest problem with policing?

Departmental policy, bosses, politics.

everything else is secondary.

$ is a big issue, or lack there of.

Same here. Everyone coming out of the academy now just wants a steady paycheck and benefits.

I would examine policing powers in the new millennium.  In particular look at the roots of policing in the late 1890's and what it has become in 2009.

It seems like there is a problem with morale in the younger officers. Maybe there is a topic with that. Any other comments?

Well, with budget cuts, we are seeing serious cuts in training.  That has affected morale greatly.  



One thing I've noticed in talking to older officers, is the feeling about who runs our departments.  Before, a street cop could rise through the ranks of his department and become chief.  Now, must departments seem to hire chiefs from outside.  This creates a good deal of animosity.  Its also aggravating when you pluck some guy from across the country and bring him into be chief, and he has NO idea about issues your department faces.



We had a chief come in from Washinginton D.C.  The guy had NO idea what he was talking about from the get go.  But, that didn't stop him from going ahead with his plans.  He left here after about 3 years, then went to Minneapolis for a couple of years, and is now in Texas, I believe San Antonio.  For him, the first 2 cities were just stepping stones.  He didn't care about the people in the cities he worked in, he cared about his image. He didn't offer any real solutions, although he did claim to create Community Oriented Policing (this was around 2002, mind you).  At a community rally, citizens were left underwhelmed, and one woman remarked to the media that the chief sounded like a politician.

Disillusioned cops was the one my CJA professor liked to talk about all the time.

Poor morale of young cops?

Of course there is, look at how the younger, newer cops are being treated.

I had to do a few of these topics when I was working for my CJ degree.  Someof th topics that I used were:
Community policing
Dare (why do we stop at middle schools and the effects that it causes during high school)
Policing programs (there are several computer programs that departments use to determine how to patrol neighborhoods)
License plate scanning systems (some departments are using this and scanning every tag to find stolen autos)
Combined academy vs individual academy (discussion abot the pros and cons of each and which is better)

These are a few topics that I have done that seem to be of concern around my area...

Societal Issues and Department Issues abound everywhere.

There are always issues with funding and training, as well as retention and recruiting.  The pay and benefits are not always up to standards and people don't see wanting to pay more taxes or money for things that they don't really feel that they need.  Over 90% of police activity is not seen by the general public, law-abiding citizens and they don't realize that the officer they see grabbing a soda and a hot-dog at the 7-11 has already written 4 tickets, taken an accident report, done CPR, and put 3 people in jail that morning.

Conversely it is the "Information age" where everything is posted to the internet and accessible through different media sources.  So law enforcement is constantly being "monday morning quarterbacked" on decisions that we make in seconds, based on information that we have available at the time.  This happens from both an Administration standpoint as well as a Society standpoint.

Eduction is always an issue as well.  Both on-going education for officers, because they SHOULD be striving to get better at what they do, but some fall into the "this is how we have ALWAYS done things" and don't want to be progressive or learn new ways to do things.  As well as the "I know what the law is" that people always want to throw out, even though they DON'T know what the law is, just what they have heard or been told over beers at the bar last week.

Lack of respect is a big societal issue and is happening in all different areas, it doesn't affect just Law Enforcement.  When I conduct a traffic stop, and the entire time during the stop, the individual on the phone can't even be bothered to hang up long enough to conduct business or provide a minimum of concentration to dealing with the event.  People who talk on cellular phones non-stop, text everywhere, and don't bother to pay any attention to what/where they are and what is going on.  As already stated in another post, it's part of the ME generation, where what's important for them is all that matters and how it affects others doesn't matter.  Yet, Law Enforcement by it's very application, is supposed to enforce the rules of the "Whole" over those of the individuals when the two are in conflict.

If you decide to tackle any of these feel free to jet me an IM and I'll be more than happy to try and provide more information.  But these are the ones that immediately leap to mind.

First... take CA_TX-Cop up on his offer!  I have gone on a ride along with him, and he knows his stuff, and is not your typical JBT (even though he says he is).  I dislike cops as a whole, but he has restored my faith in the system.

I am a CJ minor at TCU, and from the outside looking in, i would agree that most of what the rank and file beat cop does on a daily basis goes unseen.  I often listen to the police scanner just to keep up with what is going on around town, and unless I was doing that, I would assume that our officers sit nose-to-nose and talk in a church parking lot all day.  So, when I am stopped, I am tempted to remark that there has to be a more severe crime being committed at this exact moment than whatever I was doing to get pulled over... again, the perception of the police by the general public is very poor.

I would also add that racial profiling, or more likely allegations of such, is a huge problem.  Many of "them" have taken a few tips from the current state of politics and fight over who can throw down the race card first.  No matter what you do, no matter what you say, if you are white, and they are black, you are a racist, and you are picking on them.  And they have community groups to back them up, and get stories plastered a over the local media for a week... all the while, you are not allowed to speak out and defend yourself due to dept. policy, ongoing investigation, or whatever.  That "looks like a cover up" or an admission of guilt to those who already have their minds made up, and the media BS continues.  If the heat gets bad enough, the brass might (might) need a sacrificial lamb to make it all go away.  If that is you, enjoy your 2 weeks off... without pay.

I am certain that you could blend these two topics into a 15 page paper...

Two good topics that professors will love to read:

War on Drugs,  that has caused many problems.  Many books and college thesis have been published on it.


2nd one:  Why white collar crimes are not crimes where police and feds will go after verses blue collar crimes.  Even though money wise, white collar crimes cause more damage to the USA then Blue collar crimes.  

What level is your CJ class?  Usually 400+ level, you can make some case work examples... but anything below that, the professors want you to use facts/stats from other published sources.  Unless your professor wants to hear it from the local cops, then my two sugestions are utterly meaningless.

I would say lawsuits or the fear of getting them. As a result Administrators aka paperpushers aka beancounters are all tying officers hands and making a difficult job even more difficult.  Like Officers getting blamed for something and then dragged through the wringer of his department and in his own family. Only to have it turn out the person filing the case was lying. I remember a police officer in Las Vegas getting accused of rape transporting a female suspect in the 80s from the Airport to Downtown. The investigators timed it and no way he could have done anything at the hour of the night and the traffic. Officer was off the hook but was scarred for life. He was my Professor. Now he is retired from teaching as well. His last day I remember him telling the class he would not want to be a cop in todays society. People feared/respected police during his days but not anymore.

Liability and image, the priority police administrators place on it, and its affect on officer safety and law enforcement's mission.

well guys, thanks for the help. The topic I went with was intelligence led policing. The topics you guys suggested were really good, but the problem was I could not find much written on the subject.