Project 1: Departmental Project: Strategic PlanThe purpose of this assignment is to assess your knowledge of basic functions of typical administrative and operational units in a police department. Use

Project 1: Departmental Project: Strategic Plan

The purpose of this assignment is to assess your knowledge of basic functions of typical administrative and operational units in a police department. Use internet-based research to identify the functions of listed units and determine how they may or may not be applicable to the identified crime problem. All of the course Outcomes are addressed, directly or indirectly, by this project. 

Project Assignment:

As a member of the Virtual Police Department's Planning and Research Unit you have been called into a meeting with your supervisor, several other police commanders, and the Chief of the Virtual Police Department.  This is what you are told by the head of the Criminal Intelligence Unit.

Several cities and towns near Virtual have experienced larcenies from inside gyms, health centers, spas and similar exercise facilities. Based on cameras inside the business proper as well as in the vicinity, these appear to be done by small criminal gangs of teenagers and young adults, 5-6 persons, both men and women.  For those gyms and health centers where membership is required, entrance is gained by producing bogus passes and coupons on cell phones. Once inside they split-up by gender and strike the locker rooms (both men's and women's). Once the locker room is empty of other patrons they cut locks off of 5- 10 lockers and steal the contents. In addition to cash and jewelry, small electronics, (e.g. small computers/tablets and cell phones) are taken.  In some instances car keys with remote controls are also taken.  The remote control-equipped car keys are then used to identify the victim's vehicle on the parking lot, open it, and steal other items from the vehicles.  In 4 instances the cars have also been taken; all late model prestigious imported cars. Two of these were later recovered out-of-state and one was found on a freight dock marked for foreign export. The quickness of the locker room action has made identification and apprehension almost impossible. For obvious reasons there are no cameras in the targeted locker rooms and to date the thieves have left no fingerprints in the locker rooms or in the vehicles. There is some speculation that these thefts are organized by codes using social media since several locations have been hit simultaneously.  The Virtual Small Business Association is petitioning the Mayor for a plan to ensure these gangs to not attack similar businesses in Virtual. They are convinced it is not a matter of "if" these crime will occur in Virtual but "when" one or more of the 31 gyms, health centers and spas in Virtual will be targeted. 

The Chief has decided to form an  8-unit task force. This operation will be a collaborative effort involving both the Virtual Police Department and other appropriate “partner” agencies within the criminal justice system.  The Planning and Research Unit will draw up the proposal for the Chief to take to the Mayor.  Your supervisor gives this assignment to you.

1. Identifying 6 and only 6 departmental units that will be included in some manner on the task force from the Virtual Police Department Table of Organization chart. (See Virtual Police Organization Chart.)

NOTE: Consider all of Patrol (Patrol Bureau Divisions I, II, and III as well as Sectors 1-9) as 1 single unit. All other elements of Patrol are individual units.  

ALSO: Selection of a "Commander" (e.g., Criminal Investigation Bureau Commander, Deputy Chief, etc.) as a Unit includes the official and their immediate office staff.  It does not include each of the subordinate units.

1. For each of the 6 units selected from within the Virtual PD you are asked to:
   1. Identify the unit and briefly describe its typical operational/administrative role and regular duties in a law enforcement agency
   2. Explain why the unit was chosen for this task force, what role it will play on the task force

If more than 6 units in the Virtual Police Department have a potential role on this task force, you must select the 6 units having the most impact and/or being most useful in achieving the reduction in violent crime goal.

3. Additionally, you will identify 4 units in the Virtual Police Departmental units that will NOT be part of the task force. For each of these units not selected, you are asked to a) Identify the unit and briefly describe its typical operational/administrative role and regular duties in a law enforcement agency b) Explain why it was NOT chosen for this task force.

4.  To complete the 8 unit task force, you will also identify 2 non-departmental units from the criminal justice system that should be included in some manner on the task force. a)  Identify the unit and briefly describe its typical operational/administrative role and regular duties in the criminal justice system.  b)  Explain why the unit was chosen for this task force, what role it will play on the task force

 5. In order to present a convincing argument and demonstrate the depth of your research you may include supportive outside resources. If you do use outside resources (or course materials) you must acknowledge them in both the narrative portion of your presentation (in-text citation) and on separate Resources page, using appropriate American Psychological Association (APA) citation format.

 Again, the goal of this project is to give you an opportunity to determine, analyze and assess the role of various police department units, their relationship to other units, and how their skills can be applied to reduce criminal activity.

Format:

A minimum of four (4) FULL and a maximum of seven (7) narrative pages, not including cover page and references page.

• The cover page should include the name and number of the course, the name of the student, title of the project and the date of submission.
• The narrative may be a combination of outline and narrative with outline statements separated by no more than double spacing.
• The narrative should begin with an introductory paragraph and end with a concluding/summary paragraph
• The description of the function and relationship of each unit should be presented as narrative.
• This is a formal presentation from the Chief of the Virtual Police Department to the Mayor. As such, it should be written is the third grammatical person with no contractions, jargon or euphemisms. (The mayor is not familiar with police idioms.)
• Resources, including course materials, must be cited both in the narrative where appropriate (in-text citation) and on a separate references page, using the American Psychology Association (APA) citation rules.
• Projects should be submitted using the Assignment Folder unless instructed otherwise.
• At the instructor’s discretion, this project may be submitted to Turnitin or other service for verification of originality.