Appleton Police Department Essay, Research Paper

Appleton Police Department

Appleton is in the heart of the Fox Cities in east central Wisconsin. The population is about 70,00 and is the 6 largest city in Wisconsin and the metropolitan area is more then 155,000.

The history of the police department is in 1854 they only had a single lawman which was a marshal they didn t have a jail so they shared one with a neighboring town.

In 186 the city counsel voted in January to start a permanent police department, so it started out as 1 policeman and as the town grew some patrol men were added to the force.

In 1884 they had 3 patrolmen besides the marshal and by 1886 as needed they got 3 more policemen. The marshal and on other guy had the day shift while the others had the night shift. In 1890 they decide to pay the policemen $2.00 per night. By the turn of the centry they finally got a patrol wagon and got paid $55.00 a month. As years went by the department grew as the cities grew.

The mission for the Appleton Police Department is it is a community responsive organization that strives to bring its employees and citizens into working partnership to help identify and solve the communities problems. They try providing their employees with positive, supportive and professional environment that encourages innovative problem solving to enhance the quality of life in our communities.

Commitments

They have a few commitments to professionalism, community, to progress and to its employees.

Their professional commitment is as they are professional police officers they all adhere to the ethical standards of their profession and to place their concerns for the welfare of their community and the citizens of the town above their own personal concerns while doing their police services. They all go by the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics.

The community commitment is maintaining the high quality of life that exists in the community.

The commitment to progress, exist in the changing environment. They seek opportunities for changes leading to improved police services.

The commitment to employees is they are committed to providing their employees the opportunity to function in a rewarding, exciting and challenging work environment.

Management philosophy

The management s function is to provide vision to the future with organizational values and to promote excellence and quality throughout the department. The efforts is to provide the highest quality professional police with the community s priority. They believe in the highest professional standards for each police officer they have and to deliver the very best service they have to offer. Appleton management also believe in organizational teamwork, mutual support, honest discussion and participation from other officers in decision making is said to make an effective management.

Office of the Chief

The office of the chief provides overall management direction and the supervision of police activities in the city of Appleton.

The Office of the Chief consists of the police chief, one lieutenant who heads the Resource Development and Professional Standards Units; a Crime Analysis officer; 2 Resource Development unit officers and 1 administrative Secretary.

The Resource Development unit and Professional Standards Unit been combined with one lieutenant. Their activities are conducting staff inspections to ensure the highest level of integrity, performance and adherence to policies and procedures. They are also to identify problems and opportunities, which may impact the organization performance.

Their objecives are to complete annual review policies and participate in cooperative mock assignments with other Wisconsin law enforcement agencies.

Operations Bureau

The operations bureau exists to provide primary police services to the community. These services include preventive patrol and emergency response, traffic supervision, juvenile services and other services.

The objectives is to continue to implement problem solving policing with the community oriented policing in mind, develop and implement proactive programs that assist crime victims in receiving information and maintain effective partnerships for widespread involvement of the community in improving the quality of life.

Investigation unit

The investigative unit is around to provide specialized follow-ups investigative and offender processing services in the most effective manner possible. It is commanded by a captian who is helped by 3 lieutenants. One of the lieutenants is responsible for the case assignment and supervision of all the investigations. The second lieutenant is responsible for the supervision of the Police School Liaision program which are sensitive crime investigations. The last lieutenant is responsible for the Community Intervention Team and is also the backup supervisor to the Lake Winnebago area.

Eight of the Police School Liaison officers are sent to one of the junior or senior high schools for the Appleton district. They are responsible for working closely with the school to overseeing problems, the investigation of the offenses committed by the kids and to serve as a possitve role model for the children as a mentor.

The investigation bureau objectives are to continue to participate in community initiatives for improving the quality of life to establishing policing/community priorities, to improve information sharing between components within and outside of the investigation bureau and provide traditional investigative support to the districts while pursuing proactive and preventative objectives.

Technology

In 1998 they received Mobile Data Computers (MDC s) in their squad cars, they will serve as a testimony to the department s commitment to accomplish their mission. This will help out their telecommunicators by establishing car to car transmission and save on air time. They will continue to catch up on the latest technology to help advance their objecives and goals and make it easier to solve crime and to get to the destinations quicker and have it easier on the police officers in their everyday jobs.

Runaways

Apppleton police department started a runaway program on June 1, 1997. They deal with 600 cases each year. The officers are trained to talk to the kids and their parents about why they run away and how they can help, pretty much they try to prevent them from running away by talking to both sources the parent and the kid.

General

There are 108 sworn officers on the Appleton police department. They get paid $34,299 per year and the incremental increases at 6 months. The 1,2,3,4 and 5 years brings the top patrol officers pay to $41,963 per year (with a bachelors degree). They get paid at time and a half for any overtime hours they put in. 100% of an officers premium for medical and dental insurance are paid by the city. The more years they put in the more they get days off. After 1 year on the job they get 1 week, 2 years 2 weeks off, 8 years 3 weeks off, 412 years 4 weeks and 20 years 5 weeks off. They are allowed 12 days off for sick leave and 1 day is earned after a full month of service without calling in sick.