Nik week 6
Contains unread posts
Good morning, class and professor.
1: Different law enforcement organizations across the country will adapt to different types of budgeting systems and methods for their specific needs. However, there is a budgeting method that I believe is the most effective in the modern world that is constantly changing. This method is known as the active based budgeting method. This is an extremely adaptive method that changes with the department or law enforcement organization as needed. This budgeting method looks at the workload being issued to law enforcement officers of that organization and seeing how much they are working, how many resources they are using, as well as where the money is going at all times. Also, this budgeting method makes sure that law enforcement organizations are not overpaying into useless resources and assets and also it is making sure that any areas that are underfunded and overused are accommodated appropriately. This method also does a great job of looking at how allocated resources are being used and not used and seeing if anymore valuable assets need to be purchased such as updated technology or revolutionary systems that may help that law enforcement organization track and fight crime. It is important that law enforcement organizations do not stay stagnant and are constantly updating their training, equipment, technology, and resources. Lira, L., & Edwards, F. (2022). The world we live in today is very fast-paced and the budgeting method needs to be quickly adaptable as well. The main strengths of this budgeting method for law enforcement is that it is adaptable, saves money where needs saving, puts money where it needs to be, and adjust for the needs of the department or organization. The weaknesses of this budgeting method are that it may ask a lot of a law enforcement agency to change their budgeting method on a dime to adapt to either spending more or spending less as well as generating more money for necessary equipment and resources if need be. In the end these strengths outweigh the weaknesses of this active based budgeting method for law enforcement.
2: For the police officer, working the street and dealing with agency administration can both be very stressful. However, I believe this is dependent on the location and the organization that the officer is working for. What I mean by this is, working the street can be peaceful and easy in remote areas with low crime as opposed to a high crime city such as Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New York City. It is very dependent on the location that the officer is working the street and if the officer likes to do so. Some people join the police force because they like adrenaline and they like the changing day-to-day work that comes with being a police officer. Also, it depends on if the agency administration is supportive of the people that work at the Police Department or if they are irritable, lazy, and do not want to help the law enforcement officers with any admin work. I do think that officers have more trouble dealing with the agency administration because working in the street is part of being a police officer and if that is too stressful then they are in the wrong line of work. I believe this is because administration is usually higher ranking individuals and officers do not like to have to deal with people that outrank them that can scrutinize them or nitpick what they do and don’t do. This can have effect on promotions and the rest of the officers career when dealing with agency administration so I believe This is why it is extremely stressful. I believe this can be reduced by agency administration and the police administrator being more approachable and more caring for their officers and making sure they are reaching out to them and helping them in any way possible to make sure they have a good work life balance and want to come to work and do the job.
-Nik
References:
Podcast, P. M. (2024, February 15). Dr. Jon Shane on activity-based budgeting in law enforcement. Retrieved from https://www.police1.com/budget/dr-jon-shane-on-activity-based-budgeting-in-law-enforcement#:~:text=Activity-based%20budgeting%20%28ABB%29%20is%20a%20pioneering%20approach%20that,can%20be%20allocated%20effectively%20to%20meet%20operational%20needs.
Lira, L., & Edwards, F. (2022). Police Budgeting: Using Overtime as a Management Tool. Public Organization Review, 22(2), 437–453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-021-00542-4