Criminal Justice Organizations- Assignment 1 - Essay Example

Law Criminal Justice Organizations Living in a small community has its advantages and disadvantages like a living in the Most notably, if you get fired from work, the local police or the sheriff are all likely to know since everyone knows each other. However, if I lived in a small community I would prefer the services of the county sheriff’s department. The problem is that if I was the owner of a police department in a small community, I would have to face so many issues. These are issues ranging from high rates of turn-over among officers, which is common in small communities and a family like atmosphere among others, which lowers productivity in certain cases.

As noted in chapter 1 of Stojkovic, Kalinich and Klofas’s book police departments are complex public entities. If the county sheriff’s department served me, this would be easier because it is cheaper. It is expensive to starting a police department because it requires a person to have the means to get special vehicles and equipment, garage space and a big office. Stojkovic, Kalinich and Klofas, (2014) assert that criminal justice administrators have to deal with so many obligations even when the laws are difficult to work with for the administrator.

Even if the community is small, it becomes hard to provide full-time coverage when there are very few officers. One of the advantages of having a large department over the small department is that there are more officers in large departments since most get a higher pay than those in small departments. Well paid officers depict a motivated workforce who serve the community better and are more committed to their work (Stojkovic, Kalinich & Klofas, 2014). Another merit is that a large department has many officers from different communities; the officers are also from different ethnic backgrounds.

Having many officers from different ethnicities makes it easier to curb criminal gangs in many areas since, criminals tends to listen to officers they can relate to through languages, cultures or races. Small departments have high rates of turnover, fewer promotions and new recruits tend to complain that it takes too much time before they learn new things in the force.ReferenceStojkovic, S., Kalinich, D., & Klofas, J. (2014). Criminal justice organizations: Administration and management. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.