Future Policing in America

Major functions of the four agencies

One of the agencies is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms which is also known as the ATF. Its function is to carry out investigations on illegal trade and moving firearms, alcohol and tobacco. It concentrates on the supply and transport of illegal drugs. The other agency is the Federal Bureau of Prisons which is accountable for federal prisons. This means that the prison guards are part of this. The other one is the Office of the Inspector General which is in charge of investigating the employees of DOJ to ensure they avoid fraud, waste and other job crimes. The other one is the Federal Bureau of Investigation which is also known as the FBI. It is in charge of investigating and preventing crimes within the U.S. This is most especially the crimes that occur across the state lines. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has the greatest responsibility as it relates to federal law enforcement. This is because it investigates and prevents crimes within the United States which includes also the state lines.  It also has the greatest responsibility because it performs the primary operational functions of the law department. It carries out investigations of over two hundred categories of law violations. It also identifies and counteracts the actions of foreign powers and their agents (Clark, 1997).

Purposes of the Uniform Crime Reports

It was established in 1929 and one of its purposes is to collect data on various crimes that are reported to law enforcement authorities. These include forcible rape, murder, robbery, burglary and arson among others. Arrest data is reported by law enforcement agencies for twenty one additional crime categories. The other purpose is to compile data from individual crime incidents or monthly law enforcement reports. It also clearly examines all the reports it receives for accuracy to avoid errors. The other purpose is to compare monthly reports to those previously submitted to the agencies or those of similar agencies (Waldron, 1980).

National Crime Information Center (NCIC).

One of the purposes of the NCIC is to present a database computerized for ready access by an agency of criminal justice. It helps the agencies to inquire and get information in the system. The authorized agencies are able to detain fugitives, locate citizens who are missing, giving back property that has been stolen and protection of officers who enforce law while they encounter the criminals (Waldron, 1980).

Weaknesses related to the accuracy of the Uniform Crime Report

One of the weaknesses is that it just covers the crimes that are discovered by the police and that it is not the most detail to be reported. The other weakness is that the data underestimates the number of crimes that are committed and the number of offenders. There are three roles that are under this one and they include figurehead, leader and liaison (Waldron, 1980).

Mintzberg model

One of the major roles of police executives is interpersonal roles which engage the behaviors linked to human interaction. They allow the executives to cooperate with the employees in order to achieve goals in an organization. The other role is interpersonal roles which involves the tasks that a manager must create and share knowledge in order to achieve organizational roles successfully. There are three roles that are under this one and they are monitor, disseminator and spokesperson. The other role is decisional roles and they include roles like entrepreneur, resource allocator, disturbance handler and negotiator. All the roles entail the process of using data to make decisions (Pattavina, 2005). As an entrepreneur, the manager must be responsible bringing change in the organization. They must also look for problems and opportunities in order to initiate projects to deal with them. The role that is most important for a chief executive officer is decisional roles. This is because it will enable them to bring change in the organization. It is the role of the CEOs to look for problems and opportunities as well as initiating projects that will eliminate the problems. It is their role to be in charge when the organization faces a crisis or major change. This role also enables them to decide the people who will hold certain positions in the firm. They also design the organization and schedule their own time according to their priorities (Pattavina, 2005).

Legislative enactments

Freezing of terrorists assets is one of the legislative enactments that are in place to help eliminate terrorism. This means blocking all the property and interests of all the foreign people who pose the risk of committing actions of terrorism that would threaten the security of the United States and its citizens. This property is blocked if it is within or in possession of the United States persons (Jurkanin, 2001). The act also blocks the interests and properties of people who are determined by the treasury to give support to persons nominated under the order.  It also directs the government of the United States to cooperate with other governments to restrain and prevent terrorism. They should also not give financial services to terrorists and share intelligence about their financing. The other enactment is improved coordination at home and the government has ensured this as well as sharing information internally. The tracing center of terrorists identifies terrorists’ organizational financial infrastructure in the whole world. This is in order to limit the ability of terrorists to transfer money through international banking system. These enactments are effective for eliminating terrorism because the terrorists will not have enough money to carry out attacks. The tools used by terrorists are expensive and they require a lot of them which in turn demands for a lot of money. This means that if their accounts are frozen then they will not be able to proceed with their plans. Coordination at home means that it easy to control terrorists as they will know their plans easily and this is effective (Jurkanin, 2001).

Problems related to determining the actual numbers of hate crimes

One of the problems is that victims fear or do not have confidence that law enforcements will deal with the offenders according to the law. Other victims are unwilling to admit their sexual orientation or immigration status to the government. It is not possible to know whether the real number of hate crimes is rising or decreasing. This is because most hate crimes are not reported and they make changes on the statistics. It is also made impossible by some agencies who do not report crimes to the FBI. Hate crimes are different from other crimes because it involves acts of violence that are committed against individuals. This is mainly due to sexual orientation, national origin, gender and race among others (Free, 2003).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Clark, S. C. (1997). Seeking results from the department of justice: Hearing before the committee. Place of publication not identified: Diane Pub Co.

Waldron, R. J. (1980). The Criminal justice system: An introduction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Pattavina, A. (2005). Information technology and the criminal justice system. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Jurkanin, T. J., & Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. (2001). Enduring, surviving, and thriving as a law enforcement executive. Springfield, Ill: Charles C Thomas.

Free, M. D. (2003). Racial issues in criminal justice: The case of African Americans. Westport, Conn: Praeger.