2. Quasi-Military Style of Police
Organizations
Officers wear uniforms
Military-style rank designations
Hierarchical command structure
Authoritarian organizational style
Legal authority to use deadly force and carry weapons
Criticisms
Cultivates an “us versus them” attitude
Encourages the idea of a “war on crime”
Authoritarian style contrary to democratic principles and
produces low morale
Rigid structure leaves room for job dissatisfaction
4-2
3. Police Departments as
Organizations
Dominant style is as a complex
bureaucracy
Characterized by
Complex organizations
Tasks assigned to “bureaus”
Hierarchy and clear division of labor
Responsibility for specific tasks delegated to lower-ranking
employees
Clear chain of command
Clear unity of command
Written rules and regulations
Flow of information according to chain of command
Clear career paths
4-3
4. Pros and Cons of Bureaucracy
in Policing
The Problems
Rigid, inflexible, and unable to adapt to external changes
Communication within the organization often breaks down
Tend to be inward looking, self-serving, and isolated from the people
they serve
Are accused of not using the talents of their employees and even
stifling creativity
The Positives
•
•
•
•
Criticisms:
Cultivates an “us versus them” attitude
Encourages the idea of a “war on crime”
Authoritarian style contrary to democratic principles and produces low morale
Rigid structure leaves room for job dissatisfaction
Informal Aspects
Horizontal and vertical cliques
4-4
5. Bureaucracy and Police
Professionalism
Professionalism challenged by the
bureaucratic nature of policing
Professional departments adopted a
“by
the book” approach to policing
The bureaucracy imposes formal controls
over the behavior of police officers
4-5
6. Changing Police Organizations
Community Policing
Decentralizes decision making (territorial and administrative)
Task Forces
Officers from different ranks based on talents
4-6
7. Community Policing
Community policing attempts to modify the
police organization through debureaucratization.
decentralize
deformalize
despecialize
delayerize
4-7
8. COMPSTAT: Computer
Comparison Statistics
Clarifies the department’s mission, goals, and values
Holds managers accountable
Organizational power and authority transferred to
commanders who are responsible for geographic
areas
Resources are transferred to commanders.
Data used to identify problems and to evaluate
success and failure.
Middle managers expected to use innovative problemsolving tactics
4-8
9. Civil Service
Formal and legally binding procedures
governing personnel decisions
Nearly universal
Purpose: to ensure personnel make
decisions objectively
Reinforces the hierarchy of police depts.
Rewards hierarchy
Seniority hierarchy
Status hierarchy
Rank hierarchy
4-9
10. Police Unions
Majority of police officers
represented by unions
Three major police unions:
1. Fraternal Order of Police
2. International Union of Police
Associations
3. Teamsters Law
Enforcement League
4-10
11. Police Unions Continued
Collective Bargaining
“The method of determining conditions of
employment through bilateral negotiations”
Grievance Procedures
Provides due process to employees
Unions and Shared Governance
Impasse Settlement and Strikes
Impact of Police Unions
Improvements in salaries and benefits
4-11
12. Police Organizations and Their
Environment
Contingency Theory
Organizations are structured to achieve specific
goals (crime control)
Institutional Theory
Organizations operate in relation to their
external social and political environment
Resource Dependency Theory
Organizations must obtain resources to survive
4-12