You are a member of a very effective counternarcotics unit. Your department, because of your unit, gets statewide recognition as the best drug team in the state. The unit has received numerous citations for their actions. You have been on the team for 6 months. A drug raid results in a group of Columbian drug cartel members being arrested. Several hundred pounds of high-grade cocaine are seized. In addition to weapons and drugs, there is over $5 million in cash found in the raid. While you are weighing and bagging cocaine, you look up to see the two sergeant team leaders counting the money. They are putting it in evidence bags. You note that one of the sergeants takes out a leather athletic bag, and they each put 10 packs of $100 bills totaling $200,000 into the athletic bag. You assume that they ran out of evidence bags. Later that night, the evidence gets logged in, and the team heads for the local cop bar where the narcotics team hangs out. One of the sergeants opens the trunk, and you see the leather athletic bag. He reaches in and pulls out four $100 bills. He jokingly makes a comment that the party is on the perpetrators. Everyone goes inside, and the sergeant pays for the entire group that evening.
Assignment Guidelines
Address the following in 3–5 pages:
Describe what you feel the appropriate handling of the evidence in this case should have been.
Explain what you believe the impact of the actions you observed committed by the two sergeants could have on the unit and police department.
Articulate the leadership impact of what occurred in terms of the supervisors taking the money.
Select 2 types of actions that you could take in this instance, and explain why the 2 you selected would be a good or bad choice.
