NCJ Number
191400
Journal
American Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 25 Issue: 2 Dated: Spring 2001 Pages: 223-238
Editor(s)
William G. Doerner
Date Published
2001
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study demonstrated that implementing a Federal policy, involving both Federal and State agencies is complex and can lead to failure as it did in this study of the Greenbrier County Sheriffs Department Community Policing Initiative.
Abstract
It was not until the late twentieth century that the Federal Government became more involved in crime control issues. For example, in 1994 the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was established. This Act in turn created the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). The goal behind COPS was to provide grant money to State and local agencies for the purpose of hiring more police officers. The problem with the policy formation process was that implementation was rarely taken into consideration. Therefore, failure was inevitable as shown in the case of Greenbrier County. For instance, when the new Sheriff of Greenbrier County took office he was immediately overwhelmed with existing budget constraints, maintaining Federal and State tasks, as well as a problematic economy. The Sheriff saw the Federal grants as a way to overcome these problems. However, once the money was received the problems intensified because the department was caught between fulfilling the promises they made to the Federal Government and their constituents. This type of situation is known as the “Siren’s Song” because the Federal grant money is too tempting to resist. In order to avoid future problems the authors made the following recommendations. First, future grants should target the needs not the wants of the community. Second, the grant agency should closely monitor every stage of the process and help the receiving agency distribute the funds appropriately. Lastly, future grants should be more stringent and forceful. References