Write your report as though you are an analyst in the City Manager’s office for Worcester, MA
Write the Report: Formulate your City Manager’s Report following the guidelines provided below.
Write your report as though you are an analyst in the City Manager’s office for Worcester, MA. Your audience is the City Manager.
Base your report on the class articles you have assessed and the additional research you have completed. This research should examine the practical impact of and management challenges (including political challenges) to implementing red light cameras, including identifying effective management implementation strategies. You must have done enough additional research to be able to offer sound analysis and recommendations regarding the issues required to be in the City Manager’s reports – you should only rely on and cite for support articles and studies that you think are of good quality. You should cite at least 10 additional articles beyond the required readings, with at least 5 peer-reviewed journal articles on the causal impact of red light camera programs and at least three articles related to the effective management of the politics related to the implementation of red light cameras.
The body of your report is to address the list of issues raised by the city manager.
The analysis section is to include your conclusions and recommendations.
Include visual presentations of key facts, data, or analysis in a way that is reader friendly and not overly technical for your audience, which is primarily the City Manager, but also likely may include the City Council, the media, and public since the report will be a public document.
Include page numbers, a running head, and a title page.
Adhere to APA guidelines for citations and reference list.
Appendices include any graphs, charts, tables that are larger than 1/3 of a page.
This is a professional report that will require you to obtain, assess, and synthesize academic and professional resources in order to make recommendations regarding the use of red light cameras for the City of Worcester, MA – for this assignment you should assume that the use of red light cameras is legal in Massachusetts (How to pronounce The City Worcester name). The report assumes the following scenario:
in the past two weeks, the City of Worcester, MA has had five fatalities as a result of drivers running red lights. The local paper has been calling for the city to take action in light of this scary trend. Several citizens have written letters and sent emails concerned that there is a growing trend of traffic accidents and fatalities in the city. They worry roads are becoming more dangerous.
You are an analyst in the City manager’s office for Worcester, MA. Knowing that you have been doing research into the impact of red light cameras, the city manager contacted you today to provide a briefing on the issue because a council member is greatly concerned. The city manager needs the report in 2 weeks in order to review it before meeting the council member.
The city manager has asked you for a briefing that addresses the following:
What do we know about the impact of red light cameras on traffic accidents and fatalities from existing research?
How relevant or applicable are existing studies for Worcester?
What issues or challenges have arisen in communities that have implemented or tried to implement red light cameras?
Should Worcester implement red light cameras? Explain why or why not. If not, how should the city manager respond to the media, council, and citizens?
If the city does decide to implement red light cameras, how should they go about it in a way that maximizes the safety benefits and minimizes the financial and political costs?
Report any other information you think the city manager and city council should know that would be helpful for making a decision on this issue and responding to concerns raised by the citizens and the media.
During the first three weeks of this course you, your classmates, and your professor completed Research Study Evaluation Worksheet based on the Hu article. You worked collaboratively, completing the Research Study Evaluation Worksheet based on your required reading, your online discussions, and the labs. The activities were created as learning experiences to assist you as you developed the skills and knowledge to be able to explain, analyze, and evaluate, research articles and their causal claims.
You are expected to conduct additional research using academic and professional resources for this assignment. You should review and cite at least six additional academic journal articles about the effects of red light cameras in your report – you should only cite an article if you think it represents a good quality research study. You will also need to review and cite academic, professional, and news sources related to the politics of implementing red light cameras in a community. You will want use the Research Study Evaluation Worksheet from prior assignments to help guide your interpretation and evaluation of the academic articles you review.
