There are numerous, emerging issues in public safety. Still, the significant ones are the growing focus on enhancing partnerships between government institutions and community partnerships, transparency and accountability, succession planning and generational change, new legislation about social media and other new sources of information, and adoption of new technology to enhance assessment of quality and benefits (Forbes, 2010). The trends in public safety are impacting the community, government institutions such as city administrations, and even persons selected to represent communities. The paper focuses on some of the merging issues in public safety and their impact on our modern society
The first issue that influences public safety is the enhanced government and community partnerships irrespective of the political environment (Forbes, 2010). With changes in leadership across the globe, the practical method of governance is one that involves communities. Participative leadership is most suitable in circumstances whereby persons and governments are not in full control of everything, like in the case of public safety. Therefore, presently administrators depend less on official authorities and more on their ability to negotiate with communities (Rasmussen, 2012). Arguably, public safety depends significantly on partnerships with communities they serve, and vital engagement with the public can lead to augmented trust and communication. Thus, across the world, government departs are increasing their efforts to connect with communities have become more open to community members about developing new connections and partnerships. The partnerships are aimed at enhancing awareness about public safety strategies, making sure communities have a voice on public safety, increasing the cultural competencies of employees, and improved transparency and organizational accountability.
The next issue that augments public safety is succession planning and generational change. Currently, a significant number of the world’s population is made up of millennials, and other generations are slowing down on activities, especially in the work sector (Rasmussen, 2012). Therefore, there are numerous retirements, and young professionals are continually emerging. It also means that more young persons are taking over leadership of not only the private sector and non-governmental institutions but also the leadership of the government (Rose & Lacher, 2016). But, lack of financial resources is forcing governments to find it challenging to pay the pension for retirees, and these forces the government to postpone the retirement for persons who are already eligible for retirement. The governments put a lot of focus on the current workforce, and millions of young people remain unemployed as they wait for those eligible for retirement to go home (Rose & Lacher, 2016). Thus, the government is left to contend with elderly employees whose capacity to be productive as significantly reduced, and this negatively impacts the productivity of the public safety department.
The third issue is transparency and accountability, which are governance dimensions. Accountability is a tool for measuring public interest goals and contributes to the enhancement of organizational performance (Rose & Lacher, 2016). Additionally, transparency is significant since it allows the employees to feel part of the organization, and it contributes to accountability, ultimately impacting the performance of an organization. Further, accountability and transparency contribute to democracy and public perception. Transparency deals with three dimensions that are relationship wit the public, the content of the public safety issues, and mechanisms for implementation of strategy and doing work (Rose & Lacher, 2016). Finally, good governance is about transparency and accountability, which means that there exist traditional values, which are enhanced efficiency and effectiveness, honesty, responsibility, and democracy. Also, because of transparency and accountability, it will be easy to discuss the function of public management when it comes to ensuring social justice, sustainable development, and improved effectiveness and efficiency.
Moreover, social media currently plays a vital role in various sectors, including the public safety sector (Rose & Lacher, 2016). It is because the most accessible form of communication to the public is through social media platforms, and the downside is that there exists a lot of fake news on social media platforms. The fake news is numerous and can cause unnecessary panic among the public and lead to misinformation. Thus, it is expected for lawmakers, community members, policymakers, and legislators to shape the federal and local laws about social media. Over the years, various organizations have been working to create policies that govern the utilization of social media, but there is a lot that still has to be done (Rose & Lacher, 2016). While social media can be used to augment transparency and accountability, it can also be used to harm the public and make them vulnerable to disasters and anything that public safety aims to protect them from. Therefore, legislation is the only way to regulate the use of social media and make sure some limits encourage professionalism. Clear policy recommendations on social media information and the correct channels of offering information are vital when it comes to protecting the public.
Furthermore, technology is developing at a fast rate, and all government institutions across the world continuously monitor technology trends to guarantee that they use technology that enhances efficiency and effectiveness (Rose & Lacher, 2016). In public safety, data is significant, and technology is used to make sure that the correct, critical data that helps in developing plans that aid in ensuring public safety. Technology also documents anything important, and the documentation information will help the government and communities to ensure effective utilization of resources decrease in risks associated with public safety and, more importantly, technology helps make the work easier for personnel (Rose & Lacher, 2016).
The final issue is the rise of a new method of governance, whereby a lot of partnerships and networks in the public sector are encouraged (Rose & Lacher, 2016). Arguably, most of the public sectors in our state and local governments have public managers who make all the decisions. These public managers are the initiators, directors, and activities of all the issues that occur in their organization. However, in the modern world, these managers have to change their approach towards governance and encourage participative collaborations not only in their day to day activities but also in their decision-making. One of the most significant partnerships is between that of the public and private sectors (Rose & Lacher, 2016). The private sector can help fund government activities to enhance the safety of the people. Also, the private sector can make sure that the government is accountable when it comes to providing security to its citizens.
On the other hand, the government can ask the private sector to supplement its efforts of providing security to its citizens through inventing better technologies that are aimed at improving security or through regular audit of the public institutions.
Capabilities, vulnerabilities, and needs for a state or local government
The major capabilities that the government as is the human resources who are innovative and inventive when dealing with public safety issues (Wong & Chan, 2018). Also, the advancement in technology has enhanced the capacity of the government to deal with public safety issues and s helped improve communication, which is vital in public safety. The last capability is the coordination and cooperation that exists between the various government departments that deal with public safety (Wong & Chan, 2018). Further, the vulnerabilities are an aging workforce, poor planning, corruption among the public safety departments, politics about public safety, and technological hazards. Finally, the needs are increased in the workforce with younger person’s being employed, enhancement of technology, collaboration with other governmental and non-governmental organizations to enhance public safety and financial