Assignment Details

Gangs have become increasingly more violent over time and have increased their drug activity and other illegal activities to support themselves and to help recruit new gang members, often from U.S. middle and high schools. In this scenario, you have been asked to begin a gang initiative within a community that has suffered an increase in gang activity over time.

Your police department closely follows the community policing paradigm, meaning that it has realized the importance of working with the community as a whole to resolve long-term problems that have often stymied efforts led only by the police in the past. Recently, one of these community groups came to you, the Police Chief, and asked that you respond to what it feels is an increasingly dangerous gang problem in the community. There have been several serious incidents of violence and drive-by shootings, along with an increase in drug traffic and attempts to gain new gang members in the local middle and high schools.

You recognize that increasing patrols and arrests in the area will only solve the problem short term or perhaps just displace the problem, so you want to seek a more long-term solution.

For this assignment, your police department has picked you to write an action plan of at least 1,000 words (4 pages) that addresses this problem in the community. Your action plan should include, but is not limited to, the following:

• Several initiatives that will assist in rectifying the problems, including the following:
  • Educational initiatives
  • Local initiatives
• How can the negative effects of violence on children be lessened?
• Do you believe that there should be a limitation on the violent video games that children are permitted to play?
• What type of assistance will you ask for from the community as a whole?
• What role will the department itself take?
• How will you measure the effectiveness of your plan?

Overview: A crisis management plan (CMP) is a living document that is updated regularly as society, technology, culture, and organizations change. For example, in 1990, K–12 schools and universities would not have listed “school shootings” at the top of the list of possible threats to their organizations, if they considered school shootings at all. In 1999, Columbine High School experienced the worst high school shooting in U.S. history, and everything changed. Today, any educational institution that does not have a CMP that includes training for prevention, preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation of school shootings would be considered negligent in their responsibilities to their internal and external stakeholders.

To address crises, emergencies, and other threatening incidents, a CMP should be developed. This plan is created and updated by the crisis management team. The CMP typically lists the possible threats to an organization, the procedures to be implemented in the event of a crisis, and the internal and external stakeholders who are key to successful crisis management.

Submit your organization selection. It should include an ordered list of three organizations that you have selected for this project, along with an overview that introduces each organization, justifies how each organization meets the required criteria, and includes your rationale for selection. Your instructor will use this milestone submission to approve your organization selection for your final project. Therefore, it is important that you consider the final submission critical elements as you develop your list of organizations.

NOTE: You must choose an organization that does not already have a CMP in place.

Organization Selection Process

Identification of organizations that will meet the critical elements of the final project takes practice to ensure that you have fully considered the requirements. You can select an organization such as a private or nonprofit business, a school, or a government entity such as a township or county. To guide the selection of your potential three organizations, complete the following brainstorming tasks in order:

1. Review the critical elements outlined in the Final Project Guidelines and Rubric.

2. Spend 5–10 minutes brainstorming the names of organizations that you are interested in.

3. Review that list and identify only the organizations that are prone to crisis and that do not already have a CMP in place.

4. Once you have narrowed your list of organizations down to three organizations, number the organizations in order of preference (with your top choice

listed as number one).

5. For each of the organizations on your list, conduct research into the organization and its background.

For Milestone One, the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Organization

a) What are the names of the organizations you have selected? (Include Pomona College)

b) Give a brief overview of each chosen organization, including the type of products and/or services it offers; the markets it targets, which may be

different in different countries; and the types of risks and crises it should prepare for, given its industry.

II. Criteria Verification: How does each organization meet the criteria for selection? Provide the source(s) for this information. (Include Pomona College)

III. Rationale: Explanation of your rationale for selecting this organization is essential, as it will be the focus of your work throughout the course. (Include Pomona College)

a) What is your rationale for selecting this organization? In particular, what is the past/present/future of the organization’s relationship with crisis?

b) What, in your opinion, makes it a good candidate for crisis consulting?

Rubric

Guidelines for Submission: This milestone should be 2–4 Microsoft Word pages in length, with double spacing and one-inch margins. Information should be cited according to the rules of the latest American Psychological Association (APA) publication manual.