The Steelhead Police Department, a medium-sized agency of 40 sworn officers, has relatively recently hired a new police chief from outside the department after a nationwide search. He is bringing in many new ideas and innovations to the department. The new chief wrote a grant proposal and was awarded grant funding for new state-of-the-art soft body armor vests for all officers. Previous attempts to purchase and implement wearing of soft body armor by officers in this department had been unsuccessful.
You are assigned as a patrol lieutenant, one of the shift supervisors and watch commanders, supervising about ten officers. All patrol shifts rotate every 4 months. Because of your expertise as a firearms instructor the new chief selected you to research and draft a policy for mandatory wear of soft body armor by officers in the department. Obstacles you will, or may, encounter include opposition from the department's unionized line officers, complaints of medical issues to include rashes that prevent the wearing of the vests, heat-related factors, freedom of movement, freedom of choice, and about everything in between.
The links below provide resources to get you started on your work.
Ballistic Body Armor
Zakhary, Y. (2007, Dec.) Ballistic body armor: A chief's refresher course. The Police Chief. 74(12). Retrieved from http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&article_id=1340&issue_id=122007
Provides IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) guidance on body armor wear policy for officers in uniform and other specifications.
Delaware Administration Labor Relations Hearing
State of Delaware. Public Employment Relations Board.. Retrieved from from http://perb.delaware.gov/pdfs/decisions/1999/DPDFOP15.pdf
The Delaware administrative labor relations hearing shows a case where a city lost attempting to implement mandatory wear without collective bargaining.
Write a 700-1,050 word analysis of the actions you would take to create and implement this soft body armor mandatory wear policy. Consider the following in your analysis:
Discuss the organizational theories that apply to law enforcement and criminal justice agencies.
Address arguments that can be raised against the policy to illustrate typical organizational behavior.
Suggest solutions to the arguments against the mandatory wear policy that take into account and describe law enforcement culture and this agency's unionized law enforcement culture.
Format your work consistent with APA guidelines.
Include a title and reference page.
Cite a minimum of two sources within the body of your paper using in-text citations where appropriate