Methods of Legal and Ethical Decision-Making for Public Safety Research Paper

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law enforcement agencies to train employees in ethical decision making. This includes training their employees to include public safety in terms of any legal decisions at a time of crisis. The paper also includes the field investigation of a police agency regarding the training of their employees for their ethical decision making.

Failures in public management are directly dependent on security shortfalls. The financial and social costs that include costs of facing crimes, deploying guards, and social stress, can only be minimized by use of effective government decisions that increase security. Although security problems are now getting their due attention from both the perspectives of public management and policy, there are few empirical examinations (Ghaffarzadegan & Andersen, n.d.).

Some security warnings have been issued to improve the security in public places. These are aimed at improving awareness; individuals are expected to become more defensive as a result of these warnings. If both citizens and government employees acquire a defensive behavior, adversaries and criminals get less opportunity to attack and involve them in crimes. Warnings also have short- and long-term costs associated with their issuance. In the short run, warnings can spread social stress, and people do not enjoy hearing continuous warning alerts (Ghaffarzadegan & Andersen, n.d.).

When it comes to long-term and complex warnings, choosing an optimal warning decision is a very complicated and difficult task. One of the main sources of the long-term costs associated with issuing warnings comes from false alarms. The level of threat that an individual person perceives acts as an important role in the way he/she behaves. False alarms generally affect the public perceptions of threat; false alarms also decrease individuals' sensitivity to future warnings. The effectiveness of warnings declines as the sensitivity to warnings declines, which is known as the 'crying-wolf' effect.

Literature Review

The research available on criminal justice management decision making and the area of policing is relatively limited. The focus of decision-making research revolves around the decision making of the 'line-level officer', where descriptions are used as an important tool. In the latter part of the 20th century, the focus was on the patrol officer in terms of solving problems, including the use of problem solving systems. The predominant area of attention has been the processes used in decision making by law enforcement administrators, as well as other elements that make the decision making process effective. This aspect of policing is quite important to the future of the policing industry (Bond & Morreale, n.d.).

Goldstein (1990) indicates that in terms of dealing with substantive issues related to policing, in general there were preoccupations with operational methods, process, and efficiency in terms of effectiveness. Goldstein's opinion (1990) is that the talent of various rank and file officers has been wasted due to the ineffectiveness of police management in the past. He proposed strengthening the decision making process; he also suggests increasing the accountability of individuals involved; problem identification is one area for focus, along with considering other alternative solutions. Although, his main focus was online-level officers, there is a clear application to the administrative level of the organization (Bond & Morreale, n.d.).

In terms of research utilization, it appears that decision makers have to find specific research in their field to be so compelling that they change their program foundations and policies based upon the research material available. Research and data can influence decisions, which isn't the case when dictating change. Decision makers can also choose to make use of data from the research as a guide to clarify policymaking. They may also use the data to substantiate or legitimate a position or a decision that has already been arrived at; to cast doubt upon, or refute propositions advanced by others; to persuade and/or neutralize others; and to buttress a request for funding, or any other similar purposes.

Administrators are considered to be successful if their actions were advancing towards achieving the defined goals, even though no formal evaluation was established or utilized. Ongoing problem-solving meetings can be a key element of any formal system, which is a notable thing. At first, administrators make use of their resources, such as staff time, for the meetings that include other participating individuals. Next, they are already engaged in reflection; this is considered to be the first step to learning. The significance and potential of formality can be understood by application of the above to jobs (Bond & Morreale, n.d.).

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If each of the measures of effectiveness by the participants is used, this permits analysis of the data. The major themes identified in this analysis include:

The inclusion of key allies in both decision making and ongoing problem solving

The ongoing adjustment to environmental changes and consideration of socio-political context

Ongoing assessment to analyze how changes assist to minimize errors and moving the agency towards their goal

Need for establishing a mechanism to accelerate the problem solving process.

Section 2

Field research and Investigation

Recently, officers and executives from the New York Police Department (NYPD) attended a mid-career masters in public administration (MC/MPA) program at Harvard University. The NYPD Police Commissioner -- Ray Kelly -- says that they wanted to take their managers and future leaders outside the scope of daily police work and make them experience situations beyond the scope of the New York City police department. This exposure matures them for future assignments (Abrams, 2011). According to Frank Hartman, lecturer at Kennedy School, the police officers that attend Harvard in MC/MPA program have a unique personal balance between reality and aspiration; as well, these officers also inspire other students (Abrams, 2011). Because of their urge to pursue higher education, these officers can be seen as change agents. After the completion of their education, they can use their newly gained skills for the betterment of the department. A 'change agent' is often a sheriff, or a new chief of police who is hired to "clean house." These officers are setting a standard for what a police officer should know academically, besides enhancing their skills. They are gaining the enhanced knowledge that is must for an effective leader who is dealing with people, just like these officers do daily (Tancredi, 2013).

Section 3

Analysis of Field Research and Investigation

The results from the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl catastrophes are startling. This is the reason that in a bank robbery Grossi (2007) asserted "When adrenaline hits, don't toss your tactics out the window." Similarly one should not assume anything while laboring in an electrical power plant or in law enforcement. To avoid any human causalities and/or catastrophes, things need to be double-checked; even triple-checked might be the trait of an effective leader. A leader must be at the top of the game when he/she is running an organization, says Steve Abraira, Boston Fire Chief. The leader has to be sharp and knowledgeable regarding their work because they will be tested regularly when their subordinates think that they can easily push the leader around (Tancredi, 2013).

Geller and Stephens (2003, p.83) state that though the chief always remains as the role model, the major portion of responsibility for reinforcing and modeling leadership lies beyond the control of the chief. The behavior of change management lies with themed-level managers and first-line supervisors. If the police department wants to survive and grow, they will have to develop learning and leadership skills at a rapid pace. A leader should be an individual who is ready to even risk his reputation for the sake of future benefits of the department. Pillai and Williams (2004, p.146) also mention that in situations such as military combat and firefighting, the example set by a leader in terms of personal risk-taking was said to be most effective.

Section 4

Reflection

For introduction into the law enforcement community, there are a number of decision making models that could be considered. Janis (1989) suggests that managers should seek and use information before making decisions. Janis also investigated the issues of groupthink, and cautioned others to avoid such situations in the future. Rajagopalan and Spreitzer (1996) proposed an integrative framework for some strategic changes that will bring together the strengths of rational, learning and cognitive perspectives of change. The testing of the integrative model doesn't appear in any literature at present

It becomes more important to understand many other factors of the decision making process as the decisions made by the law enforcement administrators are generally based on intuition and experience. The theory of reasoned action is a model that has been widely used to understand how people tend to make decisions. Law enforcement executives have to find a way to create a balance between faster decision making without full data and the problems that come out as a result of analysis paralysis (Bomd & Morreale, n.d.)......

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