Ethical Dilemma

Captain Edith Strong

CJA/474

October 11, 2012

James Dowling

Captain Strong

In every aspect of Law Enforcement, morale and motivation are crucial elements to the mission and the success of the division. This case study describes Captain Edith Strong need to determine what she can do to bring the morale and motivation up within the patrol sector of her department. The problems she is facing are the patrol officers viewing their job as dissatisfying, low morale, long response times, and complaints by citizens, disability claims, and rapid employee turnovers. This study will describe my thoughts on how she can carry out this project, motivational strategies, and if E.R.G. would be applicable.

Philosophical Approach

The philosophical approach Captain Strong should take is to determine the root of the problem. By doing so, Captain Strong can determine what measures she can pursue to alleviate the situation with her patrol division. For example, the job is viewed as dissatisfying, in law enforcement what could make the job of patrolling the streets so dissatisfying or unbearable. Some officers would say it is the workload combined with being understaffed. In this situation, Captain Strong can attempt to relieve some of the workload by allowing more overtime for off-duty police officers to assist and accompany individual or single man units. By doing so, Captain Strong not only cuts the workload of the officer in half but also allows for the beat partners to be accompanied by another officer and in turn raising morale.

Motivational Strategies

Motivational strategies that would be effective are the problems that the officers have mentioned. The first step would be to let the officers interact on duty, by allowing this the officers have a moment to decompress from the overflow of calls for service. In the county of San Diego, the sheriff’s department patrol deputies in Santee split into two teams within the team on duty. While one...