Lanotsha Case Study

Doing more with less has become the norm in today’s slow economy. Salary freezes, cutbacks in departments and lack of funding is a major problem for many organizations. The do more with less idea can be overwhelming and very stressful for all involved in an organization as well as the people who rely on the services provided by these organizations. However, it can be achieved with the proper guidance from experts such as LaNotsha & Associates.

LaNotsha is an independent company that specializes in doing more with less, our mission is to help you do more with less, using all available resources. Our vision thrives on helping clients tackle their most challenging problems, by offering solutions to make your organization successful. We pride

ourselves on the accomplishments made by our company in making the organization successful. Our success has been the talk at the water coolers and our favorable reputation caught the attention of the Yukatan County Court Bureau Deputy organization.
The Yukatan County Court Bureau Deputies organization came to our firm with an array of problems and needed help identifying and analyzing the problems that existed within the department.
The identified problems in this bureau are uncontrolled fights in the court room between suspect and victims’ family, absenteeism, high use of force, employee injury, and low confidence from community and low recruitment rates. These problems are tough to correct but

not impossible. Because the entire organization is willing to work hard to correct the problems, the better the chances they have at a successful outcome.

The first step our company took in solving the above problems, is discuss them with the entire staff, community, representatives of the bar association and civil liberties union and community leaders. A formal meeting was set up in hopes that everyone could be aware of the issues, shed some light on what could be done and set up goals. It is important to include the entire staff and community members. This helps build an understanding of what is expected from both the deputies and community members who attend and work in the court building. If the community members are involved, they get to see first-hand the efforts the deputies put forth to protect everyone who has business in the court building while maintaining peace and enforcing laws they are sworn to up hold. This lessens tension between the community and the deputies. We believe, including all personnel will promote motivation and self-esteem as well as letting the employee know they matter. In hindsight, this builds morale. The higher the morale in an organization the more productivity, cooperation and less absenteeism. The meeting concluded with the following goals; reducing the uncontrolled fights in the court room between suspect and victims’ family, decrease the absenteeism, reduce the high use of force, reduce employee injury, and increase confidence from community and increase recruitment rates.
In addition to the above meeting our company mailed questionnaires to everyone who had any business at the court building and everyone who filed a complaint against a deputy. We also evaluated the training academy curriculum, the file system on reporting instances such as employee injuries, employee call-ins and the reports of violence in the court room. Our company toured the court building to assess the technology, while observing employees performing their normal duties.

Our tour found the court building to be up to date with technology such as metal detectors at each entrance, coded key passes for personal, state of the art courtroom cameras with a command center that connected with the local Yukatan Police Department, and a hidden panic button in reach of each judge at the bench as well as safety glass in front of the bench to shield in case of gun fire. There was adequate spacing from one side of the courtrooms to the other as well as an adequate distance from jury to defendant table as well as defendant to prosecutor table each, equipped with micro phone and fully functioning speakers system.
After all the data collection and tour was conducted our staff discussed the best possible solutions to the problems at the Yukatan Deputy Court Bureau. We have the following recommendations and we will be more than happy to assist the deputy court bureau to implement solutions using every resource available.
As stated above we called all employees, community members, community leaders and everybody who conducts business at the court house in for a meeting.

We cannot stress enough how important it is to include everyone in these meetings. It is our recommendation that this organization do this monthly. By doing so the community and all involved have a chance to be heard. Each person can express concerns and offer their opinions, this will improve communications and build relationships and reduce tensions between the community and the bureau. Not to mention it gives the bureau deputies a chance to see the different cultures, religions and ethnicities, which in turn will help deputies learn ways of communicating and help build skills in dealing with the different beliefs. The more the deputies know the better they able to do their job while not offending

anyone.

This will help build a mutual respect between everyone. If respect is given than respect is returned and the less likely one is going to be defiant and more willing to cooperate.

Since there is a high occurrence of physical altercations between the victim’s family and the defendants, we recommend that the victim’s family be removed at the first indication of violence or outburst. It is also recommended that the families be warned by the bailiff that if any such indications are noted by the courtroom personnel, they will be escorted off court property. We also suggest that a deputy be close to the defendant as extra security. If the judge feels it necessary, restrict the court room to victims and defendants only. Adding extra personnel is going to be a tough task as this organizations has a high absenteeism rate.

Absenteeism happens for a great many reasons. We did an extensive investigations to the absenteeism problem and noticed the following. While observing the employees and their supervisors in their positions, we noticed a great deal of stress between the supervisor and subordinates. Before the start of the shift the deputies assembled in the briefing room for roll call. The supervisor came in yelling and screaming at individual deputies for not following procedures of the department, told employees to assume their regular positions as he stormed out and shut his office door. This type of management is known as Seagull management. This style of management decreases morale, self-esteem and increases absenteeism. In situations like this, we recommend effective management training, addressing procedures during roll call, discussing subordinate mistakes in private as well as having an open door policy.

Supervisors should also rotate the subordinates in different positions throughout the bureau as this will help keep them familiar with the different skills needed to perform the duties at hand. This organization suffers from lack of recruits as well, which is burning out the employees who are required to work mandatory over-time, the results are high employee injuries and use of force complaints. We recommend holding career fairs at local high schools, colleges, local youth centers and veteran’s centers as well as contacting retired police officers to increase personnel. Advertising open positions is also an option, a great way to advertise career openings is the media. Placing an ad in all local newspapers or on local television or radio stations. In recent years many agencies have started using social media as a way to get the word out. We strongly suggest contacting local minority organizations and cultural centers as they can help build a more diverse based workplace. This will decrease complaints of racism or gender biases, while exposing all personnel to different cultures, ethnicities and religion. A temporary solution to help with the shortage of work staff is the use of interns. Contact all the local colleges that offer a criminal justice field of study. Many colleges require students to obtain an internship as a requirement to graduate. This organization would benefit greatly from having interns. Having interns is free labor for the organization and gives the students the necessary requirement to graduate as well as experience in the field.

The more serious complaints which involved the use of force, we traced back to the training academy. The ten week course should be extended to at least sixteen, with extensive training on department procedures and tactics to avoid the excessive use of force. The academy should also have refresher courses and training for current employees that are under reprimand by supervisor for any excessive use of force complaints found to be credible. In cases when a pattern of excessive use of force is founded to be substantiated a fine may be implemented resulting in a reduction or loss of up to 40 days of vacation time and or loss on the books. Not only does the above cut back on complaints of excessive use of force but with proper training it will lessen the likelihood of employee injury. With all this being recommended there leaves one problem, Money.

Making changes to an organization costs money, something this organization lacks.

The use of interns is a big help in cutting costs but still more funds are needed. Our associates worked many hours researching ways to lessen the cost of training and retraining and stumbled across the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers website. On this web site it told us about hosting a program for training. It can be online, have a federal trainer come to your academy or ways to host everything yourself. Hosting training sessions or classes is a great way to cut back expenses, not just for this organization but others as well. Depending on the needs of your organization this web site has much to offer all policing agencies. After researching this site, we contacted the Yukatan Police Department as well as the probation/parole department and both are willing to combine classes. If each department offers their services in the areas of expertise the better the outcome for training achievement, not to mention less money will be needed to implement such training. The use of the computer training can be offered to supervisors in need of training as well as deputies. Depending on the needs of the organization this web site has much to offer all policing agencies. While surfing the web we also found the United States Department of Justice website for grants and funding. This site offered a list of grants that this organization could apply for, as well as web

training.

In addition to these government websites, we found many organizations that offer funding and grants. The American Bar Association, United Civil Liberties Union, The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and the Community Policing Consortium have funding available for policing agencies. We suggest applying to each for funding. Unfortunately funding is limited and politics often play a major role in which organizations obtain the grants and funding, but hope is not lost.

Earlier we mentioned the media. The media is a good way to express the needs of the court Bureau. Having the community on the department’s side in pleading for help is usually a sure way to get the help that is needed, community activists can also be of a big help. Look how they gained attention in Ferguson. Activists and the protesters can help put pressure on politicians by gaining attention of anyone who will listen. It is a wise decision to have them against the politicians and funding government agencies than against the deputy bureau. Many of the above organizations as well as the National Action Network can provide assistance in expressing the needs for funding in this organization. The more support this organization has, the better the chances it will receive what it needs to function properly.

The associates here at LaNotsha pride ourselves on our mission to help you do more with less, using all available resources and our vision thrives on helping clients tackle their most challenging problems, by offering solutions to make your organization successful. When the Yukatan County Court Bureau Deputies came to us for assistance, they had several problems that

needed to be corrected. The problems of uncontrolled fights in the court room between suspect and victims’ family, absenteeism, high use of force, employee injury, and low confidence from community and low recruitment rates, would be difficult to correct. The bureau is willing to continue working hard with community leaders, community members, and activist as well as minority organizations in maintain a safe environment for all people that have business at the court building. All parties involved with the transformation of this agency have been fully cooperative and open to the changes that will be implemented by the consulting firm. In addition, the firm has agreed to periodically reevaluate the conditions of the department to insure a successful transition throughout the department.