The Status of the Police Department in my County
The mission of the police is to maintain law and order among the citizens. In the US, a large amount of the county’s budgetary allocation goes to the criminal justice department. At the moment, this department in my county takes more than 50% of the total budget. The county has experienced high rates of crimes and drug abuse for a long time. It was for this reason that our local government decided to raise the amount allocated to the police department from 20% in 2013 to the current amount. However, this amount is still not enough for fighting crime. We have been struggling to satisfy all the requirements for proper policing with this little amount of money.
Alternative Solutions to High Costs of Security
Our county appropriation authority has asked us to reduce our expenditure by 20%. However, reducing our budget by this percentage will greatly affect our service delivery. Levels of insecurity are likely to reach a critical. As the Chief Administrator of Police in this county, I decided to come up with three possible solutions to this crisis. The solutions are; community policing, strict legislation, and a crackdown on known gangs.
Community policing entails involving members of the community in the provision of security (East Auston Stories, 2009). This program has existed in different parts of this country for many years. However, in my county, this service has not achieved the same results as other county governments did. I plan to revamp community policing by equipping members of the community with basic military skills. I want to attain this goal by bringing military officers to the community to train the citizens. Individuals who go through this training program will then provide security to the rest of the citizens. This training will help reduce the amount of money the county spends on transporting police to places where people live. Citizens will acquire skills that will help them take care of themselves, their families, and their friends.
My second solution is constraining criminal gangs. The department of police has identified all criminal gangs and their hideouts. I would schedule several police operations on these gangs to completely stop them. The police will have arrested and taken to court members of all criminal gangs within the next two months. Arresting criminals will minimize the rate of crime, and, therefore, the department will reduce the money it spends on fighting crime by close to 50 %.
The third solution involves putting in place strict laws to control and punish offenders. I am planning to present a bill to our parliament seeking to introduce a curfew in all our major towns and cities. If this bill comes into law, it will prohibit people from walking around the town after 11 pm. People who will go against this law will spend four months in jail. I came up with this bill when I researched the time when most crimes occur. My study revealed that most criminal activities occur after 10 -11 pm.
Effects of the recommendations and positive and negative sited of the programs
Giving military training to members of the community is likely to have both positive and negative impacts on the functions and image of the police force. The main positive effect of this training is the ability of some members to provide security to the rest of the community. Citizens will not always have to depend on the police for protection. The other positive effect is the ease of arresting criminals. Members of the community know all the criminals in their neighborhood. They, therefore, take less time arresting criminals than the police. Such pieces of training will bring together the police and the community. A partnership between the police and citizens is very critical in improving the image of the police. People will see them as friends, and not enemies as many people think.
However, training ordinary people can be very risky. After the acquisition of skills, individuals can use them in the perpetration of crimes (ATMello3, 2011). They may use their skills in attacking innocent citizens instead of protecting them. The method of selecting the people to join the training, therefore, has to be very careful to prevent recruiting more criminals.
Arresting members of criminal gangs will reduce the crime rate in the community by lowering the number of people with criminal mentalities. Consequently, the police department will spend less money on running after criminals than when the number of criminals is high. The negative side of such actions is that people will see the police as enemies.
Curfews will drastically reduce police expenditure. When people are not free to roam at night, a small number of officers will be able to patrol and deal with anybody with a criminal mind. However, they might arrest or even shoot innocent people who go out for unavoidable reasons. Such actions will portray a negative image of the police.
I will have organized training for all policemen to help them prevent the occurrence of problems during the implementation of this program. They will learn how to differentiate between criminals and innocent citizens while patrolling. They will also learn how to train members of the community without causing injuries to them. The police should also know that it is their responsibility to arrest criminals and not shoot them.
References
ATMello3 (2011). Waterbury Police Department on community policing. Web.
East Auston Stories (2009). Community Policing Part 1. Web.