Plan of Action: Determine an Action Plan to Address a Crisis in the Patrol Division

You are the swing shift (2:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) commander (Police Captain) for the patrol division in a large U.S. city (population 2,000,000) in 2021. You have been a police officer and leader for 28 years and have a B.S. degree in Management from a well-respected university (National University) that delivers its courses primarily online. The recent “defund the police movement,” which has impacted your city with police budget cuts, has seriously and negatively affected morale, particularly in the patrol division. You suspect the majority of the officers in the patrol division have engaged in what is currently referred to as de-policing. A monthly report you receive shows self-initiated activity (vehicle stops, “walking stops”, etc.) have dropped by more than 50% over the last 8 months. Sick days off have increased 20%. Retirements have gone from 2 per month to 10 per month and other-agency transfers have increased from 1 per month to 6 per month. Your patrol division is down from 1100 officers to 900, a 17 percent drop. Calls for service have increased by 15% and this increase is primarily emergency calls of felony crimes in progress. Emergency calls are taking an unprecedented 25 minutes on average to respond to. The chief is furious, and they have delegated to you the responsibility of preparing a plan of action to “get things back to normal.” 

Assignment Criteria

Prepare this plan of action using the following criteria to guide your work. There is a template included in the Module 1 resources of the Libguide for this course.

• Background: Introduce your audience (the chief) to the scenario as explained above (approximately 0.5 page).
• Literature Review: The literature review must be a summary of the readings you completed in CJA690A, the first part of your Capstone. You are not required to summarize all the articles; only the ones you believe are applicable. You are also not obligated to use only the articles in CJA690A. You are encouraged to use any NU peer-reviewed articles that you find in a search of the NU Library. Three subcategories are required: De-policing (about 3 pages), sampling in social science research (about 0.5 pages), and crisis leadership (about 2 pages).
• Questionnaire: In this questionnaire, you are trying to determine some of the issues that are causing the low morale in the patrol division. The questionnaire will be given to all three patrol watches. In developing this questionnaire, use the Likert type scale (See provided template in Modules 1’s resources). Explain how you will administer the questionnaire. For example, sample size, how the sample will be determined — simple random sample or stratified random sample (See article on types of samples). How will you interpret the results of the questionnaire? (approximately 2 pages). NOTE: Do not administer your survey to anyone as conducting research with human participants requires IRB approval. This is a hypothetical exercise based on the scenario provided above.
• Plan of Action: Assume your questionnaire reveals that morale is extremely low. Using this finding, develop an action plan with recommendations involving all “stakeholders.” For example, can mental health and homelessness calls be better handled with little to no response from the PD? How will you appeal to the city council for quid pro quo? (approximately 3.5-4 pages).
• Provide a brief conclusion.

Total Length: 9-12 pages, not including title and reference pages

References: Support your assignment with at least 5 scholarly and/or professional resources cited a minimum of 5 times each.

The completed assignment should address all the assignment requirements, exhibit evidence of concept knowledge, and demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the content presented in the course. The writing should integrate scholarly resources, reflect academic expectations and current APA standards (where appropriate).

When applicable, conduct a Turnitin pre-check

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