You are an assistant professor with the Department of Homeland Security, currently teaching undergraduate students. You gave a lecture on the U.S. Constitution, homeland security policies, laws and strategies, and their implementation at the national, state, and local levels. Your lecture was quite detailed and long, and many of the students have contacted you with follow-up questions.
You have decided that because of the number of questions and the nature of the questions you received, it would be best if you put out a short paper that went into detail about the topic. Apparently, most of the students who attended the lecture did not take notes.
Assignment Guidelines
Utilizing a U.S. Supreme Court case as a starting point, prepare a memo of 750–1,000 words in which you describe the relationship that the various law enforcement agencies at all levels have with law enforcement policies, laws, strategies, and the U.S. Constitution.
Use your course materials, the library, and relevant Internet research options to research U.S. Supreme Court landmark cases in the area of law enforcement. For instance, Terry v. Ohio (1968), which dealt with the law of stop and frisk.
Review the cases found in your research, and choose 1 of the cases to use for your memo. This is the starting point for this assignment.
Law enforcement agencies at all levels of the U.S. government devise law enforcement policies and crime fighting strategies, while staying within the Constitutional boundaries set by the U.S. Supreme Court. Your answer to the following questions can assist you in developing your memo:
How do national, state, and local agencies implement law enforcement policies and strategies while accounting for the requirements of the U.S. Constitution and other laws? Explain in detail.
What changes to law enforcement came about as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in your chosen case? What did law enforcement have to do differently as a result of that decision? Discuss the practical implications.
When the U.S. Supreme Court renders a decision that impacts the way in which law enforcement agencies do their business, how do those agencies go about implementing the necessary changes to their policies and procedures? Explain in detail.
