Public Service And Leadership : A World Of Uncertainty An Organization

There are many ways to define leadership, but perhaps the most laconic as well as accurate definition is presented in Peter G. Northouse's Leadership: Theory and Practice book (Northouse, 2013, p.5): "Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal". Individuals, engaged in leadership, use influence to solve challenges, which the groups under their leadership face, in order to succeed in their common goals.

Community relation issues across the nation have been increasing and causing many conflicts between law enforcement and communities. There has been so much disorder between communities and law enforcements not agreeing on how situation have been handled. Both the community and law enforcements having different perspectives on making decisions without ever looking at the others side and acknowledging each other’s reasoning behind their actions. Racism, responsibility and morals are some of many terms that are yet to be sorted out within all these communities that have on going conflicts. The relationships between a community and its law enforcement is important, although it is the police job to enforce, it is also the communities job to enforce all day and everyday (Russell).

There are several ways to accomplish this through community policing models. Forming partnerships and coalitions with leaders of communities can assist in developing rapport in regions where tensions are high. Neighborhood “beat cops” can develop regular contacts and relationships with individuals and business owners in the communities. (Loving, 2014)

The agreement to improve police-community relations has been identified as one of the most comprehensive and creative plans, calling upon both community members and police to participate in both a structural and cultural manner to the issues discovered (Background, 8). There were objectives that strove to improve the relationships between the two groups by fostering trust and respect as they worked to a common goal of a better community at large. They were also changes in the police system itself to address hiring, monitoring and accountability within the system (Background, 9). These changes were conservative in nature aiming to increase accountability between the groups and also the amount of accountability the officers had to their rules and proceedings. The considered success of these implementations could be attributed to the diversity of those leading the commission. The leaders of the response to the crisis include the Mayor, a prominent African American business and civic leader, and other business, philanthropic and civic leaders (Background, 6). This diversity included a wide range of members that allowed it to reach past the historical tendency of segregation and exclusion of community

These types of community involvement foster the positive growth and relations that are needed to ease the tensions with law enforcement. These programs help build trust and can give the community a sense of security. However, incidents such as excessive force can tear away any sense of unity that the aforementioned programs build. In an incident that

The problem with this model is that it is difficult for police departments to dedicate officer to public relations while there are serious crimes that need to be prevented. The idea of the public reporting crimes to the police in a community meeting is acceptable but in many cases especially with the current economic crisis that we are facing, it is impossible for police departments to have officers strictly assigned to community police. As discussed earlier without full cooperation from both sides the practice of community police is ineffective.

The issue of police-community relations has been a social problem that needs to be mended. There is a huge debate about how the police are viewed negatively from the low-income, high crime areas due to the large amount of patrolling in these neighborhoods. Having the police in the public eye can cause the police to get the wrath of anything negative that has happened on the streets. Clarence Edward states that “The absence of a holistic police/community approach in attempting to solve frictions between these two groups” allow negative police-community relations to continue. There are strategies that can be put in place to strengthen these bonds between the community and the police departments.

Rank and chain of command are important and imperative in dealing with emergency situations. More and more, however, agencies are relying on officers to make important decisions on behalf of the agency that have an impact on the communities in which they serve. In the paramilitary style of leadership, the decisions that are made for the agency, whether long term or day to day, are largely made by the leaders at the top of the agency. The command staff of the agency sets a goal, commonly with little or no direction, and expects that the goal will be accomplished because “I said so.” Often the goals are not shared goals, or at the very least, are not communicated well enough to provide the officers with an understanding of why the goals are important. All too often the response from the leaders is, “because this is how it has always been done.” As the age of our agencies continues to get younger, and Generation Y begins to take over, we are finding that those answers are no longer good enough. The challenge is to find out how we overcome the age old way of doing things, and to provide a clear vision and set of goals that we can get our officers to buy into. Gardner and Reece (2012) state that executives must create a department where employees are excited to come to work, zealous about getting mission-driven results, and empowered to take skilled initiative. Further they state

I have been trained to be both a mentor to clients and a scribe for community accountability panels. On a bi-monthly basis, I attend development meetings that are used to discuss the progression of the program and any prevalent issues. A re-occurring critique brought up in the meetings is that 90% of the clients referred to the program come from department stores. Referrals from the RCMP have been declining at a steady rate yearly and in 2016 our annual general meeting revealed only 2 referrals from the RCMP.  Although, the police officers in Chilliwack are always quick to comment on the success of the program but publically neglect to mention their lack of involvement. Besides donating commandeered bicycles to our yearly auction fundraiser, very little participation in the program is offered. This is quite frustrating to me as the partnership of Restorative Justice and the RCMP is deceptively broadcasted as a team initiative when in actuality it can be considered the opposite. In the text "The Police Assemblage" they refer to the willingness of the police to allow for research to be done on initiatives such as community policing that are likely to win over the public but fail to release information regarding their own affairs. The ability to relate this information through my own experiences has reinforced this idea into my mind and allowed be to developed a stronger understanding regarding how the police can deceive the

Community policing consists of three main components: (1) collaborative partnerships between law enforcement and the community to address problems and develop solutions while increasing trust in the police, (2) an organizational transformation to support those partnerships and solutions, and (3) proactive and systematic consideration of community problems to develop beneficial responses (Community policing defined, 2014). As community policing is becoming the accepted norm throughout the nation, having adopted this strategy will aid us in meeting the accreditation requirements. Our mission is to provide the best in public safety that we possibly can, and the community policing strategy is the best way to do

Members of the community as well as law enforcement have a mutual influence on one another. The ability of the police to function as an effective service is often predicated on the positive image they maintain with the general public (Wentz & Schlimgen, 2012). In order for police to function in the most efficient way a positive relationship with the community is of the up most Importance.

Knowing the times in which we live and how very crucial the issues are, we firmly believe that the person to fill that position must be one with both the sensitivity and familiarity with the issues of the our day. It must be a person who has knowledge of the community and it’s needs.

Review and assess the quality of the conflict resolution services that Safe Streets provide to possible conflicting individuals/factions in the Cherry Hill community and the effectiveness of the mediation.

Although policing has been around for many decades, law enforcement roles have not changed too significantly. Media, such as television shows and movies, portray law enforcement officers as fearless crime fighters who are in daily high speed chases and shoot outs. While these crimes may be possible, it is not likely on a daily basis. So, just what do police officers respond too then? They deal with many various types of service calls each month and year including little disruptions and civil arguments or disputes. Police officers today need to be in different places for all different types of complaints and issues. Because many agencies do not have the capability or manpower for the growing need, community policing is a fast growing necessity for these agencies. This paper will discuss where community policing originated from, how it effects law enforcement today, and some of the ways we can expand the concept of community policing to benefit everyone for the future.

As community boundaries relate to the purpose of the partnership, so do the relevant stakeholders. However, because community justice initiatives aim to articulate the voice of the community and improve quality of life for everyone that uses or provides resources to the community, the range of stakeholders is very broad. Following the partnership model we move on to the mobilization model whereby the unity of the community is reinforced in order to suppress criminal activity.