For this assignment you are going to create a plan of action based on the scenario.
The scenario follows for your review:
The Griffin Police Department (GPD), located in Okashawa County, is a medium-sized organization in a Midwestern state, about 10 miles south of Interstate 70. It serves the city of Griffin, population 65,000. There are 165 police officers, together with 40 auxiliary personnel. The department has three detectives and a juvenile unit. Most crime in Griffin is property crime and some delinquency and status offending. The chief of police is Dan Ainsworth, who has been on the job for the past 32 years. Ainsworth has worked his way up through the ranks, starting out as a rookie cop with the GPD and working his way up in rank over the years. Ainsworth has a high school diploma and no college experience. He is now 61, but he plans on working until age 70. He doesn’t plan on doing things differently, since what he has done in the past seems to have worked well. He gets along well with the Griffin mayor and city council. His approval rating is high. His police department is running smoothly, and everyone is doing whatever it is they are supposed to do. Turnover among officers is quite low, since most officers are satisfied with their jobs.
One day an agent with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) pays a visit to Ainsworth. William Frawley has been with the BCI for 12 years and works in the gang task force. Frawley informs Ainsworth that there is a significant and growing methamphetamine problem in and around Griffin, especially on some of the sparsely populated farms in the surrounding countryside. Frawley wants Ainsworth to assign some of his juvenile officers to work with Frawley’s agents as well as some of the Okashawa County Sheriff’s Department juvenile officers in an effort to combat this growing drug problem. The last thing Ainsworth needs right now is the visibility of a major, gang-related drug problem right in his own backyard. Thus far, his own juvenile unit has said nothing to him about drugs and juveniles as major Griffin problems. He says as much to Frawley.
Frawley produces some documents to show that increasing numbers of communities, especially those along major interstate highways such as I-70, have been targeted by juvenile gangs for locating methamphetamine labs for production and distribution. Furthermore, the BCI has an undercover officer pretending to be a gang member. The undercover officer says that Griffin is a major distribution point for much of the methamphetamine and other drugs, such as cocaine and heroin that are making their way to Chicago, Oklahoma City, Detroit, and Omaha. Ainsworth advises Frawley that it seems that the county boys and the BCI seem to have the situation well in hand. Further, Ainsworth can’t spare any of his limited juvenile officers to work on any task force. He says that he doesn’t see how this is his problem anyway, and he believes that the BCI can handle it without his assistance. He says to Frawley, “Listen, Bill, I’ll tell you what. The first inkling my officers have of drugs in Griffin, we’ll get together, have a conference, and decide whether we ought to get involved. Right now, I’d just as soon not bother the mayor or city council and scare them with the idea that drugs are all over Griffin. Let’s just leave things as they are.” Frawley leaves, thinking that he’s not going to get any cooperation from Ainsworth.
For this assignment, create a plan of action, in the role of Chief Ainsworth where you support the collaboration effort suggested by the BCI agent. In 3-5 pages, explain the benefits to your officers, department, and community by your involvement in the task force. How can you make the task force more effective by bringing in lawyers, corrections officers, and social services in addition to the law enforcement officers currently identified? What are the ethical considerations of involving all of these representatives and engaging in this type of activity? Discuss the roles of each member of the task force and the ethical considerations of their behaviors and involvement. Be sure to explain both the manifest and latent effects of involvement on behavior and outcome. Review module notes and previous discussion as well as supplemental reading to justify your responses. This assessment is an opportunity demonstrate that you have learned the following in this course:
Course Outcome 1: Explain the meaning of ethics, morality, and ethical systems.
Course Outcome 2: Discuss the major theories about moral development and how such theories influence ethical choices.
Course Outcome 3: Examine the underlying differences between legal and moral culpability
Course Outcome 4: Demonstrate the moral dilemmas confronting law enforcement
Course Outcome 5: Discuss the ethical dilemmas confronting for those who practice law, including lawyers and judges
