The success of your business case depends in large part on its adaptability and appeal to different audiences. Consider the justice community; while all members are concerned with public safety and justice, they all have different roles to play and approach the issues from a variety of viewpoints. For example, a judge sees public safety from behind the bench in a courtroom, a police officer from inside the patrol car, a prosecutor from gathering evidence against the accused, a corrections officer from inside prison walls, and a parole officer from interactions with convicted offenders.

The potential costs and risks of your initiative will undoubtedly meet with some resistance. Because integration requires collaboration and change at the personal and organizational levels, the costs, benefits, and incentives to the key stakeholders in the justice community must be identified. Other stakeholders, such as elected officials, weigh the costs and benefits of integration against other important policy goals. Your case needs to convince politicians that integration is a good investment and worth trading off against other desirable actions.

Below are short descriptions of probable audiences for your business case, the kinds of issues that usually concern them, and the methods they often use to make decisions. This information is summarized in Table 2.

Elected officials-executives and legislators at the state, county, and local levels-are needed to help build public support for integration, draft and propose necessary legislation, and allocate the funding to start and maintain your project. But before you build your business case for an elected official, it is important to understand how your state and local governments are structured, the type of district that an elected official represents, and the official's appropriation responsibilities. Often on the state and local level, being an elected official is a part time job with full time concerns.

While improving public safety is an important and ongoing concern for elected officials, it competes for attention and resources with other significant issues like transportation, economic development, taxation, and education. Learning about elected officials' policy priorities, which drive their decisions, can help enhance your opportunities and avoid dead ends.

Project costs and funding sources are also important concerns. Once an investment is made, politicians want to ensure the initiative is working to make communities safer, not simply creating a new kind of bureaucracy. They are concerned with the actions and statements of elected officials from the political parties in and out of power, and how constituency groups feel about various issues.

While every elected official is different, they share a variety of methods to gather and assess information: public opinion surveys, newspapers, community forums, memorandums of support or opposition for legislative initiatives, personal contacts, and recommendations from staff members who focus on specific policy areas.

Once they gather information from their various sources, elected officials make decisions based on what is best for their constituents and what is politically feasible, as measured against their own policy priorities. They are also careful to weigh the pros and cons of every decision. Keep in mind that funding resources are limited, the number of requests is high, and officials are more likely to consider investments that have multiple payoffs. In addition, most elected officials keep at least one eye on the next election, and if you are asking them to support something that has little payoff for years to come, you're less likely to get the support you need.

Because of the wide range and complexity of issues facing them, elected executives-governors, county executives, and mayors-appoint agency directors, administrators, and staff members who are responsible for carrying out their policy initiatives and goals. Many cities and counties employ professional managers who serve under contract rather than by election. Legislators-state representatives, county commissioners, and city council members-may also employ policy advisors to help draft, analyze, and carry out legislation, policy directives, and budget decisions.

The justice enterprise is made up of a variety of professionals-judges, court administrators, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement officers, county sheriffs, correctional officials, probation officers, and others-who are all on the front lines of public safety. They are charged with protecting the communities where they live and work. In this portion of your analysis, you must identify the specific needs and concerns of each segment of the justice enterprise and determine how different players feel about sharing information.

In general, justice professionals are concerned with preventing and responding appropriately to crimes and other threats to public safety. They also want to maintain the safety and efficiency of their own work. Concerns about protecting turf and jobs could impede your integration effort.

Each different professional has specific views and concerns. You may hear concerns about reducing the growing backlogs of court cases, getting accurate information quickly during traffic stops, accessing complete criminal histories before pressing criminal charges, reducing the costs of obtaining paper records necessary for defense planning, overburdening the already near-full capacity prisons, and reducing redundant paperwork to free up time to meet with offenders. Learn about the issues faced by justice colleagues in your area and factor them into your analysis.

Unions play an important and powerful function for the many individuals who work in the justice enterprise. Unions are concerned with negotiating contracts, keeping their members informed about current issues in their field, representing members in disputes with management, and steering public opinion.

Most unions employ a staff of professionals, usually at the state and national levels, who stay up- to-date on the issues that affect their membership. They receive information from members, management representatives, industry-specific publications, and the mainstream media. Unions make decisions based on the short and long-term interests of their membership. The backing of a union can be a strong endorsement for your project.

Similarly, professional organizations serve educational and advocacy roles on issues of importance to their members.

TABLE .2 LIKELY AUDIENCES AND THEIR KEY CONCERNS

Your audiences	Their key concerns	The issues themselves
Elected officials: Executives and legislators at the state, county, and municipal levels	Constituency concerns	Such as public safety, taxation, transportation, economic development, education, etc.
	Political issues	Actions and statements of other political leaders, and how various constituency groups feel about integration
	Budget decisions	How much a project costs, where the proposed funding would come from, and what are the competing needs
	Good government	That the initiative is working to make communities safer, not simply creating a new bureaucracy
Appointed policy makers & key staff: Agency directors, department heads, county and city managers, and legislative and executive staff	Policy issues	Carrying out the policy and legislative directives of elected officials
	Budget decisions	Addressing the known constraints of existing budgets and appropriations
	Advisement	Advising the elected official about the issues surrounding integration and public opinion
	Administrative practices	Managing the people who work at the agency or office over which they preside, effectiveness
Justice professionals: Judges, court administrators, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement officers, county sheriffs, tribal police, correctional officials, probation officers, and others	Public Safety	Preventing and responding to criminal activity and its sources
	Work issues	Increasing the safety and efficiency of their jobs on a day-to-day basis
	Turf	Letting go of or sharing information, responsibility, power
Professional organizations & unions: Police officers, correctional officers, civil service unions, professional associations, municipal leagues	Membership concerns	Negotiating contracts, providing information about current events/issues, building membership
	Political action	Taking positions on and engaging in political issues
Community groups & organizations: Service organizations, neighborhood associations, chambers of commerce, civil rights groups	Quality of life	Working to improve the quality of life in the community
	Public safety	Keeping streets free from crime helps attract families and businesses, which expands the tax base and strengthens the community
	Economic development	Encouraging businesses to expand and grow to create jobs and economic prosperity in the community
	Civil rights	Protecting individual rights
	Membership	Keeping members informed and engaged in the organization
Private sector interests: Local corporations and the foundations they sponsor	Economic development	Strengthening the local economy benefits businesses as well as individuals
	Quality of life	Creating an environment that attracts a highly skilled workforce and their families
	Public safety	Cracking down on crime in the community helps prevent vandalism and crimes against businesses
The media: Newspapers, radio, television	Viewership	Attracting and keeping readership, listeners, and viewers
	Education	Keeping the public informed about the news and events in their community
The public	Public safety	Protecting themselves, their families, and their communities
	Pocketbook	Paying taxes
	Good government	Monitoring how well government spends taxpayer dollars

Community groups are comprised of people who want a better quality of life. Service groups (like the Rotary Club, Kiwanis, and the Knights of Columbus), neighborhood associations (like Neighborhood Watch, Crime Stoppers, and D.A.R.E.), and business groups (like chambers of commerce) are natural audiences for justice integration initiatives.

Here you have a group of people who volunteer their time because they believe in something. If you can direct some of that effort towards integration, you can significantly increase the likelihood that elected officials, appointed personnel, and others will be receptive to your case. Grass roots support for your project is a powerful tool in getting the attention of policy makers.

Some community groups may resist integration because they are concerned that an individual's rights may be violated by the sharing of personal information. Others may be concerned about security issues. Each of these concerns needs to be assessed and considered in your plan.

Corporations and private foundations also have a tremendous interest and the funding to invest in projects that improve their communities' quality of life. These groups want a community that attracts skilled workers and new businesses to strengthen the local economy and provide the tax base needed for top-quality public services. Initiatives that reduce and help prevent crime are likely to be a major priority.

Foundations and corporations gather information from grant applications and requests for funding, as well as employees who live in the community. Foundation boards and corporate executives are also concerned with their image and the projects to which their names are connected. They will make decisions based on what's best for the organization, their employees, and the community.

Media organizations-local newspapers, radio and television stations-are concerned with attracting and keeping readership, listeners, and viewers. Most newsrooms have a staff reporter who covers justice issues, including the court and police beats. By paying attention to how justice issues are presented by each particular media source, you can usually gauge how they might cover stories about justice information integration.

Media organizations get their information from other news agencies, community residents, public officials, public relations agencies, and businesses that hold press conferences and other events. Media outlets decide what stories to cover by analyzing what issues they believe interest their audience and what issues other news organizations are covering. Finding ways to get news coverage in your local area should be a prime concern.

The public may be the most important audience for your business case. Safety-for themselves, their families, and their communities-is of the utmost importance for most people. The public receives information about justice from the news media, television shows, and movies, where the lack of justice integration is rarely shown. For that reason, most people assume their justice enterprise is already integrated. The public will decide how they feel about your initiative based on how they think it will help improve public safety in their community.

Many of the groups listed above help shape public opinion. Developing a concise plan on how you will engage these audiences and shape public opinion is of extreme importance. The quickest way to get a policy maker to listen to your ideas is to have the public demand it. Garnering sufficient public support is a complicated task, but one that must be given time and resources.