Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards

1.  What is the mission of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education TCLEOSE?

The mission of TCLEOSE as a regulatory State agency is to establish standards and ensure they are enforced with an aim of ensuring that the Texas people are provided with law and corrections enforcement, telecommunications services by highly trained personnel through developing, screening, resource monitoring and setting standards (Austin, N.p).”

2.  Define the concept of a problem as defined by Herman Goldstein.

The concept of a problem is the development of responses within a strategy without depending on the criminal justice system based on the contributions potentially drawn from other different public agencies, the private sector and the community. The concept requires that police go an extra mile of identifying the underlying conditions that precede a problem or a crime and not handling a crime itself. They can achieve this through collecting information related to the incidences that have occurred and use it to design a suitable response depending on the symptoms of the problem.  The new concept is aimed at deterring future occurrence of crime (“PROBLEM-ORIENTED POLICING ” N.p).

3.  CompStat and identify the core principles of CompStat as presented in the New York City Police Department model.

CompStat is a model used by the New York City Police Department for data management and has been found to be effective in reducing the rate of delinquency and consequently making the quality of life better in  New York. It is currently used throughout the USA whereby it is embraced as a model for crime reduction. There are four main principles of CompStat which include:

• Accurate and timely intelligence: The crime intelligence experts make use of data primarily obtained from official sources, for instance, calls for service and arrest data. This data which is vital in production of maps and other analytical products are required to be accurate and as proximal to the real time as possible.
• Effective tactics: The intelligence relies on previous successes as well as suitable resources. The officers in charge and the command staff come up with tactics that are able to respond fully to the problem that the department has identified. An example of the tactics is law enforcement at government and community levels.
• Rapid deployment: CompStat is committed to set up resources at the site of the crime to prevent the crime from escalating and this has to be done in time.
• Relentless follow-up and assessment: The principle requires that the parties involved create a forum to evaluate the effectiveness of the current and previous tactics and interventions in solving occurring problems. Success of tactics is indicated by reduction of the prevalence of the problem and while persistence or increase is failure. This forum will decide how to improve future tactics (Godown, n.p).

4.  Describe the four-step problem-solving model called SARA.

Scanning is the first step involving description of the underlying factors of the problem as well as appraisal of pertinent information. Work steps carried out in this phase are guided by questions such as: Describe the problem, with specifics? How did the problem come to attention? Who is affected by this problem?

Analysis is the second phase; it collects information and data which is used to tell the cause of the problem through reviewing the data to identify patterns that can be traced to problems, persons or places. The process is carried out by use of questions such as: Who is involved? What happens before the problem occurs? Where is the problem occurring?

Response: The third phase with two objectives which are to select a response and implement a response. It also involves brainstorming where the quantity of ideas is given priority over quality. Questions such as: What strategies are suitable in solving the problem? What resources are important for the listed alternative?

Assessment: The fourth phase in which the effectiveness of the response implemented is evaluated. The result from the way the current response has performed is compared to the former. Key step questions are such as: Did it go as planned in response? What was different than planned?

5.  Describe how force field analysis may be used to make a decision of whether the program should be adopted. It has a responsibility of implementing the new strategy

The force field analysis is a useful tool in determining the feasibility of a change in an organization.  To determine if a program should be adopted, three steps are involved. First is the unfreezing stage which requires the current need to be identified; driving forces and restraining forces are identified and then strategies are implemented to ensure that the driving forces are strengthened while the restraining forces are weakened. The second stage is where the change is to take place and the driving forces are expected to overcome the opposing restraining forces. The final stage is known as refreezing whereby the change is adapted and practitioners ensure the program is implemented.

6.  Contrast McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y assumptions.

Theory X postulates that the average person has a negative attitude to work and tries to avoid it, is not ambitious, does not accept responsibilities and prefers to be led than take up leadership responsibilities, is self-centered, resists change, is gullible and generally not intelligent. On the other hand, Theory Y postulates that work can be as perceived as natural just like play and rest; if people are committed to their objectives they can be directed to meet them and if the rewards are available like self-fulfillment, when this is done most people will be ready to take up responsibilities, and finally most people are intelligent and creative, hence they can handle responsibilities.

7.  Records Management Command and Investigation Command are furious since too many reports are approved by patrol sergeants although they contain serious errors and omissions.  Suggest a strategy to resolve the tension between patrol and users of report data.

There should be staff training, workshop or seminars to inform the patrol on how to collect and compile their reports. A forum needs to be established to find out what the patrol may be having either in their field work or personally. Lastly, there should be a short report on the challenges encountered in the field work.

8.  Why does an inexperienced workforce support a narrow span of management?

The inexperienced workforce makes up a span of control. The advantages associated with the narrow span management include quick communication with the manager, airing of their grievances is easy, more effective transmission of feedback ideas from the inexperienced workers and requires less skills to manage the tasks given.

9.  Compare the terms “efficient” and “effective”.

Efficient is the ability of an object employed to perform a task right, in the manner the owner intended and without any mistake occurring. Hence it is capable of providing maximum possible output. In contrast, effective refers to the ability of a used strategy to achieve the expected results and has nothing to do with mistakes.

10.  Discuss the relationship between specialization and organizational structure for smaller police departments.

Organizational structure refers to the different levels of management in hierarchical manner in an organization which also dictates the flow of information with the Chief of police at the top and other junior police staff under him. Specialization refers to a group of people performing similar tasks such as burglary, narcotic users and juveniles.