RESEARCH PAPER: FINAL ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
A criminal justice research paper developed at the 300-level requires much careful consideration
and commitment to scholarly development. The research paper must be properly written with
minimal grammatical and content errors.
INSTRUCTIONS
You will write a 5–7-page research paper in current APA format. Your research paper must have
a title page which must not be numbered and does not count toward the total page count of the
paper. A complete reference page using a proper alphabetical format must be at the end of the
paper. The paper must include at least 5–7 scholarly sources to include the class textbooks and
the Bible.
The paper will be written in first person. You are the Chief of Police. Imagine you are writing to
the City Manager, Mayor, County Commissioners or Civil Service Board in your jurisdiction.
Research papers will be graded according to the following general guidelines:
• Content
• Conformity to appropriate APA formatting
• Appropriate sources
• Accuracy of documentation and formatting of sources
• Unity (maintaining a controlling idea or thesis and not digressing from it)
• Coherence (establishing a smooth and logical flow of thought)
• Correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.
RESEARCH PAPER TOPIC
Disclosing Officer Untruthfulness to the Defense: Is a Liar’s Squad Coming to Your Town?
Since 1963, a series of United States Supreme Court case decisions have clarified that, in
criminal cases, prosecutors must disclose to the defense evidence favorable to the defendant.
This includes information that may be used to impeach the credibility of government witnesses,
including law enforcement officers. These decisions mean that police officers who have
documented histories of lying in official matters are liabilities to their agencies, and these
histories may render them unable to testify credibly.
With this in mind, you are the Chief of Police of a municipality. Your Deputy Chief of Police
advises you that one of your officers was investigated for inappropriate use of one of the
computers in the patrol division. As a result of this internal investigation, it was determined that
the officer used this computer to search pornographic web sites. When confronted with this
allegation, the officer denied any knowledge of this incident. Upon further investigation, the
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computer crimes analyst determined that the officer’s log on password was used to enter the
unauthorized web sites. The officer then admitted to his wrongdoing and stated it would never
happen again. This officer has been with your organization for 15 years, and the only other
disciplinary action taken against him was for being involved in an at-fault traffic accident 10
years ago. As the Chief of Police, how would you handle this situation?
Would you terminate this 15-year veteran with a virtually clean record? Why?
Or would you impose significant disciplinary action as opposed to termination? Why?
As part of this research paper, read the following United States Supreme Court Cases:
Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)
Giglio v. United States, 405 U. S. 150 (1972)
United States v. Agurs, 427 U. S. 97 (1976)
Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U. S. 419 (1995)
United States v. Bagley, 473 U. S. 667 (1985)