Reference no: EM133414072

Although the killing of citizens by the police in the United States has decreased over the past decades, assume that your police department/city has been sued several times during the past fiscal year over the misapplication of less lethal weapons. As police chief, you employed these weapons as a way to keep down lethal incidents; however, your officers seem to be abusing their use.

Your research department reported to you that officers with a college degree tend to use less lethal or excessive/unnecessary force than those who do not possess a college degree. You decided to implement a policy requiring at least an associate degree for initial employment in your department and an bachelor's degree for promotion to sergeant and above as means to affect the level of force used and to increase professionalism within the ranks, as well as encourage overall education among all officers.

The city council refuses to endorse your recommendation for fear that it may discriminate against recruits who are women and/or people of color. It is presumed that women and POC cannot or will not earn the prerequisite educational requirements even though in recent years, with the increased access to free and low-cost community colleges, more women than men are now attending college and completing degrees. Some consider it inherently sexist and racist to assume that requiring a college education to become a police officer would be a detriment to hiring females and POC.

The city council also refuses to fund your request for salary increases for degree holding officers or for a tuition reimbursement program for officers who have taken higher education classes at their own expense as too costly. What is your response? How do you convince them otherwise, do you convince them otherwise?