Criminal justice decision-making processes and outcomes

Organizational Design and Development

In the criminal justice organization, the decision making process is very important. It is also extremely hierarchical in nature, because it requires that people in all levels follow the chain of command for their particular department or other entity. In other words, a police cadet who is on the lowest rung of the advancement ladder would have a number of people above him or her, from which he or she would be required to take orders. Additionally, if there are organizations that have jurisdiction over the criminal justice organization in which that cadet works, he or she would also be required and expected to take orders from those individuals, as well. That is highly significant, and well worth noting, because a failure to understand how the organizational design and development of a criminal justice organization actually works can mean a lack of true respect for a person's place within that organization. That can lead to dissention among the ranks, making working together difficult.

The organization discussed here is the Coryell County Sheriff's Department. It has a main structure which addresses the standard way in which the department operates, and another structure that is used for critical incidents. These can be natural or manmade disasters, hostage situations, active shooters, and similar types of issues that will change the commonly seen dynamics of the department. These types of incidents also change the way in which the people in the organization are required to react to one another and to outside agencies, which is very important to consider when it comes to how an organization operates. On a day-to-day basis, there are specific guidelines that are followed by the department. These include following the chain of command at the actual sheriff's office and also at the jail structure, as these two areas are closely related and provide the employees of the department opportunities for different working environments.

As people in the department move up in rank, there are fewer people to which they must report. This is common in any organization that has a hierarchical structure, but it is especially important to be aware of when it comes to those who work in the criminal justice arena. In an organization like the Coryell County Sheriff's Department, decisions about basic issues can and have to be made by officers in the field and in the office itself. Whether they are behind a desk doing paperwork, in the jail watching over inmates, or out on the streets patrolling and answering calls for help, officers need to be able to make decisions that will protect them and that will also protect the largest number of citizens. These decisions have to be made at the time, and do not require the officer to call others to ask permission or discuss feasibility. Instead, they are not rely on their training, so they can handle issues anywhere they are without the input of others who are higher ranking than they are.