Organizational Theories and Criminal Justice

Creating Policy

Carrie Siewert, CJ444

Kaplan University

Author Note

Cdoats71@yahoo.com, carriesiewert@student.kaplan.edu, July 21, 2014

Creating Policy

There has been some recent changes in the Steelhead Police Department. We are a medium-sized agency of 40 sworn officers and we have recently hired a new police chief from outside the department after a nationwide search. I am very excited because he has been bringing in many new ideas and innovations to the department. He even wrote a grant proposal and was awarded grant funding for new state-of-the-art soft body armor vests for all officers. I am all for the safety of the department officers, but previous attempts to purchase and implement wearing of the soft body armor by officers in this department have been unsuccessful.

As a patrol lieutenant, I have been assigned one of the shift supervisors and watch commanders, supervising about ten officers. All patrol shifts rotate every four months. Because of my expertise as a firearms instructor the new chief has selected me to research and draft a policy for mandatory wear of soft body armor by all officers in the department. I am aware there may be obstacles I may, or will, encounter while I take action in creating and implementing this “Soft Body Armor Mandatory Wear Policy”.

As I discuss the actions I will be taking to create and implement the policy, I will discuss organizational theories that apply to law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. I will address arguments that can be raised against the policy to illustrate typical organizational behaviors, along with possible solutions to the arguments against the mandatory wear policy. With these solutions I will be taking into account law enforcement culture and this agency’s unionized law enforcement culture.

Room for Improvement

I will begin by providing a brief background of the department as a whole. The department had many issues prior to hiring the new chief. The morale of the...