Project Assignment:

As a member of the Virtual Police Department’s Administrative Services 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 jurisdictions in the vicinity of Virtual have experienced Flash Robs. These are groups of teenagers and young adults, both men and women, who descend on a commercial store and, on a given signal, grab as much merchandise as they can carry and flee the store in mass. The size of the group and the quickness of their action made apprehension almost impossible for the overwhelmed store employees. Targeted stores range from sporting goods outlets, and electronic shops, to pharmacies and liquor stores. There is some evidence that the mob is organized by codes using social media.  The Virtual Small Business Association is petitioning the Mayor for a plan to ensure these mobs do not attack the downtown business area. They are insisting on more police presence (particularly during peak business hours) and closer cooperation between the police and their own private security.  

The Chief has decided to form a  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 Administrative Services Unit will draw up the proposal for the Chief to take to the Mayor.  Your supervisor gives this assignment to you.

1. Identify 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 Table of Organization.)

    NOTE: All of Patrol (including all commanders and supervisors) is 1 single unit.  

   ALSO: Selection of a specialized “Commander” (e.g., Special Operations Commander) as a Unit in your taskforce includes the official and his or her immediate office staff only.  It does not include each of the subordinate units.

2. For each of the 6 units you select for your taskforce from within the Virtual PD, 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 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 only the 6 units having the most impact and/or being most useful in achieving the goal of a reduction in violent crime.

3. In addition, 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, 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.  These are entities that are not a part of the police department, but rather other criminal justice partners, outside the department.

a) Identify the entity 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.

In order to present a convincing argument and demonstrate the depth of your research you must include supportive outside resources. You must acknowledge the outside resources (or course materials) 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 counter criminal activity. Therefore, each unit you discuss, must be supported by an appropriate reference, in APA format.

Format Requirements

• Paper must be double spaced, 11 or 12 pt font and 1 margins all around.
• All APA 7^th edition format requirements must be followed (cover page, in text citations, reference page). Refer to APA/UMGC – learning resources found in the content page of this course.
• You must have resources to support your thoughts/opinions/information.  These must be cited both in text as well as at the end of the document. Your paper should not contain direct quotes, sourced material must be paraphrased.