Case Study: Officer Robert Barton Paper

CJA/474

Case Study: Officer Robert Barton paper

1. Using concepts related to groups and group dynamics, explain what happened in this situation?

Group dynamics are those forces within a group that affect task performance and member satisfaction. These dynamics are the same that occur during team development. Using that knowledge it is safe to say that Officer Barton was doing what he could to fit in to his newly assigned task force. The six stages of group dynamics are Orientation, conflict and challenge, cohesion, delusion, disillusion, and acceptance. Officer Barton wanted to be a good officer and he did what was necessary to fit in with his group and be a good member of the group. In order to do this he had to sacrifice things like his integrity in being an officer. His task force was making arrests without probable cause, conducted illegal searches, and arresting suspected gang members only to release them a short time later.

2. When does group cohesiveness cease to be positive and become pathological?

Group cohesiveness stops being positive and becomes pathological at the point when the group is changing their values and what they see is acceptable among themselves. When a work group becomes pathological, their loyalty is a very intense thing. People begin to cover up issues in order to save one another, and could be covering up corruption, incompetence, brutality, instead of trying to get rid of a dirty cop who may be a friend or part of the work group. When one person is willing to ditch their own values in order to help out the team it becomes pathological and is a downhill slope from there. It is only a matter of time at that point until they are trying to cover up corruption and things that you cannot come back from. At this point a view of us against them is formed and this can lead to dangerous situations for those that are easily persuaded to do the wrong thing. In this case the problem is only being pressed forward and it can be very hard to stop it from there.

3. Are subcultures in police work inevitable? Explain.

In one form or another yes, subcultures in police work are inevitable. It comes with the idea of who you are working with. The fact that you are not a civilian any more, and it does at sometimes become an us against them type of deal. It is not always a bad thing to have. You have to realize what team you are on and who the bad guys are. In the business of criminal justice system there is not much of a gray area in a matter of speaking. The cops have their own culture and attitudes towards lots of different things. In this line of work it is easy to get into this subculture, especially if there is some kind of officer assault or something to that effect. In that case it is easily us against them, and a lot of officers will feel like the only people they can trust is the other ones with a badge. In the time we live in now where police are under constant scrutiny this subculture is being appropriated more and more every day.

4. What steps might you take, as a police administrator, to prevent this from occurring?

As a police administrator, it would be a little difficult to crack down on this issue. There is the fact that this is where you came from. If you try to stop this subculture, then you may be seen as not a part of the team. In order to actually try and stop this subculture and work groups from getting out of hand you would have to constantly be on top of your people. You would have to remind them consistently of what they are there to do, and why they are doing the job that they chose to do. It will not be easy to break this mindset, especially if it is already in place. If there are dirty cops in the precinct then it may not be too hard to stop, but actually breaking up this subculture would be a completely different story.