Criminal Justice

1- Examine the “three forms” of external review (Auditors & Inspector Generals, Blue Ribbon Commissions, and Private Consulting Groups) discussed in Chapter 7.

Imagine you are a newly elected police chief for an agency that is facing several serious allegations of corruption and excessive force that led to the firing of the Chief. As a condition of hire, you have asked the City Manager for funding for an external review of the department and allegations.

Using the information from Chapter 7 of the text as well as an independent review, which of the different three forms of external review from the chapter would you select and why? In your analysis, identify the strengths and weaknesses of each form of external review. Conclude your assignment with an argument that supports your decision.

2- Your essay should be free of grammatical and spelling errors, and resources must be cited properly using APA-style in-text citations. Additional formatting requirements are as follows:

Times New Roman 12 pt font
Double spaced with no extra spacing (between paragraphs, lines, pages, etc.)
1-inch margins on all sides
Title Page
Reference Page, using APA Style, 6th edition
3 pages, excluding Title and Reference pages

ANSWER

External Review

I would select Auditors and inspector generals to assist in investigating the serious allegations of corruption and use of excessive force in the police department. This will assist in establishing the root causes of the issues and recommend remedies for the problem. These auditors and inspectors will remain at the police department to ensure that future issues are investigated and fully solved.

Auditors & Inspector Generals

Strengths

Robust public reporting

Auditors & Inspector Generals have more robust public reporting mechanisms than other oversight bodies. This enables them to inform the public more frequently of findings and recommendations hence drive systemic change easily (Kwon & Wortley, 2020).

Less expensive

They are less expensive than full investigative agencies that require much more compensation. This enables the police department to effect change without having to incur huge expenses (Hope, 2020).

Auditors and Inspector Generals can be more effective in promoting long-term systemic change in police departments since they are stationed at the departments for the long term.

Weaknesses

Auditors and inspector generals can only make recommendations as opposed to compelling law enforcement agencies to make systemic changes.

Blue Ribbon Commissions

A blue-ribbon commission is a group of exceptional personnel charged with investigating studying or analyzing specific issues. In police administration, blue-ribbon commissions can be sued to investigate several issues affecting a particular police department.

Strengths

Independence from political influence

Blue ribbon commissions are generally independent of political influence because they are not selected from known members of the political parties. Police external review requires independent players who cannot be politically influenced by the highly charged nature of American police affairs. When a review is free from political influence, it can find out the most valid findings and lead to much-needed results.

Commands respect from all players

Police departments have many stakeholders that can be hard to balance in terms of interests. For instance, police departments are influenced by city or municipal leadership, police unions, civil society organizations, civilians, and other government organizations. Balancing all these interests require players of high standing in society who can command direct respect (De Angelis et al., 2016).

Highly knowledgeable

Blue ribbon commission is composed of highly knowledgeable persons who usually experts in the needed aspects of the police review. The commissions are selected based on the current needs of the review are normally focused on the underlying review needs.

Weaknesses

No direct authority to effect changes

However, one disadvantage that may hinder the operation of blue-ribbon commissions is the lack of direct authority to effect changes that they find out. These commissions must report to the government or police departments to effect these changes hence watering down their effectiveness.

Appointment by authority may compromise the independence

Also, blue-ribbon commissions receive their appointment and marching orders directly from the authorities. This can undermine their independence to go where the facts lead hence reducing the effectiveness of their functions.

Private Consulting Groups

Private consulting groups are organizations with the necessary expertise needed to conduct investigations and establish facts about a particular subject. In police review, private consulting groups can be used to investigate particular issues and provide a raft of findings and recommendations that can be sued to improve service for the people.

Strengths

Independent advice

Private consulting groups provide independent advice about their reviews and findings. This is important in conducting a police review that can often be subject to internal manipulation. Since those groups ate independent from police organizations, they can report their findings without any external interference from those who hired them.

No human resource issues

Private consulting groups cannot burden the police department with extra human resource issues because they are independent of the department.

Diversity of ideas from other experiences

Private consulting groups have conducted various investigations and findings from other police departments. This experience can help them to help other police departments who might be experiencing similar concerns. The issue of excessive use of fore spans many police organizations and the expertise from another department can be sued to solve the concern in another (Rizzo, 2021).

Weaknesses

The cost of hiring private consultant groups can be very high depending on the particulars of the group. The best known and more effective groups are very expensive to hire and this can cause a financial problem to the police department.

Conclusion

I would settle on Auditors and Inspector Generals because of the advantages that they provide to the police department and the effectiveness that they have in delivering on their mandate. The cost of hiring auditors and inspector generals is relatively low to other forms of external review. The city should not strain its budget in a bid to conduct an external review. The inspector general should be permanently stationed at the police department to ensure that not future violation happens (Kim, 2019).  This makes it more effective than the other blue ribbon commissions and private consulting groups that cannot have a continuous engagement with the department.

References

De Angelis, J., Rosenthal, R. S., & Buchner, B. (2016). Civilian oversight of law enforcement:    Assessing the evidence.

Hope Sr, K. R. (2020). Civilian oversight for democratic policing and its challenges:         Overcoming obstacles for improved police accountability. Journal of Applied Security   Research, 1-33.

Kim, J. (2019, July). The Effect of Civilian Oversight on Police Organizational Outcome: A         Quasi-Experimental Study. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2019, No. 1, p. 17888). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Kwon, J., & Wortley, S. (2020). Policing the police: Public perceptions of civilian oversight in             Canada. Race and Justice, 2153368720924560.

Rizzo, B. (2021). Do We Get the Police We Deserve? A Historical Review of Police Executive   Selection in America’s Largest Cities. Enhancing Police Service Delivery: Global        Perspectives and Contemporary Policy Implications, 159-186.