Management Structure of the New York Police Department - Research Paper Example

? Policing Law enforcement agencies in America today are highly specialized departments that conduct regular training and education to cope with emerging security threats. The law enforcement agencies comprise the federal, state, county and municipal police departments. The agencies work hard to help protect citizens from criminal activities which are becoming more sophisticated with time. The agencies conduct recruitments to increase the number of officers at every level to manage the growing population. They also do community policing to help create awareness among people about criminal activities and involve them in prevention of crime with programs such as D.A.R.E. Policing How to Become a Police Officer in New York City New York has the second biggest police force in the United States with a total number of police officers in the department estimated to be about 5,000 (Skogan, 2006). The labor department foresees that there are going to be about 1,700 vacancies in the New York police department until 2018 (Skogan, 2006). Some of the positions available for interested candidates include aviation, highway patrol, criminal investigations, crime scene analysts as well as drug enforcement (Skogan, 2006). Educational requirements for candidates applying for positions in the police department in New York are a little bit higher as compared to other states. Candidates are required to have at least 60 credit units from college and a GPA of 2.0. The candidates are also required to be US citizens of about 21 years of age (Sherman & Eck, 2002). They must be New York residents with valid driving licenses and great vision of 20/100. Corrected vision with spectacle glasses has to be 20/20 for candidates to qualify. Apart from these qualifications, candidates are also taken through background investigations and tests as well as drug and substance abuse tests (Gaines & LeRoy Miller, 2006). The candidates are also obligated to take written Service Exam from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS). This examination helps the department to pick highly qualified candidates to serve in the police force. Other examination tests taken include the written psychological test. Candidates will also be taken through very rigorous oral interviews and job standardized test to determine how the candidates can perform at various police tasks. Qualifying candidates will undergo police training at the New York Police Training Academy for about 28 weeks, after which they will go through field training for 10 more weeks before they can start serving the police department (Sherman & Eck, 2002). Management Structure of the New York Police Department The New York Police Department is structured into various bureaus and units that help maintain peace and order in the State. The head of the department is the New City York Police Commissioner. The commissioner appoints deputies and assistants to help him run the department. In total, the New York Police Department is divided into eight different bureaus, among which six act as enforcement bureaus (Gaines & LeRoy Miller, 2006). The head of each bureau is known as the Bureau Chief, for instance the Chief of Patrol or Chief of Internal affairs. Each bureau is subdivided into various units, divisions and sections, each dealing with a specific issue (Gaines & LeRoy Miller, 2006). The department also has some specialized units that do not fall under any bureau, for instance the Operations Unit. These specialized units report directly to the Police Commissioner (Braga, Kennedy, Waring, & Piehl, 2001). The Police Commissioner, who is the head of the department, is a civilian police officer appointed by the Mayor of New York City (Braga et al., 2001). The police staff of the department comprises both civilian and uniformed police. Uniformed police officers in the department are charged with the responsibility of investigating crimes and performing law enforcement operations in the state. On the other hand, the civilian police officers have the management responsibility and provide support services (Braga et al., 2001). Civilian officers are headed by the First Deputy of the Commissioner, while the uniformed officers are under the Chief of the Department, who is the highest ranking uniformed police officer in the department (Braga et al., 2001). Community Policing Community policing has become a popular term amid the law enforcement agencies today. A survey carried out by the Police Foundation in the United States established that 85% police departments said they had taken up community policing or were thinking of adopting it (Skogan, 2004). The popularity of community policing has increased among police departments since there is a common agreement among law enforcement agencies that in order to curb criminal activities, both the public and the police have to be committed to the course. Community policing also helps improve relations between the police and the public (Giacomazzi et al., 2004). The New York Police Department has numerous programs that involve the community in crime prevention. One such successful program is the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program (Giacomazzi et al., 2004). The program educates the community on drug related issues and gives the public the necessary skills that will help them avoid drugs, becoming gang members, or participating in violent activities (Giacomazzi et al., 2004). The program focuses on the youth who most often fall victims to drug abuse and gang related activities. The DARE program is internationally viewed as a great model of community policing (Petersen, 2012). The program has been highly acclaimed as it improves dialogue between the police and the community when it comes to confronting criminal activities in the community (Giacomazzi et al., 2004). In order to improve their operations, the New York Police Department employs the use of both police bicycle patrols and foot patrols (Petersen, 2012). This helps the police to easily maneuver among people in the crowded streets as they seek to enforce the law and ascertain order. The police bicycles have been highly customized to enable the police to enforce the law. Foot patrols are also conducted within city streets where there has to be heavy police presence. Foot patrols help to create the notion that there is police “omnipresence” (Petersen, 2012). In New York, the foot patrols are conducted by the New York City Police Department Auxiliary Police, which is a volunteer reserve police force within the Patrol Services Bureau (Petersen, 2012). Crime Statistics Over the Past Ten Years For a very long time, the crime rate in New York has been on the decline (Fuller, 2005). This has been the trend for the past two decades. The latest criminal activities in areas such as Morris Heights, West Harlem, and Sheepshead have led to speculations that the rate of criminal activities is on the rise for the first time in 20 years. The rate of homicide, however, continues to drop and is currently at 16% (Fuller, 2005). In 2005, New York had the lowest crime rate as compared to other cities. In 2006, the mayor introduced gun control measures that also helped to curb criminal activities and maintain the decreasing trend of crime rates in New York. In 2007, the city took extra measures to help control criminal activities (Fuller, 2005). These measures included installing cameras within the city and designing roadblocks to detect and track terrorists. These measures also helped to reduce the crime rate in the city. The decreasing trend continued through 2010, when the Police Department came under fire regarding their statistics. The police were accused of focusing only on minor criminal activities while neglecting major criminal incidences in their statistics. The statics were, however, backed by independent researchers who confirmed that the major crimes were also at a historic low rate. In 2012, the murder rate had reduced to a record low of 414 for the whole year (John, 2005). From these statistics, it is evident that community policing has played a crucial role in reducing crime as the police are more aware of where criminals hide from intelligence given to them by members of the society. References Braga, A. A., Kennedy, D. M., Waring, E. J., & Piehl, A. M. (2001). Problem-oriented policing, deterrence, and youth violence: An evaluation of Boston’s Operation Ceasefire. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 38(3), 195–225. Fuller, J. F. (2005). Criminal justice: Mainstream and crosscurrents. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Gaines, L., & LeRoy Miller, R. (2006). Criminal Justice in Action: The Core (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth. Giacomazzi, A., Riley, S., & Merz, R. (2004). Internal and external challenges to implementing community policing: Examining comprehensive assessment reports from multiple sites. Criminal Justice Studies, 17(2), 223–238. Petersen, G. (2012). Just ride. New York, NY: Workman Publishing Company, Inc. Sherman, L., & Eck, J. (2002). Policing for crime prevention. In L. W. Sherman, D. P. Farrington, B. C. Welsh, & D. L. MacKenzie (Eds.), Evidence-based crime prevention (pp. 295–329). New York: Routledge. Skogan, W. (2004). Impediments to community policing. In L. Fridell & M. Wycoff (Eds.), The future of community policing (pp. 159–167). Washington: Police Executive Research Council. Skogan, W. G. (2006). Police and community in Chicago: A tale of three cities. New York: Oxford University Press. Read More