Reflections and Exemplary Work: Developing law enforcement and public safety

knowledge and skills for the 21st century.

In the Law Enforcement and Public Safety Leadership program, I have had an

opportunity to see how leaders in the law enforcement community are developing the profession.

As a part of this program I have had the opportunity to take part in the discourse associated with

the future of law enforcement. One of the learning outcomes for the program is to develop law

enforcement and public safety knowledge skills for the 21st century. As a part of this I have

participated in discussions with instructors and fellow students in which we analyze the cutting

edge of law enforcement conflict and leadership. I have also had the opportunity to write many

essays and reflective papers those same issues. Three of those papers that I consider exemplary

were a report on Israeli police and a culture of intolerance, a report on the leadership of law

enforcement during the Baltimore protests, and a theoretical memorandum in which I was

responsible for developing a task force that needed to proactively defend against homegrown

terrorist cells communicating with HAM radios.

For my first report I looked at a 2015 incident in Israel where an Ethiopian soldier was

abused by law enforcement in what appears to be an unprovoked incident. The incident resulted

in major riots across Tel-Aviv, which bore similarities to riots of the police treatment of

minorities in America. I looked at the way these themes connected between the two countries and

some of the changes law enforcement needed to make in order to do a better job serving minority

communities.

My second report looked at the protests in Baltimore that followed the in custody death

of Freddie Grey. While those protests were also related to race relations, this report focused on
the handling of the protests by law enforcement. I reviewed previous incidents with the Seattle

Police Department and many protests in the San Diego area to determine proper procedure for

handling protests.

My final exemplary report focused on a theoretical situation where a homegrown

terrorist cell was discovered to be using HAM radios to communicate and avoid detection on US

soil. I explored possible ways I could develop a task force to combat the growth of homegrown

terrorism in this country. In this report concepts such as the development of confidential

informants, training, and code breaking were imperative to the success of the task force. This

memorandum was to be presented to the head of an agency which I worked for.

Through this program I have been given the chance to review many situations in law

enforcement where the boundaries were being tested. I have had the chance to learn and interact

from professionals who work every day in this field and that has only increased my ability to

learn. It is through this review and debate that I have been able to expand my understanding and

skills of 21st century policing.

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