To establish a decision-making structure for an IT project, the first step the police should take is to identify relevant stakeholders, from those directly affected by the implementation of such a project to those that may influence its success rates. After that, identify and iron out their concerns. An example in this regard is the issue of the police, especially in ethnically diverse jurisdictions such as the United States. They are often accused of prejudicial conduct, especially against ethnic minorities (Schwartz, 2020). This, by default, turns members of ethnic minorities into critical stakeholders in the adoption of any major IT project by the police since how it is implemented could easily be objected to by disgruntled members citing prejudice, therefore, denting its credibility and ultimately its success rate. Therefore, the decision-making structure ought to include representatives of ethnic minority communities since this allows for diverse inputs in the decision-making process.
Additionally, the police should identify an executive authority to sanction the project and on whom ultimate accountability for the project falls. The identified authority, with their acceptance, becomes the poster child for the project and one of its members in a primary capacity becomes the spokesperson for it. This executive authority should be vested with ultimate decision-making authority in the entire rollout and implementation of the project, wield enough clout to attract funding to the project successfully, can allocate crucial human and financial resources and approve budgetary allocations for the project. Once this has been achieved, the decision-making structure should be adopted concerning the scale of the project.
The project ought to involve experts in other fields with immediate relations with the implementation of the project. The consultation of these experts should be within the context of committee deliberations. Representatives of other projects or agencies that can impact the primary project must be sought for coordinating efforts or input (LETG). Also, the police ought to maximize the utility of the project committee's meetings by ensuring that, among others, the establishment of consistent meeting times and determination of voting procedures save time on unnecessary slowdowns on matters of fringe importance. Finally, concerning skill level, budgetary allocation, and project complexity, there ought to be a determination made on whether to outsource project staff support or keep it in-house.
References for Police it Projects and Decision Making Structure
LETG. (n.d.). Six Steps Decision Making Structure. Law Enforcement Tech Guide (LETG). Retrieved from http://www.search.org/files/pdf/SixStepsDecisionmakingStructure.pdf
Schwartz S. A. (2020). Police brutality and racism in America. Explore (New York, N.Y.), 16(5), 280–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2020.06.010
