Respond to the following:
" What is the best type of budget for the law enforcement agency? Why so? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this type of budget?
" What is more stressful for the police officer - working the street or dealing with the agency administration? Why so? What can be done by the police administrator to reduce this stress felt by officers?
Reply to the following response with *** 200 words minimum including citation(s) and at least one reference in APA format ***. (please make response as if having a conversation, respond directly to some of the statements in below post.This is not providing an analysis of the original post. Respectfully address it and even ask clarifying or additional questions.)
These responses are to be informative and contribute to advancing the knowledge of the topic .
1. What is the best type of budget for the law enforcement agency? Why so? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this type of budget?
When most individuals think about police departments, they often do not think about how the department operates financially. One very important aspect of the department, which helps determine how successful a department will be, is how it operates financially. Budgeting a police department is a very important and necessary task. Just as important as the person doing the budgeting of the police department is, is the approach to budgeting the department utilizes. There are a variety of different approaches to a budgeting a department. According to R. D. Stuart (n.d.); the Director of Communications for the City of Montgomery, Alabama; some of these different approaches to budgeting include incremental budgeting, zero based, performance based, line item, and program based. Of those types of approaches, Stuart (n.d.), believes that the best approach to budgeting a police department is line item budgeting.
Line item budgets break down anticipated expenses into similar categories (Stuart, n.d.). The controlling agency, who approves the department's budget, will often times have pre-defined categories in a code of accounts (Stuart, n.d.). Some examples of these categories include utilities, personnel, maintenance, capital improvements, overtime, etc. (Stuart, n.d.). Typically, there are two types of items that fit into the pre-defined categories: mandatory and discretionary expenses (Stuart, n.d.). Mandatory expenses are those expenses that the department needs in order to operate such as utilities. Discretionary expenses are those expenses that are not required to function, however, are things the department would like to have such as additional personnel.
According to Chris Joseph (n.d.), line item budgets are typically based on historical needs of the department. Joseph (n.d.), states that there are several advantages and disadvantages to the line item budget approach. One of the advantages to the line item budget approach is the simplicity of its structure (Joseph, n.d.). As a result of the line item budget approach being historical in nature, a department can be easily budgeted based on previous year's budgets. Another positive attribute of the line item budget approach is the fact that it is easy to justify, primarily because the controlling agency can look back at previous year's budgets to determine whether the budget will be sufficient for the department. With that being said, this positive attribute can also negatively affect a department because if the department requests an abnormal increase in money in one category from the previous year, they will be forced to justify their reason for their request to the controlling agency, which could backfire for other increase requests if it is not well justified.
Another negative attribute for the line item budget approach is that it could result in a spending rush at the end of the fiscal year, if there were unused funds. Although this could benefit the department for that year, the controlling agency could choose to cut the budget to avoid that in the future, which could hurt the department if they in fact need that money in the future. The department I am currently working is dealing with this in this current fiscal year. The department currently has a fund that is awarded to each department in the college. As budgets have become tight through the university, chancellors have taken some of that money away from departments to put the money elsewhere. Therefore, our department has begun to start using all of that money for our department so that we do not have money taken away from us. As a result, the chief of police is getting a new take home squad, we have purchased new bikes and bike equipment for bike patrol, and we have purchased two drones amongst other things. However, I can see where this type of spending could hurt the department in the future as our budget could potentially be reduced.
References:
Joseph, C. (n.d.) Advantages & disadvantages of a line-item budget. Chron.com.
Stuart, R. D. (n.d.). Budgeting basics. Institute for Criminal Justice Education.
What is more stressful for the police officer - working the street or dealing with the agency administration? Why so? What can be done by the police administrator to reduce this stress felt by officers?
A career in law enforcement can certainly be challenging due to the amount of stress faced by police officers as a result of the nature of their work. This stress can occur through a variety of avenues including stress from working the street and stress related to agency administration. Although agency administration can result in a lot of stress, based on the numerous readings related to police officer's stressors, it does not equate to the amount of stress that comes with working the streets. According to Anna Daderman and Daniel Colli (2014), a police officer killing someone in the line of duty is the most severe stressor that an officer can experience. Several other stressors include the death of a fellow police officer, being physically attacked, and dealing with injured (battered) children (Daderman&Colli, 2014). Other stresses that affect an officer as a result of working the streets include shiftwork, unavoidable overtime, unpleasant working conditions, etc.
By working the streets, police officers put themselves in harm's way in order to protect his/her partners and his/her community. This harm could result in the death or injury of the officer and or others. Therefore, administrative stressors cannot equate to the stressors of working the streets because administrative stressors are not going to kill or injure the officer. Kassen and DiLalla (2012) identified several organizational stressors that affect police officers including: insufficient wages, poor public perception of police work, work overload, issues regarding transfer policies, and frustrations related to the overall criminal justice system.
There is no way to avoid the stresses faced by police officers. With that being said, it is important for administrators to be able to identify these stressors as well as identify officers that are dealing with stress to help ensure the officers health and wellbeing are being cared for in order to prevent more serious problems as a result of the untreated stress such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, etc. According to Dr. Jarrod Sadulski (2018), some of the ways departments can help officers cope with stress and work related trauma include training supervisors on stress reactions and signs of stress, having quarterly meetings between patrol officers and their supervisors which allows patrol officers to discuss any work related stress, match patrol officer's strengths with their assigned duties, offer support to patrol officers and their families, establish incentives to help promote officer's mental health and wellbeing.
As previously mentioned, administrators to some extent create stress on their officers (some of the time this stress in inevitable and is solely a result of the nature of the job); however, being that they are the reason for some of these stresses, it is important that administrators identify the stresses to help ensure a positive work environment for their officers. By being supportive, they are more likely to have a better relationship with their officers which could result in better police work done by the officers. Besides that, if administrators can identify stresses of officers and can help address those stressors, they mental health and wellbeing of their patrol officers will be better, which could result in better police services for the communities in which they swore to protect.
References:
Daderman, A. &Colli, D. (2014). The significance of the sense of coherence for various coping resources in stress situations used by police officer in on-the-beat service. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 27(1).
Kassen, M. (2012). Maladaptive defense style and traumatic stress reactions in a specialized unit of the South African police service. Forensic PsycholPract.
Sadulski, J. (2018). 5 ways police departments can help officers cope with stress and trauma. PoliceOne.com.
2.
1. What is the best type of budget for the law enforcement agency? Why so? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this type of budget?
2. What is more stressful for the police officer, working the street or dealing with the agency administration? Why so? What can be done by the police administrator to reduce this stress felt by officers?
The best type of budge for a law enforcement agency is use of a line item budget. A line item budget becomes extremely effective in the rational that items are divided between "must haves" and "like to haves". In addition, the line budget items have the ability to provide anticipated expenses for the upcoming fiscal year in addition you can compare previous year spending and cost (Stuart, n.d.). Similar items are grouped together within line item budgets. For example, items such as utilities, personnel cost, outside continued contracts, regular and cushion for unexpected facility maintenance, capital improvements, and vehicle upkeep must all be accounted for within the "must haves" of a functional and smartly divided budget. These items are mandatory within a law enforcement agency's budget; it does not matter how many new radios an agency has acquired if they cannot keep the electricity on within the facility. "Public safety agencies cannot operate at any level, without the funding for their operations or programs (Stuart, n.d.)." Once the mandatory items have been accounted for, then an agency may begin to look at discretionary expenses and purchases. Budget offices should also be aware of any upcoming multi-year contracts that are scheduled to be completed within the year and must be bid again. This new bid and re-contracting allow for an increase in product cost from the winning contractor (Stuart, n.d.). Having an unexpected increase of 10-15 percent price per item for a mandatory line item can cause quite the upset within unanticipated spending. Each and every item must be revisited, and price confirmed via vender's sales representatives. Cost may have been consistent for the last few years, but this does not guarantee that the price will remain constant for the same item.
An effective technique to be used in conjunction with line item budgets is to emphasize zero based budgeting. Zero based budgeting requires the budget division to assume they have no money and each item placed within the line item budget must be justified for cause and cost (Police Executive Research Forum, 2002, p.7). This technique places more accountability on why an item should be purchased verses mindless spending on items that are assumed to be needed and/or necessary (Stuart, n.d.). Zero based budgeting can also greatly assist when spending is extremely tight. Many law enforcement agencies receive the highest amounts of money and have the largest spending budgets because law enforcement agencies are viewed as a public safety service, and safety is our number one concern.
Budgets and spending are the least of police officer's worries in comparison to the actual job itself. Police officers have one of the most stressful professions. Stress can resonate within each individual differently causing variable reactions within an individual's scope and ability to process these sensations (Abdollahi, 2002). When comparing stress levels of a police officer working the street verse dealing with agency administration there really is no comparison. There are times when a having to address an issue with administrative staff may be stressful, one does not have to worry about being shot in this situation. Working the street puts an unsurmountable amount of stress on the law enforcement officer. This stress is due to the unknown that is always looming within an officer's "standard" vehicle stop, there is never anything standard about this job task; a house call involving domestic violence victims and/or an abused child; and theft just to name a few. A traffic stop can turn into a tragedy if the officer's head is not in the game and his or her ability to react at 100%. Providing a welfare check on family can give an officer nightmares when he finds the mother and her children have noticeable bruising on their bodies, but she simply will not turn in her abuser and press charges. These sights can wear on an individual who is simply doing his/her job, the calling they have pursued to make their community safer becomes exhausting. Having such excessive negative and/or crises interactions during any given shift is not only physically exhausting but mentally exhausting (Garner, 2008). This constant draw and/or pull on an individual's moral can cause a substantial increase within a law enforcement officer's stress level. Additionally, many officers at times, do not hold healthy and appropriate coping mechanisms to process stress most effectively (Garner, 2008). This could be due to administration not viewing stress management as vital and pushing the issue. Personal stigma also holds a strong grip on these officers as that he/she does not need help; that they can process and push through these heavy burdens on their own. Unfortunately, within this alpha male driven profession, the very idea of "talking about your feelings" is perceived as weak and non-masculine when the thought process should be reversed and widely accepted as healthy and damage preventing and/or rehabilitating.
References:
Abdollahi, M. K. (2002). Understanding police stress research. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 2(2), 1-24.
Garner, R. (2008). Police stress: effects of criticism management training on health. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 4(2), 243-259.
Police Executive Research Forum. (2002, November). Police Department Budgeting: A Guide for Law Enforcment Chief Executives. Washington, D.C.
Stuart, R. (n.d.). Budgeting Basics. Institute for Criminal Justice Education, Director of Communications, Montogmery.
Please don't just rephrase their info, but respond to it. Remember to answer question at the end if there is one.