Final Project

Overview

Criminal justice professionals are asked to serve the public with professionalism and fairness. Regardless of crimes committed by a suspect, the suspect must be treated respectfully and ethically. Leaders are expected to be able to take command of tragedies and major incidents. Administrators must walk a fine line to keep the public informed and their subordinates safe. It takes a true leader to be able to gain the trust of the community and the criminal justice professionals that serve under that particular leader. In order to achieve the qualities of a true leader, one must be able to approach problem situations effectively and address problems ethically and appropriately for all parties involved.

The final project in this course will expose you to a problem situation and task you with how it should be solved. You will imagine you are employed at a criminal justice organization facing a communal problem. Your superior at the organization has asked you to review the problem situation and offer your recommendations. You will be given the chance to evaluate the situation and develop suggestions that will inform development of strategies to address the issue using appropriate ethical and transparent leadership and communication skills. It is important to be able to recognize what leadership style you may be using and if that style will be effective in dealing with an issue at hand. This project will give you the experience and tools necessary to address problem situations and effectively lead both your subordinates and the parties involved while also coordinating with your superiors.

The final project for this course is the creation of a problem analysis with recommendations report. The final product represents an authentic demonstration of competency because it requires you to apply leadership concepts and ethical decision-making regarding decisions that will affect numerous stakeholders. The stakeholders include your law enforcement organization, a community, and many others such as political leaders and government officials. The project is supported by four milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules One, Three, Five, and Seven. The final product will be submitted in Module Nine.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

•   Analyze leadership dynamics and approaches used within criminal justice organizations for determining appropriate leadership styles that address communal problems


•   Determine the potential impact of the ethical decision-making of leadership on the operations of employees and the organizational culture within criminal justice agencies


•   Evaluate the ethical decision-making of leadership in criminal justice organizations based on accepted best practices and appropriate research


•   Recommend strategies for fostering growth and trust between and within communities and criminal justice organizations


•   Make recommendations for overcoming obstacles for implementing new strategies to internal and external key stakeholders in criminal justice
  
  organizations

Prompt

For the final project, imagine you are a professional working in a criminal justice organization. Your superior has asked your opinion on a problem facing the community. You will be given a basic scenario detailing a department of the organization that is trying to address a communal problem. You will complete a report explaining the problem facing the community and offering any recommendations and strategies you believe could effectively address the problem.

You will select one of the following case studies to analyze for your final project. To access the case studies, refer to the Harvard Business Review Coursepack Module:

1. NYPD New


2. The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

1. Introduction
   
   
   
   
   1. Describe the organization based on the information provided in the chosen scenario and explain the communal problem that they are trying to
      
      address.
   
   
   2. Describe budgetary constraints and other potential obstacles that might impact the organization in addressing the problem from the agency and
      
      community standpoint.
   
   
   3. Analyze and describe the current research in the field that would help leadership ethically address the issue and base their decisions on best
      
      practices of the field.
   
   
   
   

1. Leadership Analysis
   
   
   
   
   1. Analyze the actions of leadership in the chosen scenario for how they did or did not facilitate and motivate employees in addressing the
      
      problem. Be sure to provide examples from the scenario to support your response. What instances in the chosen scenario exemplify the
      
      approach of leadership in encouraging and interacting with employees?
   
   
   2. Analyze the actions of leadership in the chosen scenario for communication issues that might arise and how these issues might impede
      
      addressing the problem. Be sure to provide examples from the scenario to support your response. What communication issues might leadership
      
      face when addressing this problem? What are the implications or consequences of these issues?
   
   
   3. Determine whether the supervisors in the chosen scenario have functioned as effective leaders. Be sure to justify your response and support
      
      your response with appropriate research from the field gathered in your previous review.
   
   
   
   

1. Analysis of Ethics

A. Determine the ethicality of leadership’s decision making during their attempts to address the problem. Be sure to justify your response and support your response with appropriate research from the field gathered in your previous review.

1. Evaluate the transparency of the organization in regard to public communications. Be sure to justify your response. For example, are systems in place to communicate with the public? Has the organization been readily available and willing to provide the community with information regarding the problem?


2. Evaluate how leadership of the organization considered the ethical concerns of the community in addressing the problem. Be sure to justify your response. For example, how were the concerns of internal and external stakeholders considered?


3. Determine how the ethical decisions of leadership may impact the performance of employees in addressing the problem. How might these decisions improve employees’ ability to address the problem? How might they hinder their ability to address the problem?


4. Determine how the ethical decisions of leadership may impact the culture of the organization. For example, what if employees do not agree with the decisions?


5. Explain the overall implications of the ethical decision-making of leadership and how that affects the organization and the community. Be sure to justify your response, and support your response with appropriate research from the field gathered in your previous review.

IV. Recommendations

1. Recommend an appropriate and effective leadership style that superiors at the organization could employ to address the problem and best fit
   
   the organization based on your previous analysis. Be sure to justify your response.


2. Make recommendations to leadership for resolving the situation that balance the needs of the community, effectively addressing the problem,
   
   and what is ethically appropriate. How should leadership balance these three important elements in addressing the problem?


3. Recommend strategies or actions that leadership could take to improve community relations and foster growth and trust between the
   
   community and the organization in response to the problem from the chosen scenario. Be sure to justify your response and support your
   
   response with appropriate research from the field gathered in your previous review.


4. Recommend strategies or actions that leadership could take to maintain and improve the culture of the organization in response to the ethical
   
   decisions of leadership regarding the problem from the chosen scenario. Be sure to justify your response and support your response with
   
   appropriate research from the field gathered in your previous review.


5. Make recommendations for the organization on how they could account for obstacles that might impede the organization in addressing the
   
   problem and implementing your recommendations.


6. Explain how the organization could implement and uphold your recommendations. For example, should they enact new policies? Training?


7. Explain how the organization would consider any budgetary constraints they might face both in addressing the problem and implementing any
   
   of your recommendations.

Guidelines for Submission: Your problem analysis should be 6–8 pages in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, following appropriate APA formatting.