Assignment

You are a recently promoted police chief in a medium-sized town with a rather modest budget for law enforcement equipment. One of your primary goals is to seek an increase in the budget for those technological items that you feel would help your department's officers perform their jobs in a more efficient, safe manner. In your request, you recommended the following tools be purchased for your officers:

• Tasers
• Improved body armor
• New and standardized firearms for all officers
• In-car camera systems
• GPS technology
• Improvements in computer technology

• Biometric software

Because you know this is a "wish list" and you will only get funding for some of the items on this list, you decide to submit a written request to city council and the mayor.

In this correspondence, you decide the respond to the following issues to support your request:

• Describe and discuss the item you would select as the most important to purchase right away, and share with your fellow students and professor why you selected this item.

• What types of outside statistical data or research support information are available to present to council and the mayor to support your decision?

• If you had to take 2 items off of your wish list, which of those 2 items would be recommend, and why (other than lack of budgetary dollars)?

During the interview with the officer, you will discuss the following topics related to gratuities, reporting on the interview in your Individual Project report:

• Determine from the officer the department's official policy related to gratuities, and relate how strictly that policy is enforced.

• Discuss any "unofficial" code regarding gratuities.

• Does the officer feel that he or she should be allowed to accept small gratuities such as free or discounted meals or coffee?

You will then explore and report on the following questions in your Individual Project report:

• Discuss in detail 2 basic arguments against the acceptance of gratuities.

• Do you believe, based upon your reading of the topic of gratuities and your interview of the police officer, that gratuities lead to more serious breaches of ethics in law enforcement? Provide support for your assessment.