Research Paper
Overview:
Welcome to Week 8.
Week 8 is your research paper week.
Course Objective(s):
CO1: Assess the operational role of managers in law enforcement agencies.
CO2: Develop the legal and operational dimensions of decisions regarding employee
recruitment, hiring, training and supervision.
CO3: Assess the need to establish opportunities for individual officers to pursue
professional growth and development, and the managerial role in staffing,
recruitment, and promotional models.
CO4: Formulate the use of historical, procedural, operational and other information
and procedures to improve productivity of individual officers and the department as
a whole.
CO5: Evaluate the use, development, and training of citizen oversight committees
on police accountability, including potential pitfalls for implementation.
Module Objectives:
MO1: Assess the impact of Equity, Diversion, Equality (EDI) as it relates to law
enforcement as a whole
MO2: Appraise the value of a College Degree for those working within law
enforcement
MO3: Assess Community Policing initiatives within the U.S.
Learning Material
The Learning Material section contains the weekly lesson along with readings,
videos, and other material that conveys this week's topics.
Introduction: Criminal Intelligence
“Great leadership does not mean running away from reality. Sometimes the hard
truths might just demoralize the company, but at other times sharing difficulties can
inspire people to take action that will make the situation better.”…. John Kotter
Developing Criminal Intelligence through Compassion and Dignity
By Mark Bond, AMU Criminal Justice Department
At closing time for the McDonalds restaurant, the restaurant manager is required to
dispose of cooked food not sold that evening. Instead of wasting good food by
throwing it in the restaurant trash dumpsters the restaurant manager, contacted
the police supervisor in the area asking if he could find a use for the food so it was
not just wasted.
The police supervisor had an idea. There was a population of homeless people who
lived under a highway bridge over pass, and some days he knew that many of the
homeless people did not eat. The sergeant knew that a few of these homeless
people were U.S. military veterans from prior contact.
The McDonald’s manager and police supervisor agreed that the extra food could
help feed the homeless people in the local area as an act of kindness and human
compassion.
An Act of Kindness
The police sergeant took the bag of hamburgers and French fries given to him by
the McDonalds restaurant manager and distributed the food to the homeless people
who were temporary living under the highway bridge overpass.
The police sergeant at first reported the homeless were cautious and not very
talkative during the late night burger and fries giveaways. The sergeant never gave
up trying to talk to the homeless about ways they could rebuild their lives.
The sergeant’s act of compassion created trust within the homeless community in
short time. The sergeant was not there to roust the homeless from their make shift
temporary living conditions or make them move along, he showed compassion and
concern for his fellow man. The police sergeant was just trying to help others rebuild
their confidence and dignity and only the restaurant manager and a few officers on
his shift knew about the homeless late night dinner meetings.
Trust Developed Into Use Criminal Intelligence
Over time, the thankful homeless people started sharing information on crimes they
witnessed in the local area only to the police sergeant who was so kind to them for
the last few months.
The homeless were invisible to society and even the criminals who committed
crimes dismissed the homeless presences. The criminals underestimated the
homeless people as a threat to their criminal activity and they had no idea that the
homeless people were going to repay the police sergeant’s kindness by identifying
burglaries, drug deals, and other crime they witnessed living on the streets.
From the criminal intelligence that the homeless shared with the police sergeant, he
passed the information onto the department’s criminal investigation division (CID).
The criminal intelligence from the sergeant was very detailed with dates, times,
suspect descriptions, and vehicle information of the criminals. The CID detectives
were able to identify suspects and conduct surveillance and other criminal
investigation tactics that lead to many criminals being charged and arrested for
crimes such as auto theft, burglary, and distribution of controlled dangerous
substance. These crimes might have gone unsolved if not for the intelligence
supplied by the local homeless to the police sergeant.
Bringing Dignity through Kindness
After a few months of the police sergeant connecting with the homeless people, he
was able to reunite 3 of the homeless with family they had lost contact with over
the years, and moved in with relatives who are helping rebuild their loved ones
lives. 5 other homeless people found local jobs with help from the sergeant and
found a place to live as they re-started their lives. 4 of the homeless veterans that
were living under the bridge received help from the local American Legion and
Veterans Administration and found a veterans transition shelter to live in as well as
new jobs that the police sergeant helped arrange with local business owners.
All of the original homeless people in this story have re-started their lives simply
because a local restaurant manager and police sergeant came together to help their
fellow man. Their act of kindness brought dignity and purpose back into drifting
lives.
Unexpected Karma
When the police sergeant decided to help the homeless with help from the local
McDonalds restaurant manager, the police sergeant never expected anything in
return. The police sergeant tried to help the homeless people in his jurisdiction so
they could rebuild their lives and become productive citizens with pride.
Stopping criminal active and holding criminal’s accountability was just the Karma of
doing something kind that felt right.
Developing criminal intelligence can occur from unlikely sources. The homeless
became empowered and no longer willing to be invisible.
How will you make a difference as a police officer in your community?
Activities & Assessment
The Activities & Assessment section includes the activities and assessments for the
week that provide you an opportunity to practice the material and then
demonstrate what you've learned.
TERM PAPER INSTRUCTIONS
TOPIC
Your final project must be on one of the following topics:
- Community Policing (in support of CO4 and CO5)
- Whether a College Degree Should be Mandatory for Police Recruits (in
support of CO2)
- A topic focused on a specific aspect of Equity, Diversion, Equality (EDI) as it
relates to law enforcement and this course. Keep in mind, EDI is far more than
simply a discussion on race. Potential EDI areas for consideration can in part
include issues related to race, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation,
gender identity, national origin, tribe, casts, socio-economic status, thinking and
communication styles, etc. This topic allows a wide variety of potential topics and in
turn is in support of all 5 COs). All EDI based topics within this category are pre-
approved so long as it relates to law enforcement and this course, but if unsure if
your topic can work please post it in the Question Tab of the Forums for instructor
approval
PAGE LENGTH AND REQUIREMENTS
The final project will include a minimum of 15-17 pages of content in the body of the
paper (you may go longer but not shorter in length). This 15-17 pages does
not count, i.e., it excludes the cover page, abstract, table of contents, any and all
quotes, images, charts, pictures, and reference section. Hence, the completed
paper will be longer than 15 pages, and is expected to range anywhere from 18-21
pages depending on how many quotes, if images are included, # of references, etc.
All quotes, minus those 40 or more words which will be indented to clearly show
they are quotes, must be encapsulated in quotation marks. Likewise, all papers
must be 100% original work to this class. The discovery of past work being used will
be treated as cheating, and as is the case for plagiarism, will as a minimum will
result in a 0 for the paper.
Papers will be graded based on the below Criminal Justice Formal Written Paper
Rubric.
However, the rubric aside, papers that fall short of minimum length will have a max
point award related to the % of the paper they actually submit. For example, the
max possible for a paper that is 50% short of the minimum length will be 50%.
The paper is to be double spaced (do not add extra space beyond double spacing),
with 1" margins all around, Times New Roman, 12 pitch; no other style or pitch is to
be used in the paper. Students who opt to utilize larger fonts, or add extra spacing
beyond regular double spacing, and or put in margins larger than 1" all around will
as a minimum see an automatic full letter grade deduction.
Each student will be required to complete the term paper in the most recent edition
of APA. A running head is not required for this paper
This is to be of high quality, free of spelling and grammatical errors, and of original
work. Plagiarism will be dealt with harshly, and at the least will be an automatic 0
on the paper (revisions will not be allowed when plagiarism is discovered and in turn
requests to do that should not be asked…requests to revise plagiarized work will not
be considered). You are to title your paper by your last name. For example,
“[Link]” with “.doc” being the MS Word file extension.
Other formats will not be accepted. The date of your submission is based upon the
date you successfully submit your research paper in the correct Word format.
Please be sure that your paper is a Word Document (.doc) uploaded to the
assignment section as an attachment.
REFERENCES
Students will be required to use at least 5 scholarly - (peer-reviewed)- sources.
Students have access to peer-reviewed sources through the APUS library.
Note: .com, and .org sources can be used for referenced support but will not count
toward the minimum scholarly source requirement.
