1) The case study examines issues within the Rixton police department stemming from a lack of strong leadership and clearly defined policies and procedures. 2) Chief Eager does not enforce the chain of command or ensure policies are properly communicated, leading six patrol officers to cause internal strife through their conduct. 3) Without department-wide standards and accountability, the minority of problem officers can negatively impact community perceptions of the entire department.

1. [From 10$/Pg] Include Well Defined Disciplinary
[From 10$/Pg] Include Well Defined Disciplinary The assignments shall require that you
conduct a more detailed analysis of a subject area than what is covered in our text. The
written assignments will be a case study from the book as described in the course
syllabus. NEEDS REVISED In the “Rixton” case study there are obviously issues with the
department itself from the top to the bottom of the department. The chain of command is
not enforced properly, which creates further issues when concerning “authority-level
principles” from being applied to issues that present themselves. The first depiction of this
department starts with the description of the small size of the police force (36) and
generally small city it serves (16,000) while also introducing the top cop, the highest level of
their police department, Chief Walter Eager (Cordner, 2016). It would be easy to assume a
smaller department would be easier to support and produce a high-quality problem free
police services, but that would be a mistaken assumption in this case. The Chief is
“one of their own” an administrator who came from the internal police ranks. This could be
a positive thing in some departments, but it doesn’t appear to be the case in Rixton. This
Chief is not a capable administrator which in several ways can be attributed to the
departments lack of leadership development which is shown further in this case study.
Chief Eager chooses not to embrace the command structure and common administrative
techniques such, as well thought out and disseminated policy and procedure. By simply
tacking up departmental policy changes on a cork board loaded down with old, cluttered
information. This implies to the lower officers that this is not important, if it were
important, their chief and or supervisors would instruct them on what the changes were or
what they meant. The chain of command aspect being ignored here is the need for clear and
concise communication from the top of the department to the officers and back to the top.
The method of communication being used is neither formal nor is it using the supervisors or
middle management to push new policies or procedure. The small department size creates
an environment where there can be division and factions within the larger group. In this
case the patrol officers, six to be exact, are causing internal strife through their conduct and
police style. If the department were clearly guided by a well thought out policy and
procedure, a mission that all members were aware of, there could be consistency in the
police services being provided to the community. Especially with a smaller department the
whole organization should be aware of the goals of the administration and the method by
which those goals will be attained. Without clear guidance the department personnel who
deal with the public on a daily basis are essentially free styling their encounters versus

2. knowing what the department seeks to accomplish with each encounter. It should be noted
that the overall department is doing a respectable job, even without the solid leadership
usually needed for police success. The majority do a decent job and are effective at their job
with little supervision or guidance. But as the old saying goes “one bad apple can spoil the
bunch,” the few that are in the minority clique can taint the community’s perception of the
department as whole. These officers are militaristic hard-handed males who view their job
and role in the community very differently from the rest of the department. Without the
entire department being held to the same standards through appropriate policy and
procedure to include well defined disciplinary policies many problems can be caused by a
relatively small number of officers. In this department’s case Chief Eager has neither
empowered his officers, nor has he controlled them which are hallmark responsibilities of a
police administrator (Cordner, 2016). These officers who are not acting appropriately
should be dealt with through supervisory control and disciplinary actions while the other
officers who are doing a decent job need empowerment, guidance, and reassurance. The
administrator job is not an easy one, but in order for there to be a measure of success or
failure the standards must be known to all, and all must be held to the standards.