Reflective Essay

All of my life I’ve wanted to be an officer of the law, more specifically an R.C.M.P.
Though as my life went on and I grew older I realized that these goals maybe unreachable. So I set out in the world of finding a career that would satisfy my financial and family needs, and personal goals. In the next few paragraphs I will try to describe how my work history never compared to my goals and expectations of my dreams, and hopefully come to some conclusions on where they lead me. My dream of being a police officer started at a very young age, as a child playing I was always a cop, never the bad guy, or every time I passed a police cruiser or officer of the law I was astonished at the man in the uniform, not the man, but “the uniform� was a symbol of lawfulness to me. All through my growing years I respected the “uniform”, and what it stood for. As I grew older I began more and more to realize that this was the career for me, as I’ve always felt a need for helping people and my community.
I started out at the age of nine learning about a new world, work. I was a stock boy in my father’s store, in a busy part of the city. where it was a common place for police officers to grab a snack or just do a routine check. In

I had to find a new line of work. What could a boy do without his high school? I found many jobs, most I enjoyed very much but none that would or could support the life I wanted for myself and a family I would have some day. I tried landscaping; laying sods, planting flowers and trees, that sort of thing. Again there’s no money unless you have the money to start your own business. This brings us or me to my next several jobs, being my own boss. I was nineteen nearly twenty when I figured why not be your own boss so I asked around and soon found myself buying knock off designer shirts. I could sell them for a fraction of the price that the companies could and make some money. After a summer doing that and making good money I found out that these companies don’t like you selling clothes with their names on them. Who could blame them! Quickly I got myself out of that business and went back to carpenter work along with painting on my own. This seemed good at the time I was busy and making money, when a bunch of fiends of mine decided to move to BC, I jumped at the chance.

As time changed the model of policing that the R.C.M.P. was using became ineffective it was an indication that the new way of doing business was required. With the adoption the community policing philosophy in 1989 the R.C.M.P. made a commitment to provide a more client-centered model of service to their community. Police values such as integrity, honestly, and professionalism were preserved from the old model and new values of community policing were injected. These values were problem-solving, partnership, openness and accountability, with this transition began to reunite the police and the community. The main aspects of the professional crime control model that made it ineffective was the emphasis on efficiency over effectiveness, the focus on reactive approaches and strategies to incidents, the importance placed on quantity rather than quality, the fortress like buildings, little attention to the victims and the decreased public trust. These factors along with the following proved the need for the transition to community policing, the increase in public fear of crime, increased crime rates, police and community frustration, changing values, global village, and public accountability, among others. In order to secure lasting change it was characteristic that changes were necessary in the three areas; they were strategy, structures and systems, and culture. These elements are such that they over lap one another. Therefore changes in one element leads to modifications in the others. As each element changed it was clear that good practices of the past would be integrated with new ones to replace the old ineffective and inefficient practices. The structure changes that were necessary for this new system were a move toward a decentralized structure, an increase in flexibility, innovation and creativity. The increase in individual responsibility and discretion, strengthen information and communication, and a greater span of control. The strategy aspect of it may not be as simple as one may think. In this case the strategy involves the organization’s relationship to its clients. The focus is on the type of services provided and the manner in which it is delivered. Strategies are designed with commitment to community and clients in mind. Internal strategies support the delivery of the external services. The necessary changes needed was to have a broad focus on service to the community, increased interaction and communication with the community and employees, emphasis on community problem solving, and an increased effectiveness-“doing the right thing”. The changes in the culture area were things such as, emphasis on development, creativity and adaptive ness, challenging assumptions and questioning procedures, and an increase in external professionalism. Some results of the change to culture was improved moral, incre