Whien responding to your classmate, elaborate on their strategic plans. Would you have approached it differently or in the same way? Explain your rationale.

Identifying internal and external trends in criminal justice is very important for both the department and the community. First internal trends are tracking what is going on inside the department. This could be trends in leadership, proper / maintained equipment, moral of officers and proper support staff. One internal trend that can be tracked is how well leadership is doing, on the flip side how poorly is leadership doing. Are the officers support by leadership and does leadership supply the officers with proper equipment, such as well maintained patrol vehicles and duty gear. If officers do not feel heard or safe, the chances of them working out on a patrol is slim. The moral of the officer is very important as well, if they are always in a bad mood, they are not going to be willing to work with the community.

External trends are things that are going one outside of the department. This could be spikes in crime, loss of trust by the community, no support by elected officials, and budget issues. The department can be doing everything correct internally but those external factors can present issues. If the budget just isn't there, then its hard to keep up with vehicles and gear as well as hire new officers to keep up with crime spikes. Community relations is a very important external trend, if it is trending down, other external factors like budget and having the elected officials on your side will also trend down.

Being able to identify both internal and external trends quickly is very important for a quick intervention. Internal and external factors work together, if there is poor leadership and low moral, the community will in turn no longer trust or believe in the department. So you will need to identify these issues as quickly as possible and develop a solution quickly. Losing the community is the worst thing for a department and will definitely lead to internal issues. So keeping the community engaged in the department as well as being transparent with internal issues is one of the best tactical plans to reduce any trend.