Public Policy and Formulation

Illinois State Police Hot Pursuit Policy

A policy Decision

Peter Kargou

PA 582 (Public Policy and Formulation)

Week 6 Course Project proposal

Professor: Boy, Joanne

April 17, 2013

Table of Contents

1. Define the issue

2. Background

3. Identification of Policy Alternatives

4. Recommendations

Executive Summary

In an effort to address the policy problem facing Illinois State Police, the following solution was identified to alleviate or reduce casualties caused by Police hot pursuits.. This paper has developed a comprehensive understanding of the policy problem facing the Illinois State Police in regard to hot pursuit policy.

After careful considerations, successful implementation of modern day technology to replace vehicular hot pursuit in the Illinois State Police was identified. The goal is to solidify and resolve citizens' casualties. By using, modern day technological approach, citizens' casualties were reduced dramatically.

Implementation of the Star Chase technology will provide extensive assistance and information to all officers on a timely basis. Training of officers to enhance the new breed of technology will begin immediately and officers will have hands on training access to operate and maintain a good sense of system reliability and effectiveness.

The Star Chase system is a pursuit reduction technology that contains a miniature GPS module encased in a tracking projectile or tag and a launcher mounted on a police vehicle. It reduces the dangers and risks involved in police hot pursuits. The Star Chase pursuit management system saves time, money, and most importantly---lives.

Define the issue

The Illinois State Police plays an important role in our society. The State Police makes a difference by assisting people to operate in safe and secure environments where they can thrive and prosper.

However, a tragic car accident that took the lives of two sisters by an Illinois State Police Trooper, Matt Mitchell's squad car occurred when he crossed the I-64 median and collided into a car occupied by two Collinsville sisters, killing the both of them. The officer was on a hot pursuit police operation when he hit and killed the innocent sisters.

The killing of innocent citizens by police hot pursuit and other reckless driving have created serious concern within the last five years. Police departments throughout the nation have been noted for taking the lives of innocent citizens who are going about their businesses for unrestricted driving policy implemented within most police departments in the country.

The Illinois State Police Department needs to have a clear, precise and concise policy objective and decision alternatives to describe their individual consequences on each objective. Failure to compare decision alternatives, and to describe their individual consequences on each objective are the causes of the difficulties the police encounter currently in the decision making process.

Knowing where to go (objective), and having means to get there (alternative) allows one to describe and understands his or her destination. Not laying out all the consequences in a matrix that describes how each alternative performs on each objective can lead to difficulty in the decision making process as well. In addition to evaluating alternatives The Illinois State police needs to understand tradeoffs in order to prioritize their objectives.

Background

The Illinois State Police has a hot pursuit policy problem that does not go down well with the citizens of Illinois. Historically, on June 24, 1921, the Department of Public Works and Building was authorized by the 52nd General Assembly of the State of Illinois to hire sufficient number of state Highway Patrol Officers to enforce provisions of the Motor Vehicle Laws. This moved contributed to the birth of the Illinois State Police. Since that time, the state police departments have gone through lots of changes. Presently, the Illinois State Police has instituted a "Monumental Policy Changes."

The "Monumental Policy Changes" call for a comprehensive response driving policy. The policy will institute a four tier response code system for officers responding to calls for service. This policy will outline the use of emergency equipment and the speed and manner in which the officer will respond to a call.

According to our class discussion, the above policy totally ignores public interest. The policy stipulated above does not take into consideration that public administrators represent and respond to the interest of the citizenry. The outcomes of such a policy will not yield or achieve any desire goals and objective. Innocent individuals will continue to die as long as the case remains vehicular hot pursuit.

According to Phillips (2012), "Sir Robert Peele( the father of policing), organized the London Metropolitan Police force to focus on crime prevention, rather than response." The author is right because technological developments, such as telephone, and other tracking device like the GPS can improve and replace vehicular hot pursuits. These advances improve or reduce response time and expand area an officer must cover during patrol.

In view of the above, our week one classroom lecture did mention that, there is a great difference between what public administration do versus what public administration really is. And we also talked about public administration as a cooperative effort but on the contrary, the state police administrators are implementing policy that does not reflect a cooperative group effort in a public setting. Instead, they go about implementing policies that are unilateral in nature.

According to Johnson (2012), "embracing diversity in the workplace and or in the public entails more work than we would like, and succeeding at it means attending to it in all of its manifestations." Now we can clearly see that the author's (Johnson) assertion is