Police Department Organizational Change - Research Paper Example

Police Department Organizational Change: Implementation of Community-Oriented Policing in the Last Ten Years A Bachelor’s Degree Essay/Paper (if it is applicable) Cherry Smith (your name here) Starlight University (your university here) 2 Introduction The past ten years have witnessed the increase of crime of different types in the United States. Some of these problems occurred because there has been a gap between the cooperation between communities and the police which had helped controlled crime before this time (Coleman et al., 2007). However, it is important to state that the Police in the U.S have undergone remarkable organizational changes in recent years in order to cope with the new threats of modern-day crime in our society (Adams et al., 2002). This paper investigates the reasons why policing in the communities has lately become ineffective, the common mistakes that have led to this poor policing strategy and the solutions required in changing the organization management of the police in the community so as to prepare the police officers for the new challenges inherent in their jobs. This paper explains the implementation of the organizational changes using the human resource transformational model that has been applied in other areas of organizational re-engineering (Glensor and Peak, 1996). Why Community-Oriented Policing Has Failed in the Past Ten Years? Several studies have shown that community-oriented policing began to fail in the United States due to the increasing distrust between the police and the communities in which they operate. Some of the common reasons for this distrust and lack of cooperation between the police and communities can be traced to the following factors: 3 (a) Excessive use of force: Milton et al (1977) explained how deadly an excessive use of force could be: Some police officers perceive themselves as more superior once they were in uniform. And in some cases, they threatened the public by their unethical behavior (Milton et al, 1977). Such an attitude often provokes a section of a community who might want to show distrust to police promise of protection. (b) On-the-job laxity: this is common among young officers who act improperly even when they are on duty. Sometimes, a police officer may let racial exasperation and prejudice take over his/her sense of duty to the community and the people and acted stupidly by creating chaos through lax attitude. No community will support such lackadaisical police attitude. (c) Understanding the community structure: Despite their rigorous trainings, many police officers haven’t fully grasped the complexity of the community’s structure they were expected to work in. And this often creates a condition of mistrust and misunderstanding (Mastrofski, 1999). 4 (d) Language barrier: As immigrants poured into the United States, so many new residents are still unable to hold a fruitful conversation in English; hence, they run into problems when arguing with an officer. These people could never trust police’s honesty since no fruitful communication is made. (e) Youth culture: Many cities are witnessing a surge in the number of unruly youths who are forming gangs and hate groups. These kinds of groups often hinder the police officer’s strong determination to pursue every case judiciously in the community (U.S. Department of Justice, 1998). Contemporary Police Organizational Change Management Processes The contemporary management processes in the police are evident in the three major procedures used by this criminal justice organization. Traditional techniques of supervision, leadership and management are still much in place at most police organizations worldwide. These three elements of police management have been instrumental to the current level of success in policing as the prevalence of crime has been drastically reduced in recent years (Iannone and Iannone, 2000). 5 (i) Supervision of the police officers: Undertaking supervisory actions on the activities of the police personnel has been deemed an active procedure to keep the police force on its feet and ensure efficient performance of the police officers (Iannone and Iannone, 2000). The purposes of maintaining constant supervision of the police personnel include but not limited to (i) making sure that they are persistently reminded of their duties as security operatives, protecting the lives of people in the society; (ii) aligning the psychological maturity to the challenges their jobs invite, and to prevent any occurrence of regressive behavior that could lead to their compromise of the statutory responsibility; (iii) maintaining a culture of leadership that will constantly make the police officers obey their command leaders and remain committed to their duties (Iannone and Iannone, 2000). Traditional supervision involves paying unscheduled visits to the command fields where police personnel are currently carrying out their duties. It also involves using some members of a command to keep an eye on each other. In this process, it is possible to identify any police officer that may have lost interest in the rigor of the job and was developing unprofessional attitude towards the job and his or her fellow colleagues (Iannone and Iannone, 2000). (ii) Leadership practices in the Police: Because of the importance of cohesion and unity, leadership in the police has been a contentious issue because it is very serious. If the leadership of the police in any society fails, the outcomes could be 6 disastrous. The contemporary leadership in police calls for persistent adherence to the values and philosophy that police should provide protection to private property and the people. This will require that police officers are naturally interested in pursuing justice, rule of law, and applying their discretion to preventing injustice and desuetude. Police, as a bureaucracy, has series of stringent rules and procedures on how officers are expected to comport themselves while carrying out their respective duties. What a police leader can do is to persistently remind his subordinates or contemporaries to stick to these rules (Adlam and Villiers, 2003). To accomplish this purpose, these three different types of leadership exist in the modern police administration: (a) Exemplary leadership—this involves the leaders of police organization showing their subordinates the good act of police. This may entail demonstrating flawless professionalism and good personal behavior. The essence of doing this is to encourage the junior officers to imitate their leaders by conforming to the rules and ethics of service in the police community (Adlam and Villiers, 2003); (b) Reform Leadership—this requires that the leaders of police organizations should call for the reform of their commands as soon as corruption and unprofessional attitudes are determined in their officers (Adlam and Villiers, 2003). This reformation could involve sending the affected police officers on crash courses or meting out punishment where necessary. However, caution is needed why punishing an officer or a group of officers because sympathy from former or 7 current colleagues could throw that police organization into a season of commotion (Adlam and Villers, 2003). (c) Strategic risk-identification leadership—this means that the senior police officers take it upon themselves to demonstrate to their subordinates the apparent risks in their duties and show, by examples, how to handle them professionally. This area of leadership has become compulsory as the threats of terrorism are increasing worldwide. Hence, the police leaders are expected to embolden their subordinates by personally going after terrorists or terrorist organizations to disrupt whatever plans they may be having. This kind of leadership requires skills and risk-averse personality, which the senior police officers must demonstrate to their subordinates (adlam and Villiers, 2003). (iii) Police Management/Administration—The interesting thing is that police administration is similar to the other forms of organizational management in the world. The Police systems management concentrates on the interrelationship among units and command structures within the police organization. This is concerned about how each command field accepts instruction from the line commandant and processes the information to carry out the required action. The administrative procedures are in accordance with the normal management principles and functions, which strictly rely on the written or published guidelines that are passed around the police organization to ensure uniformity. As the crime police fights become more organized and sophisticated, it is 8 important that the police organization also need to revamp its management processes by adopting a strategic management practice. However, all these administration procedures would not be effective if efforts are not made to properly manage the human elements of the police organizations. Hence, this calls for functional behavioral management that may include undertaking observation and proposition of ideas that could improve human relationship among the police officers as well as improving their psychological connection to the duties assigned to them (Cordner and Scarborough, 2007). Technology and routine training have contributed immensely to the administration of police organizations, and this has invariably helped to maintain a culture of crime control in the United States. The management processes highlighted above are quite contemporary in nature, however, they stem from the traditional management practices that had spanned the whole centuries since the creation of the world. These management systems are supported by management theories and philosophies that appear to predict the human behavior in certain situations. The purpose of managing a group of people or organization is to exert utmost control and power on such entities (Mabey and Finch-Lees, 2007).This is highly required in the case of police administration because the sensitiveness of the matter police officers handle in the societies. And wielding control and/or power over a group of people requires knowing their identities and behavioral patterns before any form of moral or professional discipline can be established in such an organization (Mabey, and Finch-Lees, 2007). Each 9 police officer is different, and individual perception of the job matters a lot in designing the appropriate leadership scheme to apply in controlling the organization for optimum performance. How to Implement these Organizational Changes It is important that a strategy that will bring the important people in the community together must be implemented. And police officers should also meet these people regularly to understand what is going on in the communities. Police often fail if this kind of communication is not established with the people in the communities (Schneider et al., 2003). There is no specific community-oriented policing model, a strategy has to be designed that would facilitate the communication processes between the police and the community. However, the organizational change in police must conform to management processes described above (Trojanowicz & Bucqueroux 1998). Community policing programs should possess the following seven facts to be accepted as a functional community-policing program. If any one of the following is missing then it is likely going to be a mere public relations program. (Thibault, Lynch & McBride 2004). 1. Demonstrating the formal approaches of knowing what citizens want and the partnering with citizen’s organizations. 2. Police middle management should be trained and directly used in the implementation. 3. There should be enough time for officers to interact with citizens and organizations to design problem-solving solutions. 4. Community policing should be made as a permanent plan where good procedures are applied and good officers are properly rewarded. 5. Community problem solving groups should be created. 6. Stopping crime should be at the center of this program. 7. It is essential that the officers must work hard to improve the life of community people. 12 One of most important changes that usually come with community policing is the assignment of territorial responsibilities to the police officers. Officers should be assigned to the communities they have good knowledge of, and they should be constantly supervised. Through this medium, police officers can directly have power to control crime (Oliver 13 Ten principles are needed in implementing a community policing program (Trojanowicz & Bucqueroux 1998). 1. Change – Organizational and individual behavior to bring about good police services delivery. 2. Leadership – constantly training the officers about community policing vision, values and mission. 3. Vision – improving public safety and the quality of life. 4. Partnership – establish equal partnerships among all groups within the community. 5. Problem Solving – There should a perpetual system for recognizing, pinpointing and developing problem-solving solutions. 6. Equity – all citizens should be served regardless of age, race, gender, ethnicity, religious belief, sexual preference or any other differences. 7. Trust – The police should be fair and honest so that the communities can trust them. 8. Empowerment – To give greater authority to first line personnel and the community. 9. Service – Commitment to provide personal service directed to the needs of the community. 10. Accountability – Both the police and the community holds each other accountable for their actions. The big six refers to six groups that must work together in order for community policing to be a success (Trojanowicz & Bucqueroux 1998) 1. The Police Department - Includes all sworn and civilian personnel. 2. The Community – Includes everyone from formal and informal backgrounds. 3. Elected Officials – Local, County, Sate and Federal Officials. 4. The Business Community – Local and Major Corporations. 5. Other Agencies – Social services, Public health department and non-profit organizations. 6. The Media – Both electronic and print. Conclusion In the last ten years, some strategic improvements have been made in the area of community-oriented policing. The previous problems of poor communication, distrust and non-cooperation between the police and communities have been resolved through internal organization transformation of the police department. This organizational change reflects a new dynamism on the part of the police, and which can be implemented through the ten principles proposed by Trojanowicz & Bucqueroux (1998), creating an avenue for the six big groups that are involved in community-oriented policing— The Police Department, Community, Elected Officials, Business Community, Other Agencies and the Media. When all these groups are successfully harnessed together that police, as criminal justice organization, can be trusted in the community. References Adam, R., Rohe, W., and Arcury,T. (2002). Implementing community-oriented policing: organizational change and street officer attitude. Crime and Delinquency, 48 (3), 21-29. Adlam, R., and Villiers, P. (2003). Police leadership in the twenty-first century: philosophy, doctrine, and developments. Hampshire, UK: Waterside Press. Coleman, D., Hertz, S., and Federal Bureau of Investigation (2007). Crime in the United States. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Bernan Associates. Cordner, G. & Scarborough, K. (2007). Police Administration. (6th ed.) Charlottesville, VA: LexisNexis-Anderson Publishing. Glensor, R.W., and Peak, K. (1996). Implementing change—Community-oriented policing and problem-solving. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 65 (7), 14-21. Iannone, N.F., and Iannone, M.P. (2000). Supervision of police personnel. 6th ed. London: Prentice Hall. Marbey, C., and Finch-Lees, T. (2007). Management and leadership development. Thousand Oaks: SAGE. Mastrofski, S. D. (1999). Policing for people: ideas in American policing. Washington, DC: Police Foundation. Milton, C. H.,Halleck, J.W,. Lardner, J., and Albrecht, G.L. (1977). Police use of deadly force. Washington, DC: Police Foundation. Schneider A., Kimerer C., Seaman S., Sweeney J., (2003). Community Policing In Action/A Practitioners Eye View Of Organizational Change. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 20 (1), 51-69. Thibault E., Lynch L., McBride (2004). Proactive Police Management. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing. Trojanowicz R., Kappeler V., Gaines L., Bucqueroux (1998). Community Policing A Contemporary Persepective (2nd edn). Cincinnati, OH: Anderson. U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (1998). Community Policing in Action: Lessons from an Observational Study. Research Preview, 10, 2-7 Read More