What are the Implications of Leadership in Police and Criminal Communities - Assignment Example

The Implications of Leadership in Police and Criminal Communities A). Leadership and Organization Skills of Criminal and Police Departments The leadership in the police department requires effective and efficient communication skills that are well organized to enable the leaders give suggestions, orders and instructions in a clear and coherent way to their staff (Baker, 2010). In the same criminals leadership has effective ad efficient communication skills that help them to issue orders and instructions on the operations of the gang. Just like the police department leaders, criminal leaders should speak clearly with confidence and authority. Good communication skills enable the criminal leaders to avoid conflicts and provide sound solutions to various issues (Cronkhite, 2012). Improper communication can result to abortion of their missions or arrest by the police. The police leaders should exhibit a high level of competence and integrity of work in order to control the other police officers and execute their orders with highest level of accuracy (Cronkhite, 2012). Similarly, criminals are headed by leaders who have high level of competence and integrity of the work in order to succeed in their missions. For example, the leaders have adequate knowledge and skills on how to organize other criminals, delegate tasks to various gang members according to their competence and integrity in particular areas of operations (Baker, 2010). Criminal leaders should not work on trial and error but ensure they know what they are doing and predict the outcome with near certainty. Police leaders are courageous people and good at decision making even in circumstances that pose risk of death. For example, if enemies attack a certain place the police officers have to make decision to counterattack courageously despite the risk of being killed in the operation. Similarly, criminal leaders have to make courageous decisions to implement their mission even though they are aware of the risk of retaliatory attack by the police (Cronkhite, 2012). Therefore, criminal leadership requires someone who is able to think and act swiftly even in a situation that is demanding. The leadership in police department requires someone who is capable of handling stress (Baker, 2010). In most cases police officers and their leaders undergo traumatic experiences that can easily cause the officers to breakdown emotionally or death. In the same way, criminal leaders should able to manage stress because their mission involves traumatizing events that can easily cause mental breakdown or death. References Baker, T. E. (2010). Effective Police Leadership: Moving Beyond Management. U.S.A: Looseleaf Law Publications. Cronkhite, C. L. (2012). Law Enforcement and Justice Administration. U.S.A: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. 1. (B). Autocratic Leadership Style in Criminal Activities Autocratic leadership style is a leadership characteristic whereby an individual is in control of the entire group and the leader is a sole decision maker (Canter, 2009). The police leadership is authoritarian in nature with the command being issued from a single authority. The strategy results to quick decision making and increases accountability. The other police offers take orders are issued by the commanding officer and executes specific tasks as instructed. The same authority is applied in the criminal leadership where group members are required to follow the instruction of the leaders and have no chance to make choice. The leaders dictate the procedures and methods of executing the operations and they never trust the group members with important tasks (Cools et.al, 2009). The leaders in criminal activities have authoritarian leadership style due to the nature of their activities. The leaders of criminal activities have to make quick and efficient decisions thus they have to be authoritarian because otherwise if they have to consult their group members the procedure will be take a lot of time to implement (Canter, 2009). An authoritarian leader is able to set deadline for accomplishing the mission and achieve quality result and better performance. The advantage of autocratic leadership style in police department is that it enables the police officers to concentrate on the tasks assigned to them while the responsible leader or commander concentrates on delegating the tasks and structuring the operations procedure (Cools et.al, 2009). Due to the similarity police and criminal activities, the two groups apply similar leadership style. The application of autocratic leadership style in criminal leadership enables the leaders of criminal gangs to assign tasks to their group members, monitor the progress and establish solid deadline for the accomplishing the project. Criminal activities involve a lot of conflicts that requires quick decision with high level of efficiency (Canter, 2009). Furthermore, authoritarian leadership style enables criminal leaders to make important decisions while the group members follow the orders strictly without any agony of tough decision making. The approach enables group members to specialize in particular task assigned thus improving productivity (Canter, 2009). Therefore, autocratic leadership style in both the police and criminal gang leadership increases efficiency of operations due to quick decision making among the leaders and specialization of activities among the group members. References Canter, D. (2009). The Faces of Terrorism: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. John Wiley & Sons. Cools, M., De Kimpe, S., De Ruyver, B. & Easton M. (ed.) (2009). Readings on Criminal Justice, Criminal Law & Policing. USA: Maklu Publishers. 1. (C). The Free Reign of Criminals on the Lower End of the Spectrum. The role of the police leaders is to delegate task among the police officers and issue instructions on how they will execute the operation (Siegel, 2006). However, due to the nature of the police operations the police officers are given an opportunity to make an independent decision during the execution of orders depending on the prevailing conditions. For example, if the police officers are instructed to track and arrest offenders the situation may change and result to killing of the perpetrators if they discover that attempting to arrest the offenders may put their lives in danger. Similarly, members of the criminal groups are issued with instructions by their leaders on how to execute their operations. However, during the operation the gang members cannot rely entirely on what they were instructed to do, but instead they have to utilize the available resources to execute the operation (Siegel, 2006). For example, even if the ring leader had instructed the gang members not to kill anybody during robbery or any other crime but the victims of raid turn out violent to the extent of posing threat of death the members may have no other alternative, but to the kill the victims. The police officers upon receiving instructions of what they intend to achieve they should apply their own knowledge and skills in the execution of the order (Siegel, 2006). When they get to action they have to act in such a way they that they will be able to achieve the target. For example, if the ground becomes too harsh they may decide to retreat and launch unexpected attack on the enemies. Similarly, the criminal group members have to use individual tactics to achieve their goals. For example, if the members were instructed to strike their victims at a specific time but they come to realization that the police officers are likely to intercept at that time, they may have to change the tactic and strike earlier than expected to avoid coming into collision with the security officers (Siegel, 2006). Therefore, the members of the criminal group receive instructions from their leaders, but they have to exercise individual skills to achieve their target. References Siegel, L. (2006). Criminology: Theories, Patterns, and Typologies. USA: Cengage Learning. 1. (D). The two power style used to Exercise control over the lower ranking members in the crime family. The criminal justice system utilizes two approaches to control criminal activities in the society. The strategies focusing on crime groups involve the use of criminal justice system to put the offender on trial (The White House, 1997). The police force uses witness immunity, wiretaps, witness protection programs and special grand juries to implement the prosecution operations. These strategies reflect quite various assumptions about how the human and financial capital available for the control of criminal activities should be utilized efficiently. The other strategy involves the use community policing to mobilize the community in an endeavor to fight crime (The White House, 1997). The police leaders apply the strategies to regulate crime justice system both internally and externally through community policing. The crime groups are organized in a localized set of freely structured relationships that originate from family and other intimate associations (Lea, 2008). The members of the crime groups form associations of independent actors who operate private illegal businesses from which they derive income. The crime groups forms “mega crime groups” within the bigger crime family. The relationship of crime group assists each other various ways especially helping the members to exploit their illegal opportunities. The conflicts arising among the members of that family cannot be solved through legal means since they operate beyond the reach of the law. The leaders of crime groups apply two strategies aimed at the controlling the crime groups (Lea, 2008). One of the strategies targets the group members while the second strategy focuses on structural characteristics and market associations that facilitate their criminal activities. For example, the crime group dealing with drug trafficking has leaders responsible for the entire community. The leaders are responsible for other leaders lower in rank who heads smaller groups. The strategies employed include controlling those smaller groups while the leaders of those smaller groups are responsible for coordinating the members of the groups and the drug dealers outside the crime group (The White House, 1997). Therefore, the leader of the crime groups applies similar approaches used by the police to control members both inside and outside the crime family. References Lea, J. (2008). The Structure of Traditional Organized Crime. Retrieved from Http://www.bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/orgcrim/3802.htm The White House, (1997). International Crime Control Strategy. Retrieved from Http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/NSC/html/documents/iccs-frm.html 2. (a). Rearranging Criminal Organizations and the Role of Community Policing The crime groups are the members of the community organized with a mission to commit illegal activities in the community (Hesterman, 2013). Some criminal groups are centralized and include the members from the local and transnational groups drawn from the members of the community. Some of the criminal groups are politically driven. In addition, the crime groups may form disciplined groups while others extract money from the community in return for protection. Some of the community members are formed to provide the community with illegal products demanded by in the community and are professionally organized. The establishment of community policing purpose to breakdown the cartels of the criminals in the society by causing panic to some of the members either by reporting them to the police or by creating fear among the members to discontinue criminal activities (Hesterman, 2013). Therefore, if the criminal organization disintegrates the gang leaders have to reorganize the groups afresh in order to continue with their activities. Community policing is a police strategy to engage the community in fighting against illegal activities in the community. One of the community policing programs include “neighborhood watch” that emphasizes the members of the pubic to be watchful of their neighborhoods (Docobo, 2005). In addition, community policing require the public to share the information about the crime activities in the society and report the suspects of crimes to the police officers. The community members should engage the members of the community in meetings to share the security issues, use phone calls, internet and other means to share the information with the police. The police door-to-door visits to the members of the community are also part of community policing. The community policing helps to reduce the level of crimes in the community because it instills fear among the community members thus disintegrating crime groups. The community policing programs require changes in the police organization and public support helps to deter crimes in the society and improve the quality of life of the people (Docobo, 2005). Community policing helps to improve the relationship between the police and the members of the community in an efficient and effective way. References Docobo, J. (2005). Community Policing as the Primary Prevention Strategy for Homeland Security at the Local Law Enforcement Level Vol. I (1). Retrieved on 8th Mayl 2014 from Https://www.hsaj.org/?fullarticle=1.1.4 Hesterman, J. L. (2013). The Terrorist-Criminal Nexus: An Alliance of International Drug Cartels, Organized Crime, and Terror Groups. USA: CRC Press 2. (B). Organized Crimes in Colombia and Mexico Mexico and Columbia are some of the nations that have seen a rise in organized crimes especially those related to illegal drugs (Hartwig & Bailey, 2012). The migration of criminals across the nations is the major cause of increase in the rate of organized crimes in Mexico and Colombia. For example, cocaine from Colombia accounts for about eighty per cent of the illegal drugs in the United States market. Also, Colombia is the main drug supplier in South Africa. Mexico has no control for drug use and this is not considered seriously as crime. Due to security crisis in Mexico the drug dealers have formed a cartel that smuggle drugs to other nations. As such, Mexico has very well organized crimes especially those dealing with social violence as they try to impose social agenda. The social violence in Mexico has caused an increase in robbery with violence, homicides and kidnappings in the recent years. The three organized crimes in Mexico have caused serious issues of insecurity in that country (Vargas & Gonzalez, 2013). The effort of Mexican president Felipe Calderon to fight drug traffickers and perpetrators of other crimes caused severe bloodshed the members of the criminal cartels were being pursued. In 2011, about six-hundred deaths related to organized crimes were reported between January and September (Vargas & Gonzalez, 2013). However, the security in Mexico has improved tremendously and the city has become one of the safest in the globe. Through the government’s crackdown for cartels of crime Mexico was filled with blood as a sign of how the cartel had become deep rooted. On the other hand, Colombia has seen a significant rise of drug related crimes. A number of Colombian’s criminal leaders have been interdicted for drug trafficking and other organized crimes with support from president Bogota (Hartwig & Bailey, 2012). About thirteen-hundred crime leaders in Colombia have been interdicted in United States. Although the prosecution of the perpetrators of drug trafficking crimes in Colombia is a lesson for other countries dealing with similar crime, Mexicans have declined the trial of their people in United States. “The FARC and paramilitaries and engaged in illegal drug trafficking in Mexico” (Vargas & Gonzalez, 2013). The effort of the United States to assist Colombia fight the cartels of organized crimes has been very expensive, but the U.S government believes that is the only way to defeat organized crimes. References Hartwig, R. & Bailey J. (2012). Journalism & Organized Crime in Colombia and Mexico. Retrieved on 8th May 2014 from Http://www.urbanauapp.org/wp-content/uploads/hartwig.pdf Vargas E. W. & Gonzalez, S.V. (2013). Organized Crime in Mexico and the United States: Fighting two problems. Journal of International Affairs. Retrieved on 8th May 2014 from http://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/online-articles/organized-crime-mexico-united-states-fighting-two-problems/ 2. (C). Border Patrol and SWAT Teams American government incurs huge expenses in “The War on Drugs.” The government spends about nineteen dollars on drugs and thirty-four thousand dollars to keep the convicts of drugs each year (Jakubiec et.al, 2009). Forty per cent of those arrested are African Americans while only twelve percent of the convicts are from the U.S. population and forty-eight percent is from the rest of the world. The war against drugs in the United States requires intensive measures to curb the smuggling of drugs from outside world into the United States (Jakubiec et.al, 2009). The police effort has focused mainly on the border where the drugs gains entry into the nation. The United States’ government has used various strategies in the war against drug abuse and drug trafficking (Jakubiec et.al, 20090. Some of the approaches include the use of military officers, the enacting of legislations to prohibit the use, production or sale of drugs, laws proposing the penalty for the drug users and drug dealers as well as intensifying the war against drugs through employing special equipment to detect and communicate share information with the police regarding the drug market (Lee, 2014). The Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team was established in 1971 to deal with issues of drugs in Metropolitan Division of the Los Angeles Police Department on full-time basis. The team applied military strategies in interrogation and use equipments designed for special operations beyond the ordinary duty of patrol officers (Jakubiec et.al, 2009). The SWAT was used intensively to serve the search warrants in 1990s. Their effort intensified the war on drugs and increased the interaction between the police officers and the public including the offenders (Lee, 2014). The “parmilitarization” of war on crime intensified the use of special equipments such as infrared computer communication, and chemical devices to deal with the issue of drug trafficking. In the endeavor of the government’s war on drugs in US, the police border patrol was intensified to prohibit the entry of drugs through the borders (Jakubiec et.al, 2009). The flow of drugs from the outside nations targets the poor people in the United States. The government has engaged military operations in the countries believed to be the suppliers of drugs in US such as Colombia (Lee, 2014). However, the means through which drugs cross the border into the United States can be controlled through engagement of the community. The patrol police and SWAT interact with the leaders in charge of borders to ensure effective control of flow of drugs in order to be able to apprehend the leaders of crime controlling the flow of drugs across the border. References Jakubiec, D., Kilcer, A. & Sager, W. (2009). The War on Drugs.RIT College of Liberal Art. Retrieved on 8th May 2014 from Http://scholarworks.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2664&context=article Lee, D. (2014). Inside The Communications Infrastructure of the Ultraviolent Syndicate. Mind Media. Retrieved from Http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/19766177 2. (D).The Techniques of Police Departments in Los Angeles, New York City, and Miami to Combat Crimes The war on crime remains a great challenge among the police officers in the United States (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2010). Despite the use of various tactics including paramilitary border patrol and sophisticated equipments to detect and report the crimes, the issue of illegal drug trafficking and use remains a mystery to the police officers. Various police departments have implemented their tactical approaches of dealing with the menace of crimes without much victory (The Los Angeles police Department, 2014). In some parts of the United States such as Miami, Los Angeles and New York city, the police departments have employed a numbers of techniques to combat crime The Los Angeles police Department, 2014). For example, the use of computer statistics (COMPSAT) is a modern “crime control model that has a well-established and proven track record in reducing crimes and improving the overall operating systems of several major metropolitan police departments” (The Los Angeles police Department, 2014). The implementation of COMPSAT crime control model is places like New York Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New Jersey among other police departments has led to significant drop in crime rate in those areas. Police Departments such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, New Orleans, and Newark, New Jersey have all experienced significant reduction in violent crimes as a result of the implementation of the COMPSTAT crime control model (The Los Angeles police Department, 2014). The core fundamental of COMPSAT is to direct the police officers with a plan to get actively involved in fight against crime rather that responding to crime activities. The model gets the officers to account for the criminal activities in their regions and grants the concerned officers authority to organize desired resources in order to attain the expected goals (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2010). The basics of COMPSAT include the efficiency and timely delivery of information for effective policing (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2010). The patrol police require accurate and immediate information regarding the criminal activities whenever they occur and also a means to analyze the trend of crime in the society. COMPSAT model enables the police officers to share information within and across the police departments for immediate control response (The Los Angeles police Department, 2014). It is an effective tactic because it helps the police officers to mobilize both internal and external resources in response to crimes. Therefore, the use of COMPSAT in policing has proven effective strategy for combating crime in the police department. References The Los Angeles police Department. (2014). COMPSTAT. Retrieved from Http://www.lapdonline.org/search_results/content_basic_view/6363 Palmiotto, M. & Unnithan, N. (2010). Policing and Society: The Global Approach. United States of America: Cengage Learning. 4. Pace permitting Advanced Policing Techinques Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) Police officers apply various techniques to obtain evidence from the criminals and interrogation is the most common approach. The advancement in technology especially information and communication technology (ICT), the perpetrators of crimes are continuing to engage in more complicated crimes (Ratcliffe, 2012). Globalization is also another major challenge facing the policing operations due to across the border operations. The emergence of cyber crimes and drug and human trafficking may involve perpetrators in different nations. As crimes become more sophisticated the police officers should continue to intensify their operations in order to combat those crimes. The advance policing techniques require enacting policies and regulations that can be permit the law enforcing officers to implement the available policing strategies (Ratcliffe, 2012. “Relevant security and policing should deter, prevent, interdicting, suppressing or otherwise displacing existing capabilities of criminals regardless of the relative complexity of crimes committed” (Ratcliffe, 2012). The law enforcing personnel should be considering the number of crimes committed, but their concern should be the scientific means available to deter crimes and prevent crimes. Therefore, effective policing process “requires systematic rethinking, education, training, equipping and organizing” the policing officers in way that they will be able to realize the crime threats, fabricate and execute precautionary and regulatory tactics in line with the resource availability in the police department. The police officers should be trained how to recognize and respond to various criminal issues effectively. (Ratcliffe, 2012). For effective policing, modern crimes are categorized as ordinary crimes, new crimes and adaptive crimes. Ordinary crimes are those that occur all everywhere and are easily recognized. New crimes are technologically motivated and occur rarely. They are innovative; involve a network of perpetrators, not easy to investigate, and so on. Adaptive crimes are frequent and vary with technological changes. References Ratcliffe, J. H. (2012). Intelligence-led Policing. USA: mRoutledge. 5. (A). Leadership Understanding and Sophistication of Crimes Criminals have always applied utilized innovative technology to advance their criminal activities in the society. The use of modern technology especially internet has increased the understanding of the leadership among the police and the criminal groups (McQuade, 2011). It is easy to have a direct interaction with the leaders on a short notice and obtain a quick response on any issue through the use of modern technology. The police leaders have utilized the modern technology in dismantling criminal organizations in the society. For example, the use of COMPSAT has enabled the police officers to keep up-to-date crime records and connect with the community and be able to provide a quick response to the criminal issues (McQuade, 2011). Therefore, the use of modern technology in community policing has improved the operations by facilitating communication and response system. The use of internet has resulted to advanced crimes such as cyber bullying, international kidnapping, and software theft and hacking among other related crimes (McQuade, 2011). Criminals share confidential information via computerized system thus increasing the rate of crimes in the society. The laws to protect internet users against cyber crimes have not been fully developed. Also, the advancement in technology has limited the success of interrogation as a means of obtaining sufficient evidence by the police officers. The modern policing techniques require advanced strategies that can effectively match the advancing crimes in the society (McQuade, 2011). Some of the criminals are involved in technologically related crimes such as cyber crime. Therefore, modern technology has intensified the rate of crime in the society by offering offenders an opportunity to connect with each other and commit more sophisticated crimes. References McQuade, S. (2011). Technology-enabled Crime, Policing and Security. The Journal of Technology Studies. Retrieved from Http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JOTS/v32/v32n1/mcquade.html 5. B. The Specific Reasons Why Policing Techniques Are Most Important Are That They Do Work. Crime prevention is a government responsibility to ensure the safety of persons and the property. Lack of crime control initiatives in the society can thwart the government effort to achieve economic development and improve the lives of the peoples (Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, Inc., 2008). Police officers have a duty to promote peace and order in the society through effective policing. The US constitution provides the rights of individuals such as liberty to associate and protect people against danger of physical harm. Policing is responsible for making people develop a sense of security and resolve conflicts among the individuals. The community policing engages both police and individuals in promoting security in the society. Although some people have argued that increase in police officers does not promote security, policing plays significant role in deterring crimes in the society (Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, Inc., 2008). When police are in patrol and interacting with the members of the community the members of the criminal groups disintegrates thus breaking the criminal gangs. The rise of criminal activities in the society causes fear and worry among the people. People results to police officers for a solution, the police respond by ransacking for the perpetrators of crime and apprehend the culprits (Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, Inc., 2008). Through community policing, public gives the police officers important information that can assist them to arrest the criminals and help to reduce the level of crimes in the society. Therefore, policing plays a significant role in reducing the rates of crimes in the society. References Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, Inc. (2008). Effective Policing and Crime Prevention. U.S. Department of Justice 5. (C). Intelligence-Led Policing The police leaders make use of crime and intelligence data to channel the police resources and surveillance with a focus to disintegrate the organized crime organizations and arrest the perpetrators of criminal activities (Newburn et.al, 2012). The police officers engage in gathering and analyzing data to keep the operation officers informed of the ongoing criminal activities. The approach is also used in community policing whereby the members of the public assist the police officers to get data regarding those who are involved in criminal activities. It is not very developed in US but it is common in where it originated. Community policing: This is a policing approach whereby the police officers interact with citizens in an effort to fix criminal elements in the community (Newburn et.al, 2012). The method is based on the believe that the interaction between the police officers and the public build people’s trust on police officers and increase the efficiency delivery of services to the people. Problem –Oriented Policing: this approach focuses on crime prevention activities. The scientific researchers examine every piece of problem individually and propose a solution to each of the identified problems (Newburn et.al, 2012). The suggested approach integrates other available means of dealing with crimes such as community policing, private sectors and public agencies in addressing the issues. It is a research activity thus it aims at establishing a unique approach to a problem and creating a new means for applying it in addressing the issue (Dempsey & Forst, 2013). It is realistic approach because it is tested to ensure its effectiveness in solving a particular problem. However, it cannot be applicable in various situations since they are specific to a related problem. Zero-Tolerance Policing: this a policing approaches whereby the officers enforcing law and order in the society explore all means of combating crime to ensure safety in the society (Newburn et.al, 2012). However, critics of his approach have argued that due to intensive and expansive police enforcement the final output is bitter relationship between the citizens and the police officers. References Dempsey, J. & Forst, L. (2013). An Introduction to Policing. Cengage Learning. Newburn, T., Williamson, T. & Wright, A. (ed.) (2012). Handbook of Criminal Investigation. USA: Routledge, 5. (D). The Best Policing Approach Community policing is better than the other approaches discussed because it establishes good relationship between the police officers and the citizens. It helps the police officers to gather information that otherwise would have remained a mystery to the police leaders. This strategy gives the police officers an opportunity utilizes other methods alongside community policing in friendly environment (Newburn et.al, 2012). It is efficient and effective because engaging the members of the public in policing disintegrates the criminal cartels in the society thus disorienting the criminal organizations. Furthermore, it instills individual accountability for the surveillance of the security operations in the country. Therefore, I believe community policing the best approach for enforcing law and order in the society to foster security. References Newburn, T., Williamson, T. & Wright, A. (ed.) (2012). Handbook of Criminal Investigation. USA: Routledge, Read More