Free «Leadership Approach» Essay

There are many challenges facing police chiefs in the urban areas. These challenges are described in order of precedence. Some challenges have a greater influence on the criminal justice profession than the others do. At the top of the list, there is the fact that the police chiefs face the challenge of a limited workforce, and then goes the political interference, followed by racial profiling. In order to deal with these challenges, there are essential skills that the police chiefs working in these areas ought to possess. Such skills include critical decision making and problem solving, effective communication, as well as masterful human resource management. In addition to these skills, strong ethics, virtues, and character are important to the police chiefs and the whole criminal justice profession. Ethics in the criminal justice can make a revolution and bring great changes in the profession and its practices.

In general, most police departments suffer from limited workforce. While looking at the challenges that the police sheriffs and chiefs in urban and populated areas face, it is important to keep in mind that the police interacts and serves the public. Urban areas have big populations; hence, the number of criminals and offenders is also high. In addition, people that need protection and quality police services are also numerous (Kahnweiler & Thompson, 2000). Therefore, there is a need for many police officers to ensure that the correlation of them and population is even and rational. Nevertheless, it is not usually the case. As a rule, police officers are less in number than they ought to be; hence, the citizen-police ratio is unbalanced. Lack of adequate number of the police officers to serve the public is called limited workforce.

Secondly, urban areas have their political setups. These political setups interfere considerably in the operations of the police chiefs. This interference results from the fact that the politicians in office in those political setups have much more power than the police chiefs do (Fridell, 2004). That is, if a politician is not satisfied with the operations of the police chief, or feels that he/she is putting off him from reaching his goals, he initiates the chief’s discharge from office. The fear of the consequences of working against the politicians leads to malfunctioning of the police chiefs. In that case, the police chief usually does what the politicians want regardless of whether it affects the citizens or not. Consequently, the political interference in the operations of police chiefs in urban areas is a considerable challenge.

Third, urban areas have mixed populations; there are people from different races, tribes, and castes. Discrimination is a significant concern in the operations of the police chiefs. It is so because any police chief is tempted to be permissive to the citizens of his race, tribe, or caste at the expense of the rest of the population. Acting impartially with people becomes difficult since every decision either partial or impartial comes with dire consequences for the police officer.

In order to overcome these challenges, the police chiefs must be able to make decisions critically, as well as apply critical problem solving. These chiefs operate in crisis situations; therefore, they should be in a position to come up with critical decisions, as well as provide solutions to any problems. Critical problem solving is a crucial skill for every leader including the police bosses. Critical problem solving includes critical decision making, as well as the ability to integrate and use information. The police chiefs receive information from intelligence or public policing, which can help in curbing the crime level in their areas. Therefore, it is important for the chiefs to have the ability to integrate and use that information in order to be successful in their operations. Communication is an important tool in all leadership roles and positions. The police chiefs work with their subordinates and other managers on a daily basis. Their ability to communicate matters considerably and determines how effective the work in their areas will be.

Moreover, human resource management is an essential point in leadership. Police chiefs must be able to manage scarce human resources they have and make the most of them. Poor resource management results in crisis as some areas get more human resources while others get less or nothing at all. In order to manage the tasks effectively with the limited workforce, developed skills in human resource management are necessary (Locke, Pearce, & Conger, 2003).

The police chief or police sheriffs ought to be ethical in all their dealings. They should be lead by virtue and character. The officers in diverse cities and counties are to be honest, unbiased, and fair. To be able to serve different people with equity, a police chief or sheriff must be not biased. It means that he or she cannot practice any form of discrimination against any group or person. Additionally, the police boss ought to be honest to avoid external interference in his or her operations. Corruption leads to a lot of evil in the criminal justice profession; honest police chief will see that his subordinate officers do their duty to satisfy the public needs. Lastly, fairness is a virtue that should not be lacked. Fairness ensures that the police chief treats his subordinates with respect and accords to them what they deserve.

Ethical decision making in the criminal justice profession will see the future of reduced crimes. If all police chiefs and other criminal justice professionals make their decisions in full accordance with ethics, the criminals will receive their due punishments and pet crimes will be eliminated at all (Wuestewald & Steinheider, 2014).

Ethics can be used in decision making in different ways. To begin with, considering whether an act is good or bad, right or wrong can lead to ethical decision making. Secondly, considering the consequences of the decision in question and the number of people it affects both positively and negatively would lead to ethical decision making.