Tag Archives: law enforcement

Criminal Justice, Politics, Society

Grant Sources: Proposing a New Treatment Program

As grant funding is one of the largest sources of state revenue, it would be remiss for any program administrator facing financial difficulty to not leverage these available funds towards their program (Menifield, 2009). With this in mind, I will create a fictional program and discuss many of the points worthy of mention when completing a grant proposal for such a program, as presented by Markin (2006). The fictional program will provide an opportunity for the criminal justice system to intervene with young offenders during enrollment in the probation program to prevent recidivism.

The Proposal

Statement of the Problem

The juvenile recidivism rate in the State of Connecticut is approximately 33-36% (University of New Haven, 2010). Though the recidivism rate is not counted through the transition from juvenile to adult, it is widely believed that most adult offenders have committed offenses as juveniles (Burnette, 2004). According to Stone (2010), interdicting juvenile offenders at the time of first offense reduces the overall risk of recidivism.

Goals, Objectives, and Performance Measures

Goals of this program should be directly measurable. For one, the immediately obvious goal for this program would be a measurable reduction in juvenile recidivism. Objectives could be relative to benchmarks within the program to show periodic compliance, such as the absence of drug use by participants and evaluation of test scores. Another goal of this program could reduce first adult offenses by juvenile offenders.

Program Design

The development of this juvenile offender outreach program takes into consideration three different evidence-based programs that show promising reductions in juvenile recidivism. The first program is a 12-step program, called Moral Reconation Therapy ® (MRT). According to Burnette et al. (2004), MRT involves reprogramming of the participants’ sense of self, sense of others, attitudes towards risk-taking, and provides a foundation of support and improved moral reasoning. MRT is credited at reducing relative recidivism by 39-60%.

The second program is a mentor program that can be easily integrated with MRT. The mentor component focuses on the importance of vocation and work ethic (Stone, 2009). The vocational mentor program has shown to reduce recidivism by 50-65%.

The third program, a restorative justice mediation program that allows “offenders … to brainstorm with the mediator and the victim on how best to make reparations” (University of New Haven, 2010, para. 3). UNH Associate Professor and Director of the Legal Studies Program Donna Decker Morris (as cited in University of New Haven, 2010) advocates this program and credits the program with 40-45% reductions in recidivism rates.
By integrating all three programs into a single cohesive approach, recidivism rates could be reduced by as much as 90-95%; however, this is an estimate and requires close and frequent assessment.

Organization & Management

Though it is beyond the scope of this fictional presentation, Markin (2006) shows the importance of providing the names and credentials of the professionals who will be working within the program.

Funding

The primary source of funding for programs such as this is grant funding (Menifield, 2009). One grant opportunity, Serving Juvenile Offenders in High-Poverty, High-Crime Communities (SGA-DFA-PY-11-09; U.S. Department of Labor, 2012), focuses on improving the long-term labor market prospects for youths aged 14 and above. This grant is focused towards high-crime, high-poverty areas and, therefore, provides for the opportunity for high impact.

As the program focuses on impacting juveniles and increasing their focus towards vocational contributions towards society and their community, this grant opportunity is appropriate to fund this program.

Discussion

Whether in hard times or easy times, we live in communities and want to contribute to the improvement of society, though most of us do this passively. A program such as the one outlined above can have significant effects at improving society by reducing crime, removing first-time offenders from the criminal justice system, and increasing employability of those offenders thereby decreasing the overall unemployment rate. Programs such as these can have far reaching and immeasurable effects on each member of the community.

Government realizes that it is highly ineffective at controlling local programs and provides grants to states and localities, as well as not-for-profit organizations, to help administer programs that it feels would be beneficial to society as a whole. This process assists states and localities by positively impacting directly the lives of those living within the community.

References

Burnette, K. D., Swan, E. S., Robinson, K. D., Woods-Robinson, M., Robinson, K. D., & Little, G. L. (2004). Treating youthful offenders with Moral Reconation Therapy®: a recidivism and pre- posttest analysis. Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Review, 3, 14-15. Retrieved from http://www.moral-reconation-therapy.com/Resources/Treating%20Youtful%20Offenders.pdf

Markin, K. (2006, September). How to write a proposal for an outreach grant. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(4), C1, C4.

Menifield, C. E. (2009). The basics of public budgeting and financial management: a handbook for academics and practitioners. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Stone, K. (2009). Vocational mentoring program for youth [Grant proposal]. Retrieved from http://www.jud.ct.gov/recovery_act/Mentoring.pdf

University of New Haven. (2010, January 12). Breaking the cycle of juvenile crime: UNH study shows mediation effective in reducing juvenile recidivism. Retrieved from http://www.newhaven.edu/news-archive/35806/

U. S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. (2012, April 4). ETA grants. Retrieved from http://www.doleta.gov/grants/find_grants.cfm

Criminal Justice, Politics, Society

Budget Forecasting Models

Forecasting, according to Menifield (2009), is an important component of budget preparation and analysis. Using the Putnam police department (Putnam, CT) as an example, I will show how forecasting can benefit the budget process.

The Putnam police department is a small local department that relies heavily on public support. In order to forecast the economic condition that provide insight to the budgetary needs of the department, I would normally suggest using simple time-series forecast model. Due to the wavering economy over the last few years, however, I would start to consider using a multiple regression model that could take into account decreases in property taxes, real inflation, and the poor business environment for many of the small businesses that contribute a sizable portion of the tax base (Spencer, 2009). Menifield (2009) suggests that many localities can get by using the simpler, non-multivariate analysis, though as I point out, economic trends should be considered, lately.

The Putnam police department has annual purchases very typical of other similar sized departments and the single capital program (for the K-9 division) is being paid for by grants and donations. It is these donations that promote the need for additional fiscal responsibility; the public may be less willing in the future to offset major purchases through donations if property taxes rise significantly.

References

Menifield, C. E. (2009). The basics of public budgeting and financial management: a handbook for academics and practitioners. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Spencer, M. (2009, January 5). Current economic situation vs. the Great Depression: Striking comparisons with the current economic situation to the Great Depression. WTVY.com. Retrieved from http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/29813759.html

Criminal Justice, Emergency Management, Politics, Society

Fear of Terrorism

As terrorism becomes more prevalent within a society, concerns about the psychological effects are brought to the forefront. The psychological effects of terrorism, in general, should have an impact on the ability of law enforcement and the public to interface appropriately. A recent study by Bleich, Gelkopf, and Solomon (2003) of the psychological effects of terrorism on the public in Israel showed surprisingly low levels of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms despite high incidences of direct exposure to terror events. This study demonstrated that, although up to a third of the respondents acknowledged a “limited sense of safety and substantial distress [they] reported adapting to the situation without substantial mental health symptoms and impairment, and most sought various ways of coping with terrorism and its ongoing threats [, possibly linked to] processes of adaptation and accommodation” (p. 619). The study found that the most effective and widely used coping mechanism was checking on the well-being of friends and family. As people tend to cope well with trauma, attitudes towards protective measures seem to acquiesce for the common good, and this can be assistive to law enforcement.

One of the protective measures people tend to adopt that would help law enforcement is a sense of hypervigilance (Bleich, Gelkopf, & Solomon, 2003). Hypervigilance allows the people to be more attentive to things out of the ordinary (e.g. unattended packages, suspicious loitering, anxious mannerisms of others, et al.). This promotes a line of communication with law enforcement not only regarding terrorism but for other criminal activity, also.

Another protective measure, which goes towards acquiescence, is the ability of the people, in general, to accept an increased presence of law enforcement in their daily lives. When faced with a proximal event, the bulk of the citizenship contend that it is, indeed, a function of government to protect the masses from further harm, and these citizens tend to accept limits on personal liberty for perceived increases in security (Klein, 2007). This is a double-edged sword, however. People tend to want to return to a normal state of affairs (Bleich, Gelkopf, & Solomon, 2003). Though an increased police presence is initially welcomed and embraced, the people will eventually resent the loss of liberty and require law enforcement presence to recede. How this occurs will either enhance or detract from the ongoing relationship with law enforcement. An example of this is easy to see when considering both local law enforcement and the federal effort of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Local law enforcement seems to have decreased their presence, at least in my area, and are respectfully viewed as helpful, whereas the TSA, an agency that continues to irrationally impede on liberty, is viewed negatively by the traveling public.

Law enforcement is a service-based industry where the public is the customer. Police need to understand both the rights and the fears of the people in order to maintain the appropriate level of service, which waxes and wanes.

References

Bleich, A., Gelkopf, M, & Solomon, Z. (2003). Exposure to terrorism, stress-related mental health symptoms, and coping behaviors among a nationally representative sample in Israel. Journal of the American Medical Association, 290(5), 612-620.

Klein, L. (2007). Civil liberties and national security in the post 9-11 era: State power and the impact of the USA Patriot Act. Conference Papers – American Sociological Association, 1-8.

Criminal Justice, Emergency Management, Politics

The Role of Federal Law Enforcement

The role of federal law enforcement has changed with the inception of the National Response Framework (NRF; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2008). In the past, according to the obsolete National Response Plan (NRP; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2004), the effort of the federal government was to support local efforts and only take charge if necessary or requested to do so by the responsible jurisdiction. The NRF furthers this goal. However, according to a recent U.S. Department of Justice (2010) report, federal law enforcement is ill-prepared to provide a robust and organized response to an act of terrorism on U.S. soil, save for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

For instance, assume that a small group of terrorists detonate a bomb, otherwise known as a ‘suitcase bomb’, designed to shower radiologic material over an area approximately 9 city blocks in downtown Los Angeles. What chain reaction, in regards to a law enforcement response, would this event trigger?

First, calls to 9-1-1 reporting a large explosion would trigger a local response by both the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, along with other emergency services. As local assets begin arriving, hopefully they determine the large and possibly catastrophic nature of the event and advise their communications center to make the appropriate notifications. These notifications would be contingent on the preplanned incident action plans of each agency, which would, hopefully, open emergency operations centers (EOCs) for the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, and the State of California. These EOCs would be responsible for making further notifications and coordinating the response with mutual aid agencies as well as state and federal assets. Common to most all preplans in the event of a suspected terrorist attack is the notification to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is responsible, according to the Department of Justice (2010) report and the NRF, for coordinating all law enforcement and investigative activities of federal agencies (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2008).

A suitcase bomb is significant as it involves the spread of radiological materials that are harmful to humans. According to the Department of Justice (2010) report, the only federal law enforcement agency prepared to deal with such an event is the FBI. Thus, the FBI would be expected to offer expertise and specialized teams to the Los Angeles Police Department in a cooperative effort to begin law enforcement and investigative procedures as soon as possible.

References

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2004). National response plan. Retrieved from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nrp/nrp.pdf

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2008). National response framework. Retrieved from http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-core.pdf

U.S. Department of Justice. (2010, May). Review of the department’s preparation to respond to a WMD incident (OIG Report# I-2010-004). Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/plus/e1004.pdf

Criminal Justice, Emergency Management, Emergency Medical Services, Politics

The Need for Multi-Agency Coordination

Terrorists, whether foreign or domestic, typically choose targets that have value in societies or philosophies that they oppose (LaFree, Yang, & Crenshaw, 2009). For instance, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (n.d.), al Qaeda, under the leadership of Usama bin Laden, had their sights on the World Trade Center, a symbol of global capitalism, for many years. Another example, involving domestic terrorism, is the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier. This target was chosen as a representation of the federal government, which McVeigh and Nichols despised, citing the incident involving federal agents in Waco, Texas, two years earlier.

Considering local community events that might be of significant interest to terrorists as potential targets, the Bristol Fourth of July Parade comes to mind. The parade is a major component of the oldest celebration of our nation’s independence and is attended by over 200,000 people each year (Fox Providence, 2011). The parade is symbolic and casualties could number in the thousands, depending on the tactics and strategies used.

There is limited egress from the Town of Bristol (see figure 1). Hope Street and Metacom Avenue are the only two roads that provide a route in and out of the town. Both lead to the Town of Warren to the north, and Hope Street converges with Metacom Avenue just before exiting the town by way of the two-lane Mount Hope Bridge to the south. Both roads are heavily trafficked during the parade inhibiting both evacuation and emergency response.

In the event that a significant terrorist act was to occur at this parade, the initial law enforcement response would be limited to those officers already on site. These officers, operating under the auspices of the Bristol Police Department would be primarily Bristol police officers with a small contingent of off-duty officers from neighboring jurisdictions. There is usually a small contingent of Rhode Island State Police troopers present. These officers would be on their own for a length of time, some of them probably affected by the attack.

Secondary responders would include both Rhode Island and Massachusetts State Police, along with mutual aid officers from approximately 10 to 15 neighboring communities; however, as people flee the initial attack, a secondary attack could create further confusion and increase the likelihood of severe traffic jams at all three evacuation points further inhibiting a timely response. Once the degree and scope of the incident is ascertained and the access difficulties are identified, it would make sense for a contingent of law enforcement to board helicopters and boats out of Providence and cross Narragansett Bay. Once on land, these officers (most likely consisting of U.S. Coast Guard, Providence Police, U.S. Border Patrol, and other federal law enforcement entities housed in Providence, RI) would rely on alternative means (walking, bicycles, ATVs, et al.) to reach the scene.

Colt State Park, to the southwest, would make a viable forward area command, allowing access for all types of vehicles, including single-engine fixed-wing aircraft. There is also an added benefit of a strong sea breeze to help direct any plume away from this forward area command post.

I have to consider that the law enforcement entities, along with the local emergency management authorities, have a working disaster plan in place for the Bristol Fourth of July parade; however, the plan must detail the fact that all resources would be overcome due to the scope and severity of such an incident; therefore, contingencies, such as stand-by assets, must be established and ready to respond by alternative means in the event that a catastrophic event were to occur, whether criminal or accidental in nature.

References

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). Famous cases & criminals. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/

Fox Providence. (2011, July 5). Inbox: Fourth of July festivities. Retrieved from http://www.foxprovidence.com/dpp/rhode_show/inbox-fourth-of-july-festivities

LaFree, G., Yang, S., & Crenshaw, M. (2009). Trajectories of terrorism: Attack patterns of foreign groups that have targeted the United States, 1970-2004. Criminology & Public Policy, 8(3), 445-473. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9133.2009.00570.x

Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency. (2008). State of Rhode Island hurricane evacuation routes: Town of Bristol [Map]. Retrieved from http://www.riema.ri.gov/preparedness/evacuation/Hevac_Bristol.pdf

Figure 1.

Bristol RI Evacuation Route
“State of Rhode Island hurricane evacuation routes: Town of Bristol” (Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, 2008).