Identify a task that you would need to perform in your current career or future career, (Probation Officer) and explain how you would apply the knowledge you have learned in this course to succeed at performing the task in a real-word scenario.
ANSWER THE ABOVE QUESTION AND THEN REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE’S RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE QUESTION AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU AGREE? (A MINIMUM OF 150 WORDS or MORE EACH)
                                                     CLASSMATE’S RESPONSE
Currently I serve as the Deputy Chief of Police in a small federal law enforcement department. As with many similar departments, mine has experienced a high turnover rate over the years. This past year I have rebuilt the department to a point whereas we are almost at 100% manning. The issue being that now we are at this level, what will the future entail for retaining my officers. My competition is three other federal agencies within the commuting area that are on varying pay scales. Over the past nine months I undertook a massive recruiting campaign hiring 10 new officers and one new supervisor. 
           Through knowledge gained in the course I plan to conduct a salary comparison between my department’s and that of my competing federal agencies along with local police departments. I will use that data and compare it to the number of officers lost over the years and to what agency. This indeed is a task, but a necessary one in order to maintain the new talent to my department and closing the “revolving door”. Many avenues may then be taken with the data obtained such as petitioning Office of Personnel Management for a pay table adjustment and authorization for retention bonuses. Will be rather eye-opening to see what the departments costs were to hire and train an officer versus offering a retention incentive. I am confident that this will provide a picture that offering such incentives is cost beneficial.
           Naturally, in addition to conducting the research I will also back that up with questionnaires from my officer’s. Questions such as if a 10% bonus was offered would they sign an agreement to stay with the department for a period of at least two years. If so, how would that affect their morale and productivity.