Reference no: EM133235087

The city of Smithville has a population of 38,500 people. On any given day, approximately 97,000 people visit the city for work, shopping, school, and recreational activities. The Smithville Police Department handles about 51,000 calls for service per year. There is a chief of police, four lieutenants, seven corporals, 12 sergeants, and 47 patrol officers on staff. The chain of command and organizational structure of the department mirror other police departments in the area. The closed system allows for a top-down structure, with those in command determining the policies and procedures to be followed by the lower-level employees. The department has many of the traditional specialized units seen in other policing agencies-traffic, detectives, homicide, special victims, community policing, juvenile, and so forth. Officers are assigned to divisions depending on their area of expertise. Patrol officers work very closely with state police officers, who investigate all traffic accidents that occur in the state.

In May 2012, the department received a call about a car accident on Highway 17 on the outer edge of town. Patrol Officer Mike Brady was dispatched to the accident. Upon arrival, he found three teenagers, two adult males, and one adult female assisting what appeared to be an unconscious girl on the side of the road. Josie Carmen, a 16-year-old passenger of a crashed Jeep Liberty was lying in a ditch on the side of the road. The 16-year-old driver of the wrecked vehicle was hysterical and was being comforted by two of the teenagers and the adult female. Upon closer inspection, Officer Brady found that Carmen had succumbed to her injuries. He moved everyone away from the body. Carmen was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. No one else was injured or transported to the hospital.

Officer Brady secured the scene as he waited for the state police to arrive to investigate the accident. Some of the individuals at the scene gave him spontaneous statements about what happened. State police officers arrived within the hour, and they started interviewing witnesses and bystanders, as well as setting up traffic scene equipment to recreate and investigate the accident.

Officer Brady filed a report on the traffic accident that indicated the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed and lost control. According to his report, the vehicle swerved across the road and hit a culvert. Carmen had been thrown from the vehicle. His report was based on spontaneous statements made while he secured the scene and on comments he overheard others saying when he arrived at the scene. Officer Brady did not claim to be the investigating officer or to have interviewed witnesses or bystanders.

In another report, the state police claimed that Carmen had been playing chicken with the on-coming car. In the game of chicken, a teenager would stand in the road while the car sped toward him or her. At the last minute, either the car would turn or the teenager would jump out of the way to avoid being hit. When Carmen was standing in the road, the oncoming vehicle lost control, swerved across the road, and hit a culvert. Carmen was hit by the out-of-control car and sustained head injuries and internal injuries that led to her death. According to the report, each teenager, with the exception of the driver, had taken a turn playing chicken with the car. The two adult males and the adult female lived in homes located near the accident, had heard the collision and kids screaming, and had run to the scene to assist. At least one of the adult males claimed not to have seen anyone on the road in front of the car, and the other adult male claimed to have seen a car speeding back and forth down the road but did not see anyone standing in the road.

Immediately following the accident, Carmen's parents were in constant contact with the Smithville Police Department. The Smithville police provided the family with a copy of the traffic accident report filed by Officer Brady. The family also received a copy of the traffic accident investigation report from the state police. After that, no additional information was provided to the family even though the family had asked for another investigation to determine if their daughter was actually standing in the road in front of the car. The family claimed that witness accounts were inconsistent and that their daughter had not been playing chicken with the car.

Carmen's family sent Officer Brady, who had secured the accident, an e-mail on August 24 asking about the follow-up investigation. Officer Brady responded on September 1 with the following note: "I have forwarded this information to the state patrol and they will be in touch soon. Thank you."

After three weeks of no response, the family e-mailed Brady again. Again, Brady's response on October 7 was that the inquiry had been forwarded to the state patrol.

In December 2012, the family received a call from Officer Adams, a traffic investigator with the state police, who stated that no new information was available. According to Officer Adams, the state police still believed that Carmen had been playing chicken with the car on the day of the accident and that no follow-up investigation was occurring. The investigation apparently ended there.

No charges were filed against the driver of the vehicle, even though some considered it negligence on her part to have been speeding toward a person standing in the road. A spokesperson for the Smithville Police Department stated that they could not say for sure that Carmen was playing chicken with the car since they did not investigate the accident. The spokesperson also said the department did not feel that there was any other substantial information to show that Carmen was not involved in a game of chicken prior to the accident. The family claims that the driver of the car should be charged if there was wrongdoing and that by not charging the driver the police are

admitting that Carmen was not playing chicken.

Carmen's family would like the police to reopen the investigation since "there have been mixed eyewitness statements about what occurred." The spokesperson for the Smithville Police Department claims that the investigation is not within their jurisdiction since all traffic accidents are investigated by the state police. The state police claim that no additional investigation is necessary since there is no evidence contrary to their findings. The prosecutor has stated that the case is a sad situation but there is not a strong enough case to demonstrate evidence of wrongdoing by a particular person. The prosecutor claims that the investigation did not yield enough evidence for an arrest.

Questions 

1. How has task specialization played a role in this case? Has it been successful in increasing efficiency or customer satisfaction? Why or why not?

2. What should the family do now that the state police department has closed the investigation? Should the state police department reopen the investigation? Why or why not? What role, if any, does the Smithville Police Department have in the investigation or in opening a new investigation?

3. How does this case and the actions of Officers Brady and Adams resemble an assembly-line production?

4. How could the organizational structure of police departments be modified to better serve Carmen's family and the community at large in these types of incidents?